Ars Nova News

Artistic Director Les Waters and Managing Director Jennifer Bielstein are delighted to announce the 38th Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theatre of Louisville, running February 26-April 6, 2014. This year's Festival program will feature (in order of opening):

Playwrights Horizons has announced initial casting for the New York premiere production of STAGE KISS, a new play marking the eagerly-awaited return of two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist Sarah Ruhl(Dead Man's Cell Phone at PH; The Clean House, In the Next Room...) to the theater company. Directed by Rebecca Taichman (Milk Like Sugar at PH; the current Marie Antoinette, Orlando, The Scene, Luck of the Irish), the production will begin previews Friday evening, February 7 at 8PM with an Opening Night set for Sunday, March 2 at 7PM. The limited engagement will play through Sunday evening, March 23 at Playwrights Horizons' Mainstage Theater (416 West 42nd Street).

Application Pending, a new comedy co-authored by Greg Edwards & Andy Sandberg, the writing team behind the upcoming Off-Broadway play Craving for Travel, will present invitation-only readings in New York on November 11th and 12th.

UCB East hosts SO INTO IT with Damian and Anne on November 11, 2013. Admission: $5, cash only. Tickets: (212) 366-9231 or visit east.ucbtheatre.com/shows/view/2997. Closest Subway: 6 @ Astor Place, F @ 2nd Ave.

54 BELOW, Broadway's Supper Club, presents Rob Shapiro's '1 Night Only: A Hanukkah Jamboree' on November 26, 2013. It's time for another Jewish holiday! Back after a sold out performance at Ars Nova's ANT Fest, Rob Shapiro and friends present 1 Night Only: A Hanukkah Jamboree. Join musical Maccabees Mara Jill Herman, Drew Hirshfield, Melanie Hopkins, Ally Bonino and Sam Heldt to witness the great trials endured by Mattathias and his sons, the miracle of oil and the ancient art of driedel spinning! Tell your bubbe you will celebrate the Festival of Lights at 54 Below with prizes, menorahs, and shiksas, oh my! Directed by Leah Bonvissuto, the show will also feature special guests Rachel Sklar, Daniel Mate, and Alexis Field.

Ars Nova presents, as part of the Out Loud series, a FREE reading of LIQUIDATION PLAY by Sarah Burgess, directed by Mike Donahue. The cast includes Dylan Baker, Mike DiSalvo, Jessica Love and Ben Rappaport.

While making their London debut this fall, BBC Radio host Jo Good called Well-Strung "amazing, absolutely amazing" after their on-air performance and interview for her show. In the States, they've also been called the "hottest thing with a bow since Jennifer Lawrence in The Hunger Games" by the New York Daily News. Well-Strung: the Singing String Quartet returns to Highline Ballroom - for the first time since May with a new show directed by Donna Drake on Sunday, November 24 at 8:00 PM for one performance only. The group has been on a roll: in addition to their London debut last month, they are just off of a three-month run at the prestigious Art House in Provincetown, two recent hit New York productions Off-Broadway in the past year, their first album just released in spring, and a new music video that has caught the eye of the national press. The new show will feature new arrangements of songs by Pink, Kelly Clarkson, Taylor Swift and Third Eye Blind among others as well as new material written by Jeffery Roberson (aka Varla Jean Merman). For tickets please visit www.well-strung.com.

Jonny Orsini returns to Broadway this season as 'Malcolm' in the Lincoln Center Theatre production of MACBETH, which opens at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre on November 21. Below you can check out photos of him in the BroadwayWorld.com series 'In The Spotlight' by acclaimed photographer Walter McBride!

Stageworks Media has announced announce Speakeasy Dollhouse: The Brothers Booth by Cynthia von Buhler. A new chapter to Ms. von Buhler's Speakeasy Dollhouse, which has over the past two years become one of the city's most unique, interactive, and surreal theatre experiences, Speakeasy Dollhouse: The Brothers Booth brings von Buhler's unique brand of immersive theater to the legends of John Wilkes and Edwin Booth. Directed by Wes Grantom (Eager to Lose at Ars Nova), Speakeasy Dollhouse: The Brothers Booth will play monthly performances (on the first Saturday of the month) at The Players Club (16 Gramercy Park South) beginning in March 2014.

Joe's Pub at The Public welcomes the faithful and the faithless this holiday season with a winter program that includes Yiddish lullabies, kvetching, yuletide cheer, anti-consumerist sermons, sports, jazz, storytelling and of course Sandra Bernhard's hilarious and entertaining end-of-year free for all.

Fresh from the success of Night of a Thousand Judys, The Meeting* hosted by Justin Sayre - the acclaimed comedy/variety show hailed as "rambunctious, uproarious and unpredictable" by The Wall Street Journal, "delicious and delightfully droll" by The New York Post, and "hilarious and sardonic" by The Village Voice - has moved to 54 BELOW for a six month run. The next show will be on Wednesday, November 20 at 9:30 PM. Known for its signature blend of outrageous comedy, politics, culture and everything in between, The Meeting* moves uptown after four seasons of packed houses in the West Village. Justin Sayre and The Meeting* were named one of the Top 10 nightclub shows of 2011 by Time Out New York, received the 2012 Bistro Award for "Comedy Artistry" and a 2011 MAC Award nomination for Best Male Comedy Performance.

Sundance Institute today announced the seven artists selected for its 2014 Playwrights Retreat at Ucross Foundation. The 15th annual writing colony at the 20,000-acre working cattle ranch outside of Sheridan, WY takes place February 3-21. Under the supervision of Artistic Director Philip Himberg and Producing Director Christopher Hibma, the Playwrights Retreat is made possible through the generosity of Ucross Foundation.

Following previous seasons sold-out holiday hits, The Snow Queen and Hansel and Gretel, the A.R.T. Institute, in association with the Loeb Drama Center, brings another children's story to life - The Light Princess, by Lila Rose Kaplan with music by Mike Pettry, directed by Allegra Libonati, with choreography by Jeff and Rick Kuperman. Performances will be held at the Loeb Drama Center at from December 21 through January 5, 2014.

CAPS LOCK THEATRE presents THE SEX WITH ROBOTS FESTIVAL, a series of short plays about sex with robots, written by a formidable group of playwrights: Micheline Auger, Danny Bowes, J. Julian Christopher, Richard Lovejoy & Eric Meyer, Mariah MacCarthy, Mac Rogers, Leah Nanako Winkler and Natalie Zutter, with a robot sex song cycle by Nat Cassidy. The festival is set for today, November 5-10 at the Secret Theatre in Long Island City.

KEVIN CARTER, Bobby Cronin, SCOTT EVAN DAVIS, DREW GASPARINI, JULIA MEINWALD, BLAKE PFEIL, JEFF THOMSON, and AMANDA GREEN star in INSPIRED 2: A Benefit Concert for the Humane Society of NYC and The Last Resort Rescue of NJ, on Monday November 18th, 7pm at Stage 72/Triad.

Brittain Ashford, who plays 'Sonya' in the production, recently chatted with BroadwayWorld about bringing the show to a new audience uptown. Check out the full interview below!

BAX | Brooklyn Arts Exchange has announced the OPEN STUDIO SERIES. Details below!

The American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) at Harvard University and the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research (formerly known as the Du Bois Institute), in conjunction with Hilton Als of The New Yorker, will present a staged reading of Alice Childress's Wedding Band: A Love-Hate Story in Black and White, co-directed by Hilton Als and A.R.T. Artistic Associate Shira Milikowsky. It takes place at the Loeb Drama Center, 64 Brattle Street, Cambridge, starting at 7:30pm, and will be followed by a post-reading discussion.

We have no tricks, but definitely a treat for you this week: a song from Sean Mahoney and Creighton Irons' musical Factory Girls! Brooke Sunny Moriber is on lead vocals, while Alison Cusano, Kate Ferber and Molly Hager sing backup in this video loaded with girl power from our CEC concert at the Canal Room.

Abingdon Theatre Company-which has produced 81 new American plays since 1993-launches its 21st Season with FIX ME, JESUS, a world-premiere play by Helen Sneed, with previews set to begin tonight, November 1, prior to an official press opening November 10 in Abingdon Theatre Arts Complex's Dorothy Streslin Theatre (312 West 36th Street). Performances run through November 24.