American Playwrights News

A graceful examination of a collision of cultures. A comedy about the hilarious eccentricities of Midwestern family life. A big Broadway musical where lonely hearts fall in love. A play about an artist's responsibility for his art with some of the most beautiful music in the world. After 86 years, the 2019 season at the Peterborough Players promises to continue their tradition of producing delightful, surprising, thought-provoking professional theatre at the highest level. In addition, this year boasts an entire season of American playwrights.

Victory Gardens Theater Artistic Director Chay Yew, Executive Director Erica Daniels and Director of New Play Development Skyler Gray announce the lineup for the 2019 IGNITION Festival of New Plays, including The Tasters by Meghan Brown; The Gradient by Steph Del Rosso; [hieroglyph] by Erika Dickerson-Despenza; #NEWSLAVES by Keelay Gipson; Reckoning: Furies from a New Queer Nation by Geraldine Inoa; and They Could Give No Name by Exal Iraheta. The 2019 Festival runs August 2 -4, 2019 at Victory Gardens Theater, located at 2433 N Lincoln Avenue.

EgoPo Classic Theater in Philadelphia announces the hiring of Associate Producer, Dane Eissler, and Managing Director, Katrina Foy, arriving in July at the start of the 2019-2020 "Shepard Country" Festival Season, joining founder and Artistic Director Lane Savadove in leading the organization.  Foy succeeds Shayna Freed as Managing Director, who served in the role since 2015.  Eissler is the first in the Associate Producer role, marking a time of growth and opportunity for EgoPo's future.

The Queen of France, an assassin, and a freed slave woman run into each other at an artist's loft in 1790s Paris. 'The Revolutionists' is a comedy about the serious subject of female subjugation through the centuries.

Playwrights Foundation, the West Coast's premiere launchpad for exceptional emerging playwrights has named the artistic teams and daily schedule for the 2019 Bay Area Playwrights Festival (BAPF). The 2019 Bay Area Playwrights Festival runs July 19-28, 2019 at Potrero Stage at the base of San Francisco's Potrero hill. In addition to twelve staged readings, the Festival will offer a Theater Professionals weekend and engagement activities.

Mildred's Umbrella offers some interesting collaborations and some off-the-beaten path projects, as we continue our quest for a new permanent space. As you might have heard, the space we were calling home was sold to developers, leaving our little company homeless for the time being. However, we wouldn't let a little thing like that stop us from creating a season of projects that we think will keep our audiences engaged and our artists creating while we look for a new home. "We've been a gypsy company before" said Artistic Director Jennifer Decker. "We will not be doing as many full blown productions, but we can still create amazing art in different spaces while we look for a new home. Great art can happen anywhere."

On June 10, StageSource will hold an open house to welcome Jarvis Green, Monica Ndounou, Harold Steward and other individuals to celebrate and draw focus to the shift in artistic leadership in New England and changing face of New England Theatre.

The OBIE Award-winning NAATCO, National Asian American Theatre Company, kicks off their 29th season with the World Premiere of Gordon Dahlquist's [Veil Widow Conspiracy]. Aneesha Kudtarkar directs a cast that will include Edward Chin-Lyn, Kimiye Corwin, Bruce McKenzie, David Shih, James Seol, Karoline Xu, and Aaron Yoo. This Off-Broadway limited engagement at Next Door at New York Theatre Workshop (79 East 4th Street) will begin performances Saturday June 8th with Opening Night set for June 15th (7pm).  Performances continue through July 6th only.

American Theater Group and Producing Artistic Director James Vagias present the Tony Award-winning musical The Bridges of Madison County at the South Orange Performing Arts Center June 20-30. Based on the best-selling novel and hit film starring Meryl Streep and Clint Eastwood, The Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller was developed by the Pulitzer and Tony Award-winning creative team of Jason Robert Brown (The Last Five Years, Parade, Songs for a New World) and Marsha Norman (The Color Purple, The Secret Garden, 'night Mother).

East West Players (EWP), the nation's longest-running professional theatre of color in the country and the largest producing organization of Asian American artistic work, is pleased to announce its 54th Season, We Are the Ones We Are Waiting For. After a highly successful 53rd Anniversary Season, EWP's upcoming 2019/2020 season takes place from Summer 2019 through Spring 2020 and consists of four productions, including a Los Angeles Premiere, a West Coast Premiere, and co-productions with The Fountain Theatre and Pasadena Playhouse.

Native Voices at the Autry, America's leading Native American theatre company, presents its 25th Annual Festival of New Plays at the Autry Museum of the American Westand La Jolla Playhouse. The festival features staged readings of new and in-progress plays by Native writers followed by talkbacks in which each audience member becomes an important part of the collaborative process. 

On May 30, Vital Communities will honor Jarvis Green and other individuals and organizations that have contributed to the vitality of the Upper Valley at its eighth annual Heroes & Leaders dinner. This year's event, part of Vital Communities' yearlong 25th anniversary celebration, will be held at the Top of the Hop and Alumni Hall in Hanover.

It's that time of the week, theater lovers! With the weekend set to kick off at any moment - personally, we like to consider Thursday morning at 12:01 a.m. the official start of the weekend (that's directed primarily to the Dowager Countess of Grantham who quite clearly didn't understand what actually constitutes a 'weekend') - so we are back with a few suggestions of our own to help make your job easier. There are some new shows opening, others which are continuing their runs and still more which will be winding up their slate of performances this weekend!

Artists from across the nation travel to Kansas for the 38th Annual William Inge Theater Festival, to celebrate playwright Octavio Solis, one of this country's leading storytellers of the Hispanic-American experience. Solis will be honored as the recipient of the 2019 Distinguished Achievement in American Theater Award.

Today, we continue with our in-depth look at the Ingram New Works Project with a conversation with Nate Eppler, Nashville Rep's playwright-in-residence, whose work with the new playwrights has been an integral part of the experience since it first began. Eppler's new play, This Red Planet, will be given its world premiere production by Nashville Rep during its upcoming 2019-20 season.

An evening of stellar 10-minute plays from some of the top MFA playwrights in the country, Theater Masters Take Ten 2019 is an exciting presentation of new short plays from the next generation of American Playwrights. This year's Take Ten features 10-min plays by 6 stellar playwrights from some of the best MFA programs in the country. Presented in association with Rattlestick Playwrights Theater.

Join Playhouse on Park in designating the Greater Hartford area as a premiere destination for the cultivation of innovative theatrical work! The Playwrights on Park Reading Series was created for this very purpose. Our next evening in this exciting series is Tuesday, July 9 at 7:30pm with Adam Szymkowicz's R&J.

It's another busy weekend in Nashville - but when is Music City not packed with events, festivals, affairs? - and we're back with our Critic's Choice recommendations to have you cut through the theatrical flotsam and jetsam and find a cultural opening that's a good fit for your harried lifestyle. Nashville Opera opens its staging of Marc Blitzstein's The Cradle Will Rock at Noah Liff Opera Center, Way Off Broadway Productions unveils its version of Les Liaisons Dangereuses at Music Valley Event Center, Street Theatre Company invites you to the see their staging of Lynn Nottage's Sweat at their new venue on Elm Hill Pike and Nashville Rep continues its celebration of 10 years of The Ingram New Works Festival at Nashville Children's Theatre.

Today, we continue with our series of interviews, The Play's the Thing, focusing on the four emerging playwrights and their new works which will premiere over the next ten days at the Ingram New Works Festival. Next up is Dean Poynor, whose play The Second Avenue Subway will have its premiere public exposure in Nashville.

Today, we continue a series of feature stories, focusing on the four emerging playwrights and their new works which will premiere over the next ten days at the Ingram New Works Festival. First up is Lindsay Joelle, whose play The Messengers will have its premiere public exposure in Nashville.