Center Stage (i) News

When I heard about the topic of the new Baltimore Center Stage production of A WONDER IN MY SOUL, I initially thought it would be a female version of the film 'Barber Shop' Well, let me tell you, it is NOT!!!!

At the 2018 New York Musical Festival, the show IF SAND WERE STONE tackled the difficult subject of early onset Alzheimer's Disease. With music by Cassie Willson, and book and lyrics by Carly Brooke Feinman, the show was quite stylized and sometimes confusing.

Dan Cody's Yacht opened last night June 6 at MTC at New York City Center - Stage I. Let's see what the critics had to say...

Award-winning pioneer playwright Qui Nguyen brilliantly chronicles the love story of his parents' meeting in an Arkansas refugee center after fleeing Vietnam after the fall of Saigon in 1975. It's a buddy story, an all-American romance, and a motorcycle road-trip adventure that reexamines how we think about the heroes and victims of the Vietnam War. Vietgone skips through time and roams the globe with snarky humor, hip-hop, and lots of sex. It's one ironic, foul-mouthed, bad-ass new play.

Today the New York premiere of Little Rock was announced, written and directed by Rajendra Ramoon Maharaj. Performances are set to begin Wednesday, May 30, 2018 for a limited run through September 8, 2018 at The Sheen Center for Thought & Culture (18 Bleecker Street). Opening Night is set for Thursday, June 14, 2018 at 7:00PM. Cast and creative team will be announced shortly.

Trump: A One Man Show runs at Center Stage for one nigh only, Monday January 15th at 6:30 p.m., and also features a brief opening set by magician James Lantiegne, owner of the House of Magic Foundation of the Arts in Ventura. Don't miss this satire extravaganza; it will be a huge, huge, bigly night!

Performances may have already concluded for Manhattan Theatre Club's world premiere production of The Portuguese Kid, but there will be more chances to see the cast in action. BroadwayWorld has just learned that the new play was recorded for BroadwayHD yesterday, December 11.

I first recall watching Tim Mackabee play a policeman in the musical GUYS AND DOLLS while he was in high school in Towson, MD at the Carver Center for the Arts and Technology. I next met him outside the Yale Repertory Theatre where he was studying for his Master's Degree in Set Design. I've been following him ever since as he has risen to be one the most successful set designers in the country. He even made it to Broadway and London where he designed THE ELEPHANT MAN. His work is now ensconced at Baltimore's Center Stage where you can see his masterful job designing the set for SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE (which is a co-production with the Cincinnati Playhouse). I was able to see the show in a preview performance (it opens officially October 26, 2017) and marveled at his work. I caught up with him during tech rehearsals in Baltimore just before he had to leave for Philadelphia.

Theatre Horizon opened the World Premiere of James Ijames' smart and hilarious WHITE. On the evening of its official opening, the theatre is excited to announce that WHITE will now have an extension week and close Sunday, May 28. Winner of the 2015 Terrence McNally New Play Award, WHITE already had sold out performances.

Theatre Horizon's 12th season concludes with a World Premiere by a Philadelphia favorite. The theatre is presenting the World Premiere of James Ijames' smart and hilarious WHITE. Winner of the 2015 Terrence McNally New Play Award, WHITE runs April 27-May 21. Opening Night is Wednesday, May 3 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets cost $20-$35. Theatre Horizon is located at 401 DeKalb Street. Tickets and more information are available online at www.theatrehorizon.org or by phone at 610-283-2230.

Baltimore Center Stage has announced its new pre-show restaurant vendor will be Flavor. The Mount Vernon restaurant opened in mid-2015 on Centre Street, just a few blocks from the theater.

It happened again. The slip and fall. The attack of the klutz. The shattering of the illusion of that graceful and poised person that I pretend to be.  And it happened in front of 2200 people.

Lynne Meadow (Artistic Director) and Barry Grove (Executive Producer) have just announced two additional productions as part of Manhattan Theatre Club's upcoming 2016-2017 season: The Broadway premiere of August Wilson's Jitney, directed by Tony Award winner Ruben Santiago-Hudson and the New York Premiere of Cost of Living, written by Martyna Majok and directed by Jo Bonney, in association with Williamstown Theatre Festival, Mandy Greenfield Artistic Director. Cost of Living will have its World Premiere at Williamstown Theatre Festival on the Nikos Stage from June 29 to July 10, 2016.

Manhattan Theatre Club presents the world premiere of PRODIGAL SON, the new play written and directed by Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winner John Patrick Shanley (Doubt, Outside Mullingar). PRODIGAL SON opens tonight, February 9, at MTC at New York City Center - Stage I. Let's see what the critics had to say...

Don't miss Portland Center Stage's excellent production of Book-It Repertory Theatre's GREAT EXPECTATIONS.

Playwright Lynn Nottage notches another feather in her cap of outstanding work.

Lynne Meadow (Artistic Director) and Barry Grove (Executive Producer) have announced two productions as part of Manhattan Theatre Club's upcoming 2016-2017 season: the New York premiere of Vietgone, the new play by Qui Nguyen (She Kills Monsters), directed by May Adrales (Luce); and the world premiere of Sell/Buy/Date, the new play written and performed by Tony Award winner Sarah Jones (Bridge and Tunnel), directed by Carolyn Cantor (Fly By Night).

Manhattan Theatre Club's world premiere of Ripcord, the new comedy by Pulitzer Prize winner David Lindsay-Abaire, directed by Tony and Emmy Award winner David Hyde Pierce, opens tonight, October 20, at MTC at New York City Center - Stage I (131 West 55th Street). Let's see what the critics had to say...

Manhattan Theatre Club presents the New York premiere of Of Good Stock, the new play by Melissa Ross, directed by MTC's award-winning Artistic Director Lynne Meadow. The limited engagement opens tonight, June 30, at MTC at New York City Center - Stage I (131 West 55th Street). Let's see what the critics had to say...

Center Stage has launched a new endeavor for local playwrights. Dubbed the Playwrights Collective, the program will allow a rotating group of writers to develop work, foster collaborative connections, and share professional mentorship within the framework of a resident regional theater. At the same time, it allows Center Stage to feed back into and help foster the local artistic ecology.