Sterling Clark News

Jennifer Muller/The Works announces The Works' 35th Anniversary Season at The Joyce Theater at 175 Eighth Avenue (at 19th Street), NYC from June 9 - 14, 2009. The 2009 Season features the World Premieres of Bench, part of The Joyce Theater's 25th anniversary commissioning initiative, Tangle and Walk It Off. Tickets are $19 - 49 and are available at 212-242-0800 or www.joyce.org.

BAM is delighted to present a new staging of Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice from Edward Hall's award-winning company Propeller. Last at BAM with renowned productions of The Taming of the Shrew and Twelfth Night (2007 Spring Season), comedies that revel in the trials and inevitable tribulations of romantic love, Propeller returns with an audaciously compelling interpretation of The Merchant of Venice, critically acclaimed in its recent U.K. run.

BAM and The Old Vic announce The Bridge Project Benefit, celebrating the inaugural year of repertory co-productions from BAM, The Old Vic, and Neal Street Productions. The February 17 event begins at 6pm with cocktails and dinner onstage at the BAM Howard Gilman Opera House followed by an 8pm performance of Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale at the BAM Harvey Theater, directed by Sam Mendes and featuring a star-studded, transatlantic cast including Simon Russell Beale, Sin?ad Cusack, Richard Easton, Rebecca Hall, Josh Hamilton, and Ethan Hawke. The evening concludes with a post-performance dessert reception with the cast onstage at the BAM Howard Gilman Opera House. Benefit tickets can be purchased though BAM Patron Services at 718.636.4182.

Berkshire Theatre Festival's 2009 casting consists of some old favorites and some new faces. Randy Harrison will return to star in 'Ghosts', and David Adkins, Colin Lane and Keira Naughton will appear in 'Faith Healer'. 'The Einstein Project' cast will consist of Tommy Schrider and James Barry, while 'Sick' will feature Greg Keller. Stephen DeRosa, David Garrison and more will also make an appearance this season.

BAM and The Old Vic announce The Bridge Project Benefit, celebrating the inaugural year of repertory co-productions from BAM, The Old Vic, and Neal Street Productions. The February 17 event begins at 6pm with cocktails and dinner onstage at the BAM Howard Gilman Opera House followed by an 8pm performance of Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale at the BAM Harvey Theater, directed by Sam Mendes and featuring a star-studded, transatlantic cast including Simon Russell Beale, Sin?ad Cusack, Richard Easton, Rebecca Hall, Josh Hamilton, and Ethan Hawke. The evening concludes with a post-performance dessert reception with the cast onstage at the BAM Howard Gilman Opera House. Benefit tickets can be purchased though BAM Patron Services at 718.636.4182.

RIOULT will present the world premiere of The Great Mass along with three acclaimed repertory pieces during its 2009 New York season, running April 14 - 19, at The Joyce Theater, 175 Eighth Avenue at 19th Street. The Great Mass is a full-evening work set to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Mass in C Minor, and will be joined on the schedule by Mr. Rioult's Wien (1994), Views of the Fleeting World (2008) and Les Noches (2005). The season will include a Gala Fundraiser honoring two-time Emmy Award-winner Sonya Hamlin, president of Sonya Hamlin Communications, to be held at the Altman Building in Chelsea on Wednesday, April 15th (*formerly The Pascal Rioult Dance Theatre).

The Joyce 2009 season kicks off on February 3 with Buglisi Dance Theatre presenting two different programs that will include three NYC premieres and one world premiere. Ronald K. Brown's Brooklyn-based Evidence, A Dance Company returns to The Joyce this year with an exciting NYC premiere, and Doug Varone and Dancers - back for its 10th Joyce season - also will feature a NYC premiere. Following them is the audience favorite Savion Glover, for a three-week season of electrifying tap set to Flamenco music. Then Ballet-Tech, under the Artistic Direction of Joyce founder Eliot Feld, will present two programs of post-classicism work with its 'Mandance Project.'

The Joyce Theater is thrilled to welcome back LES BALLETS TROCKADERO DE MONTE CARLO for a special three-week holiday engagement, December 16 - January 4. The season will feature two different programs, each with a Joyce premiere, performed by the primo ballerinas that have made this troupe the world's foremost all-male comic ballet company. To purchase tickets, please call JoyceCharge at 212-242-0800 or via the internet at www.joyce.org. The Joyce Theater is located at 175 Eighth Avenue (at 19th Street) in Chelsea.

The Joyce Theater is thrilled to welcome back LES BALLETS TROCKADERO DE MONTE CARLO for a special three-week holiday engagement, December 16 - January 4. The season will feature two different programs, each with a Joyce premiere, performed by the primo ballerinas that have made this troupe the world's foremost all-male comic ballet company. To purchase tickets, please call JoyceCharge at 212-242-0800 or via the internet at www.joyce.org. The Joyce Theater is located at 175 Eighth Avenue (at 19th Street) in Chelsea.

Following the popular and critical success of Alladeen (2003 Next Wave Festival) and Super Vision (2005 Next Wave Festival), Obie award-winning, New York-based The Builders Association returns to BAM with the New York premiere of Continuous City. Poignant and thought-provoking, this multimedia theater work investigates how networking technology both encourages and hinders human interaction and relationships.

Flemish director Guy Cassiers makes his American debut with Sunken Red-a multimedia theater work created in collaboration with and performed by one of Europe's leading stage actors, Dirk Roofthooft.

In a nouveau cirque work poised at the intersection of physical theater, modern dance, and waking dreams, France's Compagnie 111 makes its BAM debut in Les sept planches de la ruse (The Seven Boards of Skill) in a joint production with Scenes de la Terre. Conceived and directed by French director Aurelien Bory, this U.S. premiere is inspired by tangram-an ancient Chinese geometric puzzle composed of seven tiles that can be manipulated in a nearly infinite number of combinations. Developed in the industrial city of Dalian, China, where it premiered in 2007, Les sept planches de la ruse has toured across France and to Portugal. After the BAM engagement, the production will travel to additional cities in France, as well as to the UK and Hungary.

As part of the 2008 Next Wave Festival, BAM welcomes the return of U Theatre, one of Taiwan's most celebrated theater companies, in Meeting with Bodhisattva-a music-theater work that depicts an individual's journey toward becoming a Bodhisattva or 'enlightened being' in Buddhism. This U.S. premiere features a whirlwind of drumming, martial arts, Buddhist chanting, and Chinese operatic dance.

A composer, performer, violinist, and band leader, Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR) seamlessly blends classical music, funk, rock, and hip-hop into a unique musical vision.

As part of the 2008 Next Wave Festival, BAM presents the U.S. debut of Iceland's Vesturport Theatre in a critically-acclaimed production of Georg Büchner's Woyzeck. With haunting original music by cult rocker Nick Cave and Bad Seeds' Warren Ellis, this U.S. premiere is directed by rising-star Gísli Örn Gardarsson and is a joint production of Vesturport and The Reykjavik City Theatre. Woyzeck premiered at The Reykjavik City Theatre in 2005 and was presented at London's Barbican Theatre in 2005 as part of their Young Genius series where its sold-out run received critical acclaim. The production returned to the Barbican in 2006, traveled to Spain in 2007, and will tour to South Korea in May 2009.

Flemish director Guy Cassiers makes his American debut with Sunken Red-a multimedia theater work created in collaboration with and performed by one of Europe's leading stage actors, Dirk Roofthooft.

Theater By The Blind, which has worked for 29 years to develop blind and vision-impaired talent for the theater, television and film, is changing its name to Theater Breaking Through Barriers, remaining TBTB. The company continues its commitment to vision-impaired artists but has been including artists with all disabilities in their productions, and is preparing to announce its 2008 season: Romeo and Juliet and an American comedy, both performed at the Kirk Theatre on Theatre Row.

The Irish Repertory Theatre, 132 West 22nd Street, has raised $4.2 million in gifts and pledges in a $6 million capital campaign to secure a permanent home in New York

LAByrinth Theater Company and The Public Theater announce that, due to audience demand, the world premiere of THE LAST DAYS OF JUDAS ISCARIOT, a new play by Stephen Adly Guirgis and directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman, will extend its run through Sunday, April 3rd. Previews began in The Public Theater's Martinson Hall on Tuesday, February 8th. The press opening is Wednesday, March 2nd. The production was originally scheduled to close Sunday, March 20th.

LAByrinth Theater Company, Philip Seymour Hoffman and John Ortiz, co-artistic directors; and The Public Theater, George C. Wolfe, producer; Mara Manus, executive director, announce the world premiere of THE LAST DAYS OF JUDAS ISCARIOT, a new play by Stephen Adly Guirgis, directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman. Previews begin in The Public Theater's Martinson Hall on Tuesday, February 8.