Atlantic Theater Company News

Next week, FEINSTEIN'S/54 BELOW, Broadway's Supper Club & Private Event Destination, presents some of the brightest stars from Broadway, cabaret, jazz, and beyond. To purchase tickets or for more information, visit www.54Below.com/Feinsteins or call (646) 476-3551.

BroadwayWorld has a first look at the trailer for Signature Theater's Billy Elliot the Musical directed and choreographed by Signature Theatre Associate Artistic Director Matthew Gardiner (Signature's Passion, West Side Story). Based on the powerful and acclaimed film, all 11-year-old Billy wants to do is dance. Initially facing opposition from society and his father, Billy's passion instead unites the community and changes his life in extraordinary ways. The original production with book and lyrics by Lee Hall and music by Tony, Grammy and Academy Award® winner Elton John was universally lauded, sweeping the Tony, Drama Desk and Olivier Awards for Best Musical. Billy Elliot the Musical will run from October 30, 2018 - January 6, 2019 in Signature Theatre's intimate MAX Theatre.

Atlantic Theater Company and the Atlantic Acting School have just announced that they will offer the Director's Lab for the Actor with Neil Pepe (Artistic Director) and Todd Thaler (Casting Director).

This December, New Conservatory Theatre Center continues its not-so-traditional tradition of its award-winning production of Avenue Q. Featuring "catchy melodies sung by randy puppets suffering post-collegiate existential dread" (SF Chronicle), NCTC's Avenue Q has been proclaimed a "local tradition" by San Francisco Travel, winning over critics and audiences alike in its previous engagements in NCTC's intimate Decker Theatre. Declares the San Francisco Examiner, "only the Grinch could prevent the laughter-filled show from selling out night after night."

Portland Stage will stage the World Premiere of Refuge Malja by Bess Welden with Arabic Translation by Ali Al-Mshakheel begins Oct 30 through Nov 18, opens for reviewers Friday Nov 2, 2018. When a Jewish-American war photographer feels compelled to assist a young refugee who steps in front of her camera, she calls an old friend to translate but hesitates to reveal why she is so drawn to the boy. This poetic, decade-spanning drama explores how we each define and find our own malja (refuge). Affiliate Artist Bess Welden's Refuge Malja was developed as part of the 2017 Little Festival of the Unexpected and was subsequently workshopped in the Studio Series in January of 2018. Refuge Malja is made possible with support from the Maine Humanities Council and the Maine Arts Commission.

Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation (SDCF), the not?for?profit foundation affiliated with Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, has announced the honorees of this year's Zelda Fichandler Award, Joe A. Callaway Awards, and Breakout Award. The awards will be presented at an invitation? only event on Sunday, November 11, 2018 in Manhattan.

Atlantic Theater Company stages the world premiere production of Fireflies, written by Donja R. Love and directed by Saheem Ali. Fireflies is the second part of Donja R. Love's trilogy, which began with the acclaimed play Sugar in Our Wounds, also directed by Saheem Ali. Fireflies just opened last night, October 15th for a limited engagement through Sunday, November 11th, 2018 Off-Broadway at the Linda Gross Theater (336 West 20th Street).

The Strand Theater Company continues its 11th Season with Detroit '67 by Dominique Morisseau. In 1967 Detroit, Motown music is getting the party started, and Chelle and her brother Lank are making ends meet by turning their basement into an after-hours joint. But when a mysterious woman finds her way into their lives, the siblings clash over much more than the family business. As their pent-up feelings erupt, so does their city, and they find themselves caught in the middle of the '67 riots.

Target Margin Theater (Founding Artistic Director David Herskovits, Associate Artistic Director Moe Yousuf) is proud to present a remount of its acclaimed production, Pay No Attention to the Girl, for a limited three week run (October 25-November 11). The production brings to life interwoven stories about the sexes - their conflicts, their love, their tricks -from various translations / transmissions of The One Thousand and One Nights, a collection of Silk Road, MENA (Middle Eastern / North African), and South Asian tales.

Following rave reviews and audience acclaim at off-Broadway's Atlantic Theater Company this past spring, American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) Artistic Director Pam MacKinnon announced today that Tony Award winner and San Francisco native BD Wong will reprise his role as 'Wen Chang' in award-winning Bay Area playwright Lauren Yee's The Great Leap, performing at A.C.T.'s Geary Theater (415 Geary St., San Francisco) from Wednesday, March 6, through Sunday, March 31, 2019. Additional casting will be announced at a later date. 

Back by popular demand, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley presents the holiday hit The Santaland Diaries, returning to the intimate 180-seat Lohman Theatre. Written by David Sedaris, this rollicking one-man cure for an overdose of holiday hype will have a limited three-week run in Los Altos Hills.

Town Hall Theatre is excited to announce our new staged reading series IN THE WINGS. IN THE WINGS launches with a one-night only reading of PLACEBO, a smart, new offbeat serio-comedy by Melissa James Gibson. PLACEBO will have one performance only on November 12, 2018, at Town Hall Theatre Company, 3535 School Street, in Lafayette, CA. Tickets are $10 general admission and free to subscribers, and are available through the Box Office at (925) 283-1557 or online at www.TownHallTheatre.com.

Today, influencer and talent manager ChiChi Anyanwu of the NYC Black Theater Network, Marcia Pendelton, President of Walk Tall Girl Productions/Black Theater Online, and the award-winning Vineyard Theatre (Douglas Aibel and Sarah Stern, Artistic Directors; Suzanne Appel, Managing Director) announced BLACK PLAYWRIGHTS: THEY SPEAK. WHO LISTENS? A Black Theater Fall Preview: Off Broadway Edition. The event is scheduled at Vineyard Theatre (108 E. 15th Street) on Monday, October 15, 2018 at 7:00 p.m. Four-time Tony Award-winning producer Ron Simons of SimonSays Entertainment (A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, Porgy & Bess, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, Jitney) will host the program whose purpose is to bring attention to the unprecedented number of plays by black playwrights being produced Off-Broadway this season.

Atlantic Theater Company stages the world premiere production of Fireflies, written by Donja R. Love and directed by Saheem Ali. Fireflies is the second part of Donja R. Love's trilogy, which began with the acclaimed play Sugar in Our Wounds, also directed by Saheem Ali. Get a first look at the company in rehearsal below!

Today ChiChi Anyanwu of the NYC Black Theater Network, Marcia Pendelton, President of Walk Tall Girl Productions/Black Theater Online, and the award-winning Vineyard Theatre announced BLACK PLAYWRIGHTS: THEY SPEAK. WHO LISTENS? A Black Theater Fall Preview: Off Broadway Edition.

The Lark, a theater company devoted to the support of visionary playwrights and the development of new plays, is thrilled to announce five New York City-based playwrights have been named as the 2018-19 Rita Goldberg Playwrights' Workshop Fellows. The group spans a wide range of backgrounds and professional experiences and will meet regularly throughout the year to develop new plays.

National New Play Network, the country's alliance of nonprofit theaters that champions the development, production, and continued life of new plays, celebrates the opening of its 81st Rolling World Premiere (RWP): Nomad Motel by Carla Ching. 

Managing Director Dean R. Gladden announced today that Brandon Kahn has been appointed as General Manager of the Alley Theatre. A native Houstonian, Brandon joins the Alley from Williamstown Theatre Festival where he served over six seasons as Resident Production Stage Manager, Associate Line Producer, and most recently as the Producing Manager. Brandon will assume his General Manager duties October 22.

The United States, above all other countries, is beset with an epidemic of random killing, usually by a weapon which seems to have held a mythic aura in the American psyche since the arrival of the first Europeans. The gun is the weapon of choice for Americans who want to do harm, especially semi-automatic assault rifles which can be modified to be even deadlier than their makers' intentions. Most of us are exposed to the biggest massacres through the major media, the most recent of which are listed in the footnote below. If the scope, circumstances, and number of dead and wounded are not sufficiently shocking, it is important to know that multiple and mass shootings, if not consistently a daily occurrence, occur regularly several times a week. These are only reported locally, because the limited body counts don't merit national attention. Only a few days passed without an incident during the month of September, 2018, and not seldom multiple mass shootings occurred in one day, as one can see on Gun Violence Archive. It is only too true that we are living in an age of random, senseless mass murders.

Signature Theatre announces the full cast and creative team for Billy Elliot the Musical directed and choreographed by Signature Theatre Associate Artistic Director Matthew Gardiner (Signature's Passion, West Side Story).