Ani Taj News

New York City Center's Encores! Off-Center series kicked off the 2016 season with Runaways, beginning July 6th. With Book, Lyrics, and Music by Elizabeth Swados, choreography by Ani Taj, music direction by Chris Fenwick and directed by Sam Pinkleton, Runaways played its final performance on July 9th. BroadwayWorld has photos from the closing night festivities below!

Encores! Off-Center brings back a 1978 musical inspired by interviews with runaway children.

Let's see what the critics had to say...

New Your City Center's Encores! Off-Center series is back and better than ever! The series will kick off the 2016 season with Runaways through July 9th. RUNAWAYS is set in 1977 when Liz Swados spent several months observing and interviewing childRunaways before shaping their stories, fears, and fantasies into a musical. A deeply unconventional work in its day, Runaways feels like the funkiest, most heartbreaking mixtape ever to come out of a 1970s boom box, packed with reggae anthems, hip-hop, soul-food lullabies, and spoken-word poetry. The Encores! Off-Center production will honor a theater visionary who was ferocious, inspiring, and left us far too soon.

New Your City Center's Encores! Off-Center series is back and better than ever! The series will kick off the 2016 season with Runaways from July 6-9th. RUNAWAYS is set in 1977 when Liz Swados spent several months observing and interviewing child Runaways before shaping their stories, fears, and fantasies into a musical. A deeply unconventional work in its day, Runaways feels like the funkiest, most heartbreaking mixtape ever to come out of a 1970s boom box, packed with reggae anthems, hip-hop, soul-food lullabies, and spoken-word poetry. The Encores! Off-Center production will honor a theater visionary who was ferocious, inspiring, and left us far too soon.

New Your City Center's Encores! Off-Center series is back and better than ever! The series will present RUNAWAYS from July 6-9th. Before the production goes up, BroadwayWorld has your first look behind the scenes at rehearsals this past weekend. 

The Lobby Project, a series of free pre-show events presented in conjunction with New York City Center's Encores! Off-Center season, will take place July 6-9 & 27-30. These events provide an insightful exploration of the topics and themes presented in the season's musicals through performances, conversations with artists and experts, workshops, and a Menken Mixtape contest in which the winners will perform their Alan Menken remixes for Menken himself. The Lobby Project events take place in City Center's Grand Tier lobby one hour before curtain and are free for that evening's ticket holders.

The Exchange today announced the artists and companies selected to participate in the 2016 Orchard Project summer residency program in Saratoga Springs, NY. Twenty-six artists and ensembles were selected from nearly 800 theatre artists to develop their big, new ideas at the Orchard Project this coming summer.

Cherry Lane Theatre presents the second production of the company's award-winning MENTOR PROJECT 2016, Sarah Einspanier's play THE CONVENT OF PLEASURE, being presented at Cherry Lane (38 Commerce St.) from tonight, March 23, through April 2.

Cherry Lane Theatre has announced casting for the second production of the company's award-winning MENTOR PROJECT 2016, Sarah Einspanier's play THE CONVENT OF PLEASURE, being presented at Cherry Lane (38 Commerce St.) from March 23-April 2, it has been announced by Seri Lawrence and Janio Marrero, MENTOR PROJECT's Producing Artistic Directors.

The first musical by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman was an adventurous sign of things to come.

The 2016 season will be Tesori's fourth and final season leading Encores! Off-Center.

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater announces three projects that have been selected for the 2015/16 Kogod Cradle Series as part of the American Voices New Play Institute. Focused on the development of new plays and devised work by artists from the Greater Washington, D.C. area and around the country, this series of readings and workshops invites artists and audiences to actively explore the new work development process.

BroadwayWorld has confirmed that Encores! Off-Center Artistic Director and Tony winner Jeanine Tesori has today added Elizabeth Swados' 1978 musical Runaways to the 2016 Encores! Off-Center season. The news comes just days after Swados passed away.

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater announces three projects that have been selected for the 2015/16 Kogod Cradle Series as part of the American Voices New Play Institute. Focused on the development of new plays and devised work by artists from the Greater Washington, D.C. area and around the country, this series of readings and workshops invites artists and audiences to actively explore the new work development process.

Uncork the Champagne and raise a glass. La MaMa Moves! dance festival is readying itself for its 10th anniversary festivities while its artists are busily preparing a dozen world, U.S. and New York premieres to celebrate its decade of dance.

Uncork the Champagne and raise a glass. La MaMa Moves! dance festival is readying itself for its 10th anniversary festivities while its artists are busily preparing a dozen world, U.S. and New York premieres to celebrate its decade of dance.

After a sold-out run at Ace Hotel NYC, the critically- acclaimed DANCE CARTEL makes its West Coast premiere of immersive dance experience ONTHEFLOOR, with a starry roster of special guests at Velocity Dance Center, Seattle. For their Velocity Guest Artist appearance The Dance Cartel joins forces with Seattle legends dance artist Amy O'Neal, 'spectacularly original' (New York Magazine) comedian/musician Reggie Watts, and contemporary dance company HYPERNOVA.

The Flea Theater will present the World Premiere of THE NOMAD, a new musical with book & lyrics by Tony Award nominee Elizabeth Swados and Guggenheim Fellow Erin Courtney, composed & directed by Swados. Performances begin tonight, February 19. The production runs through April 6, 2015.