Anna-Deavere Smith News

The Public Theater (Artistic Director, Oskar Eustis; Executive Director, Patrick Willingham) will begin previews on Tuesday, March 27 for the world premiere of MLIMA'S TALE, written by two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage and directed by Obie Award winner Jo Bonney.

New York Live Arts 2018 Live Ideas Gala, co-chaired by Slobodan Randjelovi? and Jon Stryker and Ruth and Stephen Hendel and hosted by award-winning performer and playwright Anna Deavere Smith, pays tribute to Live Arts' annual Live Ideas Festival. The Gala will take place at Irving Plaza, 17 Irving Place, New York City on Monday, April 16, starting with a cocktail reception at 6:30pm and followed by the dinner and program at 7:15pm.

Today the Edinburgh International Festival unveils its 2018 programme. The International Festival runs Friday 3 to Monday 27 August. The event welcomes 2,750 artists from 31 nations to perform in Scotland's capital city and attracts visitors from all over the world, with audiences expected to travel from over 80 nations to be part of Edinburgh's global celebration of culture.

"Life is short, and it's up to you to make it sweet." - Sadie Delany (1889 -1999). Goodman Theatre revives Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years, Emily Mann's "warming theatrical event" (Variety)that celebrates the lives of "two strong, vibrant women dispensing joy and wisdom" (Chicago Tribune). Goodman Theatre Resident Director Chuck Smith's production features Ella Joyce and Marie Thomas as the Delany centenarians, Bessie (1891 - 1995) and Sadie (1889 -1999), respectively, as they trace their lives in a heartfelt reflection of their family history and triumphs over prejudices in times of social unrest.

Rep Stage, the professional regional theatre in residence at Howard Community College, has announced its 2018-2019 season will launch with the musical "Sweeney Todd," followed by a world premiere production by Callie Kimball, and contemporary theatre classics "Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992" and "The 39 Steps."

People's Light presents I Will Not Go Gently, the latest award-winning, one-woman show from Philadelphia's queen of comedy, Jennifer Childs. In the style of Anna Deavere Smith and Lily Tomlin, with original songs by Childs and Christopher Colucci, this outrageous tour de force introduces a cadre of colorful characters, like music maven Sierra Mist, who straddle the gap between past and future-deadly sincere, impossibly hopeful, and ready to rock. A comedic musical journey across the tricky terrain of middle age, I Will Not Go Gently storms across the Steinbright Stage in Malvern from March 21 through April 15, 2018.

NBA Hall of Fame basketball star and platinum hip-hop artist Shaquille O'Neal reads the immersive Edward Hirsch poem “Fast Break” about the universal experience of playing basketball in a remarkable new 12-part television series Poetry in America that aims to bring poetry to millions of viewers. Watch the trailer here!

'City Girls & Desperadoes'- a dramedy - 1977 NYC, a ragtag band of accidental outlaws at war with their pasts ignite high rolling relationships that must explode, as the altered state that love in its most extreme form engenders is a dangerous intoxication as mind altering as any pharmaceutical.

Second Stage Theater has announced that Tony Award winner BLAIR BROWN will join the previously announced EMMA GEER, TATIANA MASLANY and SUSAN POURFAR in the New York Premiere of TRACY LETTS' acclaimed play, MARY PAGE MARLOWE, directed by LILA NEUGEBAUER.

Second Stage Theater (Carole Rothman, Artistic Director; Casey Reitz, Executive Director) has announced that EMMA GEER will join the previously announced TATIANA MASLANY and SUSAN POURFAR in the New York Premiere of TRACY LETTS' acclaimed play, MARY PAGE MARLOWE, directed by LILA NEUGEBAUER.

Second Stage Theater (Carole Rothman, Artistic Director; Casey Reitz, Executive Director) has announced that SUSAN POURFAR will join the previously announced TATIANA MASLANY in the New York Premiere of TRACY LETTS' acclaimed play, MARY PAGE MARLOWE, directed by LILA NEUGEBAUER.

Second Stage Theater (Carole Rothman, Artistic Director; Casey Reitz, Executive Director) has announced that Emmy Award Winner TATIANA MASLANY, star of the hit BBC America series, "Orphan Black," will appear in the New York Premiere of TRACY LETTS' acclaimed play, MARY PAGE MARLOWE, directed by LILA NEUGEBAUER.

NOTES FROM THE FIELD, the adaptation of Tony and Pulitzer Prize nominee Anna Deavere Smith's acclaimed one-woman show of the same name, will debut SATURDAY, FEB. 24 on HBO.

Rep Stage, the professional regional theatre in residence at Howard Community College, has announced its 2018-2019 season will launch with the musical "Sweeney Todd," followed by a world premiere production by Callie Kimball, and contemporary theatre classics "Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992" and "The 39 Steps."

Jim Helsinger, artistic director of the Orlando Shakespeare Theater (Orlando Shakes) in Partnership with UCF, was awarded the Sidney Berger Fund & Award at the Shakespeare Theatre Association (STA) Annual Conference on Saturday, January 20, 2019. The Sidney Berger Fund & Award was created through a generous contribution by the family of Sidney Berger. Berger was a founding member of STA and former Artistic Director of Houston Shakespeare Festival. The award is dedicated to provide the basis for an annual cash award to a STA member artistic director in recognition of her or his outstanding talent and dedication to the works of William Shakespeare. Previous winners include Los Angeles Women's Shakespeare Company's Artistic Director Lisa Wolpe and the American Shakespeare Center's Director of Education Sarah Enloe.

REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER continues its 16th season FRIDAY, FEB. 16 (10:00-11:00 p.m. live ET/tape-delayed PT), with a replay at 12:30 a.m., exclusively on HBO. Allowing Maher to offer his unique perspective on contemporary issues, the show includes an opening monologue, roundtable discussions with panelists and interviews with guests. Playwright and actress Anna Deavere Smith is the top-of-show interview guest. Vicente Fox, former president of Mexico, is the mid-show interview guest. The roundtable guests are author Fran Lebowitz and author Salman Rushdie.

The Public Theater (Artistic Director, Oskar Eustis; Executive Director, Patrick Willingham) announced complete casting today for the world premiere of MLIMA'S TALE, written by two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage. Directed by Obie Award winner Jo Bonney, MLIMA'S TALE continues The Public's Astor Anniversary Season at their landmark downtown home on Lafayette Street, celebrating 50 years of new work and the 50th Anniversary of HAIR. MLIMA'S TALE begins performances on Tuesday, March 27 and runs through Sunday, May 20 in The Public's Martinson Hall, with an official press opening on Sunday, April 15.

The World Science Festival and Con Edison are pleased to announce that City of Science, the touring mini-metropolis of mind-expanding demonstrations and hands-on activities for families, comes to the Bronx on Sunday, March 11.

A full production of Anna Deavere Smith's 'Notes from the Field' opened in late 2016 at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Mass., and immediately transferred to off-Broadway, opening at Second Stage Theater in New York. In this unique one-woman show, Smith dramatized the accounts of students, parents, TEACHERS and administrators affected by American's school-to-prison pipeline, which pushes underprivileged, minority youth out of the classroom and into incarceration.

Red Bull Theater (Jesse Berger, Artistic Director | Jim Bredeson, Managing Director) today announced the cast for their next REVELATION READING, Moliere's Don Juan, adapted & directed by Stephen Wadsworth: Mary Bacon, Gilbert Cruz, Francesca Faridany, Adam Green, Adam Greer, Allen Tedder, Adam Stein, Mary Testa, and Raphael Nash Thompson, on Monday February 12th at 7:30 PM at the Lucille Lortel Theatre (121 Christopher Street, between Bleecker and Hudson Streets). Stephen Wadsworth's version of Don Juan was commissioned by the Seattle Repertory Theatre and the McCarter Theatre and has recently been published by Smith and Kraus.