William Shakespeare News

Leviathan Lab, a newly-established professional creative studio that's helping Asian American artists in advancing their careers in theater and film, recently met with some members of the press and presented excerpts from its inaugural production of William Shakespeare's comedy Twelfth Night, which opens tonight and will run until Saturday, November 19 at Arclight Theatre (152 West 71st Street).

The Theatre Library Association presents its 43rd annual Book Awards on Friday, November 4, 2011 in the Bruno Walter Auditorium of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, located at Lincoln Center.

Surfside Players are set to present A Farcical Lesson in Literature: THE COMPLEAT WRKS OF WLLM SHKSPR (Abridged).

Queens Shakespeare Presents A Midsummer Night's Dream By William Shakespeare Performing in Saratoga Springs, NY Nov 4-5 @ 8PM, Nov 6 @ 2PM at Spa Little Theater in the Saratoga Spa State Park The American Theatre of Actors 19 Roosevelt Drive, Saratoga Springs, NY 12866. Tickets are $20 at the Door and $15 for students and available at www.homemadetheater.org or by phone @ (518)-587-4427. It is performing in Manhattan Nov 11-12 @ 8PM, Nov 13 @ 2PM at 314 West 54th Street NYC, NY 10019. Tickets are $18.50 at the Door and are Available at www.smarttix.com or by phone @ (212)-868-4444 or (212)-581-3044.

Here they come again! Those joyful - and trying - times we call 'The Holidays:' the annual celebration of presents and parties, obligatory expressions of peace and good will, accompanied by overstuffing at dinners, not to mention all that STUFF!

THE PEARL THEATRE COMPANY (J.R. Sullivan, Artistic Director) has announced the company for Shakespeare's drama, RICHARD II. The production, beginning November 8 at New York City Center Stage II, will be directed by J.R. Sullivan and features Sean McNall as Richard II. The twelve member cast features both members of The Resident Acting Company and guest artists who will portray over 30 characters.

Leviathan Lab, an Asian American professional creative studio invested in advancing the careers of Asian American artists, will present its inaugural production, Shakespeare's TWELFTH NIGHT at Arclight Theatre at 152 West 71st Street, Level 1 between Broadway and Columbus Avenues in Manhattan, November 3 - 19 (Thursdays - Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 p.m.; Wednesday, November 16 at 8 p.m.).

Leviathan Lab, an Asian American professional creative studio invested in advancing the careers of Asian American artists, presents its inaugural production, Shakespeare's TWELFTH NIGHT at the Arclight Theater at 152 West 71st Street, Level 1 between Broadway and Columbus Avenues in Manhattan, November 3 - 19 (Thursday - Saturday, 8PM; Sundays, 2PM; Wednesday, 11.16 at 8PM).

The Public Theater (Artistic Director Oskar Eustis; Interim Executive Director Joey Parnes) announced complete casting today for William Shakespeare's TITUS ANDRONICUS, the third Public Lab production of the fall season. Directed by Michael Sexton, TITUS ANDRONICUS runs Tuesday, November 29 through Sunday, December 18 at The Public Theater, with an official press opening on Tuesday, December 13. Tickets for TITUS ANDRONICUS are on sale now; all tickets for Public Lab productions are $15.

American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) continues its 2011-12 season with Three Pianos by Rick Burkhardt, Alec Duffy and Dave Malloy, with music from Franz Schubert's Winterreise, Op. 89, D911 (1828), directed by Rachel Chavkin.

The Theatre Library Association presents its 43rd annual Book Awards on Friday, November 4, 2011 in the Bruno Walter Auditorium of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, located at Lincoln Center.

Jamie deRoy will host a special edition of her Multi -MAC Award-winning variety show, Jamie deRoy & friends, on the occasion of Jamie's birthday on Saturday, November 12th (7PM) at the intimate cabaret hot-spot Metropolitan Room (34 West 22nd Street ~ btw. 5th & 6th Avenues).

Wandering Bark Theatre Co and Jack Sharkey are set to present OTHELLO by William Shakespeare.

In honor of the most theatrical holiday, I want see your #BwayHalloween costumes and hear how you're using theatre to inspire your spooky celebrations. Please tweet me photos of your costumes & parties (from this year AND past years!) -- and on November 3 I'll be sending out a Halloween Broadway prize pack with items from at least 20 different Broadway shows.

Today we are completing BroadwayWorld's seven part analysis of Shakespeare's works, all with an eye towards the new movie ANONYMOUS - which questions the authorship of William Shakespeare - with a look at the greatest moments of deception in theatre taken from the last few decades. While deception and betrayal are both tried and true tactics of creating some tense, terse, taught drama by playwrights and filmmakers the world round - both onstage and onscreen - and it is certainly as much a hackneyed trope used today as it was used five hundred years ago in Shakespeare's time - the acts themselves that we will be focusing on today are the most surprising, effective and entertaining examples of them all. Analyzing moments from entities as diverse as SWEENEY TODD, CARRIE, WICKED, GYPSY, CATCH ME IF YOU CAN, ANYONE CAN WHISTLE, THE MUSIC MAN, SISTER ACT, SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION, HAMLET, ENRON and more - split into three categories: musical tragedies, musical comedies and straight plays - it becomes quite clear over the course of analyzing these double-crosses that Shakespeare was not the only dramatist who could make the drama's biggest twist also be the moment that stays with us long after the curtain has come down or the screen has gone black. Note: given the nature of today's topic, be forewarned that spoilers copiously abound from here on out!

To be or not to be the author of 37 plays, 154 sonnets, and numerous epic poems. That is indeed the question posed by ANONYMOUS, the new historical drama opening in theaters nationwide this Friday, October 28th. Set in the political turmoil of Elizabethan England, the film dares to challenge the authorship of the works of William Shakespeare. BWW sat down with cast members Joely Richardson and Rhys Ifans, as well as the film's acclaimed director Roland Emmerich and screenwriter, John Orloff to get their thoughts on this most intriguing theory.

Today we continue our special series consisting of five entries total, each of which highlight a different facet of the rich and wonderful world of William Shakespeare and all with a particular emphasis on the controversial new feature film that explores the time, place, politics and goings-on of the Elizabethan era and focuses on the possibility that the true author of the esteemed plays we now know may very well have been someone else entirely - Edward de Vere - and how the question of the canon's true creation then comes into play - ANONYMOUS. "All the world's a stage," after all, so it should come as no surprise that acts of lust, bloodshed and betrayal would exist in the actual life - or even the supposed one - of the man who created the most bloody and thought-provoking tragedies in the history of literature - whoever he may have actually been. Perhaps some brief analysis of the finest leading players, most memorable lines and moments, as well as an exploration of other notable acts of grand betrayal in Shakespeare's plays will aid us on the journey to understanding the thesis of ANONYMOUS and bring us into a closer relationship with the individual who penned the greatest plays in the English language. Now that we have already analyzed the top ten male and female Shakespearean performers of the last few decades, as well as the most memorable lines and moments, today, in our final installment of the 5 Top 5 countdown, we are focusing on the most surprising and dramatic moments of deception in Shakespeare - including moments from HAMLET, JULIUS CAESER, THE WINTER'S TALE, AS YOU LIKE IT and more!