Alan Schneider News

Second Stage Theater has confirmed two plays for its Broadway home, The Hayes Theater, as well as one play for its off-Broadway home, The Tony Kiser Theater, for its upcoming 42nd Season in 2021. An additional off-Broadway production will be announced in the coming months.

Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for theatre, has announced that Daniel Banks has been awarded the Alan Schneider Director Award.

The Civilians, the award-winning New York-based theater company, presents the ninth annual R&D Group FINDINGS Series. 

Huntington Theatre Company has announced the cast and creative team for the Boston premiere of the Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Sweat.  This a?oebreathtakingly timelya?? (The Wall Street Journal), Tony Award-nominated play by two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage will be directed by Kimberly Senior (Disgraced on Broadway). Sweat begins performances at the Huntington Avenue Theatre (264 Huntington Avenue, Boston) on Friday, January 31, 2020 and runs through Sunday, February 23, 2020. The official press opening night is Wednesday, February 5, 2020. Tickets are now available.

The UC San Diego Department of Theatre and Dance presents Balm in Gilead, by Lanford Wilson and directed by Kim Rubenstein.

Weston Playhouse Theatre Company Executive Artistic Director Susanna Gellert announces New Works program selection, NATIVE AUTHORS by Erik Brogger, a new play based on the short stories of Weldon Kees. Set in a community not unlike our own here in Vermont, this play is a portrait of a small town - Weston, Nebraska - attempting to get on the map during the Great Depression. Brogger's plays have been produced Off-Broadway and in regional theaters throughout the country and in the UK. For the past 30 years, he has taught creative writing and playwriting at Hofstra University. His recent work includes the teleplay THE FUTURISTS.

StateraArts has announced that May Adrales will be delivering one of the keynote address at Statera's 4th National Conference. The conference, which is to take place at City College of New York in NYC, is scheduled for October 26-27, 2019.

Six directors have convened in Arles, France for the sixth annual Sundance Institute | Luma Foundation Directors Retreat in Arles, France, from August 1-12, 2019. Founded in 2013 as a creative collaboration between Sundance Institute's Theatre Program and Luma Foundation, the Retreat is an opportunity for directors to meet, share best and emerging practices, and work self-directed on their upcoming projects.

Theatre of NOTE continues its 2019 season with the world premiere of DRIVING WILDE by Jacqueline Wright, directed by Bart DeLorenzo.  DRIVING WILDE will preview Friday and Saturday, August 16 and August 17 at 8pm, and will open on August 22 at 8pm and run through September 21 at Theatre of NOTE, 1517 N Cahuenga Blvd (just north of Sunset) in Hollywood.    

Director Mark Clements and Executive Director Chad Bauman are expanding the leadership team at Milwaukee Repertory Theater with three exceptional female leaders.

Artistic Director Robert Falls has named Kimberly Senior the newest member of Goodman Theatre's Artistic Collective-ten American theater artists whose work has cemented the theater's international reputation for excellence over three decades. The Collective, which Falls established when he became Artistic Director, currently includes award-winning playwrights, directors and actors: Brian Dennehy, Rebecca Gilman, Henry Godinez, Dael Orlandersmith, Steve Scott, Chuck Smith, Regina Taylor, Henry Wishcamper and Mary Zimmerman.

Samuel Beckett's masterpiece HAPPY DAYS has already begun previews May 15, 2019 at the Mark Taper Forum, with Dianne Wiest taking center stage as Winnie, partially buried in the sand. Providing a foil for her non-stop, almost-soliloquy, Michael Rudko portrays Willie, Winnie's mostly unseen husband. Michael found some time to answer a few of my inquisitive queries.

The Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation (SDCF), the not-for-profit foundation of Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC), will host a conversation entitled 'Producing Theatre for an Ageless Audience', moderated by Linda Hartzell, SDC Foundation Trustee and Artistic Director Emerita of Seattle Children's Theatre, with luminary directors Mark Brokaw and Marcia Milgrom Dodge and playwright Timothy Allen McDonald on Monday May, 20, 2019 from 6:00-8:00 PM at SDC, 321 W. 44th St., Suite 804.

One of the nation's most adventurous opera companies, Odyssey Opera, presents the fully staged production of La belle Hélène (The Beautiful Helen) by Jacques Offenbach with libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy. This final performance of Odyssey Opera's sixth season is the last of three works performed in 2019 inspired by one of the most enigmatic figures in ancient history, Helen of Troy. Directed by Frank Kelley, this performance will be sung in English with mezzo-soprano Ginger Costa-Jackson (Met Opera, San Francisco Opera) playing the lead role of Helen of Troy, and orchestra and chorus conducted by Gil Rose.

Mary B. Robinson, director of SWEAT at Pioneer Theatre Company, says the Pulitzer Prize-winner contains 'nine characters [that] are created with empathy and humanity, demonstrating the 'curiosity not judgment' mantra of Playwright Lynn Nottage.'

The Second City invites you to celebrate Mother's Day with Margaret Trudeau, the mother of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. In a world premiere engagement, Margaret Trudeau is coming to Chicago to bring her intimate staged performance Certain Woman of an Age exclusively to UP Comedy Club at The Second City, 230 W. North Ave. Co-written by Ms. Trudeau, herself, and directed by Kimberly Senior, this solo performance follows the compelling story of one of the world's most fascinating figures, chronicling her courageous public and private journeys.

Universally acclaimed as the Best Play of the 2017 Broadway season, A Doll's House, Part 2, is a contemporary sort-of-sequel to Ibsen's A Doll's House, crackling with razor-sharp humor and intelligence relevant to today's audience.

Smart, suspenseful, moving, and funny, A Doll's House, PART 2 begins with a knock on the front door.  Fifteen years earlier, unhappy with her husband's failure to regard her as a complex person, Nora famously slammed this door behind her, leaving her family to pursue her own happiness.  Now, she returns for reasons unknown.  But is everyone happy to see her?

The League of Professional Theatre Women (Kelli Lynn Harrison and Catherine Porter, Co-Presidents), an organization which has been leading the gender parity conversation and championing women in the professional theatre for over 35 years, will present the 2019 Theatre Women Awards at The Sheen Center for Thought & Culture (18 Bleecker Street, New York, NY 10012) on Monday, March 25 at 7pm (doors open at 6:30pm). For more information on the 2019 TheatreWomen Awards, and to purchase tickets, please visit www.theatrewomen.org.

The League of Professional Theatre Women (Kelli Lynn Harrison and Catherine Porter, Co-Presidents), an organization which has been leading the gender parity conversation and championing women in the professional theatre for over 35 years, will present the 2019 Theatre Women Awards at The Sheen Center for Thought & Culture (18 Bleecker Street, New York, NY 10012) on Monday, March 25 at 7pm (doors open at 6:30pm). For more information on the 2019 Theatre Women Awards, and to purchase tickets, please visit www.theatrewomen.org.