Williamstown Theatre News

Lynne Meadow (Artistic Director) and Barry Grove (Executive Producer) have announced three world premiere productions for Manhattan Theatre Club's upcoming 2014-2015 theatrical season.

REG E. CATHEY (House of Cards, The Wire) joins the cast of EXODUS: DREAMS OF THE PROMISED LAND IN ANTEBELLUM AMERICA, playing multiple roles including Solomon Northrup (Twelve Years a Slave) and the Abolitionist Frederick Douglass. The cast also includes ROSALYN COLEMAN WILLIAMS (The Mountaintop, Seven Guitars, The Piano Lesson) in multiple roles including Elizabeth Keckley (familiar to audiences from the movie Lincoln), JENNIFER RAU as Abolitionist Angelina Grimke, and the noted vocal ensemble THE WESTERN WIND. Conceived by Salon/Sanctuary's Founding Artistic Director Jessica Gould to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, EXODUS was originally presented last year in a sold-out performance staged at the historic Fraunces Tavern, the oldest structure in Manhattan.

The Old Globe today announced it will present two Shakespeare-themed events. On Monday, April 28 at 7:00 p.m., Tony Award winner Roger Rees will return to the Globe for a one-night-only engagement of What You Will, his hysterical (and somewhat historical) 90-minute gallop through the world of Shakespeare. On Saturday, May 3 at 11:00 a.m., Old Globe Artistic Director Barry Edelstein will offer an encore of Thinking Shakespeare Live!, his 90-minute exploration of the language of Shakespeare. This fast-paced, funny, and altogether fascinating program based on Edelstein's book, Thinking Shakespeare: A How-To Guide for Student Actors, Directors, and Anyone Else Who Wants to Feel More Comfortable with the Bard, reveals a performer's approach to Shakespearean language so audiences may easily understand the poetry of the Bard.

A MOON FOR THE MISBEGOTTEN (MOON), by Pulitzer Prize winner and Nobel Laureate Eugene O'Neill, continues Rubicon Theatre Company's 16th Season helmed by Artistic Associate Jenny Sullivan with company member Joseph Fuqua in the role of James Tyrone. (The production marks the 23rd collaboration for Sullivan and Fuqua, who have worked together at Rubicon on productions including Hamlet, You Can't Take It With You and Old Wicked Songs.) Other cast members are Rebekah Tripp, Granville Van Dusen, Scott Roberts and Matthew Grondin.

Magic Theatre will welcome back one of Scotland's leading contemporary playwrights, Linda McLean, with the world premiere of Every Five Minutes, directed by Producing Artistic Director Loretta Greco. Every Five Minutes runs March 26 - April 20. Deemed 'a gritty, fiercely empathetic realist of great skill' (San Francisco Chronicle), McLean's new play celebrates the miraculous power of the human spirit. Every Five Minutes begins with a simple homecoming dinner that takes a fantastical turn as Mo slips into a dreamscape that even those closest to him can't imagine.

Huntington Theatre Company continues its 2013-2014 Season with playwright-in-residence Melinda Lopez's latest play, the stirring new drama Becoming Cuba. Huntington Associate Producer M. Bevin O'Gara makes her Huntington directorial debut of the Huntington's playwright-in-residence's latest work. Performances of Becoming Cuba begin at the South End / Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA on March 28. Due to popular demand, the run has been extended to May 3, 2014.

The U.S. premiere of renowned French playwright Mohamed Kacimi's acclaimed play Holy Land will be presented at HERE in NYC this spring, running from April 18-May 10.

The world premiere of 17 Orchard Point, a new play starring Tony Award-winner Michele Pawk, will begin performances on Friday, April 25 for a limited four-week Off-Broadway run at The Beckett Theatre at Theatre Row (410 West 42nd Street, between 9th and 10th Avenues) through May 24. Written by Anton Dudley (Substitution, Getting Home) & Stephanie DiMaggio, and directed by Stella Powell-Jones, 17 Orchard Point will have its official opening night on Sunday, May 4 at 7pm. Tickets for 17 Orchard Point are $45 and can be arranged online at www.telecharge.com or 212.239.6200 or at the Theatre Row Box Office located at 410 West 42nd Street. For more information, please visit www.17OrchardPoint.com.

The U.S. premiere of renowned French playwright Mohamed Kacimi's acclaimed play Holy Land will be presented at HERE in NYC this spring, running from April 18-May 10.

The world premiere production of the brand new musical comedy Bullets Over Broadway, written by Woody Allen and based on the screenplay by Allen and Douglas McGrath for the 1994 film, will begin preview performances tomorrow, March 11 and officially open Thursday, April 10, 2014 at The St. James Theatre (246 West 44th Street). The new musical will be directed and choreographed by five-time Tony Award winner Susan Stroman. Scroll down to learn more about the Bullets Over Broadway company, and watch interviews with the cast!

Pioneer Theatre Company presents the second installment in its new play reading series, called Play-By-Play: A Public Education by Jeff Talbott on March 14 and 15, 2014. Guest artist Shana Gold directs the production.

Alley Theatre Artistic Director Gregory Boyd announces the cast and creative team for Alan Ayckbourn's science fiction comedy Communicating Doors. Eleven plays penned by Alan Ayckbourn have been produced by the Alley, including the American premiere of Henceforward, directed by Ayckbourn, in 1987 and House & Garden in 2002. Alan Ayckbourn has been inducted into the American Theatre's Hall of Fame, received the 2010 Critics' Circle Award for Services to the Arts, became the first British playwright to receive both Olivier and Tony Special Lifetime Achievement Awards and was knighted in 1997 for services to the theatre.

Kicking off Horizon's 30th Anniversary season, blue collar collides with blue blood in the haves and have-nots comedy Elemeno Pea (pronounced L-M-N-O-P) by Molly Smith Metzler. A siblings' weekend on Martha's Vineyard goes awry when the younger sister's boss crashes the party. This three-ring circus send-up of the rich and their wannabe "help" finds both flying without a net.

Previews begin tomorrow night, Saturday, March 8, for the return to Broadway of Tony Award-winner and two-time Academy Award-winner Denzel Washington, starring as Walter Lee Younger in Lorraine Hansberry's A RAISIN IN THE SUN. This new production begins previews nearly 55 years to the day that A RAISIN IN THE SUN had its Broadway premiere (March 11, 1959) at the same theatre, the Ethel Barrymore Theatre (243 West 47th Street). Scroll down to learn more about the cast!

Writers Theatre presents The Dance of Death by August Strindberg, in a new version by Conor McPherson and directed by Henry Wishcamper. The production runs April 1 - July 20, 2014 at 664 Vernon Avenue, Glencoe. The press openings are April 9 and 10, 2014 at 7:30pm.

The Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park will present a reading of Stephen MacDonald's drama about the real-life friendship of two World War I soldier poets, NOT ABOUT HEROES, at 7 p.m. Monday, March 24. The reading is being offered in collaboration with the Cincinnati Remembers World War I series, the Cincinnati Opera's citywide series of events in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the onset of World War I.

In conjunction with its upcoming production of Anton Chekhov's passionate classic The Seagull, Huntington Theatre Company will host a number of special post-show conversations. Admission to onsite post-show events is free with a ticket to The Seagull, available at huntingtontheatre.org/seagull, by phone at 617 266 0800, or in person at the BU Theatre (264 Huntington Avenue) and Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA (527 Tremont Street) box offices. Tickets start at $25. Performances begin Today, March 7, 2014 at the Avenue of the Arts / BU Theatre.

Director Christopher Bayes and comic actor Steven Epp - the duo behind the uproarious A Doctor in Spite of Himself - return to Berkeley Repertory Theatre with Accidental Death of an Anarchist, the explosive political farce by Nobel Prize-winning Italian playwright Dario Fo. A Berkeley Rep favorite, Epp delighted audiences in Figaro and The Miser - now the master comedian returns in a criminally funny production about corruption. Only one man can cut through massive bureaucratic duplicity and reveal what happened to the suspected anarchist who died from a fall out of a fourth-floor police station window. Did he jump? Or was he pushed? In this contemporary take on a beloved classic, Berkeley Rep hauls you down to the station for a hilarious interrogation of our culture. This madcap comedy starts previews in the Roda Theatre tonight, March 7, opens March 12, and runs through April 20.

Sara Farrington's NEAR VICKSBURG will run today, March 6-16, 2014 at Incubator Arts.

Broadway stars might boast the biggest fan-bases, but without their directors, the vehicle driving their talents could easily swerve off the tracks. Keeping the runaway train at bay are season's bold Broadway 'conductors'. Scroll down to learn more about this season's intrepid and imaginative leaders!