Tim Robbins News

On Wednesday, April 29, at the historic Hudson Theatre in the Millennium Hotel, Tony Award-winner Roger Rees will host Sing Happy!, The Collegiate Chorale's spring benefit celebrating 'The Great White Way'. The evening features special musical guest and Tony Award-winning actress Victoria Clark, who recently starred in the The Chorale's highly praised concert revival of Kurt Weill & Ira Gershwin's Firebrand of Florence on March 12.

THE 14th ANNUAL LOWER EAST SIDE (LES) FESTIVAL OF THE ARTS will bring together under one roof in just three days over 100 performing arts organizations, local and international celebrities, independent artists, poets, puppeteers, film makers and many others -- all of whom reside, work or have their roots in the culturally diverse, willfully anarchistic Lower East Side -- for New York City's most diverse FREE 3-day festival, from Friday, May 22 through Sunday, May 24, at Theater for the New City (155 1st Avenue, between E. 9th and 10th Sts.) in Manhattan.

Flux's 2009/10 season, 'A Season of Give and Take' begins with Adam Szymkowicz's PRETTY THEFT, a play about ballerinas, boxes and the dangers of beauty. After losing her father, Allegra falls under the wing of bad girl Suzy, only to find an unexpected friendship with Joe, an autistic savant. When things between them take a violent turn, Allegra and Suzy escape on a cross-country trip. The girls end up befriending Marco, a mysterious thief who claims he cannot be caught. Newest Flux member Angela Astle stages this unsettling play from the critically acclaimed playwright of Nerve, Food for Fish and Incendiary.

stageFARM (Carrie Shaltz, Founder/Executive Director and Alex Kilgore, Artistic Director) announced the complete cast for the upcoming World Premiere The Gingerbread House by Mark Schultz, directed by Alex Kilgore. Performances were set to begin Friday, April 11th, but the first few previews were delayed and the production starts this evening Monday April 13th as a visiting production at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater (224 Waverly Place). Opening Night is set for Saturday evening, April 18th at 8 p.m.

Producers Stephen Eich and Don Foster announced casting today for the world premiere of Mark Roberts? Rantoul and Die, A Romantic Comedy Wrapped in Razor Wire at The Lillian Theater (1076 Lillian Way) in Hollywood. The new play stars Paul Dillon (originated the title role in Tracy Letts? Killer Joe) as Gary, Cynthia Ettinger (Actors? Gang?s I am not a racist, but . . .) as Debbie, Rich Hutchman (Buzzworks Theatre Company?s Invasion of the Minnesota Normals) as Rallis and Lisa Rothschiller (Chicago?s Defiant Theatre Company?s Action Movie: The Play) as Callie. Two-time Tony award-nominee Erin Quigley (costume designs for The Grapes of Wrath and The Songs of Jacob Zulu) is set to direct. Preview performances begin May 14, 2009.

The story of a group of young Americans searching for love and peace during the Vietnam era, HAIR is a timeless portrait of a movement that changed the world. Its groundbreaking rock score paved the way for some of the greatest musicals of our time.

EXIT THE KING which stars Geoffrey Rush, Susan Sarandon, Lauren Ambrose, Andrea Martin, William Sadler and Brian Hutchison, officially opened on Broadway, Thursday, March 26 at the Barrymore Theatre (243 West 47th Street). BroadwayWorld.com's cameras were there to cover the grand opening night!

Theater for the New City presents the premiere of Walking from Rumania, a journey to freedom in 1899, by award-winning playwright Barbara Kahn Theater for the New City, Crystal Field, Executive Artistic Director, proudly announces the world premiere production of Walking from Rumania, a historical drama written and directed by Barbara Kahn.

In this new American era of hope, fresh with the promise of new beginnings, The Actors' Gang is pleased to present Our Town by Thornton Wilder. Wilder's evocative play with its timeless themes of love and loss opens on Saturday, April 25 with performances continuing through May 30. Low-priced previews begin April 18.

On Wednesday, April 29, at the historic Hudson Theatre in the Millennium Hotel, Tony Award-winner Roger Rees will host Sing Happy!, The Collegiate Chorale's spring benefit celebrating 'The Great White Way'. The evening features special musical guest and Tony Award-winning actress Victoria Clark, who recently starred in the The Chorale's highly praised concert revival of Kurt Weill & Ira Gershwin's Firebrand of Florence on March 12.

Flux's 2009/10 season, 'A Season of Give and Take' begins with Adam Szymkowicz's PRETTY THEFT, a play about ballerinas, boxes and the dangers of beauty. After losing her father, Allegra falls under the wing of bad girl Suzy, only to find an unexpected friendship with Joe, an autistic savant. When things between them take a violent turn, Allegra and Suzy escape on a cross-country trip. The girls end up befriending Marco, a mysterious thief who claims he cannot be caught. Newest Flux member Angela Astle stages this unsettling play from the critically acclaimed playwright of Nerve, Food for Fish and Incendiary.

On March 12, 2009 at 7:00 p.m., The Collegiate Chorale appears with The New York City Opera Orchestra at the newly renovated Alice Tully Hall in a performance of Kurt Weill and Ira Gershwin's 1945 Broadway operetta The Firebrand of Florence. The performance, led by guest conductor Ted Sperling, stars baritone Nathan Gunn, soprano Anna Christy, baritone Terrence Mann, and soprano Victoria Clark. Krysty Swann, David Pittu and Patrick Goss complete the cast, and narration will be provided by Stage Director Roger Rees. Boasting a score by Kurt Weill, lyrics by Ira Gershwin, and a book by playwright and screenwriter Edwin Justus Mayer, The Firebrand of Florence had a short run on Broadway in 1945. The work was subsequently not heard for over a half-century until three presentations - Ohio Light Opera (1999), the BBC Symphony Orchestra in London (2000) and the Radio Symphony Orchestra in Vienna (2000) - shed new light on the relatively obscure work. The performances were not only accepted, but widely acclaimed, thus giving hope for a new life in a new century. Variety's theater critic Steven Suskin says 'I have long believed that Firebrand in concert should be a dazzling delight.' Benvenuto Cellini, the great Florentine artist, is sentenced to hang, but he is pardoned when the duke realizes that he has not completed a previously commissioned sculpture. Freed, he is able to turn his attention to his favorite model (and object of his affections), Angela. The Duke also is interested in Angela. In a typical operetta plot, Cellini swashbuckles around the stage, keeping the Duke away from Angela, keeping himself away from the Duchess, and escaping yet another death sentence by fleeing to Paris, as the end of the show recapitulates the beginning.

Playwrights Foundation (PF) welcomes an unprecedented group of national and regional playwrights and directors for the development of new works as part of the In The Rough Reading Series 2009, or ROUGH. This year's selections include: Meat by Samuel D. Hunter, directed by Mark Rucker; Language Rooms by Yussef El Guindi, directed by Mark Routhier; Job by Thomas Bradshaw, directed by Jonathan Spector; Defiant by George Brant, directed by Marissa Wolf; This Is Not a Torture or an Engine by Erin Bregman, directed by Molly Aaronson-Gelb; Assisted Living by Deirdre O'Connor, directed by Jon Tracy; Natasha and the Coat by Deborah Stein, directed by Sean Daniels; and The Verizon Play by Lisa Kron, directed by Amy Mueller. Readings will take place from Mar. 30 -- May 19, every Monday and Tuesday.

the stageFARM (Carrie Shaltz, Founder/Executive Director and Alex Kilgore, Artistic Director) has announced the complete cast for the upcoming World Premiere The Gingerbread House by Mark Schultz, directed by Alex Kilgore. Performances begin Friday, April 11th as a visiting production at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater (224 Waverly Place), with Opening Night set for Saturday evening, April 18th at 8 p.m.

Following the success of their last season where they were named one of nytheatre.com's 'People of the Year', Flux Theatre Ensemble will produce 3 plays in its 2009/10 season. Last year, Flux's A Midsummer Night's Dream was a Backstage Magazine 'pick' and was called 'immediately accessible and thematically adventurous' by Theatermania. For their New York Fringe production of Other Bodies, Heather Cohn won a Fringe Excellence Award for Outstanding Direction and Flux's ambitious Angel Eaters Trilogy received accolades from critics for being 'wildly ambitious', 'a veritable festival of theatre' and 'a model for other brave artists and production companies.'

Theater for the New City presents the premiere of Walking from Rumania, a journey to freedom in 1899, by award-winning playwright Barbara Kahn Theater for the New City, Crystal Field, Executive Artistic Director, proudly announces the world premiere production of Walking from Rumania, a historical drama written and directed by Barbara Kahn.

Emmy-nominated Paul Anthony Stewart stars as Raskolnikov in a gripping 90-minute adaptation of Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment at The Cleveland Play House. In addition to numerous New York and regional theatre roles, Stewart, who was nominated for his recurring role on 'Guiding Light,' recently appeared on Broadway in the revivals of Fiddler on the Roof and Cyrano - The Musical. Performed with only three actors, the adaptation of Crime and Punishment by Marilyn Campbell and Cut Columbus is being helmed by the acclaimed director of the 2005 Play House production of I Am My Own Wife, Anders Cato. Crime and Punishment begins in the Drury Theatre at The Cleveland Play House on Friday, February 27 and runs through Sunday, March 22, 2009. Tickets are on sale now at The Cleveland Play House box office by calling 216.795.7000 ext 4 or online at www.clevelandplayhouse.com. Crime and Punishment is presented in promotional partnership with National City and Baker & Hostetler.

On May 17th, 1968, two Catholic priests, and seven Catholic activists including a nurse, a nun, an artist and four others all walked into the selective service office Local Board 33, located in the Knights of Columbus building in Catonsville, Maryland, grabbed hundreds of 1-A draft files and burned them with homemade napalm in protest against U.S. involvement in Vietnam. The publicity and news coverage from the ensuing trial was instrumental in galvanizing the American anti-war movement. The Actors' Gang presents The Trial of the Catonsville Nine, Daniel Berrigan's free-verse dramatization based on the actual records of the trial in which he and eight other defendants were convicted. The Trial of the Catonsville Nine opens on Saturday, February 14 with performances continuing through March 21. Low-priced previews begin February 5.

Tony Award-winners Nathan Lane and Anika Noni Rose are set to participant in The Vineyard Theatre's star-studded tribute to Tony Award-winning actress Marian Seldes and The Union Square Partnership at the theatre's annual gala on Monday, February 9th at 6 PM at The Rainbow Room (30 Rockefeller Plaza, 65th floor) in Manhattan. The Gala, which will benefit the Vineyard Theatre, one of the nation's leading theatres devoted to producing new works, will include salutations to Ms. Seldes -- who originated her role in Edward Albee's Pulitzer Prize-winning play THREE TALL WOMEN in 1993 at The Vineyard -- and celebrate its theme of community spirit and neighborhood involvement by also honoring The Union Square Partnership. Nathan Lane, who will host the evening, starred opposite Ms. Seldes Off-Broadway in Terrence McNally's DEDICATION, OR THE STUFF OF DREAMS. Mr. Lane is best-known for his Tony Award-winning performances in THE PRODUCERS, A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM, and LOVE! VALOUR! COMPASSION!. Anika Noni Rose, who received an Obie Award for her work in the musical ELI'S COMIN' at The Vineyard, won a Tony Award for her performance in CAROLINE, OR CHANGE, and co-starred with Beyonce Knowles and Jennifer Hudson in the film version of 'Dreamgirls,' is set to perform.

Theater for the New City presents LOVE 'N' COURAGE, the 6th annual benefit for Theater for the New City's Emerging Playwrights Program, it has been announced by Crystal Field, Executive Artistic Director of Theater for the New City. Hosted by playwright and actor Charles Busch and featuring Tony Award-winning actress Marian Seldes, this year's benefit takes place at the beautiful National Arts Club (15 Gramercy Park South), on Monday, February 9, with cocktails beginning at 6:30pm, followed by dinner and performances.