Shakespeare Theatre Company News

Rep Stage, the regional theatre in residence at Howard Community College (HCC), opens its 22nd season with David Ives' "Venus in Fur", directed by Joseph Ritsch, Rep Stage's co-producing artistic director.

Pink House Productions announced today the New York City premier of YOU, ME AND THAT GUY, a hilarious 80 minute comedy about a recent college grad who uses the magic of a mystical open mic to heal her relationships with her technology saturated family and friends. Written by Stephen Sanow*, YOU, ME AND THAT GUY will open the 2014 Araca Project.

Soho Rep. and The Play Company, in association with John Adrian Selzer, announce casting and the creative team for the U.S. premiere of debbie tucker green's generations. The production, September 30-October 26, reunites the playwright with director Leah C. Gardiner, who worked together on the OBIE Award-winning 2011 production of born bad. generations features a 12-person community chorus led by music director Bongi Duma (The Lion King). The cast includes Shyko Amos (An Octoroon), Mamoudou Athie, Khail Toi Bryant (The Lion King), Ntombikhona Dlamini (Sarafina!), Thuli Dumakude (The Lion King, Poppie Nongena), Jonathan Peck (The Lion in Winter) and Michael Rogers (born bad, Breakfast With Mugabe).

Quintessence Theatre Group launches its fifth season of progressive classic theatre with an all-male Shakespeare repertory: AS YOU LIKE IT presented in rotating repertory with RICHARD II. Bringing together the best professional actors and designers from Philadelphia and across the country, Artistic Director Alexander Burns leads this collective of artists on a mission to ignite the classics through visceral, actor-focused and text-driven productions.

Joseph W. Ritsch directs his first Everyman production.

Show partners Dulaang UP (DUP) and BroadwayWorld.com (BWW) are giving away a pair of tickets to the former's production of William Shakespeare's MEASURE FOR MEASURE ('Hakbang sa Hakbang') at Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero Theater, Palma Hall, University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City on Sunday, September 7, at 3 p.m.

Dulaang UP (DUP) celebrates the 450th anniversary of William Shakespeare's birth by staging one of the poet and dramatist's problem plays, MEASURE FOR MEASURE, and HAKBANG SA HAKBANG, a Filipino translation by Ron Capinding ('Middle Finger'), at Wilfrido Ma. Guererro Theater, Palma Hall, University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City until Sunday, September 7, with performances at 10 a.m. and 3 p.m.

For his first directing project since winning the 2014 Tony Award, Artistic Director Darko Tresnjak will helm Shakespeare's masterpiece, Hamlet, playing only four weeks, from October 16 to November 16, at Hartford Stage. Hamlet follows three popular Shakespearean productions in the last two years by Tresnjak: The Tempest, Twelfth Night, and last season's Macbeth.

Performances begin September 10 at the F.M. Kirby Shakespeare Theatre, 36 Madison Avenue in Madison. Tickets start at $25 for preview performances and $32 for regular performances. Student rush tickets for all performances are $15, available a half-hour before curtain for with a valid student ID. Performances are Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Sundays at 7:30 p.m.; Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m.; and Saturdays and Sundays at 2 p.m. For tickets, call the Box Office at 973-408-5600 or visit www.ShakespeareNJ.org.

Another new theatre space opens in the Baltimore/Washington area.

Olney Theatre Center, a Maryland destination for professional theater performance and education, continues its critically-acclaimed 76thAnniversary season with a starry cast of DC-area veteran award-winners in Clifford Odets' classic family drama AWAKE AND SING! September 24 - October 19, 2014 on the Mainstage. Directed by Studio Theatre Producing Director (and 2013 Helen Hayes Award Winner) Serge Seiden, the cast features2014 Helen Hayes Award Winner Rick Foucheux, 2011 Helen Hayes Award Winner Naomi Jacobson, Rick Foucheux, Olney veteran Paul Morella, and Olney newcomers Laura C. Harris and Alex Mandell.

The 'Alley Theatre @ UH' season begins with Betty Buckley, Hallie Foote, Annalee Jefferies and Veanne Cox in award-winning Texas playwright Horton Foote's The Old Friends, a Southwestern premiere.

In a bold undertaking as part of the company's involvement with the multi-year, multi-city National Civil War Project, Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater has commissioned Our War, a dynamic new theatrical event and collection of short stories that explores-through diverse perspectives-the historical memory and present-day reverberations of the U.S. Civil War.

Theatre Royal Bath Productions is delighted to announce actors Richard Schiff and Nigel Lindsay are to join Lindsay Lohan in David Mamet's SPEED-THE-PLOW at London's Playhouse Theatre from 24th September for a strictly limited run. A high-octane modern classic, SPEED-THE-PLOW is a brilliantly satirical portrayal of Hollywood filled with Mamet's trademark wit and mesmerizing dialogue.

Upcoming Equity Auditions from Sunday, August 10, 2014.

Washington National Opera (WNO) today announced details for the third season of the American Opera Initiative, its comprehensive commissioning program that brings contemporary American stories to the stage while fostering the talents of rising American composers and librettists. Three teams of new opera composers and librettists—John Liberatore and Niloufar Talebi, Jake Runestad and David Johnston, and Rene Orth and Jason Kim—will premiere new 20-minute operas, each based on a contemporary American story, in a semi-staged concert performance on November 21, 2014 in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater.

On Saturday, September 6th, Everyman Theatre welcomes seasoned theatrical professionals for its panel discussion entitled "Waiting in the Wings." The panel is a part of the discussion series, The World of the Play, which began during the 2013/14 season.

The Old Globe today announced the full cast and creative team for the World Premiere of Bright Star, a new American musical featuring music by Edie Brickell and Steve Martin, lyrics by Brickell, and book by Martin, based on an original story by Martin and Brickell. Directed by Walter Bobbie, Bright Star will run September 13 - November 2, 2014 on the Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage in the Old Globe Theatre, part of the Globe's Conrad Prebys Theatre Center. Preview performances run September 13 - September 27. Opening night is Sunday, September 28 at 7:00 p.m. Single tickets go on sale on Friday, August 8 at noon.

A great, big Broadway season is on its way, with fourteen productions already slated to open in the next few months. The craziness is almost upon us, but there is still plenty of time to catch up on what's been going on at Broadway's already occupied theaters . BroadwayWorld will be profiling the hits of the Great White Way that continue to draw crowds after months, years, and (in some cases) decades. Meet the current cast of Broadway's THE BOOK OF MORMON below!