Andrew W. Mellon News

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA), the Bay Area's most innovative arts institution, announces Transform, a two-week showcase of dance, music, theater, and public convenings. Occurring each fall and spring, Transform places YBCA's curatorial voice front and center and builds on its nearly 25-year history as the Bay Area's cornerstone organization for presenting cutting-edge contemporary art. Taking place September 14 through September 23, 2017, the inaugural festival presents newly commissioned works by nine groundbreaking Bay Area artists, including dance artists Jesse Hewit and Larry Arrington, contemporary ballet company Amy Seiwert Imagery, contemporary dance company RAWdance, and more. They have been invited to devise world-premiere works in response to the provocation, "Why Citizenship?"

Playwrights Horizons begins accepting entries today, Monday, May 8 at 12 Noon, for the LIVEforFIVE online lottery for $5 tickets to their world premiere production of BELLA: AN AMERICAN TALL TALE, a new musical with book, music and lyrics by Obie Award winner Kirsten Childs (The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin at Playwrights, Miracle Brothers).

National New Play Network, the country's alliance of nonprofit theaters that champions the development, production, and continued life of new plays, celebrates the opening of The Arsonists by Jacqueline Goldfinger, its 67th Rolling World Premiere.

Acclaimed Off-Broadway theater company Playwrights Horizons will hold its annual Spring Gala on Monday evening, May 8, at the event space 583 Park Avenue. Titled A CELEBRATION OF SONG, the evening will honor three of the company's exceptional alumni writers: Tony Award nominee Scott Frankel (Grey Gardens and Far From Heaven at Playwrights), Tony Award nominee Michael Korie (Grey Gardens and Far From Heaven at Playwrights) and Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner Doug Wright (I Am My Own Wife and Grey Gardens at Playwrights). The Grey Gardens writing team has returned to Broadway with their new musical, War Paint, now playing at The Nederlander Theatre.

Kansas City Repertory Theatre will open its 2017/18 season with BETWEEN THE LINES, a new musical based on the best-selling book by New York Times bestselling authors Jodi Picoult and her daughter Samantha van Leer that features music and lyrics by Elyssa Samsel and Kate Anderson, book by Timothy Allen McDonald and be directed by Tony Award-nominated director Jeff Calhoun.

Sundance Institute today announced a characteristically diverse and eclectic slate of projects that will be developed at their Theatre Lab, July 14-30 at Sundance Resort in Utah. The Lab is the centerpiece of the Institute's year-round work with the theatre community, and for nearly four decades has creatively supported projects including Indecent, Appropriate, Fun Home and A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder.

This gritty, gripping, and shockingly funny world premiere tosses audiences into a revolutionary Philadelphia court designed by a passionate group of women. Every day these lawyers, judges, parole officers and staff members work to transform the lives of women repeatedly convicted for prostitution. In her daring and vital new play Project Dawn, playwright Karen Hartman probes the thin lines between freedom and slavery, activism and obsession, for women on both sides of the law. Inspired by Hartman's extensive, first-hand research inside Philly's real-life court system, and cast with seven actresses who play multiple characters, this production represents the first world premiere to emerge from the acclaimed New Play Frontiers Residency & Commission program at People's Light. People's Light is located at 39 Conestoga Road, Malvern, PA 19355. For tickets, call 610.644.3500 or visit peopleslight.org. This production is sponsored by PECO, and supported by grants from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.

The American Theatre Wing nominated two plays commissioned by the Oregon Shakespeare Festival for 2017 Tony Awards today, including Best Play. Commissioned through OSF's American Revolutions: The United States History Cycle, Sweat by Lynn Nottage and Indecent by Paula Vogel each received three nominations.

Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for theatre, has announced renewed and increased support of $375,000 from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for Round 6 of Global Connections.

Pittsburgh Opera is proud and privileged to present the world premiere of Daniel Sonenberg's opera, The Summer King, the story of baseball legend Josh Gibson.

BroadwayWorld has a first look at THE SUMMER KING from Pittsburgh Opera! Check out the photos below! Pittsburgh Opera is proud and privileged to present the world premiere of Daniel Sonenberg's opera, The Summer King, the story of baseball legend Josh Gibson. This very first world premiere in Pittsburgh Opera's distinguished 78 year history hits close to home as Josh went from the sandlots of Pittsburgh's North Side to the pinnacle of greatness in the Negro Leagues, before ultimately being enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY. Featuring AlFRed Walker in the title role, Denyce Graves, Sean Pannikar, Kenneth Kellogg, Norman Shankle, Jacqueline Echols and many more, led by Maestro AnTony Walker and directed by Sam Helfrich. Sonenberg collaborated on the libretto with Daniel Nester and Mark Campbell provided additional lyrics. The Summer King runs Saturday, April 29th (8pm), Tuesday, May 2nd (7pm), Friday, May 5th (7:30pm) and Sunday, May 7th (3pm) at the Benedum Center for the Performing Arts.

Two River Theater Company, under the leadership of Artistic Director John Dias and Managing Director Michael Hurst, announces An Evening on the Musical Frontier, a benefit performance featuring songs from musicals in development at Two River. Alec Baldwin is the Honorary Event Chair for the one-night special event on Friday, May 12, which will begin with a cocktail reception at 6pm.

As part of its 2017 season, The Glimmerglass Festival will present the world-premiere hip-hop opera Stomping Grounds, a show written entirely in verse blending hip-hop, spoken word and opera. In May, the production will travel to 11 regional community venues throughout New York State and three in New York City, in performance workshops and discussions hosted by librettist, director and choreographer Paige Hernandez, an acclaimed performer, director, and playwright known for her effective fusion of theater, hip-hop, dance and education. 

Joanie Schultz, Artistic Director, today announced details of the Company's 2017-2018 Season. This season marks the first for newly appointed Artistic Director Joanie Schultz, and the 22nd for WaterTower Theatre.

Playwrights Horizons will soon present BELLA: AN AMERICAN TALL TALE, the co-world premiere of a new musical with book, music and lyrics by Obie Award winner Kirsten Childs (The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin at Playwrights, Miracle Brothers).

Joanie Schultz, Artistic Director, today announced details of the Company's 2017-2018 Season. This season marks the first for newly appointed Artistic Director Joanie Schultz, and the 22nd for WaterTower Theatre.

First Draughts is a developmental reading series produced by Amios, a cooperative whose mission is to build community through art. First Draughts is dedicated to expanding four short plays, first produced at SHOTZ! (Amios' monthly short-play series) into full-lengths over the course of a six-month development process.

The Brooklyn Museum and Bard Graduate Center announced today a collaborative, multiphase project aimed at rethinking the presentation and study of American decorative arts. Starting in fall 2017, Bard Graduate Center faculty and students and Brooklyn Museum curators will come together as a think tank to examine the organization, display, and interpretation of the Brooklyn Museum's extensive collection of American decorative arts. This will launch a series of courses on American decorative arts at the Brooklyn Museum, led by Kevin Stayton, Curator Emeritus, along with Barry Harwood, Curator of Decorative Arts, among others. The course, open to all students enrolled in Bard Graduate Center's M.A. and Ph.D. programs in decorative arts, design history, or material culture, will serially study parts of the Museum's collection. As its outcome the course will lead to the redesign of the gallery display of the decorative arts collection. 

Ensemble Studio Theatre and Radio Drama Network announced today the lineup for the 36th MARATHON OF ONE-ACT PLAYS, the biennial festival series of brand new plays from emerging playwrights.