Roundabout Theatre Company - Page 10

Education Dramaturg Ted Sod interviews Kristin Chenoweth about her role in On the 20th Century.

Ted Sod: Can you tell us about your role as Associate Artistic Director and how that manifests itself at Roundabout?

Ensemble-based theatre cannot be cleanly defined. For some companies, the ensemble of artists may change from production to production; for others, a core group of collaborators may always remain the same. Some ensemble companies create work based around a consistent theme, or directed towards a consistent demographic, or told through a consistent set of storytelling mechanisms or aesthetic principles. Some companies devise work from scratch, though the concept of "devised" work is as difficult to define as the concept of ensemble theatre. Some companies create work based on an established text. And some companies (like Fiasco Theater) create work that retains all of the original text but reinterprets its style of presentation.

The following is an excerpt from Stephen Sondheim's Look, I Made a Hat: Collected Lyrics (1981 - 2011) with Attendant Comments, Amplifications, Dogmas, Harangues, Digressions, Anecdotes and Miscellany. Thank you to Alfred A. Knopf for allowing us to share the author's insights with our audience.

Previews begin February 12th for the musical On the Twentieth Century, featuring music by Cy Coleman, with book and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, directed by Roundabout's Associate Artistic Director, Scott Ellis, at the American Airlines Theatre.

It is my great pleasure to announce that the ninth season of Roundabout Underground will begin with the world premiere of Ugly Lies the Bone by Lindsey Ferrentino, under the direction of Patricia McGregor. The production will begin previews on September 10, 2015 at the Black Box Theatre and marks the tenth premiere we've produced in that space. The play was first heard at Roundabout as part of the Underground Reading Series in February 2014.

Education Dramaturg Ted Sod interviews actor Carra Patterson from Little Children Dream of God.

The new play Little Children Dream of God begins previews this week at Roundabout Underground's Black Box Theatre.

Education Dramaturg Ted Sod interviews Jeff Augustin, Playwright of Little Children Dream of God.

I am thrilled to announce an exciting musical production for the upcoming 50th Anniversary Season. Joe Masteroff, Sheldon Harnick, and Jerry Bock's heartwarming She Loves Me will open in the Spring of 2016 in a production directed by Scott Ellis and starring Laura Benanti and Josh Radnor.

Ted Sod: Will you tell us about yourself? Where you were born and educated? When did you decide you wanted to become a theatre director? Giovanna Sardelli: I was born and raised in Las Vegas, Nevada, when it was really just a desert town, so I didn't get to see much theatre. Right before I graduated, I said, "Oh my god, I'm about to get a degree in theatre and I've never seen a play." My family sent me on one of those theatre trips where you go to London and Edinburgh and see twenty-one plays in twenty days. That trip made me realize that I needed to go to grad school. I got accepted into the graduate acting program at NYU when Zelda Fichandler was running it and Ron Van Lieu was the acting teacher. I started my career as an actor but was never quite satisfied. One day, I was sitting in Zelda's office having a crisis and Zelda said, "You've always had the eye of a director, I think you should direct. Why don't you come back for another year of education?" At that time, NYU had a directing lab where they would invite three former grads of grad acting for one year of free training in directing. Everything I learned at NYU just gelled, and my career as a director has been so much easier than my career as an actress.

I am thrilled to announce that Joshua Harmon'sSignificant Other will receive its world premiere this spring at the Laura Pels Theatre directed by Trip Cullman. This is Josh's second production at Roundabout, following the phenomenal success of his first Roundabout production, Bad Jews, which premiered in the Roundabout Underground in 2012 and moved upstairs to the Pels in 2013, where it was honored with numerous Outer Critics Circle and Lucille Lortel Award nominations (as well as a Lortel win for Tracee Chimo).

Emma Stone has extended her acclaimed run as "Sally Bowles" for two weeks through February 15, 2015! Alan Cumming will continue to star as "Emcee" for the final 12 weeks through March 29, 2015!

I am thrilled to announce that in January of 2016, as part of Roundabout's 50th Anniversary Season, Sam Mendes and Rob Marshall's acclaimed production of Cabaret will launch a national tour.

This week Into the Woods, a new production of the classic musical by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine, this time re-invented by the team from Fiasco Theater begins previews at the Laura Pels Theatre.

Education Dramaturg Ted Sod interviews the Directors of Into the Woods. Ted Sod: Will you tell us where you were born and educated, and how you got involved in the theater as a music director?

Education Dramaturg Ted Sod interviews the Directors of Into the Woods.

The Real Thing can be seen within a tradition of plays about theatre artists, and it uses the device of the 'play-within-a-play' to raise questions about the nature of 'reality.' What better way to explore the relationships between a playwright and the two actresses with whom he shares his life?

To write a play in which the first scene was written by a character in the second scene, Stoppard's protaganist would necessarily have to be a playwright, a fact that left Stoppard in a state of dread. 'I didn't want to write a play about a playwright. That seemed to be the end of the rope: you write a play about someone who's trying to write a play.'