Rae Davis

After skipping a year, the seventh (almost) annual Cloris Awards will honor eight local theater companies that produced 33 shows during the 2021-2022 season.

This is the last chance to vote for the 2021 BroadwayWorld Des Moines Awards! The 2021 Regional Awards honor productions which had their first performance between October 1, 2020 through September 30, 2021.

Time is running out to vote for for the 2021 BroadwayWorld Des Moines Awards! The 2021 Regional Awards honor productions which had their first performance between October 1, 2020 through September 30, 2021.

In March 2020, as Iowa Stage was getting ready to open their production of 'The Cake,' they had to start delaying their production due to the first cases of Covid 19 in Iowa. When it became clear that it wasn't going to be staged anytime soon, they took the initiative to present an outdoor staged reading. While I couldn't attend that reading, I heard from many people how great it was. So I was thrilled when they announced that their return to the Stoner Theatre at Des Moines Performing arts was going to be 'The Cake' by Bekah Brunstetter. The production opened up on November 12 and was a fantastic reminder of what Iowa Stage does best, presenting a show that asks the audience to reflect on what they had just seen.

The setting strikes a chord with the audience upon entering the space. Hardwood floors, a simple flat set to the backdrop of the Brooklyn Skyline. The time is the 1950's the season, fall. Five actors/actresses tell the plight of this family in a struggling neighborhood in Brooklyn, and the events that envelope them truly show the heart, and passion inside each and every one of its' centralized characters.

This Tampa Bay professional theatre premiere is now playing through April 14. Crumbs from the Table of Joy stars Alicia Thomas (Ernestine), Rae Davis (Ermina), and Michael J. Kinsey (Godfrey) as the Crump family. This break out play of two-time Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Lynn Nottage (Sweat, Ruined) is the coming of age story of a young African American girl whose family is finding their way through 1950's Brooklyn, as she teeters between filtering her life experiences through the fantasy of movies and learning the real poetry and pain of the world. Crumbs from the Table of Joy also stars freeFall favorites Trenell Mooring (freeFall's Our Town and The Little Prince) and Emilee Dupre (Broadway's Chaplin and freeFall's smash hit Cabaret.

Oregon Children's Theatre is proud to present a sensory-friendly performance of The Legend of Rock Paper Scissors! This world premiere musical opened on March 2, 2019 at the Winningstad Theatre. Several performances have sold out, while many other performances have only limited seating available.

Rehearsals are underway for freeFall's production of Lynn Nottage's Crumbs from the Table of Joy. This Tampa Bay professional theatre premiere opens March 23 and runs through April 14. Crumbs from the Table of Joy stars Alicia Thomas (Ernestine), Rae Davis (Ermina), and Michael J. Kinsey (Godfrey) as the Crump family. This break out play for two-time Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Lynn Nottage (Sweat, Ruined) is the coming of age story of a young African American girl whose family is finding their way through 1950's Brooklyn, as she teeters between filtering her life experiences through the fantasy of movies and learning the real poetry and pain of the world. Crumbs from the Table of Joy also stars freeFall favorites Trenell Mooring (freeFall's Our Town and The Little Prince) and Emilee Dupre (Broadway's Chaplin and freeFall's smash hit Cabaret).

Rehearsals are already underway for freeFall's next production of Pulitzer Prize Winning playwright Lynn Nottage's Crumbs from the Table of Joy. This Tampa Bay professional theatre premiere opens March 23 and runs through April 14. Crumbs from the Table of Joy stars Alicia Thomas (Ernestine), Rae Davis (Ermina) and Michael Kinsey (Godfrey) as the Crumb family. This break out play by Lynn Nottage is the coming of age story of a young African American girl whose family is finding its way through 1950's Brooklyn, as she teeters between filtering her life experiences through the fantasy of movies and learning the real poetry and pain of the world. Crumbs from the Table of Joy also stars freeFall favorites Trenell Mooring (freeFall's Our Town & The Little Prince) and Emilee Dupre (Broadway's Chaplin, freeFall's smash hit Cabaret).

The New Jewish Theatre has opened 'District Merchants', by Aaron Posner, and it is certainly among the finest productions I've ever seen there. Posner's script is most remarkably beautiful-it's masterful indeed.

Long ago there lived three fierce warriors. From the Kingdom of Backyard came Rock; from the Empire of Mom's Home Office came Paper, and from a messy village in the Junk Drawer Realm came Scissors. They were the strongest, smartest, and fastest in all the land. Though they searched far and wide for worthy opponents, no one could beat them…until they met each other and a musical battle royale began to see who would come out on top!

The New Jewish Theatre's 2018-19 season continues with an adaptation of The Merchant of Venice - Aaron Posner's District Merchants, an Uneasy Comedy. The production will be directed by St. Louis Theatre Circle Award winner, Jacqueline Thompson, and runs January 24 - February 10, 2019.

The New Jewish Theatre's 2018-19 season continues with an adaptation of The Merchant of Venice - Aaron Posner's District Merchants, an Uneasy Comedy. The production will be directed by St. Louis Theatre Circle Award winner, Jacqueline Thompson, and runs January 24 - February 10, 2019.

Veteran actors, Paul Guilfoyle (CSI, LA Confidential) and Lainie Kazan (My Big Fat Greek Wedding) star opposite each other in a new dramedy by award-winning writer/director/producer, Linda Palmer.

Facing the loss of their only child, Ellie and Jane hunt for hope. But when Jane suggests cryogenics as a way of holding back the inevitable, Ellie tailspins. Forced to make a choice under unbearable circumstances, faced with the minutiae of every day life, and taxed by the weirdness of the human brain, this couple comes together, breaks apart, and grapples with the right thing to do in a situation with no guidepost. At Ellie's lowest, a chatty and exhausted young nurse manages to provide unexpected insight, but this decision could leave this once-happy couple in the cold.

Lakewood Theatre Company continues its 65th season with the timeless drama To Kill a Mockingbird directed by Brenda Hubbard.

As we head towards the one-year anniversary of the Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando, the largest episode of civilian gun violence in the history of the US, we turn to art to help us commemorate the occasion through After Orlando.