American Playwrights News

The 21st annual New American Playwrights Project (NAPP) takes the stage at the Utah Shakespeare Festival from today, August 8 through 30.

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.

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 38th Rolling World Premiere: Lauren Gunderson's I and You will receive three productions through the Network's Continued Life of New Plays Fund in the 2013/14 season. I and Youwill begin its Rolling World Premiere at Marin Theatre Company (Mill Valley, CA, October 10 - November 3, 2013), followed by performances at Olney Theatre Center (Olney, MD, February 26 - March 23, 2014) and Phoenix Theatre (Indianapolis, IN, March 13 - April 14, 2014).

The 21st annual New American Playwrights Project (NAPP) takes the stage at the Utah Shakespeare Festival from August 8 through 30. Three plays will be presented as staged readings in the Auditorium Theatre at 10 a.m.on selected dates. Chosen from hundreds of plays submitted, this year's lineup includes SHUNNED by Larry Parr, TWENTY-SEVEN by Ed Morgan, and ADAM AND YOSHI by Tom Cavanaugh.

Wasatch Theatrical Ventures presents THE DIARY OF Anne Frank by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, newly adapted by Wendy Kesselman, directed by Mark Belnick, produced by Racquel Lehrman/Theatre Planners, playing today, August 3 through August 25 as a guest production at the NoHo Arts Center located in the heart of the NoHo Arts District. The drama is a powerful, chillingly honest and stirring version of the iconic andimpassioned story of eight Dutch Jews- including the incomparable Anne - hiding from the Nazis in a cramped Amsterdam storage attic.

The Drama Desk and Obie Award-winning Keen Company today announced that their 2013 - '14 season will begin with Jon Robin Baitz's acclaimed 1989 play The Film Society, directed by Keen Artistic Director Jonathan Silverstein. It will be followed by a rare revival of Middle Of The Night by Academy Award winner Paddy Chayefsky.

The Alliance Theatre has announced the American premiere of CHOIR BOY, a modern coming of age story by Tarell Alvin McCraney, winner of the 2008 Alliance/Kendeda National Graduate Playwriting Competition for his play In The Red and Brown Water. The American premiere of CHOIR BOY is co-produced by the Manhattan Theatre Club in New York, where CHOIR BOY opened earlier this month to outstanding reviews. The New York production has been extended twice due to popular demand and will close August 11. CHOIR BOY will run on the Hertz Stage at the Alliance Theatre September 20 - October 13, 2013. Opening night is Wednesday, September 25, 2013.

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 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. Opening night is Tuesday, August 27. Based in Mill Valley, MTC is a 47-year old professional nonprofit theater that is a destination for exhilarating performances, inspired new American plays and powerful theatrical experiences.

The OBIE Award-winning NAATCO, National Asian American Theater Company, will kick off their 24th season with Clifford Odets's Awake & Sing! Stephen Fried directs an all-Asian American cast that includes Sanjit de Silva, Mel Duane Gionson, Andrew Ramcharan Guilarte, Mia Katigbak, Teresa Avia Lim, Jon Norman Schneider, David Shih, Alok Tewari, and Henry Yuk. This Off-Broadway limited engagement will begin August 16th at Walker Space (46 Walker Street) and continue through September 8th only. Opening Night is set for August 21st (8pm).

The American Theatre Critic's Association announces the election of veteran Chicago theater critic Jonathan Abarbanel as Chair of the American Theatre Critics Association, at the conclusion of the Association's 40th annual conference on July 20, 2013, held this year in Shepherdstown, WV. He will serve a one-year term as Chair of the Association's nine-member executive committee and may be re-elected for up to two more years.

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, on Saturday, August 17 at 7:00pm at Christ Church Bay Ridge (7301 Ridge Boulevard) in Brooklyn.

In keeping with American Repertory Theater of WNY's mission statement of supporting a new generation of American playwrights, ART is proud to announce, through the Erie Canal Harbor Development, the Young Playwright showcase July 2013 as part of the summer programming on Canalside.

Wasatch Theatrical Ventures presents THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, newly adapted by Wendy Kesselman, directed by Mark Belnick, produced by Racquel Lehrman/Theatre Planners, playing August 3 through August 25 as a guest production at the NoHo Arts Center located in the heart of the NoHo Arts District. The drama is a powerful, chillingly honest and stirring version of the iconic andimpassioned story of eight Dutch Jews- including the incomparable Anne - hiding from the Nazis in a cramped Amsterdam storage attic.

Playwright Lauren Gunderson's I and You will make its World Premiere with the Marin Theatre Company, directed by Sarah Rasmussen (of Oregon Shakespeare Festival's Black Swan Lab for New Work), and featuring Jessica Lynn Carroll (Bellwether) and Devion McArthur (MTC debut), October 10 - November 3, 2013. Opening Night is set for Tuesday, October 15, and previews run Thursday, October 10 - Sunday, October 13.

The MacDowell Colony will award composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim with its 54th Edward MacDowell Medal on Sunday, 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.

The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey has announced an expanded roster of offerings for the Fall semester of its Shakespeare Theatre Academy. Youth and adult classes in a wide range of disciplines connected with classic theatre are available for enrollment. Each class meets once a week and offers participants the opportunity to work under the instruction of The Shakespeare Theatre's renowned artistic and educational staff as well as guest teaching artists.

Juilliard's Drama Division announces the 2013-2014 season of fully-staged productions featuring Juilliard's 43rd group of acting students in their fourth and final year in the drama program at Juilliard. This season's plays include Jeffrey Hatcher's Smash, directed by Victor Pappas; Amy Herzog's The Great God Pan, directed by Maria Mileaf; and Sam Shepard's Buried Child, directed by Daniel Fish. All performances take place in the Stephanie P. McClelland Drama Theater at Juilliard.

From super powers to a super granny, death, a disappearance and the apocalypse, the 8th annual Artists' Exchange One Act Play Festival rollicks through plots and genres leaving no stone unturned. Presented in two 2 week 'waves,' these thirteen plays offer a refreshingly brief and varied sampling of emerging and established American playwrights. Local playwrights include Epic Theatre Company's Kevin Broccoli (Wave I), Trinity Repertory Company Member Alexandar Platt (Wave II) and Ben Jolivet (Wave I & II).

Actor Khalil Kain, who is known for edgy character roles on film and for the TV series 'Girlfriends,' will make his stage directing debut with Sam Shepard's 'Buried Child,' to be presented by Aaron Davis Hall as an Equity LORT/LOA production from tonight, July 11 to August 3. The production uses a multi-racial cast to reinterpret the underlying symbols of Shepard's landmark play, in which the misfortunes of a Midwestern farming family reveal both the demise and endurance of the American Dream.

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.