Alfred Uhry News

Smart Cookie, by Julia Brownell and directed by Jeremy B. Cohen will be performed at the Alliance Theatre from January 30 - February 22, 2009. The show contains Teenage Sexuality, Thematic Elements (Abortion), and Adult Language (parents: call the box office for specific details). Meet Cookie. In between crafting her impeccable social image, you might catch her at the spa, avoiding carbs at New York?s best restaurants, or giving her husband?s money to the MET. As you can imagine, she?s very busy ? until one day a visit from her prep school son and his foreign exchange girlfriend changes everything. This year?s Kendeda winner is a sly, wicked comedy about the power of surprise to help us become the people we never realized we wanted to be

Playwrights Horizons announces completion of a major renovation to 440 Studios, which is Lower Manhattan's largest rehearsal space complex (located at 440 Lafayette Street). The $1.2 million project took 8 months for demolition and renovation.

Playwrights Horizons announces completion of a major renovation to 440 Studios, which is Lower Manhattan's largest rehearsal space complex (located at 440 Lafayette Street). The $1.2 million project took 8 months for demolition and renovation. 440 Studios is the third and fourth floors of the Playwrights Horizons Theater School. When not in use by the School for classes, workshops and productions, the rehearsal studios and theaters are rented out to hundreds of New York City cultural groups each year. The School and the studios are an integral part of Playwrights Horizons and perform a vital service for students, the theater community and the surrounding neighborhood. The renovation of the third floor was made possible, in large part, through generous capital funding from New York City and New York State.

As of this morning, Wednesday, January 28, Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) is now accepting entries for its popular LIVEforFIVE online lottery for $5 tickets to its next production, the New York premiere of THE SAVANNAH DISPUTATION, a new play by Evan Smith (Psych and The Uneasy Chair at Playwrights Horizons, Servicemen at The New Group). At least 50 tickets will be available via the online lottery. A ticketing initiative created last season as part of the theater company's Arts Access program, LIVEforFIVE makes $5 tickets available for the first preview performance of each Playwrights Horizons production through a lottery via the company's website (www.playwrightshorizons.org). The LIVEforFIVE lottery for THE SAVANNAH DISPUTATION will be for tickets to the first preview on Friday, February 6 at 8:00 PM at Playwrights Horizons' Mainstage Theater (416 West 42nd Street).

To coincide with the World Premiere of the 2008 Kendeda GPC winning play, Julia Brownell's Smart Cookie, Atlanta's finest actors and directors will present a first look at the 2008 Kendeda Graduate Playwriting Competition finalists. This is an intimate chance to hear works by some of America's most interesting up-and-coming writers.

On March 12, 2009 at 7:00 p.m., The Collegiate Chorale appears with The New York City Opera Orchestra at the newly renovated Alice Tully Hall in a performance of Kurt Weill and Ira Gershwin's 1945 Broadway operetta The Firebrand of Florence. The performance, led by guest conductor Ted Sperling, stars baritone Nathan Gunn, soprano Anna Christy, baritone Terrence Mann, and soprano Victoria Clark. Krysty Swann, David Pittu and Patrick Goss complete the cast, and narration will be provided by Stage Director Roger Rees. Boasting a score by Kurt Weill, lyrics by Ira Gershwin, and a book by playwright and screenwriter Edwin Justus Mayer, The Firebrand of Florence had a short run on Broadway in 1945. The work was subsequently not heard for over a half-century until three presentations - Ohio Light Opera (1999), the BBC Symphony Orchestra in London (2000) and the Radio Symphony Orchestra in Vienna (2000) - shed new light on the relatively obscure work. The performances were not only accepted, but widely acclaimed, thus giving hope for a new life in a new century. Variety's theater critic Steven Suskin says 'I have long believed that Firebrand in concert should be a dazzling delight.' Benvenuto Cellini, the great Florentine artist, is sentenced to hang, but he is pardoned when the duke realizes that he has not completed a previously commissioned sculpture. Freed, he is able to turn his attention to his favorite model (and object of his affections), Angela. The Duke also is interested in Angela. In a typical operetta plot, Cellini swashbuckles around the stage, keeping the Duke away from Angela, keeping himself away from the Duchess, and escaping yet another death sentence by fleeing to Paris, as the end of the show recapitulates the beginning.

26 Miles, a world premiere by Quiara Alegr?a Hudes (directed by Kent Gash) will be performed at the Alliance Theatre from March 20 to April 12, 2009.

Smart Cookie, by Julia Brownell and directed by Jeremy B. Cohen will be performed at the Alliance Theatre from January 30 - February 22, 2009. The show contains Teenage Sexuality, Thematic Elements (Abortion), and Adult Language (parents: call the box office for specific details). Meet Cookie. In between crafting her impeccable social image, you might catch her at the spa, avoiding carbs at New York?s best restaurants, or giving her husband?s money to the MET. As you can imagine, she?s very busy ? until one day a visit from her prep school son and his foreign exchange girlfriend changes everything. This year?s Kendeda winner is a sly, wicked comedy about the power of surprise to help us become the people we never realized we wanted to be

Based on Cartoon Network's animated television series created by Andre Benjamin and Tommy Lynch and adapted and directed by Rosemary Newcott, Class of 3000 Live will be performed from March 6 to March 29, 2009.

iSondheim: A Musical Revue, a world premiere in honor of America's greatest living composer of musical theatre will run at the Alliance Theatre from April 15 to May 10, 2009.The revue features music and lyrics by Stephan Sondheim, and orchestrations by Michael Starobin. iSondheim is is directed by James Lapine and is based on a concept by David Kernan. Stephen Sondheim?s work revolutionized the Broadway musical with such wide-ranging hits as West Side Story, Gypsy, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Sweeney Todd and Into the Woods. This unique mixed-media musical revue, interspersed with commentary from the legendary composer, was developed by his longtime collaborator James Lapine (last at the Alliance to direct The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee). Be among the first to experience this celebration of the power of creativity in the American musical theatre. The box office is open Monday - Friday from 10 am to 8 pm and Saturday - Sunday 12 pm to 8 pm. For more information call the box office at: 404.733.5000. Now in its 40th season, Atlanta?s nationally acclaimed Alliance Theatre, recipient of the 2007 Regional Theatre Tony Award?, is the leading professional resident theatre of the Southeast, creating the powerful experience of shared theatre for diverse people on two stages for youth and adult audiences.

Playwright Julia Brownell's Smart Cookie is a wickedly funny comedy about how a shocking surprise helps a wealthy Manhattan socialite become the woman she never realized she wanted to be. The clear favorite of the 2008 Kendeda Graduate Playwriting Competition judges, this World Premiere play combines laugh-out-loud humor with a provocative story about social image and the powers that can change a person's attitudes.

Additional casting has been announced for the Donmar Warehouse production of MARY STUART, Friedrich Schiller's classic play in a new version by Peter Oswald, which opens April 19, 2009 at the Broadhurst Theatre (235 West 44th Street). The production, starring its acclaimed original London leads Janet McTeer and Harriet Walter and directed by Phyllida Lloyd, begins previews on March 30, 2009 for a limited run of 20 weeks only.

Roundabout Theatre Company (Todd Haimes, Artistic Director) is proud to announce the full cast for the upcoming New York premiere of Distracted, by Lisa Loomer, directed by Mark Brokaw. Distracted will begin previews on Saturday, February 7th and open officially on Wednesday, March 4th, 2009 at the Laura Pels Theatre in the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre (111 West 46th Street).

Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) New York premiere of PRAYER FOR MY ENEMY, a new play by two-time Tony Award nominee, Pulitzer Prize finalist and two-time Obie Award winner Craig Lucas (Small Tragedy at Playwrights Horizons, The Light in the Piazza, Prelude to a Kiss, Reckless, The Dying Gaul) officially opens tonight Off-Broadway.

Previews will begin tomorrow, Friday, November 14 at 8PM for the Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) New York premiere of PRAYER FOR MY ENEMY, a new play by two-time Tony Award nominee, Pulitzer Prize finalist and two-time Obie Award winner Craig Lucas (Small Tragedy at Playwrights Horizons, The Light in the Piazza, Prelude to a Kiss, Reckless, The Dying Gaul).

Previews will begin today, Friday, November 14 at 8PM for the Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) New York premiere of PRAYER FOR MY ENEMY, a new play by two-time Tony Award nominee, Pulitzer Prize finalist and two-time Obie Award winner Craig Lucas (Small Tragedy at Playwrights Horizons, The Light in the Piazza, Prelude to a Kiss, Reckless, The Dying Gaul).

Tonight, November 10th, The Actors Fund will present a special reading of ALL ABOUT EVE at 7:30pm at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre (230 West 49th Street).

Oscar nominated actress Jennifer Tilly will play 'Miss Caswell,' Cabaret star Steve Ross will play the 'Pianist,'Jessica Cummings will play 'Phoebe,' and Maura Lisabeth Malloy and Victor Joel Ortiz will also appear in The Actors Fund's highly anticipated all-star reading of ALL ABOUT EVE, the classic backstage drama that is one of the most entertaining and witty films of all time.

Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) has announced that the theater company has been awarded a $2 million grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Keri Russell will appear as 'Eve Harrington' in The Actors Fund's highly anticipated all-star reading of ALL ABOUT EVE, the classic backstage drama that is one of the most entertaining and witty films of all time.