William Shakespeare News

A Noise Within (ANW), the acclaimed classical repertory theatre company, announces three major grants that the company received recently, including $75,000 from The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation, $50,000 from The Rose Hills Foundation and $50,000 from The S. Mark Taper Foundation- for a total of $175,000 overall.

Yale Repertory Theatre presents THE FAIRYTALE LIVES OF RUSSIAN GIRLS by Meg Miroshnik, directed by Rachel Chavkin, tonight, January 31-February 22 at Yale Repertory Theatre (1120 Chapel Street). Opening Night is Thursday, February 6.

In the midst of their milestone 20th anniversary season, Lantern Theater Company today announced the productions that will comprise their 2014/15 season. Continuing a critically acclaimed tradition of presenting classic, modern and original works that authentically and intimately explore the human spirit, the season will open with Tom Stoppard's thrilling masterpiece Arcadia, directed by the Lantern's Associate Artistic Director Kathryn MacMillan. Arcadia will be presented in conjunction with a sixth annual festival of special events and guests, inviting audiences into the work and inspiring continued conversation. In the winter months, Barrymore Award-winning actors Mary Martello and Ben Dibble will headline John Patrick Shanley's Pulitzer and Tony Award-winning Doubt: A Parable, also directed by MacMillan. In the spring, Lantern Artistic Director Charles McMahon helms a fresh, sexy take on William Shakespeare's comedy of the sexes, The Taming of the Shrew. The 2014/15 season will also include a fourth play to be announced shortly.

The Lyric Stage Company of Boston presents DEATH OF A SALESMAN, running February 14 - March 15, 2014. The play, by Arthur Miller, will be directed by Spiro Veloudos.

Polarity Ensemble Theatre presents William Shakespeare's tragedy, Macbeth. Adapted and directed by artistic director Richard Engling, Macbeth runs at the Greenhouse Theater Center, 2257 N. Lincoln Avenue in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago, IL, today, January 30 through March 2, 2014. Press opening is Saturday, February 1 at 8:00 p.m. Tickets are currently on sale.

NextStop Theatre Company continues its inaugural professional season with a new vision for William Shakespeare's Richard III, running today, January 30-February 23, 2014. Directed by Dr. Lindsey D. Snyder, this production re-imagines Shakespeare's most deliciously evil villain as an ambitious Deaf man, ruthlessly seeking power in an hearing world. The cast will be led by Ethan Sinnott (Gallaudet University) playing the title role of Richard.

American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) at Harvard University has announced the return of the Chicago company The Hypocrites, with their mash-up of Shakespeare's Romeo Juliet and 12 Nights. Adapted and directed by Artistic Director Sean Graney, the two productions will play in repertory at OBERON, 2 Arrow Street, Cambridge. Both productions are appropriate to children over the age of ten.

54 BELOW, Broadway's Supper Club, presents Libra Theater Company's "Songs You Should Know" on Tuesday, February 4th. "Songs You Should Know" is an annual concert of great music theater, showcasing new and rarely performed songs written by some of today's most talented emerging and established writers.

Internationally recognized screen superstar and stalwart stage actor Tom Hiddleston returns to the Donmar Warehouse with the hotly anticipated new production of William Shakespeare's CORIOLANUS and the actor takes us behind the scenes in a new video featurette.

Newbury Productions (UK) Limited present REDUCED SHAKESPEARE COMPANY in THE BIBLE: THE COMPLETE WORD OF GOD (abridged), written by Adam Long, Reed Martin & Austin Tichenor in a UK tour, Spring 2014. From Fig Leaves to Final Judgment!

A glimpse behind the scenes at the current recording of the recent Shakespeare In The Park production of William Shakespeare's classic comedy LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST is now available to view, featuring cast-members Colin Donnell, Daniel Breaker and more.

In the aftermath of the massacre of children in Connecticut in December 2012, I found myself mesmerized watching Executive Vice President of the National Rifle Association Wayne LaPierre on "Meet the Press." I remember the horror I felt, as he struggled to articulate his defense, as he interrupted with his solution to violence in our schools: "More guns." He said arming adults in U.S. schools was the answer to decreasing future violence in U.S. schools. Here, I thought, was the perfect, tragic embodiment of our country's need to teach our children Romeo and Juliet differently. Five children end up dead in that story and they were likely whisked there due to their parents' foundationless rage.

Today in 1982, Macbeth opened at the Circle in the Square Theatre, where it ran for 21 performances. Written by William Shakespeare, Macbeth is about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607. The earliest account of a performance of what was probably Shakespeare's play is April 1611, when Simon Forman recorded seeing such a play at the Globe Theatre.

Luis Alfaro, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival's (OSF) Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Playwright-in-Residence, will pen a three-play cycle about a Latino family in the United States under a co-commission by OSF and Magic Theatre in San Francisco.

Passion. Love. Vengeance. African-American Shakespeare Company continues its 19th season with MEDEA, Euripides' infamous tragedy about a jilted wife exacting the ultimate revenge on a cheating husband. Dawn Monique Williams, a veteran of staging the classics, directs, with Leontyne Mbele-Mbong in the title role. MEDEA plays Saturdays and Sundays, March 8-30 at the Buriel Clay Theater at the African American Art and Culture Complex, 762 Fulton Street (at Webster) in San Francisco.

The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra (NJSO) today announced its programs for the 2014-15 concert season, conductor Jacques Lacombe's fifth year as the Orchestra's Music Director. Fulfilling its mission as a statewide orchestra, the NJSO brings subscription programs to venues in Newark, New Brunswick, Princeton, Morristown, Red Bank and Englewood, with 14 weeks of subscription classical programs, four pops programs and three family concerts, as well as several special concerts.

54 BELOW, Broadway's Supper Club, presents Patrick Page in 'Good to be Bad' tonight, January 28th at 9:30 pm.

Tennessee Shakespeare Company brings a sweeping, youthful, full-cast production of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet to the Duncan-Williams Performance Hall at Germantown Performing Arts Center on January 28 and 30 at 7:00 pm. Opening night tonight, January 28 will include a complimentary post-show reception with the actors.

The quintessential portrait of maniacal ambition and lust for power is on stage in William Shakespeare's epic history play Richard III at Folger Theatre. Robert Richmond

Duke City Repertory Theatre will present William Shakespeare's A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM March 6-16, 2014 (Thurs through Sun), Thursdays-Saturdays at 8:00pm and Sundays at 2:00pm. All performances will be held at The Cell Theatre at 700 1st St. NW Albuquerque, NM 87102. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast below!