South Coast Repertory News

South Coast Repertory has announced an exciting lineup of shows from March to June. Check out the full linup below!

Arcadia Performing Arts Foundation presents Broadway star Susan Egan, who originated the role of 'Belle' in Disney's Beauty and the Beast on Broadway, as part of its first season at the Arcadia Performing Arts Center, tonight, March 1 at 8pm. Joining Egan on stage is the sixty-member Arcadia Stage, the theatre student program at Arcadia High School. They will sing four songs with Egan, and then two from their upcoming production of Curtains.

Segerstrom Center for the Arts will present LA Opera Off Grand with a special concert performance of Jules Massenet's lyric masterpiece Thais on Tuesday, May 27 at 7:30 p.m. in the Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall. The opera tells the story of Thais, a courtesan in Alexandria, Egypt during the Byzantine period whom men find irresistible in the hedonistic way she celebrates life and its most sensual pleasures. The monk Athanael vows to save her soul, but loses his own when his unholy obsession for her overpowers him. The incomparable Georgian soprano Nino Machaidze will sing the title Role alongside LA Opera General Director Placido Domingo in the baritone role as her conflicted savior, Athanael. Patrick Fournillier will conduct the same cast as well as the LA Opera Orchestra and Chorus that will appear in the company's fully-staged production from May 17 - June 7 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. The opera is filled with intoxicating melodies, including the well known violin concert piece, Meditation. There will also be a free Preview Talk prior to the Segerstrom Center performance in the Studio Performance Space from 6:30 - 7:15 p.m. Thais will be performed in French with English supertitles.

Two captivating displays of youthful musicality take place this month as Pacific Symphony Youth Orchestra (PSYO) and Pacific Symphony Youth Wind Ensemble (PSYWE) perform an impressive range of music for their individual spring concerts.

Last night at Opening Night of Carson Kreitzer's Lasso of Truth, Marin Theatre Company's artistic director Jasson Minadakis and managing director Michael Barker announced the company's 2014-15 season programming today. Featuring six new plays by living contemporary playwrights in MTC's intimate 231-seat mainstage Boyer Theatre, the season includes:

Today, The Ground Floor: Berkeley Rep's Center for the Creation and Development of New Work announces that it has selected 18 projects from more than 30 innovative artists for its third Summer Residency Lab. This June, as part of an extraordinary laboratory for collaboration, some of the nation's most prominent and promising writers, directors, and composers will unite at the Theatre's campus in West Berkeley for an intense four-week period to live, dine, and create new plays together. Dozens more local and out-of-town actors and directors will join The Ground Floor process, bringing the number of artists involved close to 100.

Aurora Theatre Company presents the Bay Area Premiere of WITTENBERG, David Davalos' audacious comedy about reason versus faith. Josh Costello (San Francisco Playhouse, Marin Theatre Company, Impact Theatre) directs this smarty-pants celebration of history, language, academia, and religion, featuring Dan Hiatt (The Arsonists), Elizabeth Carter (Trouble in Mind), Jeremy Kahn, and Michael Stevenson. WITTENBERG plays April 4 through May 4 at the Aurora Theatre in Berkeley. For tickets ($32-60) and information the public can call (510) 843-4822 or visit auroratheatre.org.

Olney Theatre Center, a Maryland destination for professional theater performance and education, will present the National New Play Network (NNPN) Rolling World Premiere of I And You by playwright Lauren Gunderson today, February 26 - March 23, 2014 in the Mulitz-Gudelsky Theatre Lab. Ms. Gunderson's play was just last week selected as a finalist for the prestigious Susan Smith Blackburn Award.

Experience something(s) new: Three world premiere productions and four new play readings during South Coast Repertory's 2014 Pacific Playwrights Festival, April 25-27.

Casting has been announced for the world premiere of BREATHING TIME, a new play by "House of Cards" creator Beau Willimon, directed by Aaron Rossini and presented Off-Broadway by Fault Line Theatre. The cast will feature Whitney Conkling, Craig Wesley Divino, Lee Dolson, John Racioppo, Shannon Marie Sullivan and Molly Thomas. Preview performances begin Friday, March 21 prior to an official press opening of Thursday, March 27 at Teatro Iati (64 East 4th Street) in Manhattan.

Yoshiki, Asia's foremost rock icon and multi talented music superstar, will bring his new live show, Yoshiki Classical, to Segerstrom Center for the Arts for a special one-night-only concert on Friday, April 25 at 8 p.m. in the Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall.

As South Coast Repertory's 50th Season celebration continues, look at its past, get a preview of its future and take a peek behind the scenes to see how the magic of theatre happens during a special Open House.

The Gift Theatre Artistic Director Michael Patrick Thornton announces the Chicago premiere of Thinner Than Water written by Melissa Ross and directed by The Gift ensemble member John Gawlik (2013 Jeff Award winner for When the Rain Stops Falling at Circle Theatre). The production marks Thornton's return to The Gift main stage since ensemble member Andrew Hinderaker's Jeff Nominated Dirty in 2012. Thornton recently appeared in Les Waters' production of Our Town at Actors Theatre of Louisville. Thornton joins guest artists Donna McGough (last seen in Coriolanus with The Hypocrites) and Darci Nalepa (Dirty) and fellow Gift ensemble members Brittany Burch (The Lonesome West), Paul D'Addario (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest), Gabriel Franken (Broadsword), Lynda Newton (Absolute Hell) and Jay Worthington (Vigils).

Gulfshore Playhouse will present the hilarious-whodunit-meets-screwball comedy, Ken Ludwig's The Game's Afoot tonight, February 21st through March 16th, with a $25 preview performance on February 20th.

Segerstrom Center for the Arts welcomes jazz master Dr. Lonnie Smith in his Center debut tonight, February 21 and tomorrow, February 22 in Samueli Theater.

Jack and the Giant Beanstalk by Linda Daugherty, directed by Mercy Vasquez, will be presented by South Coast Repertory's Junior Players April 22-23 and April 29-30 in the Nicholas Studio. Tickets are $10 and available online at www.scr.org.

From March 7 through April 5, 2014, SpeakEasy Stage Company will present the New England premiere of the acclaimed Off-Broadway drama THE WHALE by Samuel D. Hunter.

The adventurous St. Lawrence String Quartet marks its third Segerstrom Center appearance with an exciting program that includes a world premiere of composer James Matheson's new string quartet commissioned for the Center's Chamber Music Series by long-time subscribers Elizabeth and Justus Schlichting.

AstonRep Theatre Company continues its 2013-14 season with the Pulitzer Prize-winning drama WIT by Margaret Edson, directed by Ensemble Member Derek Bertelsen, playing May 8 - June 8, 2014 at The Raven Theatre (West Stage), 6157 N. Clark St. in Chicago. Tickets go on sale Monday, February 24 at www.astonrep.com or by calling (773) 828-9129. The press opening is Saturday, May 10 at 8 pm.

Like a beautiful painting Adam Guettel's The Light in the Piazza is a true work of art. With discordant music not unlike that of Stephen Sondheim, written for a small chamber orchestra, feelings of love - from all kinds of people -fuel passionately. Without the right actresses to play the American mother and daughter visiting Florence, the play loses its fragility and inner beauty. This production could not be more divine. Patti Cohenour as Margaret Johnson and Erin Mackey as her decidedly different daughter make sparks fly with their glorious acting and singing.