Arizona Theatre Company News

PRU PAYNE, directed by Sean Daniels and featuring Mimi Kennedy and Gordon Clapp ~ Arizona Theatre Company's emotionally powerful production of Steven Drukman's play runs through April 16th at Herberger Theater Center in Phoenix.

All of these theaters had programming that was - you know, sort of your tent poles on the mainstage, your occasional blockbuster musical. On the second stage, there was riskier work, new work being developed that might not appeal to a 700-seat audience. I thought that was incredible - you're doing these blockbuster Broadway musicals, the best of the best plays, and then new work that is exciting and thrilling. And that sort of became part of my DNA as I was thinking about directing.

Since 2005, more than 100 playwrights have had their work fostered through Center Theatre Group's L.A. Writers' Workshop and more are set to join. This new cohort for the L.A. Writers' Workshop includes six local playwrights who will spend a year researching and writing a new work with the feedback of their fellow writers and Center Theatre Group's artistic staff. These playwrights are Amy Berryman, Inda Craig-Galván, Isaac Gómez, Ramiz Monsef, christopher oscar peña, and Jasmine Sharma.

Roundabout Theatre Company has just announced the Broadway and Off-Broadway line-up for the 2023-2024 season. Check out all the details on who, what, when, and where!

Director Samantha Wyer Bello helms the world premiere of Arizona playwright Elaine Romero's Like Heaven produced by The Bridge Initiative in residence at Estrella Mountain Community College.

Mimi Kennedy renders an imperious and brassy Pru Payne (her public moniker). She's a renowned intellectual, feared for her trenchant criticism and scathing takedowns of mediocre aspirations (a faint redolence of critic Michiko Kakutani's public feuds with John Updike and Norman Mailer et al). Pru exists in the lofty penthouse of her intellect. She deflects the impulse to linger in the subterranean region of emotions -- until she loses her bearing and meets Gus Cudahy.

TheatreWorks Silicon Valley's Fannie: The Music and Life of Fannie Lou Hamer will run through April 2, 2023 at Lucie Stern Theatre. Greta Oglesby, who starred in last season’s critically acclaimed Gem of the Ocean, reunites with TheatreWorks Artistic Director Tim Bond, who will direct this stirring musical play about the famed civil rights activist. Check out production photos here!

The 2022-2023 season will continue at Kitchen Theatre Company with NO CHILD… by Nilaja Sun. Performances of NO CHILD… begin at the Kitchen Theatre Company in the Percy Browning Performance Space on Tuesday, March 28 and will run through Sunday, April 16.

Arizona Theatre Company's 56th season features a grand slam lineup of productions under the direction of new Kasser Family Artistic Director Matt August.

TheatreWorks Silicon Valley has announced full casting for World Premiere of A Distinct Society, presented in association with Pioneer Theatre Company. In this moving play by Kareem Fahmy, a quiet library that straddles the United States and Canada becomes the battlefield for border control.

The Dramatists Guild is welcoming playwright Diana Burbano, playwright Andrew Creech, playwright Samuel D. Hunter, playwright Rajiv Joseph and composer/lyricist Helen Park to the Dramatists Guild Council.

The Arizona Theatre Company submission extension for the 2023 National Latine Playwrights Award will end tomorrow Wednesday, March 1.

In its execution, a less than compelling and strategically misdirected production of Tennessee Williams's THE GLASS MENAGERIE is the current fare at Arizona Theatre Company.

Monthly talk show/concert Broadway Curious presented by The Bridge Initiative will offer two more events this season: Friday, March 3rd and Saturday May 20th at 7:30pm at ASU Kerr.

TheatreWorks Silicon Valley will present the World Premiere of A Distinct Society, presented in association with Pioneer Theatre Company.

Center Repertory Company will present Lynn Nottage’s Pulitzer Prize-winning SWEAT, directed by acclaimed actor/director Elizabeth Carter.

Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation has announced the recipients of the 2022-2023 Professional Development Program Cycle 1 opportunities. 

New York City Children's Theater  will host their second live stream of the MEET THE PARENT discussion series for their 26th season, hosted by Broadway actress ANIKA LARSEN with guests DREW GEHLING and JACQUES C. SMITH.

Arizona Theatre Company has announced that the world premiere of Pru Payne, winner of the Edgerton Foundation New Play Award, is coming to Tucson and Phoenix this spring.

The Bridge Initiative will be in residence this spring at Estrella Mountain Community College, the inauguration of a new professional/educational theatre partnership launching with the world premiere of Arizona playwright Elaine Romero's “Like Heaven.”