Ars Nova News

Hit The Lights! Theater Co. (HTL!) is please to present two original works as part of the 2018 Minnesota Fringe Festival. In their shadow play WHALES, inspired by punk rock, interactive game shows, documentaries, and Herman Melville's seminal masterpiece Moby-Dick, HTL! invites you to catch a glimpse of the world that brought us a certain legendary white whale and the men that hunt him. In HORSETALE, part of Family Fringe, a Horse and his Tail become separated and in their search for each other, find themselves. HTL! weaves together handmade shadow puppetry, three vintage overhead projectors, live original folk music, and American iconography to tell a story as wild and expansive and intimate as the West itself.

National Alliance for Musical Theatre (Betsy King Militello, Executive Director) is thrilled to announce the line-up of new musicals for their 30th Annual FESTIVAL OF NEW MUSICALS, which takes place on Thursday, October 25 and Friday, October 26, 2018 at New World Stages (340 West 50th Street, between 8th and 9th Avenues). The Festival events will kick off on Monday, October 22 with Thank You, 30!, a gala event to celebrate the 30th Annual Festival.

Last night, Broadway talent took the Mercury Lounge on NY's Lower East Side by storm last night with the record release for Storm Conductor with their band Youth in a Roman Field!

Vineyard Theatre Artistic Directors Douglas Aibel and Sarah Stern have announced the upcoming 2018-2019 Season.

Now entering its 56th season, the New York Youth Symphony (NYYS) is launching a Musical Theater Composition (MTC) program, to be led by newly-appointed director Anna K. Jacobs. In a partnership with the Harlem School of the Arts, this new program aims to diversify the world of musical theater by creating opportunities for young composers to have their compositions workshopped and performed by both peers and professionals.

Today, Marie decides to leave her husband: 'Let me tell you something. I find my husband so God damned irritating that I'm planning to leave him. And that's a fact.' But in Wallace Shawn's 1978 American masterpiece, facts are slippery things. In this radical re-imagining at JACK, two multi-disciplinary artists play the combative titular couple and head up the design team. Joined by an ensemble of some of Brooklyn's sharpest comedic voices, Gordon Landenberger (Bruce) and trans actress Theda Hammel (Marie) double as the set and sound designers, respectively, for this hilarious and timely new production. 

Evans's Production, with a Translation by Paula Wing, Will Feature a Cast of Three Women Bringing to Life Assassinated Journalist Anna Politkovskaya's Uncompromising Drive to Unveil Hard Truths

MCC THEATER today announced the complete cast and creative team for the first show of the 2018/19 season: the New York Premiere production of Collective Rage: A Play in 5 Betties, written by Jen Silverman, and directed by MCC alum Mike Donahue

Atlantic Theater Company (Neil Pepe, Artistic Director; Jeffory Lawson, Managing Director) will present Middle Eastern MixFest, a series of free readings co-curated by playwrights Mona Mansour and Heather Raffothat will run Wednesday, August 8th through Thursday, August 16th at Atlantic Stage 2 (330 West 16th Street).

The complete cast for the world premiere Chicago production of the new comedy musical, TOOTSIE has just been announced. Joining previously announced Tony Award nominee SANTINO FONTANA as Michael Dorsey will be LILLI COOPER as Julie Nichols, SARAH STILES as Sandy Lester, JOHN BEHLMANN as Max Von Horn, ANDY GROTELUESCHEN as Jeff Slater, JULIE HALSTON as Rita Mallory, MICHAEL McGRATH as Stan Fields, and REG ROGERS as Ron Carlisle.

Directed by Adam Knight ('In The Room, 'Naperville. Performances of STUPID F##KING BIRD are on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 8PM, July 6th through July 21st.

Stripped Scripts ('Tomorrow In The Battle, an Ars Nova Fling), in association with Long Island City Artists Inc. and The Plaxall Gallery ('Garden Of Delights'), has announced that it will present Aaron Posner's STUPID F##KING BIRD, a satirical spin on the Chekhov's classic text, 'The Seagull', directed by Adam Knight ('In The Room, 'Naperville'), running July 6th - July 21st, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays 8pm at The Plaxall Gallery (5-25 46 Avenue, Long Island City).

Rick Skye, who won the 2017 MAC Award for 'Best Impersonation,' welcomes Cabaret Sensation Molly Pope and Comedian Nancy Witter to 'Bazazz! - A Sequined Variety' along with Kit Kat Boyz Ryan Lind, Diego Sayao and David Ballard today, February 24th at 8:00PM at Don't Tell Mama (343 West 43rd Street). There is a $20.00 Cover Charge and 2 drink minimum and reservations can be made by calling 212-757-0788 or visiting www.donttellmamanyc.com. The Huffington Post called the show 'Energetic, high energy...loaded with talent, laughs...and BAZAZZ!'.

Flying Elephant Productions is pleased to announce casting for its Chicago premiere of DEFACING MICHAEL JACKSON, Aurin Squire's racially-charged comedy about adolescence, sexual discovery and the conflict between community and culture, directed by Alexis J. Roston.

Corkscrew Theater Festival presents delicacy of a puffin heart, written by Stefani Kuo and directed by Theo Maltz. Running July 25-August 5, delicacy of a puffin heart traces the stories of two pairs of immigrant/first generation women living in the same San Francisco apartment, twenty years apart: in the 1990s, a lesbian couple hoping to have a child, and in the present, their adult daughter living with her best friend. Both pairs of women struggle to maintain their intimate connection while facing mental and physical illness. Performed by Dominique Brillon, Diane Chen, Cleo Gray, Drita Kabashi, and O'mer Koren, delicacy of a puffin heart is the fourth production in the second annual season of Corkscrew Theater Festival, a new summer theater festival that provides early-career artists with a high level of production support.

In a black comedy about female friendship, social anxiety and our relationship with 'other', two characters crave connection but live in their own heads, over-analysing all interactions. Dora and Ronnie form a tentative friendship from conversations over the balconies of their provincial Rhode Island apartments, flexing their rusty social skills and trying to act as normal people do. But the dynamic of their jittery new friendship takes a turn when a beaver moves in. Set in a Rhode Island town that no one ever seems to leave, filled with parking lots, strip malls, and nail salons, The Providence of Neighboring Bodies examines what happens when we're pushed out of our comfort zones and are faced with something unknown.

Broadway's smash hit musicalMemphis, winner of four Tony Awards® including Best Musical, Best Score, Best Book and Best Orchestrations, will open at The Gateway on July 6th and run through July 21st with preview performances on July 5th.

The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts and Joe's Pub at The Public join forces once again for the Kimmel Center Theater Residency. Under the tutelage of Jay Wahl, Producing Artistic Director of the Kimmel Center, and Shanta Thake, Director of Joe's Pub, the program serves as an incubator for artists and their collaborators to create and develop music and theater projects. The program will be held in the Kimmel Center's SEI Innovation Studio (300 South Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA) from June 18-30 with Public Readings, free and open to the public, on June 29 and 30. Readings will be followed by Q&A sessions with the artists.

59E59 Theaters (Val Day, Artistic Director; Brian Beirne, Managing Director) is thrilled to welcome Throughline Artists (J.J. Kandel, Producing Artistic Director) with SUMMER SHORTS 2018, the annual festival of six short plays tailor-made for summer viewing, now celebrating its 12th season. SUMMER SHORTS 2018 begins on July 20 and runs through September 1. The general performance schedule is Tuesday - Friday at 7:15 PM; Saturday & Sunday at 2:15 PM and 7:15 PM. Please note, there are no matinee performances on Saturday, July 21, Sunday, July 22, or Saturday, July 28. Individual calendar schedule of performance dates for Series A and Series B is available for viewing/download. Press Opening for Series A is Sunday, July 29 at 2:15 PM. Press Opening for Series B is Sunday, August 5 at 2:15 PM. Performances are at 59E59 Theaters (59 East 59th Street, between Park and Madison Avenues). Single tickets are $35 ($24.50 for 59E59 Members). A Pair of Shorts (a ticket package to both Series A & B, available through August 15) is $55. To purchase tickets, call Ticket Central at (212) 279-4200 or visit www.59e59.org.

Today, Marie decides to leave her husband: 'Let me tell you something. I find my husband so God damned irritating that I'm planning to leave him. And that's a fact.' But in Wallace Shawn's 1978 American masterpiece, facts are slippery things. In this radical re-imagining at JACK, two multi-disciplinary artists play the combative titular couple and head up the design team. Joined by an ensemble of some of Brooklyn's sharpest comedic voices, Gordon Landenberger (Bruce) and trans actress Theda Hammel (Marie) double as the set and sound designers, respectively, for this hilarious and timely new production.