Ben Chaplin News

Following critical acclaim and popular demand, Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) has announced a three-week extension for the World Premiere of THIS, the new play by Obie Award winner Melissa James Gibson (Suitcase, [sic]). Directed by Obie Award winner Daniel Aukin ([sic], eight seasons as Artistic Director of Soho Rep), the production opened Wednesday, December 2. Originally set to run through Sunday, December 13, the limited engagement will now play through Sunday, January 3, 2010 at the theater company's Mainstage Theater (416 West 42nd Street). This date represents the latest extension possible for the show.

The Educational Theatre Association (EdTA) is entering into a unique arrangement with the upcoming theatrical release, Me and Orson Welles, directed by Oscar®-nominated Richard Linklater (School of Rock, Before Sunset).

Variety reports that High School Musical star Zac Efron's turn in the Richard Linklater helmed 'Me and Orson Welles' co-starring Claire Danes will be released November 25th.

The Educational Theatre Association (EdTA) is entering into a unique arrangement with the upcoming theatrical release, Me and Orson Welles, directed by Oscar®-nominated Richard Linklater (School of Rock, Before Sunset).

Joseph Cotten, although cast by Welles in a minor role in "Julius Caesar", became a star of the big screen, despite his comment that: "I didn't care about the movies, really. I was tall. I could talk. It was easy to do."

Leading lady Muriel Brassler (Portia), though an accomplished stage actresses, was described by Houseman as 'decorative, adequate and hardly memorable'.

Orson Welles was very much the leader of the Mercury Theatre Company, despite his relative youth. He became, in fact, a Broadway legend...

Eddie Marsan appears as what Marc Samuelson calls "the solid centre of what's going on in the madness." John Houseman's late career as an actor makes him more familiar to many cinemagoers than some of the other characters in the film...

Zoe Kazan was delighted to be cast by Richard Linklater. "I had known a lot of people who had worked with him and all of them had had nothing but the kindest things to say and they all turned out to be true. He's very easy-going and he's really hands-on as a director. He doesn't hold your hand or baby you, he let's you do the interpretation on your own and tells you what he needs and he's a lot of fun to work with.

Claire Danes co-stars as Sonja Jones, the unapologetically ambitious assistant to Welles whom Richard tries to woo.

Starring as the prickly and pessimistic English actor George Coulouris is Ben Chaplin. "In the States we think of him as a romantic comedy guy, but working with him on the film we got to see that he's got tremendous range as an actor" says producer Ann Carli. "He's amazing. I just said thank you for every arched eyebrow, thank you for every hurt and indignant pause - thank you for all of that."

The largely fictionalized template for Richard Samuels in ME AND ORSON WELLES, Anderson remained with Orson as a member of the Mercury Theatre On The Air and became one of the leading voice artists on radio, as well as making regular appearances on stage, in films and on television.

Based in real theatrical history, Me and Orson Welles is a romantic coming-of-age story about a teenage actor who lucks into a role in Julius Caesar as it's being re-imagined by a brilliant, impetuous young director named Orson Welles at his newly-founded Mercury Theater in NYC, 1937.

BroadwayWorld.com is proud to present an exclusive special special preview clip from the upcoming film, Me and Orson Welles.

In 1938, just one year after forming The Mercury Theater, Orson Welles took to the air with a series of radio broadcasts on the Columbia Broadcasting System called The Mercury Theater on the Air. In the most famous of these episodes, Welles directed and narrated an adaptation of H.G. Wells' novel 'The War of the Worlds,' reading without commercial interruption as it was a news broadcast.

Variety is reporting that British actresses Rebecca Hall and Fiona Shawhas joined the cast of the upcoming feature film 'A Picture of Dorian Gray'.

Second Stage Theatre (Carole Rothman, Artistic Director; Ellen Richard, Executive Director) will conclude its current mainstage season with Richard Nelson's comedy, SOME AMERICANS ABROAD, directed by Gordon Edelstein.

Second Stage Theatre (Carole Rothman, Artistic Director; Ellen Richard, Executive Director) will conclude its current mainstage season with Richard Nelson's comedy, SOME AMERICANS ABROAD, directed by Gordon Edelstein.

High School Musical stars Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens have signed on to new and separate film projects, according to Variety.

Film and stage star Ben Chaplin headlines Nicholas Wright's play The Reporter on the West End.