Adam Rigg News

Tune in right here at 7:30pm to watch The 65th Annual Drama Desk Awards and check back for a full list of winners, updating live!

On May 29, 2020, Opera Philadelphia presented the digital premiere of Royce Vavrek and Missy Mazzoli's Breaking the Waves, a story based on the 1996 international film of the same name directed by Lars von Trier. Winner of the Music Critics Association of North America 2017 award for Best New Opera, the story took place in the 1970s at a seaside settlement in the Scottish Highlands.

The 65th Annual Drama Desk Awards has partnered with 'Stars in the House' to live stream this year's Nominations. Seth Rudetsky and James Wesley, the hosts of the virtual daily series benefiting the Actors Fund, will announce the nominees.

Two dozen nominations of outstanding actors, directors, designers and ensembles were announced today by The Boston Theater Critics Association (BTCA) for the 38th Annual Elliot Norton Awards.

In David Mamet's book On Directing Film, he breaks down the way a linear narrative can be conveyed by placing images in direct contrast to each other. a?oeThe dream and the film are the juxtaposition of images in order to answer a question.a?? Certainly, with a majority of the action taking place upstage of a scrim and the fusion of filmed and live material, ArtsEmerson's Detroit Red, an original play by Will Power about Malcolm X's early adult life in Roxbury, leaves one feeling more as though one has watched a movie or woken from a dream than sat through a performance. Recently, I also saw Gloria: A Life, which is playing at the American Repertory Theatre. While I admittedly found the show to be trite and pandering, it obtusely fused projection effects with live performance in a way that felt cheap, gimmicky, and more like a new SnapChat filter than anything else. Contrast that with Ari Herzig's film work for Detroit Red, which snaps the audience effectively between viewpoints in black and white and splays broad images across the haziness of Adam Rigg's nondescript set. The success of the production lies in the success of the filmed elements, which establish a framing device, pinpointing the action to an exact moment in time. Additionally, the projections act as effective abstractions, allowing the actors to waver between realism and poetry as photos of their faces appear as oversized watermarks in space. Lighting designer Alan Edwards equally contributes to the cinematic feel of the piece. Sharp shafts of light slice through open space and act, ingeniously, as the camera lens might in film, focusing our attention on specifics and the relevant details. Aside from a few extraneous hat changes for the three actors who take on all the roles in the piece, between the work of Herzig, Rigg, and Edwards, the performance seems to be a study in the logistics of jump-cuts or cross-fades in real time. Adding to the film-instead-of-theatre feeling in the space, the performance actively roused and engaged the audience, which had a huge swathe of Boston school groups present. The crowd felt comfortable verbalizing responses, in part, because of our physical separation from the action presented to us, and to be able to laugh, cheer, gasp, and grimace in solidarity with those around you is a rare treat.

Spring Awakening is the classic teen coming of age story, plus death, group mastrubation, nudity, and a failed abortion.

Theatre for a New Audience (TFANA, Jeffrey Horowitz, Founding Artistic Director) is pleased to announce a first and final extension of Fefu and Her Friends, one of the most beloved plays of the late, nine-time Obie Award-winning Cuban-American playwright and director María Irene Fornés, 'arguably the most influential American dramatist whose work hasn't become a staple of the mainstream repertoire' (LA Times). Lileana Blain-Cruz, winner of two Obie Awards (Suzan-Lori Parks' The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World and Jackie Sibblies Drury's Marys Seacole) stages the play in her TFANA directing debut, the first Off-Broadway revival of Fefu and Her Friends since American Place Theatre's 1978 staging. Fefu now plays on the Samuel H. Scripps Mainstage at TFANA's home, Polonsky Shakespeare Center (262 Ashland Place, Brooklyn), through December 12, 2019, with four performances added Tuesday, December 10 at 7:30pm, Wednesday, December 11 at 2pm and 7:30pm, Thursday, December 12 at 7:30pm.

Theatre for a New Audience (TFANA; Jeffrey Horowitz, Founding Artistic Director) presents Fefu and Her Friends, one of the most beloved plays of the late, nine-time Obie Award-winning Cuban-American playwright and director María Irene Fornés. Lileana Blain-Cruz, winner of two Obie Awards (Suzan-Lori Parks' The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World and Jackie Sibblies Drury's Marys Seacole) stages the play in her TFANA directing debut, the first Off-Broadway revival of Fefu and Her Friends since American Place Theatre's 1978 staging. Fefu plays on the Samuel H. Scripps Mainstage at TFANA's home, Polonsky Shakespeare Center (262 Ashland Place, Brooklyn), November 16-December 8, 2019.

Don't expect Lena Dunham or any of her posse of Brooklynites to show up on the stage of the Yale Rep's University Theatre at any point during the world premiere of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins mad dream of a new play just because it's called 'Girls.'

Yale Repertory Theatre presents the world premiere of GIRLS, after The Bacchae by Euripides, by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, with choreography by Raja Feather Kelley, directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz, October 4-26, 2019, at the University Theatre (222 York Street).

Yale Repertory Theatre presents the world premiere of GIRLS, after The Bacchae by Euripides, by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, with choreography by Raja Feather Kelley, directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz, October 4-26, 2019, at the University Theatre (222 York Street). Opening Night is Thursday, October 10.

Yale Repertory Theatre presents the world premiere of GIRLS, after The Bacchae by Euripides, by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, with choreography by Raja Feather Kelley, directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz, October 4a?"26, 2019, at the University Theatre (222 York Street). Opening Night is Thursday, October 10.

California Shakespeare Theater closes its 2019 summer season with Macbeth by William Shakespeare and directed by Victor Malana Maog playing September 18 through October 13, 2019 at the Bruns Amphitheater. 

Get a look inside opening night for Manhattan Theatre Club's World premiere of Continuity

Manhattan Theatre Club's world premiere of Continuity, the new play by Lortel and Drama Desk Award nominee Bess Wohl (Small Mouth Sounds, American Hero) and directed by Tony Award nominee Rachel Chavkin (Hadestown; Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812), opens tomorrow night at The Studio at Stage II - Harold and Mimi Steinberg New Play Series at New York City Center (131 W. 55th Street).

MTC announces a Talkback series following select performances of Continuity, the new play by Lortel and Drama Desk Award nominee Bess Wohl (Small Mouth Sounds, American Hero) and directed by Tony Award nominee Rachel Chavkin (Hadestown; Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812).

Get a first look below at Manhattan Theatre Club's world premiere of Continuity, the new play by Lortel and Drama Desk Award nominee Bess Wohl and directed by Tony Award nominee Rachel Chavkin

Manhattan Theatre Club's world premiere of Continuity, the new play by Lortel and Drama Desk Award nominee Bess Wohl (Small Mouth Sounds, American Hero) and directed by Tony Award nominee Rachel Chavkin (Hadestown; Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812), begins performances tomorrow at The Studio at Stage II - Harold and Mimi Steinberg New Play Series at New York City Center (131 W. 55th Street). Opening night is set for Tuesday, May 21.

Lynne Meadow (Artistic Director) and Barry Grove (Executive Producer) are pleased to announce the complete casting for the world premiere of Continuity, the new play by Lortel and Drama Desk Award nominee Bess Wohl (Small Mouth Sounds, American Hero) and directed by Tony Award nominee Rachel Chavkin (Hadestown; Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812). The production will feature Max Baker (1984, The Explorers Club), Jasmine Batchelor (The River), Rosal Colon ('Orange is the New Black,' Between Riverside and Crazy), Curran Connor (Pidgeon, A Picture of Autumn), Garcia ('Tales of the City'), Darren Goldstein (Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes, The Madrid), Alex Hurt (Cardinal, The Whirligig) and Megan Ketch (The Big Wedding, 'American Gothic').

Trinity Rep commissioned playwright Lauren Yee to write SONG OF SUMMER for their company of actors, and the result is such a satisfying and wonderful play that you just want to give everyone involved a big hug. Naturally the casting is flawless, but Yee's dialogue and shrewd observations about growing up, falling in love, small towns and getting sucked into the maelstrom of fame are just so spot on it's almost dizzying. This show is the fresh breath of summer air we need at the end of March.