Branden Jacobs-Jenkins News

California Shakespeare Theater (Cal Shakes) today announced key artists for its 2018 Season at the Bruns Amphitheater, including the Cal Shakes directorial debuts of KJ Sanchez (Quixote Nuevo) and Nataki Garrett (Everybody).

Lynne Meadow (Artistic Director) and Barry Grove (Executive Producer) are pleased to announce the world premiere of Continuity, the new play by Lortel and Drama Desk Award nominee Bess Wohl (Small Mouth Sounds, American Hero) and directed by Tony Award nominee Rachel Chavkin (Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812).

The Barbour Playwrights Award continues on Wednesday, March 21 at 7pm with a reading of Sandra A. Daley-Sharif's Straddling the Edge. Too many losses and not enough 'hellos' launch Sophia on a kaleidoscopic dreamscape quest for her identity as wife, mother, and Caribbean daughter. Can she maintain her balancing act to find firm ground? Or will the search itself send her over the edge?

Will the Neighbors Say will present the New York Premiere of James Clements' THE DIANA TAPES, directed by Wednesday Sue Derrico (HVMLET for She NYC Arts Festival) at HERE (145 6th Avenue, enter on Dominick Street, one block south of Spring Street), May 24-June 10. Performances will run Tuesday through Saturday at 7pm, with matinee performances on Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday at 2pm. Tickets ($25/$15 for under 30 & seniors) are available for purchase in advance at www.thedianatapes.com. The performance will run approximately 70 minutes, with no intermission. This production is part of SubletSeries@HERE, a curated rental program, which provides artists with subsidized space and equipment, as well as technical support.

This April, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' electrifying, Obie Award-winning play AN OCTOROON will make its Seattle debut, playing April 19 - May 13, 2018 at ArtsWest.

ADMISSIONS just opened last night, March 12 at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater (150 West 65 Street). Ben Edelman, Andrew Garman, Jessica Hecht, Ann McDonough, and Sally Murphy star in this new play by Joshua Harmon, directed by Daniel Aukin. 

A staged reading of Appropriate will be held at the Omaha Community Playhouse Monday, March 26, 2018 at 7:30 p.m. as part of the Alternative Programming series in OCP's Howard Drew Theatre.

This April, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' electrifying, Obie Award-winning play AN OCTOROON will make its Seattle debut, playing April 19 - May 13, 2018 at ArtsWest.

The Signature Theatre (Paige Evans, Artistic Director; James Houghton, Founder) Annual Gala will take place on Monday, March 12, 2018 at The Pershing Square Signature Center (located at 480 West 42nd Street between 9th & 10th Avenues). The event will celebrate the late Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Edward Albee and honor the passionate and visionary leadership of former President of the Signature Board of Trustees, Michael Rauch. The Gala is taking place on what would have been Edward Albee's 90th Birthday.

Soho Rep.'s 2018 Spring Fete, emceed by Ghanaian-American writer and actor Jocelyn Bioh, will honor philanthropists Janice Lee and Stuart Shapiro, Monday, April 16 at The Lighthouse at Chelsea Piers (Pier 61, Chelsea Piers) in Manhattan.

Juilliard today announced that Obie-award winning director Evan Yionoulis, currently professor in the practice of acting and directing at Yale School of Drama and a resident director at Yale Repertory Theatre, will become the school's Richard Rodgers Director of Drama at Juilliardstarting with the 2018-19 academic and performance season. The Juilliard Drama Division, celebrating its 50th anniversary this season, offers a program that encompasses one of this country's most respected conservatory educations for actors as well as highly successful pre-professional mentoring for playwrights.

Asolo Rep continues its season with Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' gripping and engrossing GLORIA, a Pulitzer Prize-finalist and one of The New York Times' Best Theater Picks of 2015. Directed by FSU/Asolo Conservatory Director and Asolo Rep Associate Artistic Director Greg Leaming, GLORIA previews April 4 and 5, opens April 6 and runs through April 29 in the Cook Theatre, located in the FSU Center for the Performing Arts. 

Artistic Directors Douglas Aibel and Sarah Stern announce that Maira Barriga, Elizabeth Dugas, Leah Hofmann, Naomi Kakuk, Brittany Marcin Maschmeyer and Erin Moore will complete the cast of the world premiere of THE BEAST IN THE JUNGLE.

Planet Ant will say goodbye to toxic masculinity when it presents its newest original comedy Who Run The World March 16 - April 7 at The Planet Ant Black Box Theater. Tickets ($10-$20) are on sale now at www.planetant.com or in person 30 minutes prior to show time at the Planet Ant Box Office.

 Cherry Lane Theatre has announced casting for the final production of the Obie award-winning MENTOR PROJECT now in its 20th season. Sam Chanse's THE OPPORTUNITIES OF EXTINCTION is being presented at Cherry Lane (38 Commerce St.) from March 28 - April 7,2018, it has been announced by Seri Lawrence and Janio Marrero, Cherry Lane's Co-Artistic Directors.  Angelina Fiordellisi is Cherry Lane's Founding Artistic Director. Ms. Chanse is mentored by recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts playwriting fellowship and the Helen Merrill Distinguished Playwright Award, Migdalia Cruz.

Tony Estrella, artistic director of The Sandra Feinstein-Gamm Theatre (The Gamm), is delighted to announce the theater's debut season in its new Warwick home. Season 34 opens in September at 1245 Jefferson Boulevard with a slate of provocative stories that resonate boldly with our lives today. They include a U.S. premiere, a New England premiere, a recent Pulitzer Prize finalist, and two landmark works of the modern American theater. The 2018-2019 season will also deliver an enhanced audience experience, from free parking in our private lot, to a spacious lobby and a newly renovated, flexible performance space.

Second Stage Theater has announced that Tony Award winner BLAIR BROWN will join the previously announced EMMA GEER, TATIANA MASLANY and SUSAN POURFAR in the New York Premiere of TRACY LETTS' acclaimed play, MARY PAGE MARLOWE, directed by LILA NEUGEBAUER.

Vineyard Theatre's Artistic Directors, Douglas Aibel and Sarah Stern announce that the  world premiere production of THE AMATEURS by Jordan Harrison (2015 Pulitzer Prize finalist for MARJORIE PRIME) directed by Oliver Butler (THE OPEN HOUSE, Obie Award for Direction) will extend through Thursday, March 29.

The new season of talks and events at the NT will include a series of events related to The Lehman Trilogy; Deputy Artistic Director of the National Theatre Ben Power will discuss The Stages of a Translating a Play, starting with the literal translation through to the challenges and rewards of writing an adaptation. Actors Adam Godley, Ben Miles and Simon Russell Beale will then reflect on the challenges and rewards of performing in the production, whilst The Lehman Trilogy Up Close: Talks and Show Package will offer the opportunity to see and explore the show through a series of talks, discussions and exclusive demonstrations, with contributions from academics, theatre-makers and performers.

Second Stage Theater (Carole Rothman, Artistic Director; Casey Reitz, Executive Director) has announced that EMMA GEER will join the previously announced TATIANA MASLANY and SUSAN POURFAR in the New York Premiere of TRACY LETTS' acclaimed play, MARY PAGE MARLOWE, directed by LILA NEUGEBAUER.