William Hoffman News

Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival has announced the complete principal casts, creative teams, and events planned for the previously announced summer season.

With theaters shut down across the globe, venues are finding ways to bring content online. Theaters, Operas, Symphonies and more are presenting digital programming for our viewing pleasure. Check out a list of operas to stream this week!

On Site Opera, New York's pioneer opera company rooted in site-specific storytelling and the immersive experience, has added an additional live stream to their 4-part series of encore presentations.  

Shakespeare's epic Fire and Reign series continues with a dynamic production of Henry IV, Part 1, produced by Orlando Shakes in partnership with UCF. This production will run in repertory February 19 - March 21, 2020 along with Alexandre Dumas' The Three Musketeers, as adapted by Catherine Bush. Tickets (starting at $30) are available now by phone (407) 447-1700 ext. 1, online at orlandoshakes.org, or in person at the John and Rita Lowndes Shakespeare Center (812 East Rollins Street).

Works & Process, the performing arts series at the Guggenheim, will present Lincoln Center Theater: Intimate Apparel by Ricky Ian Gordon and Lynn Nottage with Bartlett Sher on Sunday, February 9, 2020 at 7:30pm.

I admit this is an absolutely personal, totally one-sided view of what gave one man opera thrills last year and what I will look back on with delight. Some are old works, some are new, some are individual performers, some are ensembles, some are complete productions, some are merely the highlight of an evening, most are domestic, a few are foreign. In any case, as the new decade begins, I recall that these are the vocal highlights that made my heart beat a little faster and made me look forward to the year ahead.

Festival Producers Doug Nevin and Michael Urie, and Festival Director Nick Mayo, in partnership with Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, are proud to present Pride Plays 2020. Initially intended as a one-time celebration of Stonewall 50 and theatrical pride, the festival will return in 2020 due to rapturous community response and overwhelming demand. Pride Plays 2020 will run from June 25 a?" June 29, 2020 at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater in the West Village (224 Waverly Place).

Tonight, we open the first UK revival of Robert Chesley's play Jerker. Bringing a play back to the stage for the first time in 29 years is a hugely exciting prospect. It's a chance to re-evaluate a play, to investigate its history and what it can say to us now. Understanding its context and exploring it in the rehearsal room has given us clarity of purpose, as we create a show for today's audience.

A summer's trip to Cooperstown, NY, is for two distinct audiences: Those who come for the Baseball Hall of Fame and those, like me, who come for the opera--the Glimmerglass Festival, under General Director Francesca Zambello, where i caught up with the John Corigliano-William Hoffman THE GHOSTS OF VERSAILLES, the brand-new BLUE by Jeanine Tesori and Tazewell Thompson and a program with Supreme Court Justice (and opera buff) Ginsburg commenting on some of her favorite works.

Wave Hill is proud to announce a collaboration with On Site Opera (OSO) to present Benjamin Britten's operatic ghost story, The Turn of the Screw, October 25-27, 2019. This immersive production will take place on Wave Hill's grounds, indoors and out, with audience members following the characters to each location.

On Site Opera (OSO) will present Benjamin Britten's operatic ghost story, The Turn of the Screw, at Wave Hill, a public garden and former estate in the Bronx, October 25-27, 2019. The immersive production will unfold in several locations around the estate, both indoors and outdoors, with audience members following the characters from place to place.

Something old, something new…there's still plenty going on for fans of opera and classical vocal music in the Northeast now that summer is upon us. Here's a taste of what to look for.

Lincoln Center Theater (under the direction of Andre Bishop) has announced that it will produce Intimate Apparel, a new opera with music by Ricky Ian Gordon and a libretto by Lynn Nottage, based on her critically acclaimed play.  The production, which will be directed by Bartlett Sher, will begin previews Thursday, February 27 and open on Monday, March 23 at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater (150 West 65 Street). 

RATTLESTICK PLAYWRIGHTS THEATER announces upcoming programming for June 2019 at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater (224 Waverly Place New York, NY 10014). 

Doug Nevin, Michael Urie, and Rattlestick Playwrights Theater present Pride Plays, an upcoming festival of play readings to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising. Nick Mayo serves as Festival Director.

Bobby Moresco (Producer) Bobby is an Academy Award-winning writer, director and producer, hailing from Hell's Kitchen, New York. In 2007, Moresco received an Oscar for co-writing the feature film 'CRASH'. Other features include, Academy Award-winner 'MILLION DOLLAR BABY' and '10TH & WOLF', starring James Marsden, which was his directorial debut. Moresco's TV credits include 'EZ Streets', 'Falcone', 'The Black Donnellys', and a soon TBA Comedy Special with Colin Quinn.

The Playthings Theatre, an LGBTQ+ Company in New York City, will be performing its gala concert PlayFresh on Monday, March 11th at 7:00pm. PlayFresh is an evening of new LGBTQ+ music performed by Broadway's finest. Playthings will be honoring Ricky Ian Gordon with The P.R.I.D.E. Performing Arts Award for his contribution to theatre and the LGBTQ+ community.

On Site Opera (OSO) will present Gian Carlo Menotti's holiday opera, Amahl and the Night Visitors, at the Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen December 6-8, 2018. In partnership with Breaking Ground, New York City's largest provider of permanent supportive housing for the homeless, performances will feature a chorus made up of community members who have experienced homelessness. Tickets will be free, part of OSO's “Opera Free For All” initiative.

On Site Opera (OSO) will present Gian Carlo Menotti's holiday opera, Amahl and the Night Visitors, at the Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen December 6-8, 2018. In partnership with Breaking Ground, New York City's largest provider of permanent supportive housing for the homeless, performances will feature a chorus made up of community members who have experienced homelessness. Tickets will be free, part of OSO's “Opera Free For All” initiative.

Houston Grand Opera (HGO) continues its series of holiday operas with the world premiere presentation of The House without a Christmas Tree by the widely admired composer/librettist team of Ricky Ian Gordon and Royce Vavrek, in the HGO Resilience Theater at the George R. Brown Convention Center. The opera is based on the uplifting story by Gail Rock and the beloved 1972 television film of the same name about a family that is healed by the holiday spirit. A precocious daughter struggles to understand her father's resentment of the holidays and longs for a beautiful Christmas tree like other families have, to make her house look happy. The opera includes a new setting of the carol Gather Around the Christmas Tree, sung by a juvenile chorus. Tickets for the new venue are available at HGO.org. Group discounts are available. Parking for HGO's performances will be available at the Avenida North garage located at 1815 Rusk Street, across from HGO's new venue. A sky bridge connects the parking garage to the GRB, and there is clear signage directing patrons to the theater. More information about parking can be found here.