American Playwrights News

Abingdon Theatre Company (producers of MY DEAH and TEXAS HOMOS) concludes its 17th season with the New York premiere of SISTER MYOTIS'S BIBLE CAMP, a new play written by Steve Swift and directed by Jerre Dye. It centers on three Southern ladies on a mission to save souls.

Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) has announced additional casting for its 2010/2011 40th Anniversary Season.

Marin Theatre Company is proud to kick off its 2010-11 season with Part One of The Brother / Sister Plays trilogy, In the Red and Brown Water by Tarell Alvin McCraney, directed by MTC Producing Director Ryan Rilette, September 9 through October 3, 2010. The opening night performance is Tuesday, September 14 at 8 pm.

Penumbra Theatre Company, the nation's preeminent African American theatre, proudly announced today the second annual Word(s)PLAY!, a forum designed to develop new plays by African American playwrights.

Marin Theatre Company has announced an extension of their revival of Woody Guthrie's American Song. The show now plays in Marin Theatre Company's Boyer Theatre through June 27, 2010. Conceived, adapted and directed by Peter Glazer, this musical has been pleasing audiences since its premiere in 1988. It won the Bay Area Critics Circle Award for best musical in its co-production at Berkeley Rep and San Jose Repertory Theatre in 1992.

Native Voices at the Autry, America's leading Native American theater company, continues its tradition of excellence in developing works by new and established Native American playwrights at its highly regarded PLAYWRIGHTS RETREAT AND FESTIVAL OF NEW PLAYS, culminating in public readings of three new works on Saturday, June 26, 2010, 1 PM, and Sunday, June 27, 1 PM and 4 PM, at the Autry National Center in Los Angeles.

Marin Theatre Company announced today that due to extraordinary ticket demand it will extend Woody Guthrie's American Song by one week. Bay Area audiences now have the chance to enjoy this stirring musical through June 27.

Native Voices at the Autry, America's leading Native American theater company, continues its tradition of excellence in developing works by new and established Native American playwrights at its highly regarded PLAYWRIGHTS RETREAT AND FESTIVAL OF NEW PLAYS, culminating in public readings of three new works on Saturday, June 26, 2010, 1 PM, and Sunday, June 27, 1 PM and 4 PM, at the Autry National Center in Los Angeles.

Playwrights Horizons (Artistic Director, Tim Sanford; Managing Director, Leslie Marcus) and New York Theatre Workshop (Artistic Director, James C. Nicola; Managing Director, William Russo) have announced that they will co-produce THE SHAGGS: PHILOSOPHY OF THE WORLD, a new musical with book by Joy Gregory; music by Gunnar Madsen; lyrics by Ms. Gregory and Mr. Madsen; and story by Ms. Gregory, Mr. Madsen and John Langs.

Marin Theatre Company has announced an extension of their revival of Woody Guthrie's American Song. The show now plays in Marin Theatre Company's Boyer Theatre through June 27, 2010. Conceived, adapted and directed by Peter Glazer, this musical has been pleasing audiences since its premiere in 1988. It won the Bay Area Critics Circle Award for best musical in its co-production at Berkeley Rep and San Jose Repertory Theatre in 1992.

Pawnshop, a new play by Atlanta playwright Tiffany Parks, will be given a staged reading in Nashville Monday night, June 21, by The African American Playwrights Exchange. The reading will be held upstairs at Bongo Java, 2007 Belmont Boulevard. Pawnshop focuses on relations between members of Atlanta's African-American and Jewish communities in the 1950s and is the winner of the AAPEX Best New Play 2010 award.

Arkansas Repertory Theatre announced today that Ed Bullins will be honored at an awards ceremony July 14, 2010 during The Rep's Voices at the River II. The playwrights' residency program is designed to support Latino- and African-American playwrights nationally and in Arkansas.

The Open Fist Theatre Company presents a new show in their 2010 season SORORITY QUEEN IN A MOBILE HOME, written by Michael DiGaetano & Kevin A. Mahoney and directed by Paul Kampf . SORORITY QUEEN IN A MOBILE HOME will preview on Wednesday, June 9 at 8pm; Thursday, June 10 at 8pm; and will open on Wednesday, June 16 at 8pm and run through Thursday, July 15 at The Open Fist Theatre, 6209 Santa Monica Blvd. in Hollywood.

Next To Normal's Brian d'Arcy James and South Pacific's Kelli O'Hara, who formerly costarred in Broadway's Sweet Smell of Success, are set to star in the Keen Company's world premiere reading of 'And Then I Wrote 'The Music Man' on June 16 at the Lucille Lortel Theatre. The reading, part of the company's 10th Annual Benefit, will be directed by Carl Forsman and will feature musical direction and accompaniment by Brian Cimmet.

Middle East America: A National New Plays Initiative, created by Golden Thread Productions in San Francisco, the Lark Play Development Center in New York, and Silk Road Theatre Project in Chicago, is gearing up for the second round of the program which represents the first national effort to actively cultivate and support the development of Middle Eastern-American playwrights and their plays.

Artistic Director Gregory Boyd announced that the Alley Theatre subscription season, the Theatre's 64th, will combine two world premieres, including Rajiv Joseph's psychological thriller The Medusa Body and Herbert Siguenza's new solo play A Weekend With Pablo Picasso, with new large-scale productions of Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Would Not Grow Up, the fantasy by J.M. Barrie, Pygmalion, George Bernard Shaw's great romantic comedy and Amadeus, Peter Shaffer's Tony Award-winning play.

STANDING ON CEREMONY: THE GAY MARRIAGE PLAYS, a collection of short plays written for marriage equality to benefit Human Rights Campaign, Marriage Equality New York and New York Theatre Workshop will take place on Monday, June 14, 2010 at 7:00 p.m. at the Angel Orensanz Center, 172 Norfolk Street in New York City, between Houston and Stanton Streets. Dancing and a glamorous wedding reception will follow.

BTC Productions and Robert Nicotra are proud to present Men Without Myth: Three One Acts by Italian American Playwrights at the Theatre at 30th Street, from June 3 to June 13, 2010. In a world where there are social and financial pressures everyday, three artists who sacrificed security and the norm to pursue their passions, cross each other's path through kismet.

Philadelphia Theatre Company concludes its 2009-2010 season with August Wilson's masterpiece and first Broadway success Ma Rainey's Black Bottom on May 21-June 13.

59E59 Theaters (Elysabeth Kleinhans, Artistic Director; Peter Tear, Executive Producer) announces Page 73's World Premiere production of JACK'S PRECIOUS MOMENT, written by Samuel D. Hunter and directed by Kip Fagan, part of the AMERICAS OFF BROADWAY festival.