South Coast Repertory News

North Coast Repertory Theatre presents a San Diego premiere of The Underpants, adapted by Steve Martin and written by Carl Sternheim. The show begins previews September 5-7 and continues September 8 through October 7, 2012.

Think of it as a spoken-word love song: lyrical, with depth, longing and humor. The song unfolds onstage at South Coast Repertory in Sarah Ruhl's play Eurydice, which runs Sept. 23-Oct. 14.

On hiatus from the AMC smash hit Mad Men, Vincent Kartheiser comes to the Bay Area to lead a vibrant cast in San Jose Rep's world premiere of the Jonathan Marc Feldman drama The Death of the Novel, directed by Rick Lombardo.The cast also includes Vaishnavi Sharma (Sheba), Patrick Jones, Zarah Mahler and Amy Pietz. Pietz is well-known to TV audiences for her roles in The Office, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Burn Notice, Nip/Tuck, The Closer and Private Practice.

David Henry Hwang won three Obies and the Tony Award for Best Play with popular scripts like M. Butterfly and FOB. Now he's back with a canny comedy of cross-cultural errors, CHINGLISH, which makes its West Coast premiere at Berkeley Rep beginning August 29th and heads to Hong Kong in March 2013. Get a first look at the cast onstage below!

Azuka Theatre's 13th Season continues the company's tradition of introducing thought-provoking new works to the region. This season will include two World Premieres and one East Coast Premiere.

Today, as Berkeley Repertory Theatre holds its final rehearsal for the West Coast premiere of Chinglishand prepares this production for a trip to Hong Kong, the show's celebrated author has earned another honor. The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust announced this morning that David Henry Hwang will receive the Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award, a biennial prize that recognizes and encourages the artistic excellence and achievement of an American playwright whose body of work has made significant contributions to the American theatre.

Aurora Theatre Company opens its 21st season with the coveted Bay Area Premiere of Kristoffer Diaz's smart, hilarious power-slam of a play, THE ELABORATE ENTRANCE OF CHAD DEITY. Jon Tracy makes his main stage directing debut at Aurora with this sardonic critique of pop culture and political correctness. Featuring Rod Gnapp, Tony Sancho, Beethovan Oden, Dave Maier, and Nasser Khan, THE ELABORATE ENTRANCE OF CHAD DEITY plays tonight, August 24 through September 30 at the Aurora Theatre in Berkeley. Get a first look at the production in the photos below!

Cleveland Play House opens its 98th consecutive season with its new production of the smash Broadway hit Lombardi. Bob Ari, seen last season as Mark Rothko in Red, returns to CPH to play the legendary coach who defined inspiration.

On hiatus from the AMC smash hit Mad Men, Vincent Kartheiser comes to the Bay Area to lead a vibrant cast in San Jose Rep's world premiere of the Jonathan Marc Feldman drama The Death of the Novel, directed by Rick Lombardo.The cast also includes Vaishnavi Sharma (Sheba), Patrick Jones, Zarah Mahler and Amy Pietz. Pietz is well-known to TV audiences for her roles in The Office, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Burn Notice, Nip/Tuck, The Closer and Private Practice.

Winning the prestigious Woodward/Newman Award for best play, while being developed at Rogue Machine for their 2012 season, brought with it a fully funded production mounted at the Bloomington Play Project in Indiana. It turned out to be one of their most successful projects to date. A Holland New Voices Award came shortly afterwards, and now playwright Henry Murray is ready for its close-up at Rogue Machine, known for staging new works. This will be a West Coast Premiere in one of the country's most vibrant cities for new plays, Los Angeles, opening September 15, 2012.

This year marks the 40th anniversary for Alan Ayckbourn's first big hit, Absurd Person Singular.

At BroadwayWorld we pride ourselves in showcasing theater content from all corners of the globe. Our regional contributors do an amazing job each day of bringing you the latest theater news in their cities and countries and to acknowledge this, we launched a new weekly column called 'Around BWW: Regional Highlights of the Week'. Read on for our most-read features, interviews, breaking news and more for the week of August 13!

Artistic Directors Joe Jahraus and Darrell W. Cox have announced Profiles Theatre's 2012 - 2013 Season. They also announced that acclaimed playwright Neil LaBute and Steppenwolf ensemble member Rick Snyder joined Profiles as Resident Artists.

South Coast Repertory was founded 49 years ago in Orange County with the belief that theatre is an art form with a unique power to illuminate the human experience, and the commitment to advance the art of theatre in the service of their community, and the aim to extend that service through educational, intercultural, and outreach programs that harmonize with their artistic mission. Over the past five decades they have become one of the most celebrated and honored regional theatre companies in America. Their string of awards include 83 Distinguished Achievement Awards from The Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle (including a Special Award for Continued Excellence on their 30th Anniversary in 1994), 470 Drama-Logue Awards, 19 Backstage West Garland Awards, 29 OC Weekly Awards, a 1995 Theatre LA Lifetime Achievement Award for Founders David Emmes and Martin Benson, and The 1998 Tony Award for Distinguished Achievement by a Regional Theatre.

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater announces that Obie Award-winning playwright Samuel D. Hunter will join the American Voices New Play Institute (AVNPI) as a yearlong resident playwright in 2013.

A 31-member cast, the largest ever assembled for an SCR Players show, will appear in the Summer Players production of Seussical, tonight, August 11 and Aug 12 and 18-19 on South Coast Repertory's Julianne Argyros Stage.