American Playwrights News

Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol by Tom Mula will be presented by Marin Theatre Company, directed by Jon Tracy (It's a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play) and featuring Khris Lewin (A Steady Rain), Rami Margron (debut), Nicholas Pelczar (The Whipping Man) and Stacy Ross (God of Carnage), November 21 - December 15, 2013.

Cygnet Theatre, in collaboration with Playwrights Project, is proud to present the second annual Playwrights in Process: New Play Festival. Cygnet Theatre has long been committed to celebrating human stories through the medium of live theatre. Playwrights in Process will present four readings of new plays by Rachael VanWormer, Ross Tedford Kendall, Robert John Ford and Todd Goodlett, each of whom is a Southern California playwright or a writer with strong regional connections. The four winners were selected from 54 submissions from across the country.

Native Voices at the Autry, America's leading Native American theatre company with a mission to develop new plays by emerging and established Native playwrights, announces its 2013-14 season, which spotlights themes of law, lawmakers, lawyers and activists.

Scenes and Monologues from Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award Finalists, 2008-2012 (Applause Books, Sept. 2013, $19.99) presents some of the finest, sharpest scenes and monologues from the award finalists of 2008-2012. The chosen scripts include groundbreaking and contemporary work by promising playwrights such as Sara Ruhl, Tracy Letts, Donald Margulies, Bill Cain, Rinne Groff, Quaira Alegria Hudes, Yussef El Guindi, and Rebecca Gilman.

Laurence Luckinbill, Tony Award-nominated actor, author and Abingdon Theatre Company Honorary Board Member, will read his new one-man show ABRAHAM in the June Havoc Theatre (312 West 36th Street) on Monday, September 16 at 7:00pm. All tickets are $25 and include a wine reception following the reading. Proceeds benefit Abingdon's upcoming 21st Season and its mission to develop and produce new plays by American playwrights.

Marin Theatre Company opens its 2013-14 Season with the Bay Area premiere of the national and Broadway hit play Good People by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Lindsay-Abaire. Running for a limited time from tonight, August 22 to September 15, this 'poignant, brave and subversive' (New York Post) new play will be directed by TraCy Young, an Oregon Shakespeare Festival regular, and feature a local cast that includes Bay Area and Sacramento veterans Amy Resnick, Mark Anderson Phillips, Anne Darragh and Jamie Jones.

The New American Playwrights Project at the Tony Award-winning, Utah Shakespeare Festival has selected L.A. playwright Tom Cavanaugh for the second time to participate in the company's premiere development theater workshop. He will develop his new play ADAM & YOSHI. Cavanaugh is the first out-of-state playwright to attend the program for a second time. In 2010, the Project developed his play BEHOLD, which explores what happens to a family when it loses a child in a school shooting caused by bullying. BEHOLD is now being considered for an Off-Broadway production in New York City and a TV movie with major cable networks in Los Angeles.

Angelina Fiordellisi, Founding Artistic Director of Cherry Lane Theatre, announces the following productions for the company's 2013-14 season:

Marin Theatre Company (part of MTC's Theater Series for Young Audiences) will present RAPUNZEL, adapted by Mike Kenny, based on the Brothers Grimm fairy tale and directed by Daunielle Rasmussen, November 2-10, 2013.

Abingdon Theatre Company-which has produced 81 new American plays since 1993 - celebrates its 21st season with the second annual ABINGDON BAY RIDGE ONE-ACT FESTIVAL, an evening of three world-premiere short plays, commissioned by Abingdon Theatre Company, by Allston James, Stephen Kaplan and Katalina Mustatea, today, August 17 at 7:00pm at Christ Church Bay Ridge (7301 Ridge Boulevard) in Brooklyn.

The Sunday Series at Abingdon will present A LITTLE BIT OF THIS AND THAT, a special one night only workshop benefit performance of three new one acts by New York-based playwright Charles Messina on September 22. Proceeds will benefit the programs of the not-for-profit Abingdon Theatre.

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 Truthwill 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, 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).

Lark Play Development Center is proud to announce that seven plays have been chosen for its 20th annual Playwrights' Week, which will take place September 23rd - 28th.

SALON/SANCTUARY CONCERTS opens its fifth season with the return of 'THE HEIRS OF TANTALUS'.

The Sunday Series at Abingdon will present A LITTLE BIT OF THIS AND THAT, a special one night only workshop benefit performance on September 22 of three new one acts by New York-based playwright Charles Messina. Proceeds will benefit the programs of the not-for-profit Abingdon Theatre.

The Obie and Drama Desk Award-winning Ma-Yi Theater Company -- one of the nation's leading theaters dedicated to developing and producing new and innovative plays by Asian American writers -- will celebrate its 25th anniversary season in 2013-14, beginning with the New York premiere of BIKE AMERICA by Mike Lew, with previews September 24 prior to an official opening night on October 1 Off-Broadway at The Theater at St. Clement's (423 W. 46 St.) in Manhattan.

In the pantheon of American playwrights, only Eugene O'Neill, Tennessee Williams and Thornton Wilder, can rival the artistic and cultural significance of Arthur Miller. In 1947, 'Death of a Salesman' won the second Tony Award for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize. In the years since, such stars as George C. Scott, Dustin Hoffman, Brian Dennehy, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, and John Malkovich have appeared in subsequent revivals; all told the five Broadway productions of 'Death of a Salesman' have won 21 major awards, including 12 Tonys.

The MacDowell Colony will award composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim with its 54th Edward MacDowell Medal today, August 11. The MacDowell Colony, the nation's first artist residency program, has awarded the medal annually since 1960 to an individual artist who has made an outstanding contribution to his or her field. This year marks the first time a luminary has been chosen from the realm of musical theatre and Sondheim's generous offering of his talents to the stage made him a clear choice.

Bay Area Children's Theatre and Marin Theatre Company will present The Cat in the Hat, adapted by Katie Mitchell and based on the book by Dr. Seuss, directed by Erin Merritt and originally produced by National Theatre of Great Britain, August 10-18, 2013.

The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust today announced that the Sixth Annual Steinberg Playwright 'Mimi' Awards will be presented on Monday, November 18, 2013. The 'Mimi' Awards are presented biennially to honor the accomplishments of some of the most gifted up-and-coming American playwrights and to recognize the promise they hold for the future of American theater.