Playwright Jon Klein will join the director and members of the cast of the current hit comedy Resolving Hedda for a post-show talkback on Saturday, March 30. A resounding hit with critics and audiences, Resolving Hedda invites audiences to play along with a Hedda Gabler who breaks out of Ibsen's well-made play and wreaks comic havoc while her fellow characters struggle to adapt to their heroine's newfound rebellion. The talkback, free to ticket holders, will begin at 5:00 pm, immediately following the Saturday matinee performance.
Kansas City Repertory Theatre wraps up its 2018/19 season with the fourth annual OriginKC: NEW WORKS FESTIVAL, April 19 through May 19, 2019. The OriginKC: NEW WORKS FESTIVAL positions Kansas City as a major player and national center for the cultivation and production of new works, while offering theatre artists from across the country the financial, creative, and artistic resources required to develop vital, diverse works of theatre.
Geva Theatre Center's 2018-2019 Fielding Studio Series concludes with The Royale, written by Marco Ramirez. This production comes to Geva from the Kitchen Theatre Company in Ithaca, N.Y., with the original cast and design team and is directed by Pirronne Yousefzadeh. The production begins performances on April 11 and runs in the Fielding Stage through April 28.
TheatreWorks Silicon Valley has announced that the World Premiere of Hershey Felder: A Paris Love Story, with more than a week to go before its first performance, has already established a new all-time box office record for the 49 year-old Bay Area theatre company.
Everybody Black is a play. On a stage. But it actually comes off like a series of television programs that one might come across channel surfing in a fit of insomnia; a fever dream of sorts in which the sleepless viewer has mysteriously slipped into a different world than they remember.
A mega church completes a multi-million-dollar capital campaign to build a fabulous new facility. The long-time pastor announces during a Sunday sermon following the grand opening that Jesus Christ isn't the only way to salvation, there's no such thing as hell, and forgiveness for all sins must be the order of the day for all who call themselves Christian. It's the beginning of an emotionally explosive 100-minute, no intermission production that delves into the nature of accountability, acceptance, and forgiveness.
The Marsh San Francisco presents the World Premiere of Who Killed Sylvia Plath, written by award-winning playwright Lynne Kaufman and starring Lorri Holt. Poet Sylvia Plath returns to her burial place in West Yorkshire, England to view the fourth replacement of her tombstone. The previous ones have been defaced by feminists who chiseled off her married name, claiming it was Ted Hughes who caused Sylvia Plath's death. Did Hughes kill Plath? Was her suicide at age 30 a "good career move"? Would she do it again? And what does it say to us today?
There is nothing more infuriating than attempting several times to solve the same problem over and over again. Trying different methods and seeking advice from assorted perspectives might help lighten the burden but yields satisfying conclusions and closure. What about when it's in our culture? Where smiles are demanded of girls, hugs are forced upon children, a sexual assault prompts finger pointing at everything including what was worn by the victim, yet the assailant walks away with a slap on the wrist. How do you fix this culture? How do you solve this systemic problem? How to Defend yourself, the most recent installment at the 43rd annual Humana Festival of New American Plays asks these questions while acknowledging hard realities.
Victory Gardens Theater, under the leadership of Artistic Director Chay Yew and Executive Director Erica Daniels, announces the lineup for its 2019-2020 Season. Victory Gardens' 45th Season will include the Chicago premiere of Tiny Beautiful Things by Nia Vardalos; the world premiere of The First Deep Breath by Lee Edward Colston II; the co-world premiere of How to Defend Yourself by Lily Padilla; and the world premiere of Dhaba on Devon Avenue by Madhuri Shekar; and the Chicago premiere of Right to Be Forgotten by Sharyn Rothstein.
Twelfth Night is a tale of unrequited love hilarious and heartbreaking. Twins are separated during a shipwreck and are forced to fend for themselves in a strange land. The first twin, Viola, falls in love with Orsino, who dotes on Olivia, who falls for Viola but is idolized by Malvolio. Enter Sebastian, who is the spitting image of his twin sister is it possible for this to all end well? Well, it IS a comedy!
Powerful drama: still made in America. Lynn Nottage's 2017 Pulitzer Prize-winning play Sweat opens tonight in its Chicago premiere at Goodman Theatre. Ron OJ Parson directs the collision of race, class and friendship at a pivotal moment in America-hailed as 'extraordinarily moving' (The New York Times) and 'passionate and necessary...a masterful depiction of the forces that divide and conquer us' (Time Out New York). Sweat marks the fourth Nottage play to be produced at the Goodman, following Crumbs from the Table of Joy (2006), Ruined (a 2008 world-premiere Goodman commission that earned the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Drama) and By the Way, Meet Vera Stark (2013). Sweat appears through April 14 in the Albert Theatre. Tickets ($20 - $80; subject to change) are available at Goodmantheatre.org/Sweat, by telephone at 312.443.3800 or at the box office (170 N. Dearborn).
Soho Rep. presents the New York Premiere of Obie Award-winning playwright Christopher Chen's Passage (April 23-May 26), a fantasia on colonialism past and present that asks the question: if Country Y occupies Country X, can someone from Country X and someone from Country Y ever form a mutual relationship? Directed by Saheem Ali, Passage is a playful and gripping experiment that isolates power as the sole differentiator between people challenging the arbitrary binaries that define how we live.
As a playwright you always hope that your script gets a first class production at a top theatre. Today's subject, Heather McDonald, is currently living her theatre life on a high as her world premiere play Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity is receiving such royal treatment. Featuring the likes of performers Holly Twyford, Felicia Curry, and Yesenia Iglesias, the production plays through April 7th in Signature Theatre's ARK space.
The Orange County Playwrights Alliance kicks off its 2019 season of new play events on Saturday, April 6 at 2:30pm at the highly regarded Chance Theater in Anaheim Hills, with a staged reading of a new full-length work from Eric Eberwein. Peace Be With You was first presented last September in Paper Wing Theatre Company's new play festival (Monterey, CA). Amanda Zarr directs.
As soon as I saw Lucas Hnath's name on the docket for this current season's Humana Festival, I knew immediately which show I most wanted to see. The fact that there was a supernatural aspect to it was an added bonus. I'm happy to report that I don't feel that my anticipation was wasted.
The Farm Theater (Padraic Lillis, Founding Artistic Director) will launch season one of their new Bullpen Sessions Podcast on Thursday, March 28. This ten-episode series, hosted by Padraic Lillis and Lee J. Kaplan, will be available worldwide on all major podcast distributors.
The Huntington Theatre Company's 2019 Breaking Ground festival of new plays will be held April 12 - 14, 2019 at the Huntington's home for new work, the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA. The festival is a vital part of the Huntington's new play development efforts and highlights the work of locally-based Huntington Playwriting Fellows and national writers in partnership with the Huntington. Over the last decade, Breaking Ground plays have gone on to appear at the Huntington as well as theatres in Boston, across the country, and internationally.
Steppenwolf Theatre Company announced today the full casting for the world premiere of MS. BLAKK FOR PRESIDENT, co-written by ensemble members Tina Landau (SpongeBob SquarePants: The Broadway Musical) and Tarell Alvin McCraney (Moonlight, Academy Award). Conceived by Tina Landau, she also directs this true and little-known Chicago story that will star Tarell Alvin McCraney as Ms. Joan Jett Blakk. Joining McCraney in the cast are Patrick Andrews, Molly Brennan, Daniel Kyri, Jon Hudson Odom and Sawyer Smith.
David Mirvish in a co-production with the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre presents A DOLL'S HOUSE, PART 2 by Lucas Hnath. Starring four outstanding Canadian actors and directed by Krista Jackson, this brilliant and audacious play is performed March 23 to April 14, 2019 at Toronto's CAA Theatre as part of the Off-Mirvish Season.
Washington audiences love Joshua Harmon. The DC premiere of the playwright's no-holds-barred comedy, Admissions, has been extended by Studio Theatre a fourth and final time-now closing March 24, 2019. The extension adds six additional performances to Admissions, which has been extended a total of five weeks. Mike Donahue directs this "little hothouse of a play" (Washington Post) that skewers white privilege, entitlement, and the vanity of liberal values that aren't backed by real action.
