Tracy Letts News

Wrapping up its record breaking 32nd season, American Stage Theatre Company has announced its 2011-2012 season for its Mainstage Series and American Stage in the Park, headlined by the Tampa Bay area premiere of two of the most important and award winning Broadway dramas in recent history.

Arden Theatre Company continues its 2010/11 season with Eugene O'Neill's American masterpiece A Moon for the Misbegotten. This mythic tale of old sins and the redemptive power of love will close February 27, 2011.

The Alley Theatre was founded over sixty years ago as Houston's theatre company. It exists to provide audiences with the highest quality theatre, offering a wide variety of work including new plays, classics, the re-discovered and the rarely-performed, and new musical theatre, with an emphasis on new American works - to provide the inspirational and the provocative - to make our audiences think, feel, dream and be entertained. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Gregory Boyd and Managing Director Dean Gladden, the Alley is committed to moving forward to increase its reach into the community, to further its collaboration with the best theatre artists working today, and to encourage and cultivate the new voices, new work, new artists of the American theatre. For more information call 713-220-5700.

Jane Austen's Emma - A Musical Romantic Comedy with music, lyrics and book by Tony Award nominee Paul Gordon will close the Winter Season on February 27, 2011. Directed by Tony Award nominee Jeff Calhoun.

Gary Cole and Edi Gathegi lead the cast of the West Coast premiere of Pulitzer Prize winner Tracy Letts' Superior Donuts at the Geffen Playhouse. Cole, a Steppenwolf ensemble member who is well-recognized from cult comedy classics such as Office Space and Pineapple Express, plays Arthur Przybyszewski, the proprietor of Superior Donuts, a sweets shop that has been a community hub for decades - and both the neglected storefront and its rundown owner are evidence to that.

Victory Gardens continues its 2010/11 Season with the Chicago premiere of Circle Mirror Transformation by Annie Baker, directed by Dexter Bullard.

Victory Gardens continues its 2010/11 Season with the Chicago premiere of Circle Mirror Transformation by Annie Baker, directed by Dexter Bullard.

The neighborhood, the donut shop, and Arthur have all gone to pot. When young Franco Wicks busts in with fresh dough and even fresher dreams, stale Arthur can no longer pretend he doesn't care. The author of the Pulitzer Prize and Tony award winning August: Osage County turns up the comedic heat on a man and a community grappling with change.

TimeLine Theatre Company, named the nation's theater 'Company of the Year' for 2010 by Terry Teachout in The Wall Street Journal and 'one of the Chicago theater's most impressive growth stories' by Chris Jones in the Chicago Tribune, announces its four-play 2011-12 season

Starting this month on the Hubbard stage is the Alley Theatre's powerful new production of Tracy's Lett's August: Osage County. This grand, gripping new play won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Play as well as the Drama Desk Award for Best New Play, the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Play and the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New Broadway Play. Tracy Letts' August: Osage County tells the story of the Westons, a large extended clan that comes together at their Oklahoma home when the patriarch disappears. Forced to confront unspoken truths and secrets, the family must also contend with Violet, a pill-popping, deeply unsettled woman at the center of this storm. This powerful production exposes relationships between unforgettable characters who present themselves with unflinching honesty. Recommended for mature audience, ages 16+. Contains profanity, mature themes, sexuality and drug use.

Starting this month on the Hubbard stage is the Alley Theatre's powerful new production of Tracy's Lett's August: Osage County.

In this delicious new comedy from the Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning author, an offbeat friendship grows between a cantankerous white shop owner and an ambitious black teenager with something to hide. Amidst the changing face of an old Chicago neighborhood, a local donut shop becomes the setting for old secrets, new beginnings and the redemptive power of friendship.

PURE Theatre is proud to present the regional premiere of Superior Donuts by Tracy Letts.

Theatre Downtown will present the Central Floriday premiere of Tracy Letts' Tony-winning play August: Osage County. The production, directed by Frank Hilgenberg, will play weekends from Mar. 4th through Mar. 27th.

Victory Gardens continues its 2010/11 Season with the Chicago premiere of Circle Mirror Transformation by Annie Baker, directed by Dexter Bullard.

In this delicious new comedy from the Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning author, an offbeat friendship grows between a cantankerous white shop owner and an ambitious black teenager with something to hide. Amidst the changing face of an old Chicago neighborhood, a local donut shop becomes the setting for old secrets, new beginnings and the redemptive power of friendship.

An evocative critique of modern family and religious life, The First Ladies examines what can happen when three unfulfilled women become possessed by their own fantasies. Guest director Zeljko Djukic brings his unique and vibrant voice to Trap Door with his staging of Werner Schwab's devastatingly modern play that juxtaposes two worlds, the dream world and the low-class world, in order to tell and show us that happiness is impossible, even when dreaming. The play utilizes hyperrealism not to represent the naturalistic world, but to put the world in quotation marks and expose its exploitative nature and cruelty. With its sophisticated nuances in movement and speech, this riveting, highly poetic play poses exciting emotional demands for both actors and audience.

Steppenwolf Theatre Company continues its 2010-2011 season with Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? directed by Pam MacKinnon. The production features ensemble members Tracy Letts and Amy Morton with Carrie Coon and Madison Dirks. Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? closes February 13, 2011 in Steppenwolf's Downstairs Theatre, 1650 N. Halsted St.

TheatreWorks, the nationally-acclaimed theatre of Silicon Valley, has announced the line-up for its 2010-2011 season. Founding Artistic Director Robert Kelley and Managing Director Phil Santora announced a 41st season that will include three world premieres (bringing the company's total to 56); three regional premieres including the newest play by the author of AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY, Broadway's quirky hit musical about writers writing a quirky hit musical and a spell-binding mystery about a Japanese-American veteran charged with murder; and two Broadway favorites. The company will once again lead off with an extensive New Works Festival.

How has Chicago theatre developed from a grassroots movement to a global phenomenon over the past 50 years? What is the current state of 'the beating heart of American theatre,' as British critic Michael Billington recently described Chicago? And what is the future of theatre in Chicago - in America and around the world - in a time of rapidly escalating technological innovation and globalization?