Bekah Brunstetter News

Death is never an easy topic to deal with, read about or view on film or stage. Playwright Bekah Brunstetter has crafted a play entitled Be a Good Little Widow about Melody (Adrienne Visnic) and her new husband Craig (Sterling Knight) who dies suddenly in an airplane crash. How does Melody, totally inexperienced about life and love, cope? Currently onstage at the Odyssey, Widow is a dark comedy that is simultaneously enjoyable and life-affirming entertainment.

Theater Breaking Through Barriers (Samuel D. Hunter's The Healing) kicks off its 40th Anniversary season with the World Premiere of PUBLIC SERVANT by Bekah Brunstetter (NBC's Emmy-winning drama This Is Us and the just announced Oklahoma TV series). Directed by Geordie Broadwater, the production stars Chris Henry Coffey (Broadway's Bronx Bombers, David Schwimmer's Trust opposite Clive Owen and Viola Davis), Christine Bruno (Jose Rivera's adaption of The Maids, Bekah Brunstetter's Forgotten Corners of Your Dark, Dark Place with TBTB) and newcomer Anna Lentz in her Off-Broadway debut. The play is the second part of a trilogy of plays by Brunstetter that kicked off with The Cake in February at Manhattan Theatre Club. Previews for PUBLIC SERVANT begin May 25 at Theatre Row's Clurman Theatre with opening night on Thursday, June 6.

Christopher Sepulveda & 3Gems Productions present a visiting production at the Odyssey Theatre, BE A GOOD LITTLE WIDOW, written by Bekah Brunstetter (Producer/Writer "This Is Us," The Cake) and directed by Brandon Baer. BE A GOOD

The Playwrights Realm announces its 2019-2020 season productions, with world premieres of Anna Moench's Mothers (beginning September 13, 2019 at the Duke on 42nd Street, 229 W 42nd St), and Noah Diaz's Richard & Jane & Dick & Sally (beginning April 3, 2020 at A.R.T./New York Theatres, 502 W 53rd St), two bold new works from early-career playwrights about parental care-and what that means in circumstances that have catapulted beyond anyone's control.Inconjunction with Mothers, the Playwrights Realm proudly pilots the Radical Parent-Inclusion Project, which seeks to dismantle the barriers preventing parent-artists from succeeding in the theater by illuminating, creating, and tracking new pathways of access and approaches to production.

Be a Good Little Widow starts previews as a guest production at the Odyssey Theatre May 18. Actress Sandy Bainum, who has delighted audiences for several years in both musicals and plays in Los Angeles and her friend, director Brandon Baer recently sat down to talk about the play and what makes it tick as a dark comedy.

The Lyric Stage Company of Boston announces the final play  in its 45th Season: LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS

The Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County (@ArshtCenter) is proud to announce its lineup for the 9th season of THEATER UP CLOSE. The 2019-2020 season continues the Center's collaboration with Zoetic Stage (@ZoeticStageMIA) and City Theatre (@CityTheatreMIA) and features five extraordinary productions, including one world premiere and three South Florida premieres.

Buffalo Theatre Ensemble (BTE), the professional Equity company in residence at the McAninch Arts Center, is pleased to announce its 2019-2020 Three-Play Season. It includes Jeffrey Hatcher's "Holmes and Watson," Bekah Brunstetter's "The Cake" and Mat Smart's "Naperville."

Founding Executive Director Kathy Evans announced the 27 writers of nine new musicals for Rhinebeck Writers Retreat's summer weeklong residencies. This year's artists include Obie-winner Heather Christian, Kleban-winner Brian Crawley, TV and film writers Bekah Brunstetter (THIS IS US) and Cinco Paul (DESPICABLE ME), inaugural Stephen Schwartz Award winner Oliver Houser, and ASCAP Foundation scholarship winner Khiyon Hursey. The musicals cover a wide range of subjects. Four have LGBTQ themes: a historical look at Florida in the 1950s (IN A SUNSHINE STATE), a Palestinian/Israeli love story (BORDERS), a modern coming of age of a young black man (SEAN'S STORY PART I | THE AWAKENING), and a fantasy queer rock musical celebrating lady love (TL;DR: THELMA LOUISE; DYKE REMIX). Two are darkly comedic historical musicals: one featuring Mary Magdelene (A.D. 16) and the second a WWII plot to foil Hitler (OPERATION MINCEMEAT). Other subjects include the opioid crisis (ALMOST HEAVEN), the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 (THE GOLDEN SPIKE), and a mystery involving a woman with a sleep disorder (NARCOLEPSY).

Horizon Theatre Company is continuing its 35th Anniversary Season with a production from the writer of TV's biggest hit, This Is Us - Bekah Brunstetter! THE CAKE, a touching new comedy, will hit the Little Five Points stage from May 17 - June 23, 2019.

Where do our beliefs come from? Della believes that the secret to a good cake and a good life is simple: just follow the rules. When her best friend's daughter asks her to make her wedding cake, she is overjoyed… until she learns that there will be not one bride, but two. Suddenly, Della is working without a recipe as her previously-unquestioned beliefs and emotions come into sharp conflict. Bekah Brunstetter's The Cake closes Pacific Theatre's 2018-19 season with a sweet and thoughtful story of love, conflict, and delicious baked goods.

Theater Breaking Through Barriers (Samuel D. Hunter's The Healing) kicks off its 40th Anniversary season with the World Premiere of PUBLIC SERVANT by Bekah Brunstetter (NBC's Emmy-winning drama This Is Us and the just announced Oklahoma TV series).

Christopher Sepulveda & 3Gems Productions present a visiting production at the Odyssey Theatre, BE A GOOD LITTLE WIDOW, written by Bekah Brunstetter (Producer/Writer "This Is Us," The Cake) and directed by Brandon Baer. BE A GOOD LITTLE WIDOW will preview on Saturday, May 18 at 8pm; Sunday May 19 at 2pm; Wednesday, May 22 & Thursday, May 23 at 8pm; will open on Friday, May 24 at 8pm and perform through Sunday, June 9 at the Odyssey Theatre, 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd. in Los Angeles.

ENSEMBLE STUDIO THEATRE announces its 50th Birthday Gala honoring the people and legacy of EST's Marathon of One-Act Plays. The 50th Birthday Gala will take place on Monday, May 13, 2019 at 6:30PM at the New York Museum of Contemporary Art (528 West 39th Street, 3rd Fl.).

Vassar & New York Stage and Film announce the programming lineup for their upcoming 35th Powerhouse Season, the annual summer season that brings together some of today's most influential theatrical voices for fully-staged productions, workshop presentations, readings, and other works in progress for theater, film and television.

Good morning, BroadwayWorld! First, we'd like to wish a happy opening to Hadestown, which officially opens tonight at the Walter Kerr Theatre!

Skydance Television today announced that it has partnered with The Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization and Concord to develop an original television series inspired by the hit Broadway musical Oklahoma! The present-day series written by John Lee Hancock (The Blind Side, The Highwaymen) and Bekah Brunstetter (This is Us, American Gods) will be set in America's heartland and include music by the legendary team of Rodgers & Hammerstein, reimagined for a contemporary audience, in addition to new music to support the story.

"This may be the first time in our 33 years," stated Human Race Artistic Director and Founding Member Kevin Moore, "that we selected a season theme before we selected our shows." And for good reason. The 2019-20 Human Race Theatre season at the Loft Theatre coincides with the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, the first step in all women having the right to vote and the catalyst for our movements for Equality.

Faith and family collide in The Cake, a modern comedy that tackles a tasty subject while staying deliciously southern.

Ensemble Studio Theatre (EST) (William Carden, Artistic Director, Sarah McLellan, Executive Director) and the Radio Drama Network (Melina Brown, President) announced today the lineup for the 37th Marathon of One-Act Plays. This year's selection of fifteen plays were chosen from 1120 submissions. They will be presented across three different series from Sunday, May 12, 2019 through Saturday, June 29, 2019.'