Anne Washburn News

What if, instead of drowning, Shakespeare's Ophelia had splashed through the brook water and found a parallel universe on the other side?

The Off-Broadway League today announced details for the 2018 Lucille Lortel Awards for Outstanding Achievement Off-Broadway. The 33rd Annual Lucille Lortel Awards will be handed out on Sunday, May 6, 2018 at NYU Skirball Center for Performing Arts, beginning at 7:00pm EST.

Abrons Arts Center is pleased to present the world premiere of Aloha, Aloha, or When I Was a Queen (April 4-21), a solo play written and performed by Eliza Bent and directed by Knud Adams. In 1996, a young Eliza Bent, along with a friend, created, directed and starred in an amateur historical film for a school project. In it, Bent portrayed Hawaii's last reigning monarch, Queen Liliuokalani. 22 years later, Bent uses her home movie as a jumping off point to lead audiences on a journey that grapples with personal history, legacy, and cultural appropriation. In the tradition of Spaulding Gray, Fran Leibowitz, and David Sedaris, Bent's humorous cringe-inducing stories chart a young Bostonian's education in race and appropriation.

This spring, Matthew Needham will feature in Summer and Smoke at the Almeida Theatre. Rebecca Frecknall's production marks his third show at the theatre this year, having never previously performed there before. Catching up during rehearsals, Matthew reflects on his time at the Almeida so far, his journey to becoming an actor, and the career paths less traveled.

In response to popular demand, Soho Rep. (Sarah Benson, Artistic Director; Cynthia Flowers, Executive Director) extends the world premiere of Aleshea Harris's Relentless Award-winning Is God Is, directed by Taibi Magar by two weeks, through March 25. In this play, which dauntlessly cracks jokes as it eviscerates, twin sisters Anaia (Alfie Fuller) and Racine (Dame-Jasmine Hughes) undertake a murderous journey from the Dirty South to the California desert, seeking payback for a horrendous act. Is God Is treats both morality and genre as notions to be exploded, drawing on the ancient, the modern, the tragic, the Spaghetti Western, hip-hop and Afropunk in its subversion of theatrical constructs.

Cherry Lane Theatre has announced casting for the first production of the Obie award-winning MENTOR PROJECT now in its 20th season. Kate Cortesi's A PATRON OF THE ARTS, is being presented at Cherry Lane (38 Commerce St.) from March 1- 10, 2018, it has been announced by Seri Lawrence and Janio Marrero, Cherry Lane's Co-Artistic Directors.  Angelina Fiordellisi is Cherry Lane's Founding Artistic Director. Ms. Cortesi is mentored by Guggenheim, a Whiting, an Alpert, PEN/Laura Pels award winner Anne Washburn.

What if, instead of drowning, Shakespeare's Ophelia had splashed through the brook water and found a parallel universe on the other side? In playwright Caridad Svich's lyrical deconstruction of Hamlet, Ophelia cuts a new path for herself through a neo-Elizabethan Appalachia. In this world, Hamlet is known as Rude Boy, Gertrude is a brothel madam, and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are her androgynous helpers.

The Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County (@ArshtCenter) is proud to present the South Florida premiere of SMALL MOUTH SOUNDS (@SmallMouthPlay), the Obie Award-winning, critically-acclaimed play by Bess Wohl. Playing February 16 - March 4, 2018 in the intimate Carnival Studio Theater (Ziff Ballet Opera House), SMALL MOUTH SOUNDS continues the Center's 2017-2018 Theater Up Close Series.

Ars Nova one of the most adventurous Off-Broadway companies (New York Times), piece by piece productions and Z Space present the world premiere of The Lucky Ones, a new musical by The Bengsons and Sarah Gancher (Hundred Days), commissioned and developed by Ars Nova.

Red Bull Theater (Jesse Berger, Founding Artistic Director Jim Bredeson, Managing Director) today announced that their eighth annual festival of 10-minute plays of heightened language and classic themes will feature two brand new commissions from Tina Howe and Doug Wright, alongside 6 brand new plays chosen from hundreds of submissions from playwrights across the country. Selected plays will receive a staged reading performance in the festival on Monday July 16th (7:30 PM), directed by Pamela Berlin and Evan Yionoulis, performed by a company of some of New York's finest actors.

59E59 Theaters will present of THE UNDERTAKING, written and directed by Steve Cosson with creative collaboration and psychopomp guidance by Jessica Mitrani. Produced by The Civilians, THE UNDERTAKING begins performances on Thursday, January 11 for a limited engagement through Sunday, February 4. Press Opening is Today, January 17 at 7:15 PM.

Hopping and bopping, Little Bunny Foo Foo takes over Actors Theatre.

Directed by Actors Theatre Artistic Director Les Waters, Little Bunny Foo Foo will begin preview performances January 9, open January 11 and run through February 4 in the Bingham Theatre as part of the Brown-Forman Series, with the production underwritten by D. D. Williamson.

Artistic Director Les Waters and Managing Director Kevin E. Moore have announced the cast and creative team for the world premiere of Little Bunny Foo Foo.

The Eli and Edythe Broad Stage in Santa Monica and Eva Price present Small Mouth Sounds by Drama Desk Award winner Bess Wohl (Pretty Filthy), and directed by Tony Award nominee Rachel Chavkin (Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812) for three weeks only, January 11 through 28 with a press opening on January 12.

After a smash run last fall, Playwrights Horizons will present MILES FOR MARY, a new play by The Mad Ones. Directed by Lila Neugebauer, MILES FOR MARY received critical acclaim during its fall 2016 run at The Bushwick Starr.

Artistic Director Les Waters and Managing Director Kevin E. Moore have announced the cast and creative team for the world premiere of Little Bunny Foo Foo.

The first installment of the new series, State of the Theatre: Seattle Artists in Conversation will feature some of Seattle's most accomplished dramatists in conversation with longtime Seattle Times theatre critic, lecturer, and author Misha Berson.

The Theatre School at DePaul University is pleased to present Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play, written by Anne Washburn and directed by Jeremy Aluma (MFA Directing candidate, Class of 2019), with music by Michael Friedman, in the Sondra & Denis Healy Theatre. The production premieres on Friday, January 26, and runs through Sunday, February 4, 2018. Performances are Wednesdays through Saturdays at 7:30 PM and Sundays at 2 PM. Previews are on January 24 and 25 at 7:30 PM. Post-show discussions will follow the performances on January 28 (2:00 PM) and February 1 (7:30 PM).

In the spring of 1996, director Tina Landau developed a new play by her longtime collaborator Charles L. Mee with students at the UW School of Drama. The play was Trojan Women: A Love Story, and it premiered in New York that same summer.