Aaron Jafferis News

After three staged readings of three new plays by innovative emerging playwrights of color were presented to enthusiastic audiences at Guild Hall, the votes for the Episcopal Actors' Guild's 12th Annual Barbour Playwrights Award are in. The judges have selected Reynaldo Piniella's Black Doves as this year's winner.

The New Victory Theater announces the 2018-19 New Victory LabWorks Artists, NYC-based artists pursuing the creation of bold and exciting performing arts for family audiences.

Schimmel Center will present Tony and Pulitzer Prize nominee Anna Deavere Smith's Obie Award-winning solo performance, Notes From the Field, for one weekend only on Friday, June 1 at 7:30 p.m. and Today, June 2 at 2:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. in preparation for a two week run at the Royal Court in London. The production is directed by Leonard Foglia and features original music composed and performed by bassist Marcus Shelby who joins Ms. Smith on stage.

Schimmel Center will present Tony and Pulitzer Prize nominee Anna Deavere Smith's Obie Award-winning solo performance, Notes From the Field, for one weekend only on Friday, June 1 at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, June 2 at 2:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. in preparation for a two week run at the Royal Court in London. The production is directed by Leonard Foglia and features original music composed and performed by bassist Marcus Shelby who joins Ms. Smith on stage.

After three staged readings of three fantastic plays were presented to enthusiastic audiences at Guild Hall, the votes for the Episcopal Actors' Guild's 11th Annual Barbour Playwrights Award are in. The judges have selected Alexis Roblan's The Andrew Play (a play about siblings, loss, the confusing poetry of grief, and who owns your memory when you're gone) as this year's winner.

The Barbour Playwrights Award continues on Wednesday, March 28 at 7pm with a reading of Teresa Lotz's Mommy's Little Princess. In Mommy's Little Princess, Ingrid, her boyfriend, and her new roommate find a unique way to play house, upending our notions of relationship 'norms' and the definition of family. Directed by Daniella Caggiano, the cast includes Cynthia Bastidas, Azalea Lewis, Kevin Hoffman, and Isabella Schiller. Doors open at 6:40 pm. The reading will be followed by a wine and cheese reception.

Village Theatre kicks off the second Season of the Beta Series with How to Break, a new musical with book & lyrics by Aaron Jafferis, song & lyrics by Rebecca Hart, and a beatbox score by Yako 440. How to Break will run at Village Theatre's First Stage Theatre in Issaquah from January 5-14, 2018.

Village Theatre is excited to announce the second season of the Beta Series. Built on Village Theatre's long-standing commitment to new musicals, Beta Series productions help to launch promising new works into the next phase of development by providing writers with actors, basic sets and costumes, and an audience of smart, sophisticated, and savvy theatre-goers. Beta Series audiences are given the opportunity to provide feedback as changes are made following every performance based on audience responses. No two shows are alike, and audiences are encouraged to attend multiple times to see the evolution of the script and score.

Due to ongoing University-mandated budget cuts, Yale School of Drama/Yale Repertory Theatre announced today that the 2017 edition of the Yale Institute for Music Theatre, which concluded on June 25, would be its last.

The International Festival of Arts & Ideas today announced complete details for Festival 2017, which will begin on June 3 and continues for three weeks through June 24 in New Haven, Connecticut. 

Load singers and rappers into a chamber of music. Squeeze young people into a conversation about guns. Trigger action. (Be)longing, a new theater piece (featuring more than 45 locally cast singers, beatboxers, and hip-hop artists) by the critically-acclaimed team of composer Byron Au Yong and librettist Aaron Jafferis, will have its world premiere at Virginia Tech's Moss Arts Center on Friday, March 17 and Saturday, March 18, at 7:30 p.m.

Well it may have been hotter than blazes this past weekend but I managed to spend the weekend inside at one of my favorite events of the year, The Village Theatre Village Originals Festival of New Musicals. They presented concert stagings of five musicals still in the works. It's a great opportunity for the authors to get to see their shows in front of an audience and for us to get a sneak peak at amazing musical theater to come. Now as they are still being workshopped I can't really review any of them but I can tell you what I saw.

This past weekend, Village Theatre's 16th Annual Festival of New Musicals was held in Issaquah, WA, with actors, creative teams, and writers gathered from around the country for readings of five new musicals — Costs of Living (by Timothy Huang), How to Break (book and lyrics by Aaron Jafferis, songs by Rebecca Hart, beatbox score by Yako 44), We Foxes (by Ryan Scott Oliver), String (book by Sarah Hammond, music and lyrics by Adam Gwon), and Writing Kevin Taylor (music and lyrics by Will Van Dyke, book and lyrics by Josh Halloway).

Village Theatre is proud to announce the line-up for its 16th Annual Festival of New Musicals, taking place in Issaquah on August 12-14, 2016.

Village Theatre is proud to announce the line-up for its 16th Annual Festival of New Musicals, taking place in Issaquah on August 12-14, 2016.

As part of the kick-off event for the 2016 Kennedy Center (KC) American College Theater Festival, a special preview of the EVERY 28 HOURS PLAYS will be performed and livestreamed as part of KC's Millennium Stage Series. The preview consists of an excerpt of the collection with more than 30 one-minute plays inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, with participation by theater makers and institutions across the nation and showcases the creative outcome of a community outreach residency in Ferguson and St. Louis County, Missouri in the fall of 2015.

In January 2016, the Dogs of Desire, the Albany Symphony's rock-inspired new music ensemble, and Music Director David Alan Miller will perform and record a concert of American composer David Mallamud's most successful commissions for the ensemble over the past ten years, including his homage to Parisian music hall culture, Last Call at the Folies Bergere, the Glam-Metal Opera, Lizardman, (text by Broadway lyricist Michael Cooper) Victorian Parlor Songs, a salsa-drenched Latin Daytime Soap Opera, (text by Aaron Jafferis), and an Irish-inspired piece Immram. Both the public concert and private recording session will take place at Skidmore College's Zankel Hall in Saratoga Springs, NY.

 The Weston Playhouse Theatre Company concluded its 8th annual Artists Retreat with an Artists Salon and Reception at the Wilburton Inn in Manchester, Vermont on Saturday afternoon, May 2.  Actors, composers, directors, and playwrights who had spent the week living and working in Weston spoke about and shared examples from their work before an invited group of theatre patrons.

  Sundance Institute today announced the nine projects selected from 827 submissions for its 2015 Theatre Lab at Sundance Resort in Utah, July 6-26. Under the supervision of Artistic Director Philip Himberg and Producing Director Christopher Hibma, the Lab is the centerpiece of the Institute's year-round work with the theatre community and is one of 24 residency Labs the Institute hosts each year for independent artists in theatre, film, new media and episodic content.

The 26th Annual Festival of New Musicals, presented by the National Alliance For Musical Theatre (NAMT), kicked off with THE 46TH MINUTE, a concert hosted by Lindsay Mendez and featuring performances by Heidi Blickenstaff, Doreen Montalvo, Mamie Parris, Bryce Ryness, and more. Musical presentations started October 23 at New World Stages (340 West 50th Street) and included Beautiful Poison, Cubamor, Great Wall, How To Break, Mary Marie, The Noteworthy Life of Howard Barnes, String and Stu For Silverton. The Festival concluded on October 24, 2014. Scroll down for photos!