Susan Smith News

TACT/The Actors Company Theatre presents Abundance, the 1990 play by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Beth Henley (Crimes of the Heart). An epic tale of friendship set against the backdrop of the sweeping American West, Abundance will be directed by TACT Co-Artistic Director Jenn Thompson, who directed last season's production of William Inge's Natural Affection. Performances begin at Theatre Row's Beckett Theatre (410 West 42nd Street - between 9th & 10th Avenues) tonight, February 17, 2015.

This one-woman show (starring Maddie Rice) lets us see the world through the eyes of twenty-something Fleabag as we follow her life, love, loss and heartbreak. She's angry, confrontational, cruel, forgetful, flippant, capricious, but undeniably honest.

Winner of the Curve Leicester's Playwriting Competition and recently seen as a staged reading at the Finborough Theatre's annual Vibrant -- A Festival of Finborough Playwrights, the world premiere and full length debut of a new playwright, Ben Weatherill's Chicken Dust opens at the Finborough Theatre for a limited run of nine Sunday and Monday evening and Tuesday matinee performances from Sunday, 1 March 2015 (Press Night: Monday, 2 March at 7.30pm).

The New Black Fest, a theater organization celebrating provocative storytelling, music and discussion from the African Diaspora, is proud to announce The New Black Fest at The Lark.

Piven Theatre Workshop announces the Midwest Premiere of Melancholy Play: a chamber musical by Sarah Ruhl, with new music by Todd Almond, directed by Polly Noonan. The production will run May 2 - June 7, 2015 at Piven Theatre Workshop, 927 Noyes Street. Previews are April 30 & May 1. Press opening is Saturday, May 2 at 7:30PM.

Theatrical Outfit continues its 'Season of Compassion' with the awe-inspiring regional premiere of Lauren Gunderson's Silent Sky, which reveals the astonishing personal and professional discoveries awaiting real-life female American astronomer Henrietta Swan Leavitt (1868-1921).

Encore Theatre Company has announced the world premiere of HOOKMAN, a new play by Lauren Yee whose playwriting credits includes The Hatmaker's Wife and Ching Chong Chinaman. Commissioned by Encore Theatre, Hookman dramatizes the story of Lexi, a student in her first year at college.

?Sara Ruhl's The Clean House is a smart, witty, and touching comedy of true love and the devastating power of the perfect joke. Director Joanne Gordon brings this love story to stage in CSULB Theatre Arts Department's Cal Rep production.

Perseverance Theatre (PT) starts 2015 off with the award winning play The Mountaintop by Katori Hall. The Mountaintop runs in the Sydney Laurence Theatre at the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts tonight, February 13 - 22, 2015. Tickets are available through the Centertix box office, online at Centertix.net and by calling 263-ARTS. There is one pay-as-you-can preview on Thursday, February 12 at 7:30 p.m.

The Nether is now in playing at the Duke of York's Theatre. Directed by Jeremy Herrin,Jennifer Haley's critically acclaimed, multi-award-winning play is booking for 12 weeks only to 25 April 2015. David Calder (Doyle) joins original cast members Amanda Hale (Morris), Ivanno Jeremiah (Woodnut) and Stanley Townsend (Sims) who are joined by Jaime Adler, Zoe Brough, Perdie Hibbins and Isabella Pappas who alternate the role of Iris. Set designs are by Es Devlin, with costume designs by Christina Cunningham, lighting by Paul Pyant, compositions by Nick Powell, sound by Ian Dickinson and video design by Luke Halls.

Playwrights Horizons is now accepting entries for its popular LIVEforFIVE online lottery for up to two $5 tickets each to the world premiere of PLACEBO, a new play by Obie Award winner Melissa James Gibson (This at PH, What Rhymes with America, Suitcase, [sic], the FX series "The Americans," "House of Cards" on Netflix). Directed by three-time Obie Award winner Daniel Aukin (This at PH, The Fortress of Solitude, Bad Jews, 4000 Miles, [sic]), the play is the fourth production of the theater company's 2014/2015 Season.

The Language Archive by Julia Cho has been hailed by one critic as "a quirky, but ravishingly well-written piece that is smart, funny, deep and tender." Winner of the 2010 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for outstanding new English-language play by a woman, Cho's whimsical work will be presented for the first time in Rhode Island by the Community College of Rhode Island Players. Performances will be given at the Liston Campus in Providence on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, February 26, 27, and 28 at 7:30 P.M., and on Saturday and Sunday, February 28 and March 1, at 2 P.M.

Royal Shakespeare Company has announed its Stratford-Upon Avon winter 2015 artistic program, including making the 600th anniversary of Agincourt and continues Shakespeare's Histories with Gregory Doran's production of Henry V, also screened 'Live from Stratford-upon-Avon' to cinemas and schools, Jonathan Munby's acclaimed production of Ella Hickson's Wendy & Peter Pan returns to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, two new plays premiere in the Swan Theatre - Hecuba by Marina Carr, directed by Erica Whyman, and Queen Anne by Helen Edmundson, directed by Natalie Abrahami and Congreve's Love for Love - first RSC staging of this glorious Restoration Comedy, directed by Selina Cadell.

Playwrights Horizons, under the leadership of Artistic Director Tim Sanford and Managing Director Leslie Marcus, has announced the six productions of its 2015/2016 Season. The six new works will be presented at the theater company's home at 416 West 42nd Street. In season order, they will be:

Tickets are now on sale for Beautiful Soup's festival of plays by Steven Carl McCasland. Priced $18 each, audiences also have the option to see all 5 plays at a reduced price.

Writers Theatre presents The Diary of Anne Frank by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, adapted by Wendy Kesselman and directed by Kimberly Senior. The show runs February 24 - June 28, 2015 at Books on Vernon, 664 Vernon Avenue, Glencoe. The Press Openings are Wednesday, March 4, and Thursday, March 5, 2015.

Theatre Communications Group (TCG) is pleased to announce the publication of Stage Kiss, the sixth title from acclaimed playwright Sarah Ruhl to be published by TCG. The play originally premiered at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago in 2011, with a subsequent production at Playwrights Horizons in New York in the spring of 2014.

The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize has announced 12 Finalists for its prestigious playwriting award, the oldest and largest prize awarded to women playwrights. Chosen from over 150 nominated plays, the Finalists are:

Good morning, BroadwayWorld! Because we know all our readers eat, sleep and breathe Broadway, what could be better than waking up to it? Today's big news: Off-Broadway is teeming with new shows, including TEXAS IN PARIS, THE MYSTERY OF LOVE AND SEX, KILL ME LIKE YOU MEAN IT and more!

MCC Theater presents the New York premiere of Jennifer Haley's The Nether directed by Anne Kaufman. Ben Rosenfield, memorably of the final two seasons of 'Boardwalk Empire,' and rising talent Sophia Anne Caruso will take on the roles of Woodnut and Iris, respectively. As previously announced, The Nether will also star 'Nurse Jackie' Emmy Award winner Merritt Wever, New York theater veteran Peter Friedman and Tony Award winner Frank Wood.