Caryl Churchill News

DONOTALIGHT's first production presses hot button topics and augurs well for future projects

The 2022 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize has been awarded to U.K. playwright Benedict Lombe for her debut play Lava. In a special presentation at Shakespeare's Globe in London, the Blackburn Prize judges presented Lombe with a cash prize of $25,000, and a signed limited-edition print by renowned artist Willem de Kooning, created especially for the Prize. 

New York Theatre Workshop and National Black Theatre announced today casting, dates and ticket information for Dreaming Zenzile, based on the life of Miriam Makeba, by Grammy-nominated Vocalist/Composer Somi Kakoma directed by Obie Award winner, NYTW Usual Suspect & former NYTW 2050 Artistic Fellow Lileana Blain-Cruz.

The Civilians (Steve Cosson, Artistic Director; Margaret Moll, Managing Director), the award-winning New York-based theater company, will honor actor-manager and co-founder of NAATCO Mia Katigbak and Obie Award-winning director and arts leader Les Waters at The Civilians 20th Anniversary Gala Concert. The event, which takes place on Monday, May 23 at 6:30pm at City Winery (25 11th Ave), will celebrate two decades of creative investigation into the richness and complexity of life.

WGGB has agreed a groundbreaking set of principles to govern the digital broadcasts of stage plays by the Royal Court, the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre.

Rogue Machine announces an extended run for the American premiere of Daf James' On the Other Hand, We're Happy, at the Matrix Theatre in Los Angeles.

The Public Theater will begin performances for the New York premiere of THE VAGRANT TRILOGY on Friday, April 8 with a Joseph Papp Free Performance, after the cancellation of the 2020 production just five days before the first performance and a two-year postponement due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

For the 68th season, Court Theatre will share a beloved, sharp-witted classic comedy; a drama set in Apartheid-era South Africa that speaks directly to our moment; an award-winning Caryl Churchill play about the lives of women farm laborers in 1970s England; and a celebratory, exuberant musical that re-imagines the story of Oedipus.

Producing Artistic Director Kristen van Ginhoven, Managing Director Molly Merrihew, and the WAM Board have announced the appointment of four new members to their Board of Directors. Donna Haghighat, Megan Sandberg-Zakian, Kim Stauffer, and Nicole M. Young-Martin will be joining Board President Wendy Healey, and members Erica Barretto, Toni Buckley, Carolyn Butler, and Margaret Fluhr.

Every fall, the Chicago Latino Theater Alliance (CLATA) imports top Latino theater artists and companies from the U.S. and Latin America to perform during Destinos Chicago International Latino Theater Festival.  

The New Play Commission Scheme (NPCS), led by WGGB in partnership with HighTide Theatre, UK Theatre and the Independent Theatre Council, has been designed to respond to the decline in new theatre commissions during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Tony Award-nominated and five-time Obie Award-winning theater company Clubbed Thumb has announced the complete line-up for the rescheduled 25th SUMMERWORKS festival of new plays. SUMMERWORKS will run May 20 – July 2, 2022 at The Wild Project (195 East 3rd Street) and will feature productions of three new plays.

New York Theatre Workshop announced today performers and presenters for the NYTW 2022 Gala, honoring Artistic Director James C. Nicola, who will depart NYTW after 34 years on June 30, 2022. The Gala will be held on Monday April 11 at 6PM at Capitale (130 Bowery, New York, NY 10013).

 Fault Line Theatre will continue the 2022 Season of Irons in the  Fire, the organization’s reading series of new plays in development, with God Save the Queer by Zackary Grady, directed by Portia Krieger and featuring Michael Urie (George), Mallory Portnoy (Charlotte), Keshav Moodliar (Tariq), Seth Clayton (Louis), and Mary McCann (Kate).

With 75% of UK state secondary schools signed up to the National Theatre Collection, ten additional productions will now be available to schools, colleges and educational establishments from today in partnership with Bloomsbury Publishing and ProQuest, part of Clarivate.

 Bard SummerScape will return this year with eight weeks of live dance, theater, music, and opera in New York’s Hudson Valley, June 23–August 14, 2022. SummerScape 2022 presents the world premieres of new commissions in both dance and theater.

It’s 20 years since Caryl Churchill’s spry, elliptical cloning play premiered at the Royal Court with Michael Gambon and Daniel Craig, and it remains a fascinating chamber piece for a talented pair of actors – as we see here with the great Lennie James and Paapa Essiedu in this anniversary revival.

Macrobert Arts Centre, Stirling's cultural hub, is at last celebrating its monumental 50th Anniversary year after the pandemic postponed celebrations due to start in September 2021. With a programme of events running until September 2022, the venue will be welcoming audiences back for comedy, theatre, music and visual arts, as well as engaging the community in a range of cultural initiatives.

Marking twenty years since its premiere, Caryl Churchill’s sci-fi masterpiece A Number returns to the London stage. The hotly anticipated production stars Lennie James as a grief-stricken father who opts to clone his deceased son with the mindset of reattempting parenthood and making up for past mistakes. His intentions are not entirely honourable and as the play progresses, we soon learn of the man’s manipulative traits.

Alongside the opening of A Number, the theatre has announced three new productions at The Old Vic for 2022 – a topical world premiere, a modern classic and the return of a treasured favourite.