American Playwrights News

New York University celebrates the re-opening of the historic Provincetown Playhouse this fall with a series of events that captures the spirit of the original Playwrights' Theater, founded at 133-39 MacDougal Street in 1916.

Acclaimed theater company Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) has announced the initial line-up of performers participating in the popular return of its unique benefit event STORIES ON 5 STORIES on Monday evening, November 1.

Abingdon Theatre Company kicks off its 2010-2011 Season with the New York premiere of Reggie Cheong-Leen's award winning play THE NANJING RACE

Abingdon Theatre Company kicks off its 2010-2011 Season with the New York premiere of Reggie Cheong-Leen's award winning play THE NANJING RACE

Staying true to its roots of bringing provocative, thoughtful and, quite often, conversation-generating plays to Herberger Theatre's Stage West, Actors Theatre opens its 25th anniversary season with Sarah Ruhl's In The Next Room (Or The Vibrator Play), a comedy about marriage, intimacy and electricity, from Oct. 29 through Nov. 14.

Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) has announced complete casting for the World Premiere of A SMALL FIRE, a new play by Obie Award winner Adam Bock (The Drunken City at PH, The Receptionist, The Thugs, Swimming in the Shallows).

Join some of the most talented playwrights of the American theater during the McCarterLab fall festival 2010, October 27 through November 5, to hear their newest plays aloud in this series of unstaged readings and special events.

Acclaimed theater company Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) has announced the initial line-up of performers participating in the popular return of its unique benefit event STORIES ON 5 STORIES on Monday evening, November 1.

The Drama Desk and Obie Award-winning Keen Company (Carl Forsman, Artistic Director/Wayne Kelton, Executive Director) today announced their 10th anniversary season celebrating the work of Michael Frayn, author of such acclaimed hits as Noises Off and Copenhagen. First will be the US premiere of Alphabetical Order, based on the revised version performed at the Hampstead Theater for their 2009 revival. Mr. Forsman will direct. This will be followed by the 25th Anniversary production of Benefactors this spring.

Chance Theater is pleased to present the Orange County premiere of the Tony, Drama Desk, New York Critics, and Outer Critics Circle Award-Winning black comedy/drama The Goat, or Who is Sylvia? by three-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Edward Albee, September 24 - October 24, 2010.

Santa Rosa's 6th Street Playhouse announces its 2010-2011 'All-American' season featuring four musicals and eight plays. The twelve-show season offers a wide variety of theater productions, from Aug. 13, 2010 through June 26, 2011, including family musicals, comedies, American classics and two world premieres.

As Arena Stage begins a new life in its renovated home at the Mead Center for American Theater in Southwest D.C., it opens its inaugural season with a classic American musical that similarly embraces life on a new frontier. Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! is the first production at the Mead Center and features an all-star cast under the direction of Artistic Director Molly Smith. Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! runs October 22-December 26, 2010 in the Fichandler Stage.

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 two readings of esteemed playwright Carolyn Dunn's (Muskogee Creek, Cherokee*)

Join some of the most talented playwrights of the American theater during the McCarterLab fall festival 2010, October 27 through November 5, to hear their newest plays aloud in this series of unstaged readings and special events.

The announcement of the 2010 L.A. Stage Alliance Ovation Award nominees has been set for Monday, October 18 at 7:00 pm. The event will be hosted by Native Voices at the Autry, the resident theatre company at the Autry National Center, located in Griffith Park at 4700 Western Heritage Way in Los Angeles.

Abingdon Theatre Company -- which has produced more than 60 new American plays in its 17-year history, including THE ENGLISH CHANNEL by Robert Brustein - is set to honor Mr. Brustein, the acclaimed playwright, producer and educator, during ABINGDON PLAYS TO WIN, its annual fundraising gala on Monday, October 18 at 7pm at Bridgewaters (11 Fulton Street, near South Street Seaport) in downtown Manhattan.

Oscar Winning Actress Halle Berry's portable perfume Pure Orchid will be gifted to the audience of solo show Mulatto Saga while supplies last.

Award-Winning Hollywood Filmmaker Charles Burnett said it was the subject matter that attracted him to the controversial theatrical production Mulatto Saga, written and performed by Juliette Fairley.

Goodman Theatre announces the 12-member cast for Robert Fall's intimate new production of Anton Chekhov's The Seagull (rehearsals begin August 24, tickets go on sale August 13). This 19th century masterpiece is brought to life by a company including Francis Guinan (August: Osage County; The Grapes of Wrath) in his Goodman debut as the retired judge Peter Sorin and Mary Beth Fisher (Rock 'N' Roll; The Year of Magical Thinking) as his sister, Irina Arkadina, a beautiful, selfish actress. Also joining the cast are Janet Ulrich Brooks (Polina); Rebecca Buller (Maid); Cliff Chamberlain (Boris Trigorin, Irina's young lover), Dietrich Gray (Yakov); Stephen Louis Grush (Konstantin Trepliov, Irina's twenty-five year old playwright son); Scott Jaeck (Dr. Eugene Dorn); Kelly O'Sullivan (Masha); Steve Pickering (Ilia Shamrayev, Sorin's estate manager); Demetrios Troy (Simon Medvendenko); and Heather Wood (Nina Zarietchnaya). The Seagull runs October 16 - November 14, 2010 in the Owen Theatre; tickets are $10 - $45. Kirkland & Ellis LLP is the Contributing Sponsor of The Seagull.Artistic Director Robert Falls returns to the work of Anton Chekhov following previous productions of Three Sisters at the Goodman (1995, with a cast including Calista Flockhart, Susan Bruce and Jenny Bacon) and Orchards: Seven American Playwrights Present Stories by Chekhov (1986, adaptations by Maria Irene Fornes, Spalding Gray, John Guare, David Mamet, Wendy Wasserstein, Michael Weller and Samm-Art Williams-The Acting Company/New York, tour with off-Broadway opening).

convergence-continuum, continues its 2010 Season at the Liminis theatre with the Ohio premiere of Brainpeople, a surreal psychological drama, by Jose Rivera. Brainpeople opens Friday, Oct. 15 and runs at 8 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays through Nov. 13 at the Liminis, 2438 Scranton Rd., Cleveland, OH 44113. Tickets are $15 general admission, $12 for students and seniors (65+). For reservations and information call 216-687-0074 or visit www.convergence-continuum.org on the web.