Susan Smith News

Two enduring icons born in the same year. One destined to rule, the other elected to lead. But when the stiff upper lip softened and the gloves came off, which one had the upper hand?

To open its 32nd season the Undermain Theatre is thrilled to bring the World Premiere of Meg Miroshnik's THE DROLL to their home in Deep Ellum at 3200 Main Street. The premiere will open tonight, September 26th, 2015 - curtain time 8:15 with the playwright in attendance. Preview performances will be on Sep. 23rd, 24th and 25th. The production will run through October 17th.

John Lahr, long-time drama critic for The New Yorker and winner of the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award for his acclaimed biography Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh, returns to Theatre for a New Audience for a talk about his new book, JOY RIDE: Show People and Their Shows, with one of its subjects: MacArthur Fellow and two-time Pulitzer Prize nominee Sarah Ruhl (The Clean House, In The Next Room). Mr. Lahr and Ms. Ruhl will speak on Wednesday, October 7, at 7:00pm at the Polonsky Shakespeare Center, 262 Ashland Place. 

Artistic Director Darko Tresnjak and Managing Director Michael Stotts announced playwright Christina Anderson as the 2015-16 Aetna New Voices Fellow at Hartford Stage.

Marin Theatre Company's 49th Season opener, the West Coast premiere of Sarah Ruhl's The Oldest Boy, is now extending through Sunday October 11th based on popular demand.

To open its 32nd season the Undermain Theatre is thrilled to bring the World Premiere of Meg Miroshnik's THE DROLL to their home in Deep Ellum at 3200 Main Street. The premiere will open September 26th, 2015 - curtain time 8:15 with the playwright in attendance. Preview performances will be tonight, Sep. 23rd, Sep. 24th and 25th. The production will run through October 17th.

Merrimack Repertory Theatre is following up on the overwhelming success of the season opener, "The Lion," with a regional premiere directed by the company's new artistic director Sean Daniels. "I and You" by Lauren Gunderson tells the story of two very different teenagers, Caroline and Anthony, who struggle to connect as they work on a school project about Walt Whitman's poetry. Over the course of the play and through a stunning surprise ending, they find that there is more that unites them than divides them. This production marks the New England premiere of the play that won the 2014 Steinberg/American Theatre Critics Association New Play Award, which recognizes new work produced outside of New York.

Ready for a thrill?  Look no further than theotherspace at the Roxy Regional Theatre, presenting the explosive rock musical sensation MURDER BALLAD for four evenings only, October 5 - October 13.

NYMadness Season Launch, RACIAL MADNESS with Featured Guest Neil LaBute (The Way We Get By, Bash: Latter-Day Plays, Outer Critics Circle Award for Fat Pig, Independent Spirit Award for In the Company of Men, Reasons to be Pretty, Reason to be Happy, American Academy Arts and Letters.)

After a powerful run on the West Coast, Leigh Curran brings her award-winning one-woman show to New York. 'Why Water Falls' concerns a fiction writer who has to write a true story and, in the struggle, is brought face to face with her ambivalence about motherhood and the unexpected consequences she's tries to forget... but her 'children' won't let her do so. A smart, funny, thought provoking evening of true fiction that looks at making peace with controversial life choices in a whole new way. Written and performed by Leigh Curran and directed by Mary Pat Gleason.

Sheffield Theatres and Orange Tree Theatre today announce the cast for Deborah Bruce's The Distance. Charlotte Gwinner directs Michelle Duncan (Bea), Charlotte Emmerson (Alex), Daniel Hawksford (Dewi), Charlotte Lucas(Kate), Timothy Knightley (Simon), Steven Meo (Vinnie) and Joshua Sinclair-Evans (Liam). The production opens on 3 November, with previews from 29 October, and runs until 14 November at Sheffield Theatres, ahead of a run at Orange Tree Theatre from 26 November to 19 December.

The Road Theatre Company and Taylor Gilbert, Founder/Artistic Director together with Sam Anderson, Artistic Director, are thrilled to announce the cast for the first show of its 2015-2016 - 25th Anniversary Season, the World Premiere of HOMEFREE, written by Lisa Loomer and directed by Ovation Award-winner Michael Matthews.

The Road Theatre Company and Taylor Gilbert, Founder/Artistic Director together with Sam Anderson, Artistic Director, are thrilled to announce the first show of its 2015-2016 - 25th Anniversary Season, the World Premiere of HOMEFREE, written by Lisa Loomer and directed by Ovation Award-winner Michael Matthews. HOMEFREE will open today, September 18 at 8pm and run through Sunday, November 8th at the Road Theatre Company's second home, the Road on Magnolia, located in The NoHo Senior Arts Colony, 10747 Magnolia Blvd. in North Hollywood.

Northern Stage has announce its 2015-2016 season, generously sponsored by White Mountains Insurance. The company will produce six main stage productions from October-May in a brand new facility, The Barrette Center for the Arts. For tickets and information, call 802-296-7000 or visit www.northernstage.org. Tickets start at $15 for any student at any time.

Fresh off its world-premiere run in Minneapolis, where Star Tribune declared "Akeelah and the Bee triumphs," Children's Theatre Company's new production about an 11-year-old spelling prodigy comes to Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater. The show is adapted for the stage by veteran playwright Cheryl L. West (Arena's Pullman Porter Blues, Jar the Floor), who partners with celebrated director Charles Randolph-Wright (director of Broadway's Motown and an inaugural resident playwright with Arena Stage, where he premiered his play Love in Afghanistan). Akeelah and the Bee runs November 13-December 27, 2015 in the Kreeger Theater.

The Old Globe opens its 2015-2016 Season with IN YOUR ARMS, a World Premiere dance-theatre musical featuring direction and choreography by Tony Award winner Christopher Gattelli (Newsies, Godspell, Lincoln Center Theater's The King and I and South Pacific) and original music by Tony Award winner Stephen Flaherty (Ragtime, Once on This Island; two-time Oscar nominee for Anastasia). The production begins tonight, September 16, with an opening slated for September 24, and runs through October 25, 2015.

As part of the citywide Women's Voices Theater Festival, Unexpected Stage Company-the fast-growing, Washington, D.C.-area professional theater company-will present the world premiere comedy Trish Tinkler Gets Saved, by Jacqueline Goldfinger. Trish Tinkler Gets Saved follows former Whitesnake groupie Trish as she waits for a visit from a divine presence at the Eat 'n' Save mini-mart. The production is running October 8 through 18, 2015, at Randolph Road Theater, 4010 Randolph Road, Wheaton, MD (the former home of Round House).

Luna Stage presents the East Coast premiere of The Tall Girls by Meg Miroshnik.  The Tall Girls opens to previews on Thursday October 8th, 2015 and runs Thursdays through Sundays through November 1st. Opening night is Saturday October 10th, 2015.  Select performances are followed by Talkbacks with the Creative Team. Tickets range from $27-$37 dollars.  Group sales available. $10 Student Rush tickets available one half-hour before curtain. Individual tickets can be purchased at lunastage.org, or at the box office Tues.-Fri. 10am-3pm (973-395-5551).

This Autumn, as part of their American season, Jermyn Street Theatre is to build on its reputation of rediscovering important lost work by great dramatists by staging two UK premieres by Eugene O'Neill.