Williamstown Theatre News

Williamstown Theatre Festival Artistic Director Jenny Gersten has announced a new venture with restaurant Hops & Vines, which will be providing expanded concessions and outdoor seating at the '62 Center for Theatre and Dance during the WTF season.

Playwrights Horizons has announced additional casting for its 2012/2013 Season.

Playwrights Horizons presents FAR FROM HEAVEN, a new musical with book by Tony Award winner and two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist Richard Greenberg (Take Me Out, Three Days of Rain), music by Tony Award nominee Scott Frankel (Grey Gardens) and lyrics by Tony Award nominee Michael Korie (Grey Gardens, The Grapes of Wrath), opening tonight, July 19 through July 29 at the Williamstown Theatre Festival this summer.

Artistic Director Jenny Gersten announced new Main Stage and Nikos Stage productions for the 2012 Williamstown Theatre Festival (WTF) season, the Festival's 58th Season and second under Ms. Gersten's leadership.

Bucks County Playhouse (BCP) (Jed Bernstein, Producing Director) will present their July Cabaret Series and "Sing-a-Long-a Sound of Music" this weekend. Broadway and television actor Jason Kravits (Relatively Speaking, "The Practice") will host "Sing-a-Long-a Sound of Music", a little over one week after what would have been Oscar Hammerstein II's 117th birthday, on Sunday, July 22nd at 6:30 p.m. at the Bucks County Playhouse (70 South Main Street). The presentation will be preceded by a special outdoor BBQ Style dinner hosted by Hamilton's Grill Room beginning at 5:00 p.m.

Tennessee Williams' favorite among his own plays, the Pulitzer prize-winning Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, opens Saturday, July 21st on the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival main stage, in rep with Much Ado About Nothing.

Soho Rep, in association with John Adrian Selzer, is pleased to announce that OBIE Award-winner Roberta Maxwell will join the cast of Chekhov's Uncle Vanya on Wednesday, July 25, replacing Rebecca Schull as Maria.

BroadwayWorld.com and Broadway Records are co-sponsoring a liner notes essay contest for the new Jekyll & Hyde studio concept recording. Fans will have the opportunity to submit a 250 to 500 word essay for consideration. Five finalists will be chosen by the staff of BroadwayWorld.com in consultation with Broadway Records. Frank Wildhorn, Constantine Maroulis and Broadway Records will select the Grand Prize Winner who will have his or her liner notes essay will be included in the upcoming recording.

According to the Daily Mail, Roger Rees is bringing his one-man show What You Will about Shakespeare to the West End's Apollo on Shaftesbury Avenue, September 18 to October 6.

Williamstown Theatre Festival Artistic Director Jenny Gersten announced the plays and artists participating in the annual Fridays @ 3 Reading Series, beginning today, July 13 at the Paresky Center on the Williams Campus. Every week, WTF presents a reading of a new play featuring Festival performers, written and directed by some of the most exciting theatre artists working today.

Bucks County Playhouse (BCP) (Jed Bernstein, Producing Director) has announced the casting for Barefoot in the Park by Neil Simon, its second production of the 2012 summer season.

Williamstown Theatre Festival today opens Last of Last of the Red Hot Lovers, which began performances July 11.

Williamstown Theatre Festival Artistic Director Jenny Gersten announced today the plays and artists participating in the annual Fridays @ 3 Reading Series, beginning July 13 at the Paresky Center on the Williams Campus. Every week, WTF presents a reading of a new play featuring Festival performers, written and directed by some of the most exciting theatre artists working today.

Artistic Director Robert Falls announced today that he will direct a major revival and new adaptation of Measure for Measure, Shakespeare's darkly comic collision of vice and virtue, in Goodman Theatre's 2012/2013 season, March 9 - April 14, 2013. Also, director David Cromer announced partial casting for his production of Sweet Bird of Youth: Oscar, Emmy, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award-nominee Diane Lane appears as Princess Kosmonopolis and Finn Wittrock, who recently appeared in Broadway's Death of a Salesman with Philip Seymour Hoffman, is cast as the young-actor-turned-gigolo Chance Wayne. Complete casting to be announced soon. The production opens the Goodman's new season, September 15 - October 21; a September 24 Season Opening Benefit will take place at The Standard Club. Tickets available only on subscription; call 312.443.3800 or visit www.GoodmanTheatre.org. Individual tickets to Sweet Bird of Youth go on sale August 10; Abbott Fund, Fifth Third Bank, Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP and PwC LLP are the Corporate Sponsors Partners. Call 312.443.3811, ext. 586 for more information about the Season Opening Benefit.

Williamstown Theatre Festival Artistic Director Jenny Gersten announced today the full cast and creative team for A Month in the Country, the last Main Stage production of the season which will be presented from August 1 through August 19 (opening August 2). The cast began rehearsals today on the idyllic Williams College campus in preparation for their run in the Festival's 2012 season.

TheatreWorks, the nationally acclaimed theatre of Silicon Valley, launches its 43rd season with the world premiere of UPRIGHT GRAND, a play with live music by acclaimed playwright Laura Schellhardt (Auctioning the Ainsleys). A hit at last year's New Works Festival, this tender and intelligent portrait of the complex relationship between a father and daughter will be helmed by TheatreWorks New Works Director Meredith McDonough. Dan Hiatt will star as aging songwriter "Pops," with Renata Friedman as "Kiddo" and Brett Ryback as "The Accompanist." UPRIGHT GRAND plays tonight, July 11 - August 10, 2011 (press opening July 14) at TheatreWorks at the Lucie Stern Theatre in Palo Alto. For tickets ($24-$73) and information the public may call (650) 463-1960 or visit www.theatreworks.org.

The Huntington Theatre Company announces the inaugural Summer Workshop, a two-week new work retreat for selected members of the Huntington's Playwriting Fellows program. The artist-driven workshop opens today, July 10 and runs through July 22.

Williamstown Theatre Festival Artistic Director Jenny Gersten has announced a series of special events that will enhance the previously announced 2012 summer season. Additions to the Festival's 58th season include one-night-only stand-up comedy performances from Lewis Black tonight, July 9th and Susie Essman (who will also appear in the Nikos Stage production of Last of the Red Hot Lovers) on July 23rd. Also added to the schedule is a reading of Dustin Lance Black's political docudrama 8, presented in partnership with Broadway Impact as a benefit for the American Foundation for Equal Rights. The Festival's popular Late-Night Cabaret Series returns, featuring Festival stars in rarely seen performances.