American Playwrights News

Center Theatre Group received submissions from 76 local theatre companies from North Hollywood to San Pedro, Topanga to Sierra Madre for the inaugural Block Party: Celebrating Los Angeles Theatre at the Kirk Douglas Theatre. Block Party will highlight some of the remarkable work being done on stages throughout Los Angeles by fully producing three previously staged productions.

Inis Nua Theatre Company opens their 2016-2017 season at the Louis Bluver Theater at The Drake (302 South Hicks Street) with Radiant Vermin by Philip Ridley, with previews starting October 19 and opening set for October 21. From England, this Philadelphia premiere mixes "be careful what you wish for" with a strong dose of unnervingly wicked humor.

It was during my undergrad years at Sam Houston State University that I was introduced to the writings of Edward Albee. Every so often there's a playwright that comes along and changes the landscape of the American Theatre. It was in 1963 when WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? debuted on Broadway and shook the foundation of the theatre world. Albee's work delves into the human psyche with an in-depth view of relationships, marriage, and sex. His presence will be truly missed but his mark on the theatre world is undoubtedly immortal.

Sometimes the words we speak become a secret code for what we really feel. Shortly before an audition for her first professional Shakespeare play, gifted and entitled young actor Anna arrives in a college rehearsal hall expecting help from brilliant, bitter acting instructor Curt. When their work together leads to professional success but personal misery, they must decide whether or not to break their Shakespeare code and uncover how they really feel about each other.

Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) has announced complete casting for RANCHO VIEJO, the world premiere of a new play by Dan LeFranc (The Big Meal at Playwrights, Sixty Miles to Silver Lake, In the Labyrinth) and directed by three-time Obie Award winner Daniel Aukin (Placebo, This at Playwrights; Fool For Love; Bad Jews; 4000 Miles; [sic]).  Commissioned by Playwrights Horizons, RANCHO VIEJO will be the third production of the theater company's 2016/2017 Season.   

National New Play Network, the country's alliance of nonprofit theaters that champions the development, production, and continued life of new plays, is pleased to present the 15th annual National Showcase of New Plays (NSNP).

Steele Spring Stage Rights, the licensing company that represents The Marvelous Wonderettes franchise, has signed David Spicer Productions (DSP) as sub-publisher. Based in New South Wales, DSP will handle theatrical licensing for most Stage Rights titles in the Australian and New Zealand territory. "This is an amazing opportunity for our playwrights," said Stage Rights President Roger Bean. "This new partnership will allow us to reach more effectively into the untapped market in Australia and highlight our growing collection of plays and musicals to thousands of new theaters and producers."

Center Theatre Group mourns the loss of its Founding Artistic Director, Gordon Davidson, who passed away Sunday, October 2, 2016. Plans for a memorial event will be announced in the coming days.

Playwrights Horizons presents A Life, the world premiere of a new play by Obie Award winner Adam Bock (A Small Fire and The Drunken City at Playwrights, The Receptionist, The Thugs, Swimming in the Shallows).

The Trap Door Theatre presents Fantasy Island For Dummies (low cut daydream too near, too near), written by Ruth Margraff and directed by Kate Hendrickson, with original music composed by Nikos Brisco. The production opens Today, September 29, 2016 at 8 p.m. and runs through Saturday, November 5, 2016.

Philadelphia Theatre Company will host several special post-play discussions in connection with its staging of the Theatre Exile production of Rizzo by Bruce Graham, currently running through October 23 at the Suzanne Roberts Theatre (Broad and Lombard Streets) - an American Playwrights in Context (APIC) discussion on September 30; a panel of political experts on October 4, a pro-football night on October 6 and a panel on Frank Rizzo's legacy on October 14.

Playwrights Horizons has announced a two-week extension for A LIFE, the world premiere of a new play by Obie Award winner Adam Bock (A Small Fire and The Drunken City at Playwrights, The Receptionist, The Thugs, Swimming in the Shallows).  Directed by two-time Obie Award winner Anne Kauffman (Marjorie Prime, Detroit, Maple and Vine at Playwrights; You Got Older; Belleville; This Wide Night; Smokefall), A LIFE will be the second production of the theater company's 2016/2017 Season.  

AMONG THE DEAD, a new play by Hansol Jung, will be given its world premiere by the award-winning Asian American Off-Broadway MA-YI THEATER COMPANY at HERE (145 Sixth Avenue, NYC), with previews set to begin November 6th prior to its official opening night on November 10th.

The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust today announced that Pulitzer Prize finalist and Tony Award-nominated playwright Sarah Ruhl is this year's recipient of the Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award.

As the election season swings into high gear Philadelphia Theatre Company revisits one of the city's most controversial politicians, Frank Rizzo, with a re-mounting of Theatre Exile's production of Rizzo by Bruce Graham on September 23-October 16.

The Dramatists Guild Fund presented new work by its graduating 2015-2016 Fellows at Playwrights Horizons in New York on Monday, September 19, hosted by co-founders of the Fellows Program Lynn Ahrens & Stephen Flaherty. BroadwayWorld has photos from the event below!

Tickets are now on sale for Temple Theaters 2016-2017 season of performances at Temple University - dramas by acclaimed American playwrights, two Broadway hit musicals and a new play by Pulitzer Prize nominee Kristoffer Diaz and more.

The marquees of Broadway theatres in New York will be dimmed in Edward Albee's honor tonight, September 21, 2016, at exactly 7:45pm for one minute.

The historic Theatre Training Workshops of Woodie King, Jr.'s New Federal Theatre will move uptown next month to Dwyer Cultural Center at 258 St. Nicholas Ave. (at 123rd Street).  They were previously held in spaces adjoining the theater's offices at 292 Henry Street.  The workshops have been a fertile training ground for leading African-American playwrights and actors.

The Dramatists Guild Fund and Program Chairs Michael Korie, Laurence O'Keefe, and Diana Son have announced the 2016-2017 class of DG Fellows James Christy, Khiyon Hursey, Patricia Ione Lloyd, Michael R. Jackson, C.A. Johnson, David Mallamud, Zoey Martinson, Madeline Myers, Nicole Pandolfo, and Len Schiff.