Ars Nova News

Inspired by a true friendship, Deborah Brevoort's My Lord, What a Night produced by Orlando Shakes in partnership with UCF - Central Florida's largest professional theater company, runs from March 18 - April 26, 2020.

September 11, 2001 was a terrifying day for so many people. There were so many who initially felt so helpless as the news continued to broadcast all the sadness, destruction, and death surrounding the attacks. Planes were ordered to land wherever they could leaving the passengers worried, alone, and far from home and loved ones. Then, stories on the news started to emerge about the humanity and compassion being shown to each other. The story COME FROM AWAY shares the story of the town of Gander in Canada that came together to help stranded passengers feel at home while waiting to get to their own homes again. BWW caught up with actress Sharone Sayegh who plays Bonnie and others as the show prepares to come to Bass Concert Hall in Austin, Texas.

After an acclaimed premiere in Chicago, Dutch Kills Theater (In Quietness, The Sister, The Providence of Neighboring Bodies) will present the New York Premiere of 2018 Weissberger Award for Playwrighting nominee THE ANTELOPE PARTY by Eric John Meyer. It is directed by 2017 Lucille Lortel Award winner Jess Chayes (HOME/SICK, Half Moon Bay) with dramaturgy by Sarah Lunnie (What the Constitution Means to Me, Grand Horizons, Hillary and Clinton, A Doll's House Part 2). Previews begin March 19 at The Wild Project in Manhattan with opening slated for March 25.

Ars Nova, under the leadership of Founding Artistic Director Jason Eagan and Managing Director Renee Blinkwolt, has announced details for the world premiere commission of Oratorio for Living Things by Obie Award-winner and 2015 & 2016 Ars Nova resident artist Heather Christian. Directed by Obie Award-winner Lee Sunday Evans, the event fuses music and theater, surrounding the audience with 18 virtuosic singers and instrumentalists. Oratorio for Living Things runs March 10-April 12, 2020, at Ars Nova at Greenwich House (27 Barrow Street, Manhattan) with a press opening on March 30. Tickets are now on sale at arsnovanyc.com.

Village Theatre kicks off the next series of Beta Productions with XY, a new musical written by Oliver Houser and developed and directed by Hunter Bird that runs at Village Theatre's First Stage Theatre in Issaquah from February 14 - 23, 2020. The production marks the beginning of an exciting collaboration between Village Theatre and Seattle Rep, who will continue development of the show in a future season.

Manhattan Theatre Club (Lynne Meadow, Artistic Director; Barry Grove, Executive Producer) has announced the lineup for the 2020 Ted Snowdon Reading Series.

Theatre for a New Audience (TFANA; Jeffrey Horowitz, Founding Artistic Director) will present the New York premiere of celebrated American playwright Will Eno's Gnit, inspired by Henrik Ibsen's Peer Gynt (originally published in 1867). Directed by Eno's frequent collaborator, the Obie and Lortel Award-Winner Oliver Butler (Eno's 2014 The Open House and the 2018 revival of Thom Paine (based on nothing), starring Michael C. Hall, both at Signature Theater, and 2019's The Plot at Yale Rep; Heidi Schreck's Tony Award-nominated What the Constitution Means to Me).

Broadway Records announced today that the original cast recording of Andrew R. Butler's Rags Parkland Sings the Songs of the Future will be released digitally and in stores on Friday, March 27, 2020. The album is currently available for pre-order at www.BroadwayRecords.com.

The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize has announced 10 Finalists for its prestigious playwriting award, the oldest and largest prize awarded to women playwrights.

The Playwrights Realm (Founding Artistic Director Katherine Kovner and Producing Director Roberta Pereira) will presents the 2020 INK'D Festival of New Plays, showcasing new works by this year's Realm Writing Fellows Tanya Everett, Maya Macdonald, Tasha Gordon-Solmon, and Christopher Reyes (February 24-27). The festival's plays offer vast tonal and stylistic variation while cohering around complex contemplations of structural issues. INK'D has proven to be an indispensable launching pad for the voices driving the future of playwriting. This year's powerful slate continues to introduce audiences to a diversity of fresh perspectives, thereby underscoring theater's potential to expand the possibilities of dramatic storytelling and engage with the world around it.

Kokandy Productions is pleased to announce casting for the Chicago premiere of the bold new musical Hundred Days, featuring music and lyrics by The Bengsons, and book by The Bengsons and Sarah Gancher.

Steppenwolf Theatre Company announced complete casting for two productions today: The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington by James Ijames, directed by Whitney White (April 2 a?" May 17, 2020); and Catch as Catch Can by Mia Chung, which also announced ensemble member Amy Morton as director (June 4 a?" July 26, 2020).

Musical Theatre Factory announces complete casting for The Fari Chronicles: A Metropolis Story, showcasing work from the new afrofuturist musical, Metropolis, in concert on Sunday February 2, 2020, at 9:30pm. Created by AriDy Nox and Brandon Webster this will be a riveting evening featuring songs and scenes from the genre-bending score and time-twisting book of this brand new dystopian musical - It is the night before the Apocalypse and Fari, an Android-Unit turned space-time-continuum anarchist is at the center of the devastation. The Fari Chronicles is a concert rendition of the First Act of the afrofuturist musical Metropolis.

Vanguard Theater Company will partner with Montclair Film to present a conversation with acclaimed playwright Jeremy O. Harris, author of the Broadway sensation SLAVE PLAY, as he discusses the art of writing, the power of representation, and the works that have made him one of the theatre's most electrifying voices.

Live From Lincoln Center will livestream four intimate performances as part of Lincoln Center's acclaimed American Songbook series.

How Does Theatre Mirror Society? will be explored along with drawing on the panelists' experiences and perspectives on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion. Topics of the 17th annual Theatre Forward Broadway Roundtable will include an open-ended dialogue about opportunity, access, education and social justice. Panelists all share a passion for the power of storytelling and how it reflects and influences our world.

Deadline reports that Sony Pictures bought the foreign distribution rights to 'Zola,' the Twitter-originated film directed by Janicza Bravo and written by Bravo and 'Slave Play' playwright Jeremy O. Harris.

City Theatre will continue its 45th season with a new play about new parents, Cry It Out by Molly Smith Metzler.

Today, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) a?" the nation's largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) civil rights organization a?" announced that it will honor two groundbreaking playwrights with the HRC Equality Award at the 19th Annual HRC Greater New York Gala on Saturday, February 1 at the Marriott Marquis: Jeremy O. Harris, the playwright of Slave Play, and Matthew Lopez, the playwright of The Inheritance.

With performances selling out at the Connelly Theater, Sinking Ship Productions' acclaimed, Drama Desk Award-nominated A Hunger Artist will extend through February 8th.