Blake Robison News

Artistic Director Blake Robison announced Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park's 2020-21 season today, which includes world premieres by Keith Josef Adkins, Deborah Zoe Laufer and Ken Ludwig, along with the U.S. Premiere of David Haig's Pressure.

The award-winning, multi-cultural performance ensemble Universes will bring its groundbreaking style of live storytelling to Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park with the world premiere of americUS. With support from The Rosenthal Family Foundation, this infusion of slam poetry, music, dance and theatre runs from Feb. 1 through March 8, with opening night on Feb. 6 at the Rosenthal Shelterhouse Theatre.

Due to popular demand, 2 PIANOS, 4 HANDS, staged in the round at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, has been extended to Jan. 12, 2020. Tickets to the added performances are on sale now. The additional shows are Friday, Jan. 10, 8 p.m.; Saturday, Jan. 11, 4 and 8 p.m. and Sunday, Jan. 12, 2 p.m. More shows could be added as needed.

The Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation (SDCF), the not-for-profit foundation affiliated with Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, presented the third annual SDCF Awards including the Gordon Davidson Award, Zelda Fichandler Award, Joe A. Callaway Awards, and Breakout Award. The event took place on Tuesday, November 12, 2019 at the Laurie Beechman Theatre.

The Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation (SDCF), the not-for-profit foundation affiliated with Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, presents the third annual SDCF Awards including the Gordon Davidson Award, Zelda Fichandler Award, Joe A. Callaway Awards, and Breakout Award.

The Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park's joyous, time-honored celebration of the true meaning of the holidays returns for its 29th season as First Financial Bank presents Charles Dickens' A CHRISTMAS CAROL. The beloved, iconic story will be performed Nov. 27 through Dec. 29 in the Playhouse's Robert S. Marx Theatre. (Opening night is Nov. 29.)

With final designs and a new 99-year lease approved by the Cincinnati Park Board and the City of Cincinnati, Playhouse in the Park's new mainstage theatre complex will begin preparatory site work in the spring of 2020.

Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation (SDCF), the not-for-profit foundation affiliated with Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC), has announced the winner and three finalists for the annual Zelda Fichandler Award. The award will be presented at an invitation-only event on Tuesday, November 12, 2019 in New York City. The Fichandler Award recognizes directors and choreographers who have demonstrated great accomplishment to-date with singular creativity and deep investment in a particular community or region, and is named for Zelda Fichandler, the founding artistic director of Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. This year's Fichandler Award focused on directors and choreographers from the central region of the United States.

Two River Theater (TRT) has launched its 2019/20 Season with 'Cyrano' by Jason O'Connell and Brenda Withers, adapted from the play Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand, directed by Meredith McDonough in a co-production with Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival. Broadwayworld.com had the pleasure of interviewing Britney Simpson who plays Roxane in the production.

Autumn wind is not the only thing bringing a chill to Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park as a stage adaptation of Margaret Atwood's thriller ALIAS GRACE opens the 2019-20 Rosenthal Shelterhouse Theatre season. This spine-tingling production runs Sept. 14 through Oct. 27, with opening night on Sept. 19.

Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park will begin the 2019-2020 season with the vibrant one-act musical, ONCE ON THIS ISLAND on Sept. 7 in the Marx Theatre. The production will run through Oct. 6, with opening night on Sept. 12.

Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for theatre, welcomes six new members to its board of directors: May Adrales, associate artistic director, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Milwaukee, WI; John Fontillas, planner, architect, partner, H3, New York, NY; Angela Gieras, executive director, Kansas City Repertory Theatre, Kansas City, MO; Mara Isaacs, founder and executivecreative producer, Octopus Theatricals, New York, NY; Anthony Rodriguez, producing artistic director and co-founder, Aurora Theatre, Lawrenceville, GA; and Hana S. Sharif, artistic director, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, St. Louis, MO. 

Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park Artistic Director Blake Robison announced today the appointment of Karen Zacarias and Nicole A. Watson as new Associate Artists for the theatre. They will join Wendy C. Goldberg on the Playhouse artistic team, working closely with Robison on season planning, new play development and community engagement.

Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park Capital Campaign Co-Chairmen Woody Taft and Rob Reifsnyder announced today that the new mainstage theatre will be named for Moe and Jack Rouse, thanks to a gift of $5 million. The newly christened 'Moe and Jack's Place - The Rouse Theatre' will replace the Marx Theatre, the oldest, un-renovated mainstage facility at any regional theatre in the country.

The beloved Peanuts gang comes to life onstage in the Marx Theatre beginning April 20 in YOU'RE A GOOD MAN, CHARLIE BROWN, a whimsical and witty musical reimagined for the stage with the actors playing their own instruments. The production runs through May 18. Opening night is April 25.

Spring and comedy are in the air beginning March 23 when THE THANKSGIVING PLAY, with support from the Rosenthal Family Foundation, opens in the Shelterhouse Theatre. The satirical take on political correctness run amok plays through April 21. Opening night is March 28.

Artistic Director Blake Robison announced Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park's 2019-20 season today, which includes plays from Karen Zacarias and Anna Ziegler, a new stage adaptation of a Margaret Atwood novel, a recent Broadway comedy hit and a world premiere from the award-winning, multi-cultural performance ensemble Universes.

Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park will present THE LAST WIDE OPEN, a love story that encourages audiences to take a personal, humorous look at modern-day courtship, romance and relationships, just in time for Valentine's Day. It begins Feb. 9 in the Shelterhouse Theatre and runs through March 10, with support from The Rosenthal Family Foundation, Season Sponsor of New Work. Opening night is Feb. 14.

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater announces the full company for the world premiere of Aaron Posner's JQA, recipient of an Edgerton Foundation New Play Award. The first of Posner's plays that is not adapted from an existing work, JQA shines a spotlight with humor and care on an ineffectual presidency, the idea of government and how a society lives in relationship to it, and the American experiment as it continues to evolve. Directed by Posner as well, JQA runs March 1 through April 14, 2019 in the Arlene and Robert Kogod Cradle.

Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda's musical IN THE HEIGHTS will delight Cincinnati audiences this winter at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park beginning Jan. 19, 2019. The Broadway hit, which won four Tony Awards including best musical and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, runs through Feb. 17, 2019. Official opening night is Jan. 24, 2019.