Berger News

WOMEN AND WAR is a month-long festival examining the effect of warfare on women worldwide. Bringing together an extraordinary span of international work, and performers from all continents, the festival will showcase cutting-edge drama, comedy, dance, documentary film and photography, drawn from the United Kingdom, United States, Spain, Iran, and Uzbekistan. Across the centuries, from the Crimean War and WW2 through to the current conflict in Syria, Women and War tells the profoundly personal and yet universal stories of the role of women and the impact upon them during and after conflict, whether subjugated or subversive, victim or healer, protector or fighter. Opening today, the festival is held at Frederick's Place - a historic building in the heart of the City.

Fresh off a successful international tour, actress Lisa Wolpe - hailed for her dynamic, gender-bending turns as some of Shakespeare's most popular characters - has announced she will bring her groundbreaking, one-woman show Shakespeare and the Alchemy of Gender to HERE for 16 performances, July 16th through August 14th. The show will play in repertory with Macbeth3, Wolpe's celebrated three-actor adaptation of the Scottish play, in which she plays the title role, Nick Salamone plays Lady Macbeth and Satan, and Mary Hodges plays Duncan, the Porter, Banquo, and MacDuff.

The Off Broadway Alliance, the organization of Off Broadway producers, theaters, general managers, press agents and marketing professionals, presented the 6th annual Off Broadway Alliance Awards on June 21st at Sardi's, honoring outstanding achievement in Off Broadway theatre for the 2015 - 2016 season. Honorees were on hand to receive their awards and Anne Jackson & Eli Wallach, Anne Meara, and Elizabeth Swados were posthumously inducted into the Off Broadway Hall of Fame. Scroll down for photos from the event!

First Floor Theater (FFT) is thrilled to remount THE AWAKE, Ken Urban's lyrical and highly theatrical exploration of interrogation, government control, and the compulsive power of dreams, directed by Josh Altman, as part of the Chicago Park District's Theater on the Lake 2016 Festival Season at the Berger Park Cultural Center.

Red Bull Theater today announced that William Congreve's THE WAY OF THE WORLD, directed by Mr. Berger, will feature two time Tony Award nominee Alison Fraser along with Jacob Dresch, Francesca Faridany, Ryan Garbayo, Adam Green, Christopher Innvar, Amelia Pedlow, Robert Petkoff, Liv Rooth, Jeanine Serralles, Dina Thomas, CJ Wilson, Nathan Winkelstein and more.  Red Bull Theater's latest Revelation Readings takes place tonight, Monday June 27th, at Lucille Lortel Theatre.  Tonight's performance is SOLD OUT, but Standby Tickets may be available at the door. Red Bull Theater today announced that William Congreve's THE WAY OF THE WORLD, directed by Mr. Berger, will feature two time Tony Award nominee Alison Fraser along with Jacob Dresch, Francesca Faridany, Ryan Garbayo, Adam Green, Christopher Innvar, Amelia Pedlow, Robert Petkoff, Liv Rooth, Jeanine Serralles, Dina Thomas, CJ Wilson, Nathan Winkelstein and more.  Red Bull Theater's latest Revelation Readings takes place tonight, Monday June 27th, at Lucille Lortel Theatre.  Tonight's performance is SOLD OUT, but Standby Tickets may be available at the door.

TheatreWorks Silicon Valley opens its 47th season with the world premiere of the high stakes political drama Confederates. This fresh, fascinating, and headline-hot show explores the voracious nature of contemporary media during a national campaign.

?The NYC Parks Arsenal Gallery celebrates the 2016 summer season with the exhibition "SPF16: NYC Pools and Beaches in Contemporary Photography." Curated by NYC Parks Deputy Director of Public Art, Jennifer Lantzas, the show features works by 12 artists who document the city's most popular warm weather amenities: its public pools and beaches. The exhibition is on view through August 26, 2016.

The Old Globe has announced the complete cast and creative team for the West Coast premiere of Paul Gordon's delightfully romantic new musical SENSE AND SENSIBILITY, developed with Rick Boynton and presented in association with Chicago Shakespeare Theater, where it was commissioned and had its world premiere in April 2015.

Steep Theatre Company has announced the programming for its upcoming 16th season, which continues the company's tradition of presenting bold plays from today's most exciting playwrights, brought to life by fearlessly honest ensembles and visionary directors. Season 16 will feature a world premiere from Chicago playwright Alex Lubischer, a U.S. premiere from Olivier Award-winning playwright Mike Bartlett, a U.S. premiere from rising English playwright Cordelia Lynn, and a Midwest premiere from California-based playwright Lauren Yee. Steep Ensemble Members and Jeff Award-winning directors Robin Witt and Jonathan Berry will helm two of the productions, to be joined by two guest directors. 

Opening July 8 at Williams Theatre (IPFW Campus), Three Rivers Music Theatre's HAIR is ready to rock!

Red Bull Theater today announced that their Twelfth Season will continue with William Congreve's THE WAY OF THE WORLD, directed by Mr. Berger, featuring Jacob Dresch, Francesca Faridany, Ryan Garbayo, Adam Green, Christopher Innvar, Amelia Pedlow, Robert Petkoff, Liv Rooth, Jeanine Serralles, Dina Thomas, CJ Wilson, Nathan Winkelstein and more, on Monday June 27th at Lucille Lortel Theatre. 

Just announced, the official launch night of the month-long WOMEN AND WAR festival will feature a one-off performance of SEVEN, a documentary play about seven ordinary women who became extraordinary activists, starring Rula Lenska, Miriam Margolyes and Josie Lawrence.

Producers Daryl Roth and Hal Luftig have announced today that the hit musical Kinky Boots will donate a portion of all proceeds from tickets sold to the Sunday, June 26th Pride weekend performance to benefit the Our Fund Foundation, which promotes a culture of philanthropy by uniting donors with organizations supporting the LGBT community in Southern Florida, to help the victims and families of the recent Orlando tragedy.

?Connecticut Repertory Theatre (CRT) announces the casting for their production of the Broadway classic West Side Story with book by Arthur Laurents, Music by Leonard Bernstein, Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and based on a concept of Jerome Robbins.  West Side Story will be directed and choreographed by Cassie Abate (CRT's Peter Pan, A Chorus Line, The Music Man) is the final show of the 2016 Nutmeg Sumer Series. Single tickets are currently sale at crt.uconn.edu or 860-486-2113.

On Monday, June 20 at 7pm, Grammy nominee Alexandra Silber (currently starring as Tzeitel in Fiddler on the Roof on Broadway) will celebrate the release of the world premiere recording of Arlington, by Victor Lodato and Polly Pen, with a special concert at Birdland titled, "Al(exandra) Silber's Casual Monday."

BETHLEHEM, Pa., June 15, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ A diverse group of faculty members from all four of Lehigh University's colleges in departments from Theatre to Entrepreneurship to Chemical Engineering share their picks for summer reading below following the lead of Lehigh President John D. Simon who discussed the impact of a recent read in the May 27 th issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Today in 2011, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark opened at the Foxwoods Theatre, where it ran for 1066 performances. Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark is a rock musical with music and lyrics by U2's Bono and The Edge and a book by Julie Taymor, Glen Berger, and Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa. The musical is based on the Spider-Man comics created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, published by Marvel Comics, as well as the 2002 film about the character and the Greek myth of Arachne. lt tells the story of the origin of the character, his romance with Mary Jane and his battles with the evil Green Goblin.

It is said that music never leaves the soul. No one knows this more than jazz vocalist and radio personality, Cres O'Neal. On Saturday, July 16, 2016, at 4 pm, Cres will make her long awaited return to the stage at the Metropolitan Room, 34 W 22nd Street, New York, New York. Joining Cres will be Grammy nominated percussionist, Wilson 'Chembo' Corniel; award winning pianist, Dawrin Noguera; acclaimed bassist, Paul Beaudry; and acclaimed drummer, Willie Martinez.

Manhattan Musical Theatre Lab, a non-profit developmental organization founded 16 years ago by the late Director and Choreographer Bick Goss, announced that it will present a preview of the new musical #MARS at the St. Luke's Theatre on June 22 at 6:30 pm. (St. Luke's is at 308 West 46th Street, between 8th and 9th Avenues.) With music by Willem Oosthuysen and book and lyrics by Laura Kleinbaum, #MARS is the story about how CBS-TV has conducted a worldwide search for qualified Americans to man the first ever mission to Mars. Tune in as Miami's premier plastic surgeon, everyone's favorite romance novelist, a girl next-door type, a retired mathematician in a wheelchair, and an actual astronaut takes human kind's next giant leap.

New York Times best-selling humorist Josh Piven brings his unique brand of comedy to Philadelphia with the world premiere of Muddled, A Stage Comedy, from June 16 through June 26 at Drexel URBN Annex (3401 Filbert St). Penned by the author of The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook and directed by William Steinberger, Muddled gives theater audiences a best-case scenario for what happens when a group of hot-headed headbangers meet the home-grown hipsters of Brooklyn. In this craft brewed comedy, Piven trades navigating alligator pits for navigating mosh pits, and surviving frostbite for surviving the frosty bite of a quick-witted hipster. Muddled is Piven's second play, following 2013's hit No Reservations.