Benjamin Britten News

Burning Coal Theatre Company will open its 15th season with the Southeastern premiere of Lucy Prebble's Enron.

The Studio Theatre follows up its 2008 hit production of The History Boys with Alan Bennett's next play, The Habit of Art. Deep in the bowels of London's National Theatre, rehearsals for a new play go apace: Benjamin Britten is having trouble with his latest opera and seeks out his collaborator, poet W. H. Auden, after a twenty-five year separation. Between visits by a rent boy and a biographer-whom Auden briefly mistakes for the rent boy-these aging artists wrestle with their desires, their jealousies, the ephemeral connection between creativity and inspiration, and all the reasons their friendship fell apart.

The new DC area theatre season begins in September. Over 50 shows are opening in our professional and community theatres. But before we move on to the new season and what's opening in September, let's look back at my personal favorite musicals, plays, and performances in both musicals and plays in the DC area - from August 2010 to August 2011.

The Studio Theatre follows up its 2008 hit production of The History Boys with Alan Bennett's next play, The Habit of Art. Deep in the bowels of London's National Theatre, rehearsals for a new play go apace: Benjamin Britten is having trouble with his latest opera and seeks out his collaborator, poet W. H. Auden, after a twenty-five year separation. Between visits by a rent boy and a biographer-whom Auden briefly mistakes for the rent boy-these aging artists wrestle with their desires, their jealousies, the ephemeral connection between creativity and inspiration, and all the reasons their friendship fell apart.

Single tickets are now on sale for Long Wharf Theatre's 2011-12 season, one replete with innovative new plays, classic dramas and great musicals.

Tony Award winner David Hyde Pierce will appear with the Philadelphia Orchestra to narrate Benjamin Britten's Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra at Saratoga Performing Arts Center, in Saratoga Springs, NY, on July 29 at 8pm. In addition, the roster of events will include an evening with Grammy winning saxophonist Branford Marsalis, and a full screening of classic film Casablanca with a live orchestral performance of the film's score.

NEW YORK FESTIVAL OF SONG (NYFOS) creates intimate concerts that breathe new life into an art form that is rich and emotionally resonant, yet is too often treated as genteel, intellectual, and predictable.

Brooklyn philharmonic has just announced their 2011-12 season:

Burning Coal Theatre Company will open its 15th season with the Southeastern premiere of Lucy Prebble's Enron.

La Jolla Playhouse presents Peer Gynt, by Henrik Ibsen, adapted and directed by David Schweizer, running June 28 - July 24 (media night: Wednesday, July 6 at 7:30 pm) in the Sheila and Hughes Potiker Theatre. Tickets to Peer Gynt are available by calling the Box Office: (858) 550-1010 or online at LaJollaPlayhouse.org.

The Gateway Festival Orchestra will launch its 48th season of free Sunday-evening concerts July 10 with Various Variations, a program exploring the use of variations by a handful of composers from the Baroque period through the 20th century.

Director Tazewell Thompson talks about his upcoming production of David Mamet's controversial play RACE at TheaterWorks in Hartford, CT.

The Yale School of Music (YSM) announces its fifth season of Yale in New York, the acclaimed and unique series that brings together distinguished faculty-famous soloists among them-with the ongoing legacy of exceptional alumni and current students on the stages of Carnegie Hall. Each concert displays the deep, creative, and exciting collaborations that are the heart and history of the Yale School of Music.

New York Stage and Film (Johanna Pfaelzer, Artistic Director; Mark Linn-Baker, Max Mayer, Leslie Urdang, Producing Directors) and Vassar College (Ed Cheetham, Producing Director) have announced the full line-up of their 2011 Powerhouse Theater season, now entering its 27th year. The result of a unique collaboration between New York Stage and Film and Vassar College, the program consists of an eight-week residency on the Vassar campus (124 Raymond Avenue, Poughkeepsie, NY) during which more than 200 professional artists and some 40 apprentices live and work together to create new theater works. The 2011 Main Stage season kicks off with Patricia Wettig's F2M (June 29 - July 10).

La Jolla Playhouse presents Peer Gynt, by Henrik Ibsen, adapted and directed by David Schweizer, running June 28 - July 24 (media night: Wednesday, July 6 at 7:30 pm) in the Sheila and Hughes Potiker Theatre. Tickets to Peer Gynt are available by calling the Box Office: (858) 550-1010 or online at LaJollaPlayhouse.org.

Seventy opera coaches, vocalists, and musicians from across the globe will present two weeks of performances and masterclasses in Blacksburg as part of the Vocal Arts and Music Festival at Virginia Tech.

Long Wharf Theatre completes its 2011-12 season offerings by adding a classic work by one of the world's great playwrights.

Tickets are now on sale for the World Premiere production of DARK SISTERS, composed by Nico Muhly with libretto by Stephen Karam, conducted by Neal Goren, directed by Rebecca Taichman, and co-commissioned and co-produced by Gotham Chamber Opera, Music-Theatre Group and the Opera Company of Philadelphia. DARK SISTERS will premiere from November 9-19,2011 at the Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College, 899 Tenth Avenue, NYC. Tickets are $30-125 and are available at www.ticketcentral.com or by phone at 212-279-4200.

The Gateway Festival Orchestra will launch its 48th season of free Sunday-evening concerts July 10 with Various Variations, a program exploring the use of variations by a handful of composers from the Baroque period through the 20th century.

Adam Spreadbury-Maher, Dominic Haddock & Kate Mara for OperaUpClose present THE TURN OF THE SCREW Directed by Edward Dick at London's Little Opera House at the King's Head Theatre. The play is written by Benjamin Britten, Richard Bleasdale and Danny McGrath