BLACK SWAN News

The Broadway Theatre Project (BTP) is proud to have just completed its 21st consecutive phenomenal three week intensive training program developing key aspects of the Performing Arts and teaching critical life skills for extraordinary theatrical young people on the campus of University of South Florida.

Celebrating 35 years as the preeminent showcase for contemporary cultural storytelling, the 2011 Margaret Mead Film Festival will screen more than 30 outstanding films culled from more than 1,000 submissions.

Queensland Theatre Company and Black Swan State Theatre Company present Tennessee Williams's classic family drama Cat on a Hot Tin Roof - a Pulitzer Prize-winning drama that takes audiences into the Deep South and the Pollitt family's web of deceit and desperate pursuit of happiness.

Over the course of the next several weeks, we are going to be taking an extensive look at the sights and sounds both onscreen and onset of the hit TV dramedy series DROP DEAD DIVA - new episodes airing Sunday nights at 9 PM on Lifetime - featuring exclusive interviews with the leading lady divas and dashing supporting men on the LA-based supernatural legal series. Featuring a memorable collection of musical performances and Broadway guest stars over the years - Paula Abdul, Rosie O‘Donnell, Delta Burke and many more included - DROP DEAD DIVA is the quintessential TV series for Broadway babies looking for some laughs and levity - the latter available in many more ways than one, given the show's heavenly aspirations. DROP DEAD DIVA centers on a legal eagle named Jane whose body acts as the means for the indomitable spirit of a model, Deb, who loses her life, to make a second chance and how the girl inside must learn to adjust to looking like the woman on the outside that she is now. In other words, a model finds out what it means to look like everyone else, in a delightfully quirky twist of fate - and learns to be a lawyer, too. Season Three picks up with the cliffhanger car crash that closed last season in a dark and shocking way. What will Grayson remember of the conversation he had with Jane pre-crash? What will Jane do to save him? What about his engagement (to somebody else)? What will happen back at the office with Teri, Kim and Parker? What about Stacy and Fred? All these questions and many more will most assuredly be answered (or beginning to be answered) come Sunday night! Plus, there's always a musical number or two not too far off if you stay tuned!

TEEN CHOICE 2011 will celebrate the hottest teen icons in film, television, music, sports and fashion in the choicest, star-studded two-hour event airing live Sunday, Aug. 7 (8:00-10:00 PM ET live/PT tape-delayed) on FOX. 'The Twilight Saga: Eclipse' leads the TEEN CHOICE 2011 nominees with 12 nominations, and GLEE has nine nominations. In addition, 'The Vampire Diaries' has seven nominations, while 'The Hangover Part II,' Taylor Swift and Selena Gomez each earned six nominations.

According to published reports, Broadway veteran Natalie Portman just gave birth to her first child- a baby boy. Portman and fiance Benjamin Millepied, who met on the set of 'Black Swan,' announced their engagement last December.

Recently honored by President Barack Obama with the National Medal of Arts, Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival 2011 will officially commence with a star-studded Season Opening Gala performance and celebration on June 18.

Black Swan State Theatre Company presents Shakespeare's A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, May 21 at 7 p.m. at Queens Park Theatre. For the first time in Australia, the performance will also be broadcast live.

Jacob's Pillow Dance, recent recipient of a prestigious National Medal of Arts, announces its full 2011 Festival calendar, including more than 120 ticketed performances and 200 free events, performances, talks, exhibits, and tours.

With uncanny precision and unforgettable pizzazz, John Epperson - also known as Lypsinka - pays homage to ultimate screen-queen Joan Crawford. Using the actress' own words, The Passion of the Crawford is a fantasia on the persona of this 20th Century cultural icon. Washington City Paper has called Lypsinka 'certifiably fabulous,' while the Los Angeles Times dubbed her 'a geyser of glamour!' Daily Variety raved: 'Watching a Lypsinka show is like channel-surfing in Heaven.'

Patricia Watt, Executive Producer of the 2011 Fred & Adele Astaire Awards, has announced the first group of Presenters for the 29th Annual Fred & Adele Astaire Awards, In addition to Len Cariou and Brian Stokes Mitchell who will co-present the Douglas Watt Lifetime Achievement Award to legendary, dancer, choreographer, teacher and star of stage, film and television Jacques D'Amboise, additional presenters include Bill Irwin, Maurice Hines, Christine Andreas, Charlotte D'amboise, Christopher D'amboise and Karen Ziemba.

Two women test the bonds of sisterhood in John Henry Redwood's bittersweet comedy,The Old Settler. ICT artistic director caryn desai [sic] directs Ryan Vincent Anderson, Veralyn Jones, Tarina Pouncy and Karen Malina White in a four-week run, June 3 through June 26 at International City Theatre in the Long Beach Performing Arts Center.

Staging one of the theatre's most unique and unclassifiable pieces, Brecht & Weill's THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS for the New York City Ballet, starting May 11 and running through May 16, is just the latest act in a career made up of anomalies, seemingly built upon always attempting to do the impossible - from her Broadway debut, trying to bring balletic bravado to Trevor Nunn's terminally troubled 1988 musical CHESS (a project begun under the guidance of Michael Bennett before his death), up through the trying-but-Tony-winning TITANIC in 1997 and, this century, SWING! starring Ann Hampton Callaway and Laura Benanti and a succession of successful regional ballets and theatre pieces - the gifted and dynamic director/choreographer Lynne Taylor-Corbett continues to challenge herself, her peers and audiences with each of her audacious new endeavors. THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS, starring two-time Tony-winning Broadway legend Patti LuPone as Anna I, is a particularly problematic play - or is it a musical? Or, is it a ballet? A song-spiel? - and in this revealing and engaging discussion, Ms. Taylor-Corbett and I attempt to deduce the themes, analyze the structure and look back at the authors' lives to gain insight into the perplexing America painted by Brecht and Weill in the forty-minute-long theatrical experiment. Also, in this complete conversation, Lynne and I take a look back at her long and varied career and she generously shares her thoughts on where the place of dance is in the twenty-first century, the exhilaration of working with a theatre artist like Patti LuPone, her own inspirations and formative experiences in the theatre, the legacy of Michael Powell and THE RED SHOES, the theatre versus the dance world, her son Shaun's career, and much, much more! Further information on THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS - including tickets - is available here.

at a special reception hosted by Carolyn Kendall Buchter, Ronald Buchter and Patricia Watt, Producer of the Astaire Awards at Theater Row's Firebird Russian Restaurant,. The 'Astaires' are the only awards to honor excellence in dance and choreography on Broadway and in film.

With uncanny precision and unforgettable pizzazz, John Epperson - also known as Lypsinka - pays homage to ultimate screen-queen Joan Crawford. Using the actress' own words, The Passion of the Crawford is a fantasia on the persona of this 20th Century cultural icon. Washington City Paper has called Lypsinka 'certifiably fabulous,' while the Los Angeles Times dubbed her 'a geyser of glamour!' Daily Variety raved: 'Watching a Lypsinka show is like channel-surfing in Heaven.'

Yesterday, international singing sensation and fresh-faced new GLEE cast member Charice - proclaimed by Oprah herself to be 'the most talented girl in the world' - was kind enough to take some time out while rehearsing her new song for an upcoming Season Two episode of GLEE as Sunshine Corazon to talk to me about all things GLEE - Showrunner/Creator Ryan Murphy, her audition, singing with Lea Michele, what duets she wants to do, 'All By Myself', 'Telephone', 'Listen', etc. - as well as working with writer/producer Bruno Mars on her new single 'Before It Explodes', continuing a theme begun with Mars's own 'Grenade' - as well as singing Mars songs for a number of tracks on her forthcoming album. Additionally, we discuss her musical influences, her favorite songs to sing in concert, what inspires her, her favorite films of the year and her deep desire to star in a horror film someday soon - plus, comments on everyone from Barbra Streisand, Lea Michele and Idina Menzel to Beyonce, Lady Gaga, Jay-Z and Justin Bieber. Also: news on her feature film debut, HERE COMES THE BOOM, co-starring Kevin James, Salma Hayek and Henry Winkler - and much, much more!

The Hamptons International Film Festival will host its 11th annual Screenwriters' Lab co-sponsored by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation April 15 - 17 in East Hampton, NY.

The Hamptons International Film Festival will host its 11th annual Screenwriters' Lab co-sponsored by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation April 15 - 17 in East Hampton, NY.

Training for 'Black Swan' wasn't the first time Natalie Portman stratted her stuff on the dance floor. Check out the video below to see the pre-teen Oscar-winner doing a tap routine at dance camp!

La Jolla Playhouse will present a reading of its commissioned musical Hands on a Hardbody, written by Pulitzer Prize-winner and 2011 Playhouse Gala Honoree Doug Wright (I Am My Own Wife), Amanda Green (High Fidelity) and Trey Anastasio of the popular band Phish. Directed by Neil Pepe (Speed-the-Plow) and choreographed by Benjamin Millipied (Black Swan), the Hands on a Hardbody reading will take place in New York on April 8th and 9th (by invitation).