American Playwrights News

In a special winter presentation, Sydney Theatre Company returns to BAM with Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire, directed by renowned actor/director/writer Liv Ullmann and featuring Academy Award-winning actress/Sydney Theatre Company Co-Artistic Director Cate Blanchett as Blanche DuBois, Joel Edgerton at Stanley Kowalski, Robin McLeavey as Stella Kowalski, and Tim Richards as Mitch. The production marks Liv Ullmann's U.S. directorial debut and Blanchett's second BAM engagement-following her acclaimed performance in Sydney Theatre Company's Hedda Gabler (2006 Spring Season). The production will run from November 27- through December 20.

Abingdon Theatre Company to host Post-Performance Talkback on producing and playwriting Tuesday, October 20 following the 7pm performance of new hit comedy by Robert Cary and Benjamin Feldman

A panel of prominent American playwrights including Kia Corthron, Lisa Kron and Adam Rapp, will discuss with celebrated photographer Ken Collins how they approach creating portraits with words and with a camera, respectively at a one-time-only event entitled 'Face to Face: Portraits in Theatre and Photography' on Monday, October 26 at 7 p.m. at New Dramatists (424 W. 44 St.) in Manhattan. Presented by the Off-Broadway theater company, The Play Company as part of its Idea Lab series, in conjunction with Umbrage Editions, the evening will also feature brief excerpts from the playwrights' work along with an exhibition of photographs from 'In Their Company,' a series of black and white portraits by Mr. Collins that portray some of America's most distinguished playwrights. A reception follows in the New Dramatists Library.

Philadelphia Theatre Company, the city's premier producer of new American theatre, reaffirms its commitment to supporting new plays by American playwrights with its STAGES series, a new play reading series, beginning Monday, October 19 at 7PM at the Suzanne Roberts Theatre (Broad and Lombard Streets) during the run of its current production, Humor Abuse starring Lorenzo Pisoni. The opening program will be a reading of Silverhill by Philadelphia playwright Thomas Gibbons, directed by Richard Corley, who has directed PTC's mainstage productions of Broken Glass by Arthur Miller, A Question of Mercy by David Rabe, The Woods by David Mamet, and Sight Unseen by Donald Margulies.

Eating Their Words, which weds New York's most innovative chefs with the voices of great American playwrights for unprecedented culinary and theatrical events, announces the exquisite menu for its upcoming Tocqueville Event at Tocqueville Restaurant, Monday October 19th, 7PM. Reinventing 'dinner theater' as an artistic collaboration between chef and playwrights, the diner experiences three short plays happening at the table next to them, voyeuristically overhearing a conversation (the short play) taking place over meal.

Eating Their Words, producer of unprecedented theatrical and culinary events, will feature Tony nominee Isabel Keating (The Boy from Oz), Christopher Evan Welch (Festen, Vicky Cristina Barcelona), Austin Lysy (An American Plan), and Aya Cash (From Up Here, the upcoming Killers and Other Family) in new short plays by Pulitzer Prize finalist Theresa Rebeck (Mauritius, The Understudy), Jonathan Marc Sherman (Things We Want), and Sam Forman (The Rise and Fall of Annie Hall) at ?The Tocqueville Event?, Monday October 19th at 7PM.

National and local Asian American theater artists and companies are 'Articulating New Bodies of Words' at the 2nd NATIONAL ASIAN AMERICAN THEATER FESTIVAL One Week Only! October 13-18 at Theater for the New City and Julia Miles Theatre

National and local Asian American theater artists and companies are 'Articulating New Bodies of Words' at the 2nd NATIONAL ASIAN AMERICAN THEATER FESTIVAL One Week Only! October 13-18 at Theater for the New City and Julia Miles Theatre

Native Voices at the Autry, America's leading Native American theater company, launches its 2009-10 main stage play series with the world premiere of CARBON BLACK by Terry Gomez. The humor-tinged suspenseful psychological drama, directed by Native Voices Founder/Producing Artistic Director Randy Reinholz, runs Saturday, November 7 to Sunday, November 22, 2009 (previews begin Wednesday, November 4). Gripping and enigmatic, the play vividly portrays the relationship between an agoraphobic mother and her precocious son, who claims to have witnessed a horrific murder. The mother's refusal to acknowledge the tale and her crippling dependence on sensationalized media coverage of violence around the globe serve to hold them both hostage and isolated. The award-winning cast includes actress Tonantzín Carmelo, Sheila Tousey, Stephan Wolfert and Michael Drummond.

The Horton Foote Festival will honor critically acclaimed playwright Craig Wright as the 2009 recipient of the Horton Foote Excellence in American Playwriting Award, according to notes on the Horton Foote Festival website. Amongst the events taking place during the festival weekend will be readings of Wright's plays ‘Grace' and ‘The Pavilion', academic panel discussions of his work, and a tribute to Horton Foote.

National and local Asian American theater artists and companies are 'Articulating New Bodies of Words' at the 2nd NATIONAL ASIAN AMERICAN THEATER FESTIVAL One Week Only! October 13-18 at Theater for the New City and Julia Miles Theatre

Geva Theatre Center's 2009/10 Season continues with THE CLEAN HOUSE by Sarah Ruhl, which opens on October 13 and runs on the Mainstage through November 8.

National and local Asian American theater artists and companies are 'Articulating New Bodies of Words' at the 2nd NATIONAL ASIAN AMERICAN THEATER FESTIVAL One Week Only! October 13-18 at Theater for the New City and Julia Miles Theatre

National and local Asian American theater artists and companies are 'Articulating New Bodies of Words' at the 2nd NATIONAL ASIAN AMERICAN THEATER FESTIVAL One Week Only! October 13-18 at Theater for the New City and Julia Miles Theatre

National and local Asian American theater artists and companies are 'Articulating New Bodies of Words' at the 2nd NATIONAL ASIAN AMERICAN THEATER FESTIVAL One Week Only! October 13-18 at Theater for the New City and Julia Miles Theatre

The 2nd National Asian American Theater Festival will kick-off with performances on Tuesday, October 13 at Theater for the New City (155 First Ave. at 10th St.), followed by an opening party event from 9:30 to 11:30 p.m. at Bubble Lounge (228 W. Broadway) in Manhattan.

Philadelphia Theatre Company, the city's premier producer of new American theatre, reaffirms its commitment to supporting new plays by American playwrights with its STAGES series, a new play reading series, beginning Monday, October 19 at 7PM at the Suzanne Roberts Theatre (Broad and Lombard Streets) during the run of its current production, Humor Abuse starring Lorenzo Pisoni.

Marin Theatre Company will produce the world premiere of its 2009 Sky Cooper New American Play Prize winner, Sunlight by Sharr White, January 21 through February 14, 2010. In addition to the Sky Cooper Prize, Sunlight has garnered substantial national recognition. Following MTC's premiere, this searing political thriller will be produced at three other theaters as part of a National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere-Arts West in Seattle, Phoenix Theatre in Indianapolis, and New Jersey Rep.

Five years after receiving a Drama Desk nomination for Best Revival of a Play for their production of Pullman Car Hiawatha, two short plays by Thornton Wilder, Keen Company (Artistic Director Carl Forsman, Executive Director Wayne Kelton) kicks of their tenth anniversary season with the New York professional premiere of Such Things Only Happen in Books, an evening of short plays by Thornton Wilder directed by Carl Forsman and Jonathan Silverstein.

Philadelphia Theatre Company, the city's premier producer of new American theatre, reaffirms its commitment to supporting new plays by American playwrights with its STAGES series, a new play reading series, beginning Monday, October 19 at 7PM at the Suzanne Roberts Theatre (Broad and Lombard Streets) during the run of its current production, Humor Abuse starring Lorenzo Pisoni.