Topher Payne

Michele Lowe’s calculated and chilly dark comedy The Smell of the Kill premiered at the Cleveland Playhouse in 1999. It later transferred to Broadway to the Helen Hayes Theatre in 2022 where it played only 40 performances.

Rome Little Theatre's production of 'Funny Little Thing Called Love' will run February 10-19, 2023 at the DeSoto Theatre.

On Tuesday night, the Springer's longtime producing artistic director, Paul Pierce, gathered his staff onstage in Emily Woodruff Hall for an historic announcement. 

Comedy and chaos take center stage as the Springer Opera House Theater continues its 2022 - 2023 season with The Play That Goes Wrong.

As the final play written by the great Neil Simon, Rose & Walsh previously entitled Rose’s Dilemma ran in Los Angeles and Off-Broadway in 2003. Originally starring Mary Tyler Moore in early previews, Moore left the production when Simon sent a letter citing her to learn her lines. Neil Simon’s works include the very popular Eugene Trilogy (Brighton Beach Memoirs, Biloxi Blues, Broadway Bound), and other great works including Barefoot in the Park, The Odd Couple, I Ought to Be in Pictures, among many other prolific pieces both onstage and onscreen. Spanning a career writing more than 30 plays and numerous screenplays, Simon has received more Oscar and Tony Award Nominations than any other writer. Simon passed away on August 26, 2018, leaving behind a legacy as one of the great Stage and Screenwriters of his time. Rose & Walsh makes its premiere at freeFall Theatre Company on July 30, 2022, boasting an exceptionally strong cast, this production will be one you want to see multiple times over.

What did our critic think of ANGRY FAGS at Convergence-continuum? A catalog description of ANGRY FAGS, the Topher Payne play, now on stage at convergence- continuum, cautions that the script contains 'alcohol, gunshots, intense adult themes, strong language, nudity/partial nudity and smoking.' What it doesn't alert you to is the unexpected and shocking ending!

​​​​​​Berkshire Theatre Group has announced casting for shows in BTG’s Late Summer 2022 Season. The full season will feature B.R.O.K.E.N code B.I.R.D switching, a world premiere play and an award recipient of the GRANTS FOR ARTS PROJECTS from the National Endowment for the Arts; Once, a Tony Award-winning musical; Songs For a New World, the first musical by a Tony Award winner; Dracula, a classic gothic tale of horrors; and Edward Albee's Seascape, a Pulitzer Prize-winning play. 

Communists weren’t the only ones hunted during the “Red Scare” of the 1950s. Gays and lesbians were also targeted as threats to the USA as part of the “Lavender Scare.”  “Coming out of the closet” was almost unheard-of, as it could easily end a career or even a life. And no one even considered the possibility of gay marriage.

As an actress, I have the pleasure of performing in 'Perfect Arrangement' at Nutley Little Theatre directed by George Seylaz who sat down with me for an interview.

Murder on the Orient Express a stage adaptation of the Agatha Christie novel was written and adapted by Ken Ludwig and premiered in New Jersey in 2017. Based on the Christie novel that was first published in the United States in February 1934, and originally published under the name Murder on the Calais Coach. The twisted plot is full of a wild cast of characters. As Poirot puts it, “It was like a painting by Pablo Picasso.” We open the play in Istanbul at the Tokatlian Hotel, as we meet Poirot we understand he is due in London in three days' time due to the delivery of a telegram, and he runs into his old friend Bouc. His friend then arranges a trip on the Orient Express which he is the owner, and the two climb aboard with Poirot hoping he makes it to London on schedule. Upon boarding the Orient Express one by one Poirot meets an oddity of characters much like boarding a train to Carnival. As the train departs the station amidst the snowy conditions like an onion we see the layers of each of the passengers peeled back one by one.

Nutley Little Theatre presents PERFECT ARRANGEMENT by Topher Payne, directed by George Seylaz.

The Nutley Little Theatre will present PERFECT ARRANGEMENT by Topher Payne. The production is directed by George Seylaz and runs from April 8th through the 23rd. Performances are April 8, 9,15, 16, 21, 22, 23 at 8:00 PM and April 10, 17, 23 at 2:30 PM.

Enjoy the last night of the month of love with Horizon Theatre Company's Southbound: Love, Lust and Loss. Join us LIVE for an evening of real-life humorous tales celebrating love and the lengths we will go to find it, enjoy it and at times, lose it. Southbound is LIVE from our stage in Little Five Points on Monday, February 28, at 8:00 pm.

The worst baby shower ever is coming to Rome Little Theatre February 11-20. Billed as 'The Women' meets 'Steel Magnolias' meets 'The Real Housewives,' the show is 'Morningside,' and it's by award-winning Atlanta playwright Topher Payne.

The show is directed by Dave Reinke of Novi, and it shines a spotlight on what commitment looks like two or three decades later. The story follows Frank Garrett who’s stunned by his wife Jackie’s decision to leave him after 37 years of marriage, and siblings Charlie and Claire who team up to try and save their parents’ relationship. 

Topher Payne's Perfect Arrangement will continue The Ensemble Company's 2021 season (its third) at its home at Penguin Point Productions. Perfect Arrangement, which premiered at the Source Festival in Washington, D.C. in 2013, was described by the New York Times for its Off-Broadway premiere as a 'clever canapé of a comedy,' declaring Payne 'a deft and witty writer.'

Alabama Shakespeare Festival invites friends to get closer to the artistry of playwrights by joining the ASF Play Club, part of ASF Insights. Play Club members will read up to four scripts and participate in a live online seminar for each script with an expert (actor/director) and a scholar on the playwright and material.

On Tuesday, December 15 at 8pm EST, tune in for Georgia Artists for Georgia’s Future: A Benefit Concert to Flip the Senate! The one-night event stars and celebrates performers, playwrights, and politicians born in or currently living in Georgia, and benefits the Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff Senate campaigns.

Queens Theatre presents Gifted: A socially distant holiday comedy in three episodes written and directed by Topher Payne (Hallmark Channel's A Gift To Remember) New episodes will be released Thursdays, December 3, 10 & 17 on Queens Theatre's YouTube and Facebook channels. A special Holiday Watch Party featuring a screening of all three episodes and a live cast and company reunion will take place on Zoom on Monday, December 21.

Alabama Shakespeare Festival has commissioned 22 Southern playwrights to create original monologues on the theme of a?oehome.a?? Since the 2020 Southern Writers Festival (SWF) was canceled due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, Artistic Director Rick Dildine commissioned a diverse group of playwrights to craft original pieces, which will be performed by actors from around the country. The a?oe22 Homesa?? project will launch April 21 at ASF.net/PlayOn.