Ars Nova News

Clinton Hill cultural hub and OBIE award-winner JACK launches its winter/spring 2016 season with an a cappella opera set in Zimbabwe by composer Tanyaradzwa Tawengwa, a weekend of curated works by Modesto "Flako" Jimenez, the premiere of the dirty and bracing play Tom & Eliza, by Celine Song, the English-language premiere of Argentinian playwright Rafael Spregelburd's SPAM, The Geneva Project by Jennifer Harrison Newman, Antonio Ramos' Thirsty Mind, love and starvation sitting in a lonely tree and an exploration in minimalist/pop art performance by the No Face Performance Group.  JACK also engineers the return of Walter Dundervill's ARENA (which had two sold-out runs at JACK in 2014 and 2015). 

2016 at Ars Nova (Jason Eagan, Artistic Director; Renee Blinkwolt, Managing Director) will include two Off-Broadway productions: the world premiere of The Wildness, Sky-Pony's Rock Fairy Tale directed by Tony-nominee Sam Buntrock, written by and featuring Brooklyn-based band Sky-Pony, fronted by Lauren Worsham (Drama Desk Award winner and Tony nominee) with songs penned by Kyle Jarrow (Obie Award winner) and presented in collaboration with The Play Company; and the New York premiere of Underground Railroad Game created and performed by Jennifer Kidwell and Scott Sheppard in association with Lightning Rod Special; SHOWGASM XXL, a one-night-only 'gasm so big it won't fit in the Ars Nova building, hosted by John Early and featuring Ars Nova All Stars as well as celebrity guests to be announced; and ANT Fest, a new adventure every night with the next wave of Ars Nova's breakthrough artists during four nonstop weeks of wild comedy, music and theater mash-ups.

Starsky + Cox - the couple named 'Psychics to the Stars' by Vanity Fair, known for their international best- selling book Sextrology - will bring a special Yule installment of their Starring show - You Better Watch Out to Joe's Pub at The Public Theater on Sunday, December 20 at 7:00 PM for the winter solstice.

Coming off of their Obie Award winning production of A Beautiful Day in November on the Banks of the Great Lakes at City Center in January and the critically acclaimed Heartbreak at The Bushwick Starr in May, New Georges announces their final production of 2015, the World Premiere of HOW TO GET INTO BUILDINGS by Trish Harnetiaux (If You Can Get to Buffalo with Incubator Arts Project) at The Brick (579 Metropolitan Avenue, Brooklyn; www.bricktheater.com) as part of The Brick's Resident Artist program, tonight, December 3-19.

Vineyard Theatre's 2015-2016 season opens tonight, December 3, with the new musical comedy GIGANTIC at The Acorn Theatre at Theatre Row (410 West 42nd Street).

The Meeting* hosted by Justin Sayre, the acclaimed comedy/variety show, will return to JOE'S PUB at The Public Theater for two shows - Sunday, December 20 at 9:30 PM and Monday, December 21 at 7:00 PM - for the Seventh Annual Holiday Spectacular. The Meeting* has been called 'delicious and delightfully droll' by The New York Post and 'hilarious and sardonic' by The Village Voice. A story for Slate.com called the evening 'so deliciously icy that it left me shivering with fear and delight.' The 2014-2015 season sold out after a New York Times 'Arts & Leisure' piece ran last fall. Special guests for the Holiday Spectacular will be announced. Tracy Stark serves as the show's Music Director.

?Marin Theatre Company and The San Francisco Foundation are thrilled to announce that Rachel Bonds, is being honored with the 2015 Rella Lossy Award for her play Swimmers, which will get its World Premiere on the MTC mainstage in March, 2016.

This December the playwright producing collective Orbiter 3 will present the world premiere of Emma Goidel's A Knee That Can Bend. Over the past two years Goidel has risen to the forefront of emerging American playwrights, working with and being recognized by organizations such as Ars Nova, the Kilroys, Labyrinth Theater Company and the Playwrights Realm. A Knee That Can Bend will mark her full-length theatre debut.

Yale Repertory Theatre presents the world premiere of PEERLESS by Jiehae Park, directed by Margot Bordelon, November 27-December 19 at Yale Repertory Theatre (1120 Chapel Street). Opening Night is Thursday, December 3. The cast of PEERLESS includes Teresa Avia Lim, Christopher Livingston, Caroline Neff, JD Taylor, and Tiffany Villarin.

   Lincoln Center Theater (under the direction of Producing Artistic Director Andre Bishop) has announced that McKinley Belcher III, Khris Davis, Montego Glover, John Lavelle, and Clarke Peters will be featured in its upcoming production of THE ROYALE, a new play by Marco Ramirez, directed by Rachel Chavkin, which begins performances Thursday, February 11 at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater (150 West 65 Street).   Opening night is Monday, March 7. 

The American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) at Harvard University, under the leadership of Artistic Director Diane Paulus, is pleased to present Dave Malloy's musical adaptation of an excerpt from Leo Tolstoy's monumental novel War and Peace, directed by Rachel Chavkin, with choreography by Sam Pinkleton.  Check out a first look at rehearsals below!

In what has become an annual ritual, a total of 36 established and emerging composers, lyricists, and librettists will converge on the Goodspeed campus from mid-January through mid-February 2016 to participate in the Johnny Mercer Foundation Writers Colony at Goodspeed Musicals. The writing teams, representing 19 new musicals, will populate the campus, creating a truly exciting environment for discovery and inspiration. BroadwayWorld is excited to report that Goodspeed has announced its 2016 participants. Scroll down for details!

Abrons Arts Center and American Realness is pleased to present the world premiere of Erin Markey's A RIDE ON THE IRISH CREAM, a sharp and playful, performance art musical about the role childhood plays in our adult intimacies.

OkayBetterBest, a new musical written by Rhonda Kess and Michael Weems and directed by Hunter Foster, will be presented the Ars Nova Loft (511 West 54th Street) as a special industry reading on Thursday, December 3 at 3:00 PM and Friday, December 4 at 3:00 PM. The cast includes Jason Gotay (Bring It On: The Musical, Spider-Man Turn off the Dark), George Salazar (Godspell, Here Lies Love), Julia Mattison (Godspell), Elena Ricardo (Mamma Mia!), Christina Sajous (Holler If Ya Hear Me, American Idiot), Justin Matthew Sargent (Bonnie & Clyde, Rock of Ages) and Remy Zaken (Spring Awakening). Industry members interested in attending should email OkayBetterBest@gmail.com and indicate their affiliation.

The New York premiere of Pulitzer Prize finalist and Emmy Award nominated writer Rolin Jones and Tony Award nominee and Grammy Award winning Green Day front man Billie Joe Armstrong's new play with music THESE PAPER BULLETS!, directed by Jackson Gay, begins tonight, November 20, at Atlantic Theater Company.

Theatre for a New Audience, Jeffrey Horowitz, Founding Artistic Director, will present William Shakespeare's Pericles directed by Trevor Nunn, featuring OBIE Award-winner Christian Camargo in the title role and leading a diverse company of twenty-two actors. Pericles marks Mr. Camargo's third Shakespeare title role for Theatre for a New Audience, and the first time not only that Trevor Nunn has directed this play, but the first time he has directed a Shakespeare with a U.S. company.  The production begins previews February 14 and opens February 25 for a scheduled run through March 27 at Polonsky Shakespeare Center, 262 Ashland Place.

Labyrinth Theater Company has announced the line-up for the 17th Annual Barn Series, the award-winning company's free play reading series.

Ghostlight Records will release the PRELUDES Original Cast Recording in digital formats and in stores on January 8, 2016. Produced by LCT3, Lincoln Center Theater's initiative devoted to producing the work of new artists and engaging new audiences, PRELUDES is a new musical by Dave Malloy, inspired by the music of Sergei Rachmaninoff, developed with and directed by Rachel Chavkin.

BroadwayWorld has just learned that Sarah Hammond and Adam Gwon's STRING will receive readings this week at Playwrights Horizons.

The Kennedy Center today announced a robust schedule of 2015-2016 performances as part of Comedy at the Kennedy Center, the largest since the new series was established in the 2014-2015 season. Capital One is the presenting sponsor. Comedy at the Kennedy Center will include three signature events in the Concert Hall, featuring nationally renowned comedic acts, and the Center's first District of Comedy Festival from June 22-25, showcasing an array of celebrated comedians who will be performing on stages across the building. The District of Comedy Festival will also launch a newly-engaged collaboration with Chicago's legendary comedy theater, The Second City, featuring a Kennedy Center commission that focuses on the history of the United States, which will run for six weeks in the Theater Lab. Tickets for these events go on sale to members on Monday, November 23, 2015 and to the general public on Wednesday, December 2, 2015 (unless otherwise noted).