Ars Nova News

Acclaimed playwright, Jeremy O. Harris, has been tapped to pen a big screen adaptation of Ales Kot's 2019 graphic novel The New World.

Joe's Pub, a program and venue of The Public Theater, has announced the new class of Joe's Pub Working Group (JPWG), the venue's artist development program dedicated to enhancing the career sustainability and growth of performing artists. Entering its sixth year, JPWG welcomes five artists - cabaret artist Salty Brine, vocalist and composer Sarah Elizabeth Charles, musician and musical theater composer Jaime Lozano, Indian classical and crossover vocalist Roopa Mahadevan, and singer-songwriter Kirsten Maxwell - into the group, which represents the diversity and scope of the nightly programming at Joe's Pub.

Composer and multi-instrumentalist Jeff Parker's Suite for Max Brown will be released on January 24, 2020 via a newly formed partnership between International Anthem and Nonesuch Records. The album, named for and dedicated to Parker's mother, features nine original songs as well as “Gnarciss,” an interpretation of Joe Henderson's “Black Narcissus,” and John Coltrane's “After the Rain.” Parker plays the majority of the instruments on the record and also engineered most it at home or during his 2018 Headlands Center residency in Sausalito, CA. The album track “Go Away” debuted today.  Parker performs at this year's Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, TN on March 27, as well as spring dates in Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York, among others; the full schedule is below.

Playwrights Horizons (Artistic Director Tim Sanford, Managing Director Leslie Marcus) will present a return engagement of the The Movement Theatre Company (Producing Artistic Leadership Team David Mendizábal, Deadria Harrington, Eric Lockley, Taylor Reynolds) staging of Aleshea Harris' What to Send Up When It Goes Down, directed by Whitney White. The production runs June 24 - July 19, 2020 (opening June 30, 2020) at Playwrights Horizons' Peter Jay Sharp Theater (416 West 42 Street). 'It's an honor to include this extraordinary piece in our Redux Series, which expands the audience reach for vital new plays that premiered to limited runs elsewhere,' Playwrights Horizons Associate Artistic Director Adam Greenfield said. 'Aleshea Harris' play is an urgent, visceral, kaleidoscopic reckoning with racialized police violence in America-and a theatrical experience that demands our attention.'

Buffalo Theatre Ensemble presents 'The Cake' by Bekah Brunstetter, directed by Steve Scott, Jan.30-March 1 in the Playhouse Theatre at the McAninch Arts Center, 425 Fawell Blvd. The LA Times calls the play 'funny and smart' and observes, 'The Cake' explores human conflict from an insightful, slightly offbeat perch with understanding, respect and compassion for opposing points of view.' There will be a preview performance 8 p.m. Thursday, Jan 30; press opening is 8 p.m., Friday, Jan. 31. Performances run through March 1.

Cleveland Play House (CPH) Artistic Director Laura Kepley announced today the casting of Cleveland native Mariah Burks in the title role of the timeless Greek tragedy Antigone. Staged in the intimate Outcalt Theatre March 28th through April 19th, 2020, this contemporary translation is freely adapted by playwright Emily Mann from the classic play by Sophocles. Antigone is generously supported by Presenting Sponsor, DLR Group | Westlake Reed Leskosky.

Brooklyn-based performer, Raquel Cion, is coming back for a January-March 2020 residency of her cabaret, Me & Mr. Jones: My Intimate Relationship with David Bowie at Pangea, located at 178 Second Avenue New York, NY 10003. The 90-minute cabaret explores the lifelong 'soul love' that Cion has for David Bowie's artistry and David Jones's humanity.

In conjunction with the New England premiere of the acclaimed drama Pass Over, SpeakEasy Stage Company and the Front Porch Arts Collective, Boston's only professional black-led theater company, are sponsoring a panel discussion on a?oeRestorative Justice and Healing After Loss.a?? The event will take place on Tuesday, January 7, from 6-8PM, at Hibernian Hall, 184 Dudley Street in Boston. Admission is free but advance registration is requested.

The hip hop improv squad, Freestyle Love Supreme, is celebrating their first Christmas on Broadway with Twelve Days of Cyphers!

McDaniel College offers a variety of art, music, theatre, literary, film and other events during the spring of 2020.

Henry Lombino will present a new oratorio: Above the Noise by Daphne Gampel premiering at Dixon Place (161A Chrystie Street) for one performance on December 21 at 7:30pm.

F*It Club, the New York Innovative Award-winning film and theatre company, will complete ten years of its annual series of short, commissioned world-premiere plays at the IRT Theater as part of their 3B Development Series in Manhattan's West Village with The Spring Fling: Happily Ever After, ten new short plays by Bekah Brunstetter (NBC's This Is Us, The Cake), Matthew Lee Erlbach (Showtime's Masters of Sex, The Doppelganger), Monet Hurst-Mendoza (NBC's Law and Order: SVU ), Daniel K. Isaac (Fullerton), Chelsea Marcantel (Airness), Gregory S. Moss (Indian Summer, punkplay), Leah Nanako Winkler (NBC's New Amsterdam, Kentucky, God Says This), Larry Powell (Lost Dog), Daniel Talbott (ABC's The Conners), & Pia Wilson (National Geographic's Genius).

Sir Patrick Stewart presented his one-man production of A Christmas Carol last week to benefit Ars Nova and City Harvest.

Ryan J. Haddad is an actor and writer, he is gay and he has cerebral palsy. All of these facts about this extraordinary star of the Netflix series 'The Politician' are part of Ilana's deep dive conversation with Ryan in her latest episode of Little Known Facts. Listen as they discuss his upcoming one man show, Falling for Make Believe (Joe's Pub, January 8-17, 2020), and so much more!

The Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan has announced that Tony nominated actor Jonathan C. Kaplan and Zoë Winters will complete the cast performing a benefit reading of 'The Wanderers' by Anna Zeigler.The play is a funny, insightful, and mysterious new drama. Ziegler is an award-winning playwright whose widely produced play, 'Photograph 51,' won London's 2016 WhatsOnStage award for best new play.

LAByrinth Theater Company (John Ortiz, Artistic Director; Aaron Roman Weiner, Associate Artistic Director) announces the selections for their 20th Annual Barn Series, the award-winning company's developmental play reading series. This year's series features seven new plays written and directed by LAB company members and friends. All readings are free and open to the public, and run from January 6-12, 2020 at Cherry Lane Theatre (38 Commerce Street, between Barrow and Bedford), where LAByrinth is the Company in Residence. Reservations will open to the public on Dec 20th, 2019.

The Big Chill meets This is Us in Rachel Bonds' play Goodnight Nobody. In this deeply moving and funny world premiere, a group of old friends reconnect after years apart. They reminisce with wild abandon, until the things they aren't telling each other come hurtling to the surface. The production runs January 10 through February 9 in McCarter's Berlind Theatre. More about the production at mccarter.org.

Caveat NYC will present Sim Yan Ying's I LOVE WHITE MEN on January 24 - 26, 2020 at Caveat NYC at 21 A Clinton Street. Show times are January 24 at 7pm, January 25 at 1:30pm & 7pm, and January 26 at 7pm. Tickets are available for advance purchase at $20 at caveat.nyc, and $22 at the door.

Today's top stories: Idina Menzel plays Carnegie Hall tonight, Sir Patrick Stewart's one-man A Christmas Carol plays its first of two performances, and more!

Barrington Stage Company (BSC), under the leadership of Artistic Director Julianne Boyd, announces the 2019 Associate Artists a?" actor Alan H. Green, composer Joe Iconis, costume designer Sara Jean Tosetti and actress Peggy Pharr Wilson.