Shana Gold

Playwrights Ty Defoe (Musical Theatre Factory Makers Cohort, Clouds Are Pillows for the Moon), Monet Hurst-Mendoza (Veil'd, The Kilroys), Mona Mansour (Urge for Going, The Way West), and Sanaz Toossi (Page 73 Playwriting Fellow, EST's Youngblood), and directors Misha Chowdhury (The Wolves, An Ordinary Muslim), Estefania Fadul (Scissoring, O'Neill/NNPN National Directors Fellowship), Seonjae Kim (Riot Antigone), Taylor Reynolds (Plano), and Megan Sandberg-Zakian (Nat Turner in Jerusalem) join Noor Theatre's 5th Annual 48 Hour Forum, a 48-hour play festival inspired by news events of the day.

A 2017 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Sarah Delappe's critically acclaimed new play, The Wolves, takes the stage February 27 in Northwest Arkansas. A "smart, hilarious, delightful meditation on society, sex and soccer" (The Village Voice), The Wolves is "an incandescent portrait" of nine American teens (NY Times-Critics' Pick). Performances are scheduled February 27-March 2, and tickets are on sale now from $17-$48 at (479) 443-5600 or theatre2.org.

Noor Theatre is thrilled to announce initial casting for its 4th annual 48 Hour Forum. The diverse roster of actors will each be randomly assigned to a playwright and director during the event. Joining Tala Ashe ("Legends of Tomorrow," "Smash") are Nikki Massoud ("Succession," "Mozart in the Jungle"), Marjan Neshat ("Quantico"), Dan Domingues ("The Blacklist"), May Calamawy ("The Long Road Home," "Madam Secretary"), Amel Khalil (There is a Field), Thomas Muccioli (The Trojan Women), Kesav Wable (Lily in the Grinder), Sharina Martin (Manhood), Leta Renee-Alan (The Place We Built), Cleo Gray (#serials@theflea), J.D. Goldblatt (Les Miserables), Isra Elsalihie (The Good Man), Veracity Butcher (Benghazi Bergen-Belsen), Wesley T. Jones ("Seven Seconds"), and Grace Canahuati ("Celebrity Ghost Stories").

Playwrights Amina Henry (Ducklings, The Animals), Sevan K. Greene (This Time), Michele Lowe (Sundance Institute Theatre Lab Artist-in-Residence), and Melisa Tien (Yellow Card Red Card), and directors Ralph Peña (Artistic Director of Ma-Yi Theater Company) and Ed Sylvanus Iskandar (The Mysteries, These Seven Sicknesses) join Noor Theatre's 3rd Annual 48 Hour Forum, a 48-hour play festival inspired by news events of the day.

The winner of the 2016 Tony Award for Best Play, Stephen Karam's The Humans, begins performances on January 24 in Northwest Arkansas. In its 2016 Broadway production, the play was a breakout critical and popular success, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and called the best play of the year by nearly a dozen top publications ranging from The New York Times to the Washington Post. Performances are scheduled January 24-February 18, and tickets are on sale now from $17-$48 at (479) 443-5600 or theatre2.org.

The winner of the 2016 Tony Award for Best Play, Stephen Karam's The Humans, begins performances on January 24 in Northwest Arkansas. In its 2016 Broadway production, the play was a breakout critical and popular success, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and called the best play of the year by nearly a dozen top publications ranging from The New York Times to the Washington Post. Performances are scheduled January 24-February 18, and tickets are on sale now from $17-$48 at (479) 443-5600 or theatre2.org.

Next week, TheatreSquared will open the award-winning, poignant, and uplifting new American drama Intimate Apparel, winner of five national awards for Best Play. This turn-of-the-century story about the empowerment of Esther, an African American seamstress who sews brilliantly intricate "intimates" for high society and red-light women alike, was written by Pulitzer Prize and MacArthur "genius" grant recipient Lynn Nottage. Shana Gold (Rapture Blister Burn, Proof) directs a professional cast hailing from Northwest Arkansas, Chicago and New York. Performances are scheduled for March 22-April 16, 2017, with tickets ($15-$45) available at theatre2.org or (479) 443-5600.

Obie Award-winning Clare Barron (You Got Older, Page 73) joins playwrights Kara Corthron (AliceGraceAnon, Irondale Center); David Zellnik (Drama Desk nomination, Yank!, The York Theatre); Leila Buck (In the Crossing, Culture Project, Women's Center Stage); Laith Nakli (Shesh Yak, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater); directors Pirronne Yousefzadeh (That High and Lonesome Sound, Humana Festival of New American Plays); Carlos Armesto (Artistic Director, Theatre C); and actors Bobby Moreno (Lazarus, New York Theatre Workshop) and Aysan Celik (JUÁREZ, A Documentary Mythology, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater/Theater Mitu) for Noor Theatre's 2nd Annual 48 Hour Forum, 48 hour play festival inspired by news events of the day.

Mosaic bills Leila Buck's solo show as "a probing portrait of a cosmopolitan Lebanese matriarch as remembered by her Lebanese-American granddaughter who attempts to piece together her beloved Teta's story." Ms. Buck and her director Shana Gold were gracious enough to answer a few of my questions over email about the impetus for the show, the development process, and expectations for this highly anticipated production.

Noor Theatre is New York's only theatre representing voices of the Middle Eastern diaspora. They are often asked to respond to the barrage of news related to the Middle East and beyond. Often, news breaks and it is several years before we see something on stage about it. Such is the nature of theatre making.

Mosaic Theater Company of DC's Voices From a Changing Middle East Festival continues this month with the world premiere of Motti Lerner's powerful new family drama, AFTER THE WAR, under the direction of his longtime collaborator Sinai Peter.

The acclaimed modern comedy Rapture, Blister, Burn, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, will take the stage at TheatreSquared beginning March 31. Sparks fly in this 'intensely smart, immensely funny' (The New York Times) new comedy.

Mosaic Theater Company of DC's Voices From a Changing Middle East Festival continues this month with the world premiere of Motti Lerner's powerful new family drama, AFTER THE WAR, under the direction of his longtime collaborator Sinai Peter.

Midtown Direct Rep (MDR) continues its 2015-16 Theater in the Loft series at the South Orange Performing Arts Center (SOPAC) with a staged reading of WHAT GOD HATH WROUGHT ~ A TRANSATLANTIC FARCE, written by John Walch, with songs by Rachel Peters.

Midtown Direct Rep (MDR) continues its 2015-16 Theater in the Loft series at the South Orange Performing Arts Center (SOPAC) with a staged reading of What God Hath Wrought! ~ A Transatlantic Farce, written by John Walch, with songs by Rachel Peters.

TheatreSquared (T2) Artistic Director Robert Ford and Executive Director Martin Miller today revealed the lineup for the 2015 Arkansas New Play Festival, Arkansas's premier celebration of new works for the American stage. Five plays will be developed over three intensive weeks with playwrights in residence at TheatreSquared, and performed for the public June 18-28, 2015.

For 48 Hour Forum, Noor invited five playwrights and directors and about 20 actors to create five short plays based on the headlines of the day. And they have 48 hours to do it!

Manhattan Theatre Club's presentation of Steppenwolf Theatre Company's production of Airline Highway, the new play by Pulitzer Prize finalist Lisa D'Amour (Detroit), directed by two-time Tony Award winner Joe Mantello (Casa Valentina, Take Me Out), opens tonight, April 23 at MTC's Samuel J. Friedman Theatre (261 West 47th Street). Scroll down to learn more about the company and watch interviews with the cast!

TheatreSquared's (T2) production of David Auburn's acclaimed drama Proof, winner of both the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Play, begins next week.

TheatreSquared's (T2) production of David Auburn's acclaimed drama Proof, winner of both the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Play, begins next week.