Stacy Ross News

Central Works season of new plays continues this spring with a "cheeky" thriller written by the local award-winning  playwright Patricia Milton, The Victorian Ladies' Detective Collective, opening May 4 running through June 2 (previews 5/2 & 3); world-premiere # 63, from the Central Works Writers Workshop. The production, directed by Gary Graves, is the fifth writer/director comic collaboration between Central Works' resident playwright and its company co-director.  In Victorian London it seems Jack the Ripper may be at it again where sisters Loveday and Valeria run a boarding house for Single Ladies.

PlayGround concludes the 25th season of its celebrated Monday Night PlayGround staged reading series with a special evening of environmental-inspired plays as part of the 5th annual PLANET EARTH ARTS NEW PLAY FESTIVAL on Monday, April 1, 8 PM at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. The topic for the April 1 program (rescheduled from the previously announced March 18 date) is "BORDERS, ISLANDS & WALLS". Members of the 2018-19 PlayGround Writers Company have just five days to generate their original ten-minute plays inspired by the topic. The top six scripts will each receive an hour-and-a-half rehearsal and a professional script-in-hand staged reading at Berkeley Rep on April 1.

PlayGround continues its 25th season of its celebrated Monday Night PlayGround staged reading series with the first 2019 Monday readings on Monday, January 21, 8 PM at Berkeley Repertory Theatre's Roda Theatre. The topic for January's round, announced last Friday, is "ADAPT A FAIRY TALE". Members of the 2018-19 PlayGround Writers Company have just four-and-a-half days to generate their original ten-minute plays inspired by the topic. The top six scripts will each receive an hour-and-a-half rehearsal and a professional script-in-hand staged reading at Berkeley Rep on January 21. PlayGround writers in Los Angeles are working simultaneously on the same prompt and their finalists will be presented at Hollywood's Broadwater Mainstage (home of Sacred Fools Theatre Company) on January 14. Tickets are $15-$30 and 3-admission flex subscriptions are just $60 ($45 for 25-and-Unders). For tickets or more information, visit http://playground-sf.org/monday.

Central Works' 2019 season begins February 16 and runs through November 24, 2019 featuring the world premieres of 4 new plays. This 29th season begins with a bizarre comedy, followed by a Victorian mystery, a political thriller, and then in the fall it takes us on a deep dive into the sensual world of author Christina Garcia. The 2018 Season was celebrated and nominated for the comedy and SRO runs of Patricia Milton's Bamboozled and Cristina Garcia's King of Cuba which featured Marga Gomez as El Comandante. Milton's Bamboozled was a finalist for 6 TBA Awards, including Outstanding World Premiere, Entire Production, and Outstanding Direction - it won for Entire Production, Outstanding Ensemble and Outstanding Performance for its 2 principal actors, Stacy Ross and Chelsea Bearce. Central Works is committed to new works inspired by social issues, classic texts, and history - every production received a TBA Awards Recommendation, and each played to responsive houses every weekend!

Custom Made Theatre Co. presents the Bay Area Premiere of Sarah Treem's When We Were Young and Unafraid, which runs January 17 through February 9 at Custom Made Theatre, 533 Sutter St. in San Francisco, one block north of Union Square.

Theatre Bay Area, the third-largest regional theatre service organization in North America, held its fifth annual TBA Awards Celebration on Monday, November 5. The event took place at the Herbst Theatre with almost 700 people in attendance.

PlayGround continues its 25th season of its celebrated Monday Night PlayGround staged reading series on Monday, November 26, 8 PM at Berkeley Repertory Theatre's Roda Theatre. The topic for November's round, announced this morning, is "FALL DOWN, GET UP". Members of the 2018-19 PlayGround Writers Company have just four-and-a-half days to generate their original ten-minute plays inspired by the topic. The top six scripts will each receive an hour-and-a-half rehearsal and a professional script-in-hand staged reading at Berkeley Rep on November 26. PlayGround writers in Los Angeles are working simultaneously on the same prompt and their finalists will be presented at Hollywood's Broadwater Mainstage (home of Sacred Fools Theatre Company) on November 12.  Tickets are $15-$30 and 5-admission series subscriptions are just $75 ($50 for 25-and-Unders). For tickets or more information, visit http://playground-sf.org/monday.

"A man may see how this world goes with no eyes. Look with thine ears see how yond justice rails upon yon simple thief. Hark, in thine ear change places and, handy-dandy, which is the justice, which is the thief." - William Shakespeare

Theatre Bay Area, the third-largest regional theatre service organization in North America, announced the finalists for the 2018 TBA Awards. The fifth annual TBA Awards Celebration will be held on Monday, Nov. 5 at the Herbst Theatre (401 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco). Tickets for the public go on sale Friday, September 28, 2018, through City Box Office.

California Shakespeare Theater (Cal Shakes) announced further details today for the Shakespearean centerpiece to the 2018 Epic Season, The War of the Roses. The War of the Roses is a monumental evening of theater spanning four history plays-the Henry VI trilogy and Richard III. Presented as an action-packed evening, The War of the Roses will deliver a fast-paced, far-ranging, vividly theatrical depiction of two powerful families-the Lancasters and the Yorks-and their decades-long fight for the English throne. Political unrest and power grabs collide with weak leadership and civil strife as the country fights against the threat of tyranny.

California Shakespeare Theater continues its 44th Season with the West Coast Premiere of Everybody, a sparkling new riff on the 15th-century morality play The Summoning of Everyman by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, whom the New York Times calls 'one of this country's most original and illuminating writers.' A finalist for the 2018 Pulitzer Prize in Drama, Everybody is Cal Shakes' second official offering under the New Classics Initiative (NCI), exploring what it means to be a classical theater in the 21st century, and to allow living writers to expand our classical canon. Directed by Nataki Garrett making her Cal Shakes debut,

California Shakespeare Theater continues its 44th Season with the West Coast Premiere of Everybody, a sparkling new riff on the 15th-century morality play The Summoning of Everyman by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, whom the New York Times calls "one of this country's most original and illuminating writers.' A finalist for the 2018 Pulitzer Prize in Drama, Everybody is Cal Shakes' second official offering under the New Classics Initiative (NCI), exploring what it means to be a classical theater in the 21st century, and to allow living writers to expand our classical canon. Directed by Nataki Garrett making her Cal Shakes debut, Everybody plays July 18 - August 5 at the Bruns Amphitheater in Orinda. Low-priced previews take place July 18-20; Opening Night is July 21. Tickets (ranging from $20?$92) are available through the Cal Shakes Box Office at 510.548.9666 or by visiting www.calshakes.org. Ticket prices are subject to change without notice.

PlayGround's Festival of New Works features the premiere of the full-length play BRIGHT SHINING SEA by Julianne Jigour opening with a press night on Wednesday May 16, running through June 16, (previews May 14 & 15). BRIGHT SHINING SEA is a co-production with Planet Earth Arts and one of two PlayGround commissioned full-length plays featured this season.  In Julianne Jigour's Bright Shining Sea, six characters find their lives intertwined as they face the personal challenges caused by environmental degradation. Bright Shining Sea confronts destruction-personal and environmental-but presents connection and compassion as the means by which hope is possible. Julianne remarks "It asks us to view the Earth holistically, to recognize our interconnectedness, and to do what the current administration won't-to take responsibility for our planet, for each other, and for future generations.

PlayGround's Festival of New Works features the premiere of the full-length play BRIGHT SHINING SEA by Julianne Jigour opening with a press night on May 16, running through June 16, (previews May 14 & 15). BRIGHT SHINING SEA is a co-production with Planet Earth Arts and one of two PlayGround commissioned full-length plays featured this season.

California Shakespeare Theater (Cal Shakes) today announced key artists for its 2018 Season at the Bruns Amphitheater, including the Cal Shakes directorial debuts of KJ Sanchez (Quixote Nuevo) and Nataki Garrett (Everybody).

'We are beyond excited to announce our 20th anniversary season, and our fourth at 533 Sutter Street,' beams Brian Katz, Artistic Director of Custom Made Theatre Company.

Central Works opening production of its 2018 season Bamboozled by award-winning playwright Patricia Milton, has extended through March 25th (originally scheduled to close March 18).

Central Works begins its 2018 season of new plays with Bamboozled by award-winning playwright Patricia Milton, opening with a press night on Saturday, Feb 17, and running through March 18 (previews Feb 15 & 16) at the historic Berkeley City Club. Bamboozled was developed by Ms. Milton in the Central Works Writers Workshop, and is inspired by true events. In Central Works 58th world premiere, Abby is a young appraiser touring with the show "Antiques Roadtrip." She's a black woman from L.A. traveling in the south-Shelby County, Tennessee. When she's accused of defrauding a Daughter of the Confederacy out of a fortune in Civil War heirlooms, Abby finds herself on the hook for a million dollars. Her legal team is flailing and her accuser is formidable. Should she cop a plea? Or take a long shot for justice?

Imagine this. You're a brilliant scientist, a biophysicist studying the causes of dementia. And one day, mid-Power Point, you can't recall what you're supposed to say when the next slide comes up. Eventually you learn that the disease you're studying is now the disease you have.

Due to popular pre-sale demand, Aurora Theatre Company announces that it will add an additional two weeks of performances for the Bay Area Premiere of Sarah Greenman's wildly creative biographical play, LENI. Jon Tracy (The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity, Breakfast With Mugabe) directs this multi-media play, called "a thought-provoking tour through the world of Nazi propagandist Leni Riefenstahl" by Seattle Weekly. Featuring Stacy Ross (Gidion's Knot, Wilder Times) and Martha Brigham (The How and The Why).