Chris Rivera

As a fan of Shakespeare and immersive theatre productions, I was intrigued when I heard that The Shakespeare Center LA and After Hours Theatre Company were set to present the premiere of The Tempest: An Immersive Experience, a fully reimagined audience-participation performance based on William Shakespeare's tale of family members caught up in a storm and shipwrecked on an isolated Mediterranean island. So I decided to speak with the production's director Ben Donenberg, Shakespeare Center LA Artistic Director, Graham Wetterhahn, the Producing Artistic Director at After Hours Theatre Company, and Sara Beil one of the producers for After Hours who created the immersive design, about their vision for an immersive way to include audience members in the experience of Shakespeare's tempestuous play.

The Shakespeare Center LA and After Hours Theatre Company announce the premiere of The Tempest: An Immersive Experience, a fully reimagined immersive performance based on William Shakespeare's The Tempest.  The director is Ben Donenberg, Shakespeare Center LA Artistic Director; Graham Wetterhahn is the Producing Artistic Director at After Hours Theatre Company. 

NYC-based Theater company Turn to Flesh Productions will start this season with Back to You, a collaboration with the Hispanic Federation and FUERZAfest.

In their upcoming season, Turn to Flesh Productions (TTF) will focus its attention and resources on two plays featuring contemporary verse by writers of color from varied backgrounds. In September, TTF will produce Back to You by queer Mexican playwright Chris Rivera at the Julia De Burgos Latino Cultural Center in collaboration with the Hispanic Federation and FUERZAfest.

Erin Moughon's Snow White Padded Room will return to the fifth season of the Broadway Bound Theatre Festival after being a part of the inaugural season.

At Turn To Flesh Productions, Chris Rivera facilitates the Monthly MUSE playwrighting workshop. Rivera also conceived of and facilitated Beyond the Ingenue, a project that created dynamic roles tailor made for female and non-binary AFAB (assigned female at birth) actors who too often found themselves playing underdeveloped roles in theater. TTF has produced readings of Rivera's plays Curse of Cassandra, Our Own Odyssey, Modern Day Martyrdom, and Witch of the Black Forest. Rivera also directed Dear Little Butterface for the 2016 Reading Series and played Laertes in May Violets Spring, Dr. Nanti in The Other Other Woman, Adonis in The Love and Death Trilogy, and Sir Tristan in Table Round. Rivera will be directing Turn to Flesh's film version of Orpheus Was an A-hole later this year.

New York City-based actor and cabaret star Stephen S. Miller, the host of the internet TV show 'The Mama Rose Show' took a pause from his regularly scheduled programming yesterday to deliver a special episode featuring 13 guests who contributed short video messages about the recent events in our country in solidarity with the Black Lives Matters movement.

Fresh off the success of their Beyond the Ingénue project, TURN TO FLESH PRODUCTIONS (TTF) is expanding their mission to create “New Shakespeare Plays” not only for womxn, but for all artists underrepresented in Classical Theatre.

TURN TO FLESH PRODUCTIONS (TTF) kicks off their sixth NYC season, "Off the Pedestal, Onto the Page," with a slate of new epic plays, with roles written specifically for, by, and with womxn performers.

The 5th ANNUAL NEW YORK INDIE THEATRE ONE-MINUTE PLAY FESTIVAL (#1MPF) returns to for its fifth year, in partnership with New Ohio Theatre. The 5th Annual NY Indie 1MPF runs three performances only; Sunday, June 2nd, Monday, June 3rd, and Tuesday, June 4th at 8pm. All performances are at New Ohio Theatre (154 Christopher Street). Tickets, priced at $20, are available at newohiotheatre.org.

To celebrate their five year anniversary, TURN TO FLESH PRODUCTIONS (TTF) is celebrating with FOUR new verse plays this October: a developmental production of The Other, Other Woman, and a staged reading of the entire Love and Death Trilogy: Persephone Rises, The Seduction of Adonis and Cupid and Psyche, all written and directed by foundress and playwright, Emily C. A. Snyder. Tickets are available now, including VIP seats with an open bar and pre-show salon for The Other, Other Woman, and an all-day picnic with the gods for The Love and Death Trilogy. Package deals are available.

To celebrate their five year anniversary, TURN TO FLESH PRODUCTIONS (TTF) is celebrating with FOUR new verse plays this October: a developmental production of The Other, Other Woman, and a staged reading of the entire Love and Death Trilogy: Persephone Rises, The Seduction of Adonis and Cupid and Psyche, all written and directed by foundress and playwright, Emily C. A. Snyder. Tickets are available now, including VIP seats with an open bar and pre-show salon for The Other, Other Woman, and an all-day picnic with the gods for The Love and Death Trilogy. Package deals are available.

Director Daniel Sullivan's adaptation of HENRY IV, Parts 1 & 2 may only be playing in the Japanese Garden on the VA campus for another three weeks but it is bound to rank as one of the summer's most talked-about events. Why? Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles has saved up a secret weapon for the production, one few can resist.

"Henry IV," staged by Tony Award winning director Daniel Sullivan, features Harry Groener as Northumberland, Tom Hanks in his Los Angeles stage debut as Sir John Falstaff, Hamish Linklater as Hal, Joe Morton as Henry IV, and Tony winner Rondi Reed as Mistress Quickly.

This week, the cast and crew of Shakespeare's Henry IV, starring Academy Award-winner Tom Hanks, came together for the first meet and greet of the production. Check out shots from the event below!

As previously announced, The Joust Theatre Company will present four new plays as part of the Writer's Round Table 2018. These plays are the result of a 9-month developmental process with four playwrights (Gina Femia, Matthew Minnicino, Gina Stevensen, and Jacob Marx Rice) whose work challenges and/or reimagines systemic norms.

The second annual Sheen Center Theater Festival takes place June 21 to 24 at The Sheen Center for Thought & Culture (18 Bleecker Street, at the corner of Elizabeth Street, NYC). Celebrating the voices of emerging and established Catholic playwrights in staged reading presentations, this year's full-length plays tell the stories of a young Nuyorican comic book artist seeking his place in the world, a Montreal family struggling with the aftermath of suicide and gun violence, and a pair of Shakespearean widows testing the freedoms and limitations of widowhood. Admission is free. Reservations are required and can be made online at www.sheencenter.org/shows/festival.   

This week, the cast and crew of Shakespeare's Henry IV, starring Academy Award-winner Tom Hanks, came together for the first meet and greet of the production. Check out shots from the event below!

As previously announced, The Joust Theatre Company will present four new plays as part of the Writer's Round Table 2018. These plays are the result of a 9-month developmental process with four playwrights (Gina Femia, Matthew Minnicino, Gina Stevensen, and Jacob Marx Rice) whose work challenges and/or reimagines systemic norms.

For the first time ever, TURN TO FLESH PRODUCTIONS (TTF) brings you readings and performances from Shakespeare juxtaposed against new verse theatre, with scenes from some of your favorite modern playwrights, in an evening called Tale As Old As Time.