Susan Smith News

Silence by Moira Buffini will be presented by Large Print Theatre at the Jack Studio, today 5 - Saturday 23 March 2013 at 7.45pm. Press night: Thursday 7 March at 7.45pm.

The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize has announced 10 Finalists for its prestigious playwriting award, now celebrating its thirty-fifth year.

Katori Hall's Olivier Award-winning drama The Mountaintop comes to Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater following an acclaimed run at the Alley Theatre in Houston, where it was hailed by the Houston Chronicle as "fast and funny, profoundly poignant, remarkably real and shimmeringly surreal." Obie Award winner Robert O'Hara (Public Theater's Wild with Happy) makes his Arena Stage directorial debut with The Mountaintop, which is produced in association with the Alley Theatre and runs March 29-May 12, 2013 in the Kreeger Theater.

Square One Theatre continues its 23rd Season with Distracted, a provocative and poignant look at a modern family. Playwright Lisa Loomer has simultaneously written a riotously funny play as well as tackling an important social issue. She's applied her gift for blending comedy with problems caused or exacerbated by the world in which we live.

Center Theatre Group presents a discussion between the visionary game designer, futurist and bestselling author of "Reality is Broken," Jane McGonigal, and playwright Jennifer Haley, winner of the 2012 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, at the Veterans Memorial Building in Culver City, Friday, March 8 at 8 p.m.

In a timely production that coincides with the 45th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination, TheatreWorks, the nationally acclaimed theatre of Silicon Valley, presents the regional premiere of THE MOUNTAINTOP by Katori Hall. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

Award-winning playwright Jami Brandli, who now calls Southern California her home, makes her full-length debut this March with the Los Angeles premiere of S.O.E., directed by Darin Anthony, featuring Jessica Hanna, Michael Kass and Diana Wyenn.

Silence by Moira Buffini will be presented by Large Print Theatre at the Jack Studio, Tuesday 5 - Saturday 23 March 2013 at 7.45pm. Press night: Thursday 7 March at 7.45pm.

Tarragon Theatre presents A Double Bill celebrating the work of acclaimed playwright-in-residence Hannah Moscovitch, with premieres of her plays Little One and Other People's Children. A co-production with Theatre Crisis and Theatre PANIK, A Hannah Moscovitch Double Bill opens tonight, February 20 and runs to March 24 (previewing from February 14) in Tarragon Theatre's Extra Space.

Philadelphia Theatre Company presents PTC@Play, a two-week festival of new work today, February 18-March 3 at PTC's home at the Suzanne Roberts Theatre (Broad and Lombard Streets). The festival will feature staged readings of four new plays by both established and emerging playwrights, a new play with music in development starring Tony and Barrymore Award winner Forrest McClendon as African American vaudeville legend Bert Williams, and an evening of short plays, FuturePhilly@Play, by seven emerging playwrights. Each playwright will be in-residence at PTC for their reading, and every reading will conclude with a reception where audiences and artists can meet. All events are free with curtain time at 7:30 PM. A highlight of PTC@Play will be the February 18th announcement of the winner of the Terrence McNally New Play Award, a $10,000 cash prize given annually to recognize a new play that celebrates the transformative power of art.

George Street Playhouse and Artistic Director David Saint have announced casting for the fourth production of the New Brunswick theatre's season, the world premiere of Rich Girl by Victoria Stewart.

Mirror Stage continues its popular Feed Your Mind staged reading series with the West Coast premiere of Impenetrable by Mia McCullough at the Ethnic Cultural Theatre on March 9 and 10, 2013. Directed by Suzanne M. Cohen, Feed Your Mind: Impenetrable features Emily Grogan (Julie), Patrick Lennon (Pete), David Natale (Mourad), Rachel Permann (Andie), Tessa Weinland (Cari) and one additional actress to be announced.

Presenting their second out of three productions for this year's 'Get Talking' series, Stages Repertory Theatre is producing Julia Cho's THE LANGUAGE ARCHIVE. The deliciously existential and fairy tale-esque drama won the 2010 Susan Smith Blackburn award, a prize given to plays written by women in the English language. The somewhat simplistic and formulaic plot introduces audiences to a linguist, George, who is the curator of a language library that preserves the last remaining strands of dead and dying languages. Despite his love for languages, he is inept in communication, which estranges him from his wife, Mary. George and his assistant, Emma, fly in a couple from a devastated Eastern European country to record their native language, the romantic and beautiful Elloway. However, the couple is bickering, so they have cast off Elloway and are using the 'hateful' language of English to fight.

On February 9, Newnan Theatre Company presented its 2013 Gala, NTC's celebration of its 2013/2014 season opening. Season ticket holders and guests were treated to drinks, hors d'oeuvres and desserts. They participated in a silent auction of an intriguing array of items, profits to benefit the theatre, and they were given an opportunity to renew or purchase season memberships at discount prices.

Company of Fools, part of the Sun Valley Center for the Arts, finishes its 17th season with Distracted by Lisa Loomer running tonight, February 13 - March 1 at the Liberty Theatre in Hailey. Time Out NY called Distracted a 'My favorite comedy of the year!' The play examines the perplexing and emotional journey of two parents hoping to make the best treatment decision of treatment for their son's Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). Distracted, which premiered in Los Angeles in 2007 and made its Off-Broadway debut in 2010, is a sharp, chaotically entertaining riff on the challenges of parenting in the modern age.

Manhattan Theatre Club has announced the lineup for this spring's Ernst C. Stiefel "7@7" Reading Series.

New Georges (Susan Bernfield, Producing Artistic Director; Sarah Cameron Sunde, Deputy Artistic Director; Jaynie Saunders Tiller, Managing Director) will present the World Premiere of Lynn Rosen's (Apple Cove with Women's Project) GOLDOR $ MYTHYKA: A HERO IS BORN directed by Shana Gold (Food and Fadwa with New York Theatre Workshop) April 3-27 at The New Ohio Theatre (154 Christopher Street between Greenwich and Washington). Casting will be announced on Friday, February 22. Tickets will go on sale Friday, March 1.