Ars Nova News

SPARKLE & CIRCULATE with JUSTIN SAYRE – the official monthly podcast of the International Order of Sodomites – has posted its new episode, which features an interview with 'RuPaul's Drag Race' Season 5 winner JINKX MONSOON.

Stage Left Theatre will present LeapFest XIV, Stage Left's annual new-play festival, running July 9 - July 26, 2017. LeapFest features several new plays with socio-political themes, presented as workshop productions in rotating repertory. This year's festival includes new works from Sam Chanse, Liam Fitzgerald, Dana Lynn Formby, Isaac Gomez, and Joe Zarrow.

See the brand-new music video from the immersive Broadway musical Natasha, Pierre, & the Great Comet of 1812. Starring actress Amber Gray, who plays Helene in the show, the video features the show's most villainous anthem, 'Charming.'

STAGES St. Louis is proud to announce casting for its blockbuster 31st Season: Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, 9 to 5, The Musical, and South Pacific. According to Artistic Director Michael Hamilton, this season's exceptional talent "explores the triumphant powers of family, friendship, loyalty, and community in an ever challenging world." STAGES also announces the cast for its Theatre for Young Audiences production, the fantastical family adventure, Seussical. All subscription and single tickets are on sale now.

The View UpStairs - the provocative new musical written by Max Vernon, directed by Scott Ebersold and choreographed by Al Blackstone - will partner with Coming Out, a non-profit open-source platform for sharing diverse stories about coming out, for a special event after the performance on Thursday, April 27. Engage with peers, cast and creative members of The View UpStairs, and the Coming Out team as we celebrate the LGBTQ community's vibrant and diverse voices.  

Burning Coal Theatre Company and Contemporary Art Museum Raleigh will collaborate on a production of The Greeks, adapted by Ian Finley from the plays of Sophocles (Oedipus, Oedipus at Colonus and Antigone)  June 9 - 25, 2017 at CAM Raleigh, 409 West Martin Street, Warehouse District, Raleigh.

Amas Musical Theatre (Donna Trinkoff, Artistic Producer) and The Amas Musical Theatre Lab will present staged readings of Love and Real Estate, three one-act musicals with book and lyrics by Sean Hartley and music by Sam Davis.

The Drama League (Executive Artistic Director Gabriel Stelian-Shanks) has announced the eleven exceptional stage directors who have been selected as the 2017 Directing Fellows of The Drama League Directors Project.

Join Playhouse on Park in designating the Greater Hartford area as a premiere destination for the cultivation of innovative theatrical work! The Playwrights on Park Reading Series was created for this very purpose, and our next evening in this exciting series is Tuesday, May 9 at 7:30pm with Joe Godfrey's Here's Johnny!

'Looking at the sun helps you sneeze.' Just a typical piece of life-advice from KJ, one of a pair of disaffected yet engaging slackers we meet in Annie Baker's gentle, touching, and funny Obie Award winner The Aliens, beginning a 5-week run on Thursday, May 4 at Stage West.

The Meeting* hosted by Justin Sayre - the monthly gathering of the International Order of Sodomites, the centuries-old organization which sets the mythic Gay Agenda - will continue its final season on Sunday, April 23 with a celebration of Broadway legend Patti LuPone at 9:30 PM at Joe's Pub at The Public Theater. 

The WAM Theatre 2017 Fresh Takes Play reading series continues with Really by Jackie Sibblies Drury at 3:30 pm on Sunday, May 7 at No. Six Depot Roastery and Cafe in West Stockbridge. Alice Reagan - director of Shakespeare & Company's acclaimed 2016 production of Or, - will direct.

Salty Brine has announced the premiere of a new cabaret, Welcome to the Jungle, as the latest installment in his series, The Living Record Collection.  Welcome to the Jungle, inspired by Harry Nilsson's hit album Nilsson Schmilsson and Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book, will perform on May 10, 17, 24, 31 and June 7 at Pangea. 

The Public Theater will kick off the 2017-18 season in September with a free Public Works musical adaptation of AS YOU LIKE IT, adapted by Shaina Taub and Laurie Woolery, with music and lyrics by Shaina Taub. Directed by Laurie Woolery, AS YOU LIKE IT will once again feature over 200 actors and community members alongside equity actors. Now in its fifth season, this unforgettable Public Works musical adaptation about chance encounters and self-discovery, will run for five nights for free, September 1-5, at the Delacorte Theater.

In a not-too-distant future where no one dies, a family navigates life's big questions during an annual road trip in Zack Zadek's new musical Deathless.

F*It Club, the New York Innovative Award-winning film and theatre company, continues 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: Rebound, seven new short plays by Ngozi Anyanwu (Good Grief), Lucy Boyle (The Blue Deep), Liza Birkenmeier (Radio Island), Ryan King (Burying Augustus), Dan Moyer (Half Moon Bay), Matthew Paul Olmos (So Go The Ghosts of Mexico), and Leah Nanako Winkler (Kentucky).

The Drama League has announced the 2017 Drama League Awards Nominees for Outstanding Play, Outstanding Revival of a Play, Outstanding Musical, Outstanding Revival of a Musical, and the much-coveted Distinguished Performance Award. Scroll down for the full list of nominees!

Steppenwolf Theatre Company presents the world premiere production of Pass Over by Antoinette Nwandu, directed by Danya Taymor. A bold, incendiary riff on Waiting for Godot, the complete cast features ensemble member Jon Michael Hill (Moses), Julian Parker (Kitch) and Ryan Hallahan (Mister). Steppenwolf recently sat down with the playwright to discuss her new work - see what she had to say below!

Steppenwolf Theatre Company has announced accomplished director Danya Taymor will direct Steppenwolf's world premiere production of Pass Over by Antoinette Nwandu.

First Draughts is a developmental reading series produced by Amios, a cooperative whose mission is to build community through art.