American Playwrights News

Last week, Mill Valley resident Noralee Monestere McKersie became the development director of Marin Theatre Company. Formerly, the associate director of major and special gifts of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and executive director of the Marin Symphony, McKersie assumed her full-time duties at MTC on February 18, 2014.

Native Voices at the Autry continues its vital role as the country's only equity theatre company dedicated exclusively to developing the work of Native American Playwrights with the world premiere Equity production of Stand-Off at HWY #37 by Vickie Ramirez (Tuscarora*), directed by Jon Lawrence Rivera, featuring 16 performances running from tonight, February 28 to Sunday, March 16, 2014 (previews Wednesday and Thursday, February 26-27) at the Wells Fargo Theater.

Kindling Theatre Company has announced the World Premiere of TAKE ME BACK, written by Emily Schwend and directed by Jay Stull. TAKE ME BACK begins performances tonight, February 28 for a limited engagement through Saturday, March 22. Opening Night is Wednesday, March 5 at 8 PM. The performance schedule is Wednesday - Saturday at 8 PM, with added performances on Monday, March 3 and Tuesday, March 4 at 8 PM. Performances are at Walkerspace (46 Walker Street, between Broadway and Church Streets).

Community Matters is a series of free events presented in partnership between People's Light and numerous local organizations to spark dialogue about vital issues in our community. Performed readings of new plays are the centerpiece of each evening. Our partner organizations will be there to capture the enthusiasm and excitement that can come from the emotional response to a work of art, and then a well-led public discussion forum. This third season of Community Matters includes new scripts focused on racism, identity, local history, and the healing power of music.

It was announced today that this year's Daryl Roth Creative Spirit Award will be presented to Playing on Air, which produces short plays by prominent, contemporary American playwrights for a national audience via public radio and the Internet. Dedicated to nurturing and supporting theatre artists, The Daryl Roth Creative Spirit Award, named for the multi-Award-winning producer, is a financial grant given annually to a theatre artist or organization who has demonstrated exceptional promise in their field.

Last night at Opening Night of Carson Kreitzer's Lasso of Truth, Marin Theatre Company's artistic director Jasson Minadakis and managing director Michael Barker announced the company's 2014-15 season programming today. Featuring six new plays by living contemporary playwrights in MTC's intimate 231-seat mainstage Boyer Theatre, the season includes:

Perseverance Theatre opens Pulitzer Prize winning Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tenessee Williams. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is showing on the Perseverance Theatre Mainstage March 7 - March 30, 2014.

Award winning actress, singer and artistic activist Suzzanne Douglas and Nehassaiu deGannes star in a benefit reading of Stay With Me by Belgium playwright Olivier Coyette at Luna Stage on Sunday, March 16th at 7pm.

Performances begin tonight for Roundabout Theatre Company's third annual Roundabout Underground Reading Series. The actors involved in the series include: Pico Alexander, Fred Applegate, De'Adre Aziza, David Aaron Baker, Cassie Beck, Michael Chernus, Diane Davis, Dashiell Eaves, Ryan Eggold, Lisa Emery, Sue Jean Kim, Chad Kimball, Jessica Love, Lizbeth Mackay, Annie McNamara, Alex Mickiewicz, Aaron Clifton Moten, Olivia Oguma, Tonya Pinkins, Paul Pontrelli, Conrad Ricamora, Reg Rogers, Debra Jo Rupp, Campbell Scott and Max von Essen.

Playing on Air, which presents readings of short plays by prominent, contemporary American playwrights for a national audience via public radio and the Internet, inaugurates a new initiative next month. On consecutive Mondays in March, Playing on Air presents its first plays for radio broadcast taped in front of live audiences.

The NATIONAL NEW PLAY NETWORK (NNPN), the country's alliance of non-profit theaters that champions the development, production, and continued life of new plays, announces its 40th Rolling World Premiere: Carson Kreitzer's Lasso of Truth will receive three productions through the Network's Continued Life of New Plays Fund in the 2013/14 season. Lasso of Truth will begin its Rolling World Premiere at Marin Theatre Company (Mill Valley, CA, tonight, February 20 - March 16, 2014), followed by performances at Synchronicity Theatre (Atlanta, GA, March 20 - April 13, 2014) and Unicorn Theatre (Kansas City, MO, January 21 - February 8, 2015).

This February Company of Fools (COF) will present the critically acclaimed and award-winning play, Good People, by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Lindsay-Abaire. As part of The Center's multi-disciplinary project Creativity and Work, COF will present 13 public performances running now through March 1. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

Rehearsals started today for the Alliance Theatre's world premiere of THE TALL GIRLS, a play set in the depression-era Midwest where the success of a girls' basketball team may be the only way to a better life for the team's members. Playwright Meg Miroshnik, winner of the 2012 Alliance/Kendeda National Graduate Playwriting Competition for her play The Fairytale Lives of Russian Girls, has been described by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution as 'a ferocious talent with a promising career in store.'

Writers Lab, the largest collective of Asian-American playwrights in the country, continues its annual tradition of presenting a 'stunt' event, announcing today that this year's evening of brand-new short plays centered around a contemporary, pressing theme will be held at the Mainstage Theater at Playwrights Horizons. The event, called Mga Kasabihan, which is Tagalog for Words of Wisdom, will be a benefit for recovery efforts in the Philippines.

Join Marin Theatre Company for 'Dinner and a Show' to celebrate and support MTC's artistic excellence and transformative education programs. The event is set for Sunday, March 9, 2014 from 2 to 7 p.m.

The evening will be co-hosted by two of the company's alumni actors: two-time Tony Award winner David Hyde Pierce (at PH in Richard Greenberg's The Maderati in 1987) and two-time Tony Award nominee, two-time Obie Award winner and 2012 Special Drama Desk Award winner Mary Testa (at PH in William Finn's In Trousers in 1979, Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty's Lucky Stiff in 1988, Tom Donaghy's From Above in 1998/Obie Award and Kathleen Tolan's The Wax in 2000).

Playwrights Horizons presents the New York premiere production of STAGE KISS, a new play marking the eagerly-awaited return of two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist Sarah Ruhl (Dead Man's Cell Phone at PH; The Clean House, In the Next Room...) to the theater company. Directed by Rebecca Taichman (Milk Like Sugar at PH; the current Marie Antoinette, Orlando, The Scene, Luck of the Irish), the production begins previews this evening, February 7 at 8PM with an Opening Night set for Sunday, March 2 at 7PM. The limited engagement will play through Sunday evening, March 23 at Playwrights Horizons' Mainstage Theater (416 West 42nd Street).

Marin Theatre Company presents the Write Nite/Play Day 24-Hour Playwriting Festival, featuring high school theater artists from Marin County today, February 7, 2014 at 8:00 p.m. and Saturday, February 8, 2014 at 10:00 p.m. (Performance: Saturday, February 8, 2014 at 8:00pm) at the Marin Theatre Company, 397 Miller Avenue, Mill Valley, Calif.

Chicago-Northlight Theatre, under the direction of Artistic Director BJ Jones and Executive Director Timothy J. Evans, announces a forthcoming artistic exchange with Ireland through the co-production of Chapatti, a new work developed through Northlight's Interplay program. The co-production of Chapatti will premiere at Northlight Theatre, 9501 Skokie Blvd in Skokie, March 7-April 13, 2014, and will open at the Galway Arts Festival in July 2014. Chapatti, by acclaimed Irish playwright Christian O' Reilly, will be directed by Artistic Director BJ Jones and will feature John Mahoney and Penny Slusher.

Luna Stage, a professional theatre in West Orange, NJ is now accepting submissions for the Second Annual New Moon Short Play Festival.