Ars Nova News

Iconic star of The Office actor and comedian Rainn Wilson will return to the stage in Steppenwolf Theatre Company's production ofThe Doppelg nger (An International Farce). Wilson leads the cast as Thomas Irdley/Jimmy in the world premiere production.

Feinstein's/54 Below, Broadway's Supper Club, welcomes back Alexis Michelle, one of the last queens standing on RuPaul's Drag Race Season 9, in her new one woman show ALEXIS, I AM!

Philadelphia's Bearded Ladies Cabaret returns to New York City with their brand new show, You Can Never Go Down the Drain: A Musical Children's Program for Adults in 2018, presented by La MaMa. Mr. Rogers always said: no matter how bad things are 'you can never go down the drain.' Using and abusing iconic songs from his children's show, Philadelphia's Bearded Ladies Cabaret put this idea to the test. For this workshop performance, expect a goldfish funeral, gay romps into the land of make-believe, and some earnest questions about irony. You Can Never Go Down the Drain runs for just four performances between February 3-9 at La MaMa's First Floor Theater.

Main Street Theater continues its 42nd Season with Men on Boats by Jaclyn Backhaus - and it's played by all women. Men on Boats tells the story of Major John Wesley Powell's actual expedition of the Grand Canyon in 1869. The play depicts the amazing journey of these 10 explorers with all its humor and wonder and danger and excitement. It's an extraordinary adventure.

The 102nd Season at Cleveland Play House (CPH) continues with The Invisible Hand by Pulitzer Prize-winning Author Ayad Akhtar. The Invisible Hand tells the story of American investment banker Nick Bright as he risks everything to return to his family. Held hostage in Pakistan by Islamic revolutionaries, his last chance for freedom depends on his ability to play the stock market to benefit his captors. This sharp geo-political thriller from Pulitzer Prize winner Ayad Akhtar takes us to the treacherous intersection of terrorism and capitalism, where greed and deceit prevail and no one escapes without blood on their hands. Directed by Pirronne Yousefzadeh, The Invisible Hand runs February 17th through March 11, 2018 in the Outcalt Theatre at Playhouse Square.

PlayMakers Repertory Company will present a private reading of Jump by Carly Evon Simpson, as part of a nationwide celebration of International Women's Voices Day. A play about flickering lights, vapes that fall from the sky, old homes, and a young woman who finds solace on a bridge, Jump was featured at the National New Play Network's National Showcase of New Plays.

Jessica Vosk is gearing up for her upcoming (Feb 1-3) 54 Below show which will feature an exciting surprise guest every night! Though she can't make it to the show, friend and former Elphaba Julia Murney recently stopped by a rehearsal for a spontaneous duet.

JAG Productions announces the second annual JAGfest, a weekend performing arts festival of new works all celebrating the talents of African-American playwrights and performing artists.

Theatre for a New Audience (TFANA; Jeffrey Horowitz, Founding Artistic Director) announces a free post-performance discussion moderated by Pulitzer Prize-winning theatre critic and Negroland: A Memoir author Margo Jefferson in connection with TFANA's world premiere production of Adrienne Kennedy's He Brought Her Heart Back in a Box. The talk, which begins at 8.30 PM is open to all and features director Charlotte Braithwaite and playwrights Lydia Diamond and Jackie Sibblies Drury, follows the January 20 performance of Kennedy's first new play in a decade, which begins at 7:30 that evening, at Polonsky Shakespeare Center (262 Ashland Place, Brooklyn, NY 11217). The discussion will also be streamed live on Theatre for a New Audience's Facebook page. He Brought Her Heart Back in a Box runs January 18-February 11. To reserve a seat to this panel, visit www.tfana.org/heartpanel.

Leviathan Lab (Artistic Director, Flordelino Lagundino) announces casting of TRIGGER, a new play by New Dramatists playwright Sam Chanse. TRIGGER runs at IATI Theatre (64 East 4th Street) from Friday, February 23 through Sunday, March 11, 2018.

After several exciting and successful shows in the fall of 2017 (Only You, A Queer Cabaret; Love: A How (Not) To Guide; and No Way To Say Goodbye by artists Donnie and Rebecca Cianciotto, Jen Anaya and Deepali Gupta) The Tank (Meghan Finn and Rosalind Grush, Artistic Directors) is launching a full season of monthly cabaret events for 2018! Tank-aret: A Taste of Something Different, a new cabaret series featuring underrepresented artists, will kick off on Saturday, January 20 at 10:30pm, in the 99-seat theater space at The Tank (312 West 36th Street between 8th and 9th Avenues). Tickets ($14, with a 1 drink minimun) are available for advance purchase at www.thetanknyc.org.

Soho Rep. (Sarah Benson, Artistic Director; Cynthia Flowers, Executive Director) today announces the complete cast and creative team for the world premiere of Aleshea Harris's Relentless Award-winning Is God Is, directed by Taibi Magar (Ars Nova's Underground Railroad Game), February 6 - March 11, 2018. The play, with which Soho Rep. reopens its longtime Tribeca theater, dauntlessly cracks jokes as it eviscerates. Alfie Fuller and Dame-Jasmine Hughes play Anaia and Racine, twin sisters who 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.

Victory Gardens Theater continues its 43rd season with BREACH: a manifesto on race in america through the eyes of a black girl recovering from self-hate, written by Antoinette Nwandu and directed by Lisa Portes. BREACH runs February 9 March 11, 2018, with the press performance on Friday, February 16, 2018 at 7:30pm at Victory Gardens Theater, 2433 N. Lincoln Avenue.

The Public Theater (Artistic Director, Oskar Eustis; Executive Director, Patrick Willingham) will begin previews on Tuesday, January 30 for the World premiere of KINGS, written by Sarah Burgess and directed by Thomas Kail, part of The Public's Astor Anniversary Season at their landmark downtown home on Lafayette Street, celebrating 50 years of new work at 425 Lafayette Street and the 50th Anniversary of HAIR. KINGS will run through Sunday, March 25 with an official press opening on Tuesday, February 20. Continuing The Public's mission to make great theater accessible to all, The Public's First Performance Free for All continues this fall; free tickets to the first preview on Tuesday, January 30 will be available beginning January 23, via TodayTix mobile lottery.

Love appears in unlikely places in Adam Szymkowicz's new play, Kodachrome, which makes its world premiere at The Armory directed by Associate Artistic Director Rose Riordan. The production opens February 9, with previews beginning February 3 and performances running through March 10 in the Ellyn Bye Studio. Kodachrome was developed at The Armory's JAW: A Playwrights Festival in 2015 under the title Colchester and will be the company's 26th world premiere production.

Theatre for a New Audience (TFANA; Jeffrey Horowitz, Founding Artistic Director) announces a free post-performance discussion moderated by Pulitzer Prize-winning theatre critic and Negroland: A Memoir author Margo Jefferson in connection with TFANA's world premiere production of Adrienne Kennedy's He Brought Her Heart Back in a Box. The talk, which begins at 8.30 PM is open to all and features director Charlotte Braithwaite and playwrights Lydia Diamond and Jackie Sibblies Drury, follows the January 20 performance of Kennedy's first new play in a decade, which begins at 7:30 that evening, at Polonsky Shakespeare Center (262 Ashland Place, Brooklyn, NY 11217). The discussion will also be streamed live on Theatre for a New Audience's Facebook page. He Brought Her Heart Back in a Box runs January 18-February 11. To reserve a seat to this panel, visit www.tfana.org/heartpanel.

The Theatre Arts Department of the University of Miami, Stephen DI Benedetto, Chairman, and Michael Bush, Artistic Director of the University's Jerry Herman Ring Theatre, announce a developmental reading of the new musical Devotion, book, music and lyrics by Mark Sonnenblick, directed by Maggie Burrows, featuring students from the University's BFA musical theatre program. This reading has been made possible by a grant for the development of new musical works by the Johnny Mercer Foundation. The reading rehearsals start January 20, 2018 with a free public presentation on January 25, 2018.

From January 17 to February 3, 2018, the University Musical Society of the University of Michigan (UMS) presents No Safety Net, a three-week theater festival of four productions that foster timely conversations around slavery, terrorism, transgender identity, and radical wellness and healing. Two of the titles are U.S. premieres and will receive their only U.S. performances as part of No Safety Net. Performances will be held in Arthur Miller Theatre (1226 Murfin Ave, Ann Arbor) and the Stamps Gallery (201 S. Division St, Ann Arbor), with each title examining a different topic related to contemporary social issues.

The Associates proudly present the world premiere of SHEILA, created and written by The Associates, and directed by Jamal Abdunnasir. SHEILA runs from January 12 - 27, 2018 in a limited engagement at the Jeffrey and Paula Gural Theatre at the A.R.T./New York Theatres, located at 502 West 53rd Street between 10th and 11th Avenues in New York City. Previews begin January 12 for a January 14 opening.

Game on! The Chicago premiere of Sarah DeLappe's The Wolves, a 'smart, hilarious, delightful meditation on society, sex and soccer' (The Village Voice), directed by Vanessa Stalling, launches Goodman Theatre's 2018 Owen Theatre season. A 2017 Pulitzer Prize finalist, The Wolves follows a suburban girls soccer team as they navigate life's big questions and wage their own tiny battles-with all the 'bark and bite' (Vulture.com) of a pack of adolescent warriors. Hailed as 'one of the year's best plays' (The New York Times), The Wolves is DeLappe's break-out play that recently concluded an off-Broadway run at Lincoln Center Theater. Stalling directs the Chicago premiere with an all-Chicago company.