A VERY OLD News

When a strange looking old man falls from the sky and into a quaint fishing village the surprised locals don't know quite what to make of him at all. Add to their surprise a sickly boy being miraculously restored to health and an irresolvable infestation of crabs being suddenly resolved, and we have the beginnings of a very marvellous story.

I was never one to sit still. I always tap a foot in the air while I'm sitting cross-legged. I twirl my pen while taking notes in a lecture and make typing motions with my fingers while trying to figure out what to write. But I surprised myself. I have done more sitting still in the last week than I have in my entire life, and it was nothing less than enlightening. 

Acclaimed American actress Hope Davis has starred in numerous independent films and TV dramas, from About Schmidt and American Splendour to In Treatment, The Special Relationship and Wayward Pines. She received a Tony Award nomination for her performance in the original Broadway production of God of Carnage, and next month she returns to the stage in David Hare's new play The Red Barn at the National Theatre, directed by Robert Icke.

The Next Stage Theatre Festival returns this January with a lineup of ten theatre companies that showcase the very best indie theatre in the country.

The first official season (September 2016 - January 2017) from Little Angel Theatre Artistic Director, Samantha Lane will feature...

When Father Monroe discovers that Marcela and her Cuban-American family are struggling, he offers a warmth and kindness unlike anything Marcela has ever experienced. Small acts of generosity blossom into love as the lines between vocation and passion begin to blur. McCarter Theatre Center Artistic Director Emily Mann and playwright Nilo Cruz reunite for the first time since the Pulitzer Prize-winning Anna in the Tropics with this lyrical new play about falling in love and finding a place to call home.

Labyrinth Theater Company presents the world premiere of Homos, Or Everyone in American (October 20-November 27) by Jordan Seavey. Homos, Or Everyone in American, directed by Mike Donahue and featuring two-time Tony nominee Robin De Jesus (In The Heights, La Cage Aux Folles) and Drama Desk Award winner Michael Urie (Buyer and Cellar, Ugly Betty, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying), is a bitingly tender new play about trying to live and love in New York.

Occasionally in cabaret, one encounters a performer with 'star power.' Other times, one sees a legitimate star in a cabaret setting---say, Patti LuPone or Ben Vereen---and knows instantly why the person is a star. But in his Feinstein's/54 Below solo debut show, Tony Danza: Standards & Stories, Tony Danza reminds audiences what it means to be a star, onstage as well as off.

When Father Monroe discovers that Marcela and her Cuban-American family are struggling, he offers a warmth and kindness unlike anything Marcela has ever experienced. Small acts of generosity blossom into love as the lines between vocation and passion begin to blur. McCarter Theatre Center Artistic Director Emily Mann and playwright Nilo Cruz reunite for the first time since the Pulitzer Prize-winning Anna in the Tropics with this lyrical new play about falling in love and finding a place to call home.

The first official season (September 2016 - January 2017) from Little Angel Theatre Artistic Director, Samantha Lane will feature...

John Crawford, a Brooklyn-based artist whose output consists of welded steel sculptures, spent 10 years (1976–86) in Tuscany working at a blacksmith's shop after graduating from the Rhode Island School of Design. Since 1995, he has been interested in the smithing works of various West African cultures. As a result of these models, his work is highly tactile, abstract, and often totemic. Abstract steel sculpture has a long, illustrious history in the U.S., but Crawford's vision is quite different. He borrows from the forms of other places to create work that openly relates to its making, as well as to the history of American creativity. Interestingly, there is a sensuality and organic quality to his forms, often made of rings and coils, somewhat at odds with their industrial construction. Such differences, however, thrive and meld in Crawford's work.

Shakespeare's Globe is delighted to announce casting for 946: THE AMAZING STORY OF ADOLPHUS TIPS, co-adapted by Michael Morpurgo and Globe Artistic Director Emma Rice. After a critically acclaimed 2015 run at Kneehigh's Asylum, Emma Rice's family show will be brought to London for the first time, before embarking on a major international tour of the UK and US. It tells the story of the rehearsed D-Day landings in Devon's Slapton Sands, and stars Katy Owen as the heroine Lily, Mike Shepherd as her grandfather, Adam Sopp as the evacuee Barry, and Nandi Bhebhe and Ncuti Gatwa as American soldiers Harry and Adi.

Lara Foot's latest play, THE INCONVENIENCE OF WINGS, has been seven years in the making. Since Foot started dreaming up this startling, intimate tale about the challenges of living with a mental disorder, both as a patient and a caregiver, this play achieving the same rich fulfilment of the promise that Foot's first original play, TSHEPANG, embodied in 2003.

He would have been 70 this year, and people mourn his death as acutely today as they did when it was announced, so much so that the name Freddie has become exclusively synonymous to his memory as one of the most unique, boundary-pushing and talented singer/songwriters of all time. Accompanied by similarly legendary musicians who still perform under the name to this day (they're soon to conclude their European tour fronted by Adam Lambert), Queen are proven time and time again to still be audience favourites in everything from karaoke to musical theatre extravaganzas and tribute juggernauts. The latest of these to reach Australian Queen fans features the incredible Giles Taylor, who I was fortunate enough to connect with and discuss his excitement about returning Down Under.

He's taken on Scar, Claude Frollo, the Green Goblin, and the Grinch... but his past characters are not all that bad (at least he doesn't see it that way). Now Patrick Page is back on stage at New York Theatre Workshop and this time it's all about the underworld.

British stars go bare to help raise awareness of the unsustainable fishing practices.

It's time to 'Brush Up Your Shakespeare' when Kiss Me, Kate opens at the Washington County Playhouse Dinner Theater on March 4.

After an extended run of Ibsen's Hedda Gabler, Slipstream is lightening up a bit just in time for spring. The young company is proudly presenting Easter by August Strindberg. One of his lesser known plays, this production delves into the darkness and light of religious allegory. A family unit is publicly ruined and awaits the "Giant" to come and take away everything they own to pay a very old debt. With characters that remind us of ourselves and of certain Biblical figures, the play gives the audience a chance to rethink the stories they thought they knew, posing thought-provoking questions. What is sanity, and who are we to define it? When we suffer, is someone not suffering more? If a debt is owed, must it not be paid? And, how far can you see with your magnifying eye?

David Remarke, a retired construction worker, has completed his new book 'Demons': a gripping and potent story of wicked spirits and unspeakable secrets.

Jemma Rix as Molly and Rob Mills as Sam are an ideal duo.