Theodore Ward News

The Ensemble Theatre kicks off the new year with the Opening Night and Media Reception for The Meeting by Jeff Stetson and directed by Shirley Marks Whitmore, Thursday, January 30, 2014, 6:30PM.

National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Acting Chairman Joan Shigekawa announced last week that the Huntington Theatre Company is one of 895 nonprofit organizations nationwide to receive an NEA Art Works grant. The Huntington is slated to be awarded $25,000 to support the development and production of Huntington Playwriting Fellow Lydia R. Diamond's Smart People, now extended to play May 23 - June 29, 2014.

Due to extraordinary early demand for the final two productions of its 2013-2014 Season, Huntington Theatre Company announces one-week extensions to the runs of Melinda Lopez's Becoming Cuba and Lydia R. Diamond's Smart People. The Huntington's previous productions by these acclaimed Boston playwrights - Sonia Flew by Melinda Lopez and Stick Fly by Lydia R. Diamond - hold the records as the two highest grossing productions ever staged in the Wimberly Theatre of the Huntington's second home, the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA.

Profiles Theatre announces that actor Paul Dillon returns to the role he originated in the 1992 world premiere of Hellcab by Will Kern for Profiles' holiday season revival of their hit production. Once again, Profiles Artistic Director Darrell W. Cox returns to direct a cast of 34 with Dillon joining the cast as the beleaguered cab driver and ensemble member Eric Burgher assistant directing. Profiles' production runs at The Main Stage, 4139 N. Broadway, tonight, November 8, 2013 - January 12, 2014. Please note new opening date: Wednesday, November 13, at 8:00 pm.

Profiles Theatre announces that actor Paul Dillon returns to the role he originated in the 1992 world premiere of Hellcab by Will Kern for Profiles' holiday season revival of their hit production. Once again, Profiles Artistic Director Darrell W. Cox returns to direct a cast of 34 with Dillon joining the cast as the beleaguered cab driver and ensemble member Eric Burgher assistant directing. Profiles' production runs at The Main Stage, 4139 N. Broadway, November 8, 2013 - January 12, 2014. Please note new opening date: Wednesday, November 13, at 8:00 pm.

Long-time PICT artistic director and founder, Andrew Paul and Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre founder and former director of theatre initiatives at the August Wilson Center, Mark Clayton Southers have announced Pittsburgh's newest professional theatre company, The Phoenix. The mission of The Phoenix is to explore the issues facing our diverse and rapidly changing world through the language of theatre. The name is purposeful. The phoenix was a mythological creature that crossed borders finding a home in many cultures from ancient Greece and Egypt to Turkey, Persia, Russia, Tibet, China and Japan. It was and is a symbol of renewal, new life emerging from the ashes of the old in a never-ending cycle of death and rebirth.

Theater for a New Generation will present 'Freefall' by the highly celebrated Chicago playwright Charles Smith, directed by Mel Williams, at The Drilling Company Theatre, 238 West 78th Street, tonight, September 11 to 28. The play is a drama of two brothers who grew up in inner-city Chicago and have followed divergent paths into adulthood: one as a thief, the other as a policeman.

Theater for a New Generation will present 'Freefall' by the highly celebrated Chicago playwright Charles Smith, directed by Mel Williams, at The Drilling Company Theatre, 238 West 78th Street, September 11 to 28. The play is a drama of two brothers who grew up in inner-city Chicago and have followed divergent paths into adulthood: one as a thief, the other as a policeman.

Premiere Stages will open its ninth season as the professional theatre company in residence at Kean University with a free staged reading of Darren Canady's powerful new play Ontario Was Here. Selected from over 400 submissions, Ontario Was Here is the first of two scripts scheduled for expanded development as part of the 2013 Premiere Stages Play Festival. The Festival is an annual competition for unproduced scripts by playwrights with ties to the greater metropolitan area (New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut), and perfectly embodies the theatre's passionate and longstanding commitment to supporting emerging artists through the development and production of new plays.

Premiere Stages will open its ninth season as the professional theatre company in residence at Kean University with a free staged reading of Darren Canady's powerful new play Ontario Was Here. Selected from over 400 submissions, Ontario Was Here is the first of two scripts scheduled for expanded development as part of the 2013 Premiere Stages Play Festival. The Festival is an annual competition for unproduced scripts by playwrights with ties to the greater metropolitan area (New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut), and perfectly embodies the theatre's passionate and longstanding commitment to supporting emerging artists through the development and production of new plays.

Page 73 Productions, an Off-Broadway theatre company dedicated to developing and presenting works by early-career playwrights, will support the development of four new plays by playwrights Mary Hamilton, Kait Kerrigan, Kimber Lee, and Cori Thomas as part of their 2013 Page 2 Workshop, it has been announced by Liz Jones and Asher Richelli, Co-Executive Directors of Page 73 Productions.

New Georges in association with Irondale Center (85 Oxford Street between Lafayette Avenue and Fulton Street, Brooklyn) will present the World Premiere of Kara Lee Corthron's ALICEGRACEANON, tonight, October 18-November 9.

New Georges (Susan Bernfield, Producing Artistic Director; Sarah Cameron Sunde, Deputy Artistic Director; Jaynie Saunders Tiller, Managing Director) in association with Irondale Center (85 Oxford Street between Lafayette Avenue and Fulton Street, Brooklyn) will present the World Premiere of Kara Lee Corthron's ALICEGRACEANON, October 18-November 9.

Ebony Repertory Theatre (ERT - Founder/Producer Wren T. Brown), now in its fifth year, announced today, that they will present the Los Angeles Premiere of FRATERNITY by internationally acclaimed, award-winning playwright/screenwriter Jeff Stetson (Keep the Faith and And the Men Should Also Gather). Henry Miller (James Baldwin's The Amen Corner) is set to direct this riveting award-winning political drama. FRATERNITY will play October 3 - 28, 2012, with the official press opening on Friday, October 5 at the Nate Holden Performing Arts Center (4718 W. Washington Blvd.) in Los Angeles.

id Theater returns to McCall, Idaho for the 12th Seven Devils Playwrights Conference, today, June 11 through June 23, sponsored by the Alpine Playhouse. Playwrights, actors and directors from around the country will travel to McCall and, working with local artists and students, develop ten new plays that will be presented to the public free of charge. Since 2001, the Conference has developed more than 100 new plays by some of the most exciting voices in American Theater.

id Theater returns to McCall, Idaho for the 12th Seven Devils Playwrights Conference, June 11-23, sponsored by the Alpine Playhouse. Playwrights, actors and directors from around the country will travel to McCall and, working with local artists and students, develop ten new plays that will be presented to the public free of charge. Since 2001, the Conference has developed more than 100 new plays by some of the most exciting voices in American Theater.

New Perspectives Theatre Company (NPTC) has announced JUSTIFIED, the 4th Annual Women's Work Festival running from Sunday, September 26th to Sunday, October 2nd at NPTC Studio, 456 West 37th Street.