Williamstown Theatre News

The question of who determines a child's fate amidst drug addiction, religion and child custody laws takes center stage in Rebecca Gilman's newest work, Luna Gale, directed by Goodman Theatre Artistic Director Robert Falls.

The Old Globe today announced the cast and creative team for The Old Globe/University of San Diego Graduate Theatre Program presentation of William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, running Nov. 9 - Nov. 17 in the Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, part of the Globe's Conrad Prebys Theatre Center. Opening night is Nov. 9 at 8:00 p.m.

Transporting audiences to an era of mobsters, moonshine, and murder, Cynthia von Buhler's SPEAKEASY DOLLHOUSE brings an actual unsolved Prohibition-era murder to life in the downtown building that once served as mobster Meyer Lansky's hangout. For three upcoming Saturday performances - November 16, November 23, and December 7 - Tony Award nominee Euan Morton will step into the DOLLHOUSE to play the role of bandleader "Henry Azelrod," performing with members of the jazz band Grandpa Musselman & His Syncopators.

The Irish Repertory Theatre continues the eighth season of its Reading Series with Ray Sipherd's play Mathew Brady Presents on Friday, October 25 at 3 p.m. at the Irish Repertory Theatre's W. Scott McLucas Studio Theatre (132 W. 22nd Street). Mathew Brady Presents will be directed by Kevin McGuire. The reading is free and open to the public. An RSVP to the Irish Repertory Theatre Box Office at (212) 727-2737 is suggested.

David Wilson Barnes (Becky Shaw at Second Stage Theatre and London's Almeida Theatre) plays Charlie Duff, a burnt-out local newscaster who transforms first his community and then himself when he begins praying on-air in the Huntington Theatre Company's new production of Stephen Belber's moving new drama The Power of Duff. Amy Pietz ('The Office,' 'Caroline in the City') plays Duff's ex-wife Lisa, and Jennifer Westfeldt (Kissing Jessica Stein, Friends with Kids) plays Sue, Charlie's co-anchor, in the production helmed by Huntington Artistic Director Peter DuBois. The Power of Duff is produced in association with New York Stage and Film and Vassar's Powerhouse Theater. Check out a first look below!

Music Theatre of Connecticut MainStage, Fairfield County's award-winning professional theatre company, kicks off their 2013/2014 Season with the Tony Award winning play 'Master Class', by Terrance McNally. Performances are November 1-17, Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm, with matinees Saturdays at 4pm and Sundays at 2pm, at MTC MainStage Studio Theatre, 246 Post Road East (Colonial Green/Lower Level) in downtown Westport, CT. Tickets range from $25-$45 ($5 discount for seniors/students) and are available by calling 203.454.3883 or visiting www.musictheatreofct.com

Laura Benanti - the Tony Award-winning actress and singer, also known for her TV roles on 'Go On,' 'The Playboy Club' and 'Law & Order: SVU' - will follow the recent release of her debut album, In Constant Search of the Right Kind of Attention with a slate of projects through the next year.

Obie- Award winning and Tony nominated director Austin Pendleton directs Tennessee Williams' Cat on A Hot Tin Roof in a new Indie theatre production with the Mississippi Mud. This is the play that Ben Brantley described as Williams' 'most impassioned and articulate statement on human isolation, the wrenching problems of communication between people and the ways in which death defines life.' It is brought to life in a new intimate bold raw space production that unfolds in 'real time' and places center stage the lush language of this modern classic fable.

Premiere Stages at Kean University will present free interactive Staged Readings of the 2013-2014 Liberty Live Commission, At Liberty Hall by James Christy, November 8th through 10th in the University Center Little Theatre at Kean University. The story of an unlikely pair of American immigrants, At Liberty Hall follows two high school students who've just moved to New Jersey: Christian Rosario, a funny but unfocused teenager from Queens by way of the Dominican Republic; and Alexander Hamilton, 16, the subject of Christian's 10th grade history project. This time-bending story finds common threads of humor, honor and awkwardness as told through the experiences of a someday-Founding Father and a kid looking for a way out of the projects.

Stable Cable Lab Co. has announced the cast and creative team for the workshop production of Nibbler, a play by Ken Urban, directed by Stephen Brackett. Nibblerwill begin invited presentations on Friday, November 15, 2013 at Theatre 54 at Shetler Studios (244 W. 54th St - between Broadway & 8th Ave.) and is scheduled to run through November 23rd, 2013. The results of the workshop production - including the actors' experience with the work, the aesthetics of the director and designers, and the audience's feedback - will be invaluable to the development of this play and talkbacks will follow several performances to discuss the work.

In celebration of its fourth season, Sanguine Theatre Company will produce EXIT 27, a new work by award-winning playwright, Aleks Merilo and directed by Mark Karafin. Based on a true story, EXIT 27 combines the themes of rejection, survival, and redemption in exploration of the human experience. As the overwhelming winner of Sanguine's highly competitive playwriting competition, EXIT 27 brings a stirring perspective of raw human nature in its NYC premiere.

Roundabout Theatre Company presents The Winslow Boy, starring Tony nominee Michael Cumpsty as 'Desmond Curry', Academy & Tony Award nominee Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio as 'Grace Winslow', Alessandro Nivola as 'Sir Robert Morton' and Tony Award winner Roger Rees as 'Arthur Winslow'.

Will Eno's new play The Realistic Joneses will come to Broadway in Spring of 2014 starring Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winner; Academy Award and Tony Award-nominee Toni Collette (“Hostages,” “United States of Tara,” The Sixth Sense, The Wild Party), Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award-winner Michael C. Hall (“Dexter,” Chicago), Tony Award-winner Tracy Letts (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; August: Osage County; “Homeland”), and Academy Award-winner and Gold Globe-nominee Marisa Tomei (My Cousin Vinny; The Wrestler; Salome). The production will be directed by Obie Award-winner Sam Gold, who is currently represented by Fun Home at the Public Theater.

Series creators and producers Suzy Evans and Molly McGaughey have announced the debut of the Season 1 of Rom.Dot.Com. The pilot episode is now available on YouTube, and a new episode will debut every Monday at noon. Click HERE to watch the first episode, and scroll down to meet the cast, starring Mikaela Feely-Lehmann!

It was announced today that Williamstown Theatre Festival Artistic Director Jenny Gersten will step down at the end of the year to become Executive Director of Friends of the Highline, the non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation and re-use of an elevated railway that has become a renowned public space in New York City. While the search is underway for a new Artistic Director, WTF's 2014 summer season will remain under Gersten's Artistic Direction; she will curate and oversee the season to ensure a seamless leadership transition.

Series creators and producers Suzy Evans and Molly McGaughey have announced the debut of the Season 1 of Rom.Dot.Com! The pilot episode is now available on YouTube, and a new episode will debut every Monday at noon. Click below to watch the first episode!

A Noise Within (ANW), the acclaimed classical repertory theatre company, presents a free reading of Ferenc Molnar's Liliom, the play upon which the popular 1950's musical Carousel was based. Apollo Dukakis, a resident artist with the company, directs the piece, using the Benjamin F. Glazer translation, with a cast of sixteen portraying multiple roles. Admission for the reading is free. RSVP via phone to 626-356-3100 x1 to reserve your seat. This reading takes place during the run of The Guardsman, another well-known work by Ferenc Molnar, at A Noise Within, now playing through November 30.

UglyRhino Productions will present TinyRhino: Horror Movie Edition on Tuesday, October 29th at 8 p.m. Come celebrate Halloween with six spooky new plays by up and coming playwrights and directors that pay homage to the classic horror movie genre.

Colt Coeur's Play Hotel reading series will present staged readings of two plays: a boy put this girl in a cage with a dog and the dog killed the girl by Clare Barron andUmma Lappa Soon by Claire Kiechel on Monday, October 28th at 6pm (Barron play) & 8pm (Kiechel play) in the Bernie B. Jacobs room of the Sardi's building at 234 W. 44th Street, in Times Square.