National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Jane Chu has approved more than $25 million in grants as part of the NEA's first major funding announcement for fiscal year 2018. Included in this announcement is an Art Works grant of $15,000 to Pegasus Theatre Chicago for the Young Playwrights Festival year-round program. The Art Works category is the NEA's largest funding category and supports projects that focus on the creation of art that meets the highest standards of excellence, public engagement with diverse and excellent art, lifelong learning in the arts, and/or the strengthening of communities through the arts.
Refuge Theatre Project, the three-year-old company that staged HIGH FIDELITY: THE MUSICAL twice in makeshift record stores, BARE: A POP OPERA in a church sanctuary and LYSISTRATA JONES in a gymnasium; will continue its practice of performing in found spaces with THE SPITFIRE GRILL, opening on March 25.
Refuge Theatre Project, the three-year-old company that staged HIGH FIDELITY: THE MUSICAL twice in makeshift record stores, BARE: A POP OPERA in a church sanctuary and LYSISTRATA JONES in a gymnasium; will continue its practice of performing in found spaces with THE SPITFIRE GRILL, opening on March 25.
The League of Professional Theatre Women (Kelli Lynn Harrison & Lisa Rothe, Co-Presidents) will present the 2018 Theatre Women Awards at The TimesCenter (242 West 41st Streetbetween 7th and 8th Avenues) on Friday, March 16 beginning at 6:30PM. Tickets ($65-$250) are available for advance purchase at www.theatrewomen.org.
Inspired by the classic Cyrano de Bergerac, Michael Golamco's 'Cowboy vs. Samurai' is not only a tale of misplaced love, it's also an insightful and wonderfully funny meditation on being Asian in middle America, on self-identity, and on the ways we categorize ourselves as well as each other. Pear Theatre's production of 'Cowboy vs. Samurai,' directed by Jeffrey Lo, previews on March 15, with press and Opening Night on Friday, March 16, followed by a champagne gala. The show runs Thursdays through Sundays through April 8. All performances are held at the Pear Theatre, 1110 La Avenida St., Mountain View. Tickets can be purchased by visiting www.thepear.org or calling (650) 254-1148.
Four TPS fellows - chosen from a competitive application process - will work under the direction of Kenley Smith, director of the TPS program, to develop new full-length scripts to be presented in a public reading at the Darkhorse Theatre this fall. Two Associates will serve as alternates for the program and will contribute to monthly workshop sessions in the first year and will fill two TPS fellow positions in 2019. TPS will work with actors from the Nashville community for workshops and readings.
National New Play Network, the country's alliance of nonprofit theaters that champions the development, production, and continued life of new plays, celebrates the second leg of The Luckiest People by Meridith Friedman, its 69th Rolling World Premiere. The play, which received the 2013-14 Annual Commission in collaboration with Curious Theatre Company, will receive a total of three distinct NNPN RWP productions, rolling through Curious Theatre Company (May 6-June 17, 2017 in Denver, CO), Actor's Theatre of Charlotte (now playing January 31-February 17, 2018 in NC), and Stage Left Theatre (March 26-April 29, 2018 in Chicago, IL).
WaterTower Theatre Artistic Director, Joanie Schultz, today announced details for the inaugural DETOUR: A Festival of New Work (March 1 - 4, 2018). This year's Festival will consist of four new play readings, three devised works, and two "late nite" performances. Highlights from this year's Festival include a reading from Oregon Shakespeare Festival's "Play On!" initiative commissioning modern adaptations of 39 of Shakespeare's works, three new works from rising company Dark Circles Contemporary Dance, the next installment of Brigham Mosley's laugh-out-loud creation, Movies That Should Be Musicals, and more.
Sideshow Theatre Company is pleased to announce the newest playwrights chosen for its annual "The Freshness Initiative," the company's commissioning and new play development program, now in its fourth year. The 2018 Freshness Initiative will feature PRO-AM, written by Brynne Frauenhoffer and directed by Regina Victor and LORCA PLAY written by Ariel Zetina and directed by artistic director Jonathan L. Green. Free readings of the productions will be presented in July 2018 at Victory Gardens Theater. Sideshow world premieres developed through "The Freshness Initiative" include Kristiana Rae Colon's Tilikum, Philip Dawkins' The Happiest Place on Earth and Calamity West's Give It All Back.
Troupe today announces Elizabeth Berrington and Tanya Moodie are to star in the UK premiere of Joel Drake Johnson's tense workplace drama Rasheeda Speaking. Directed by Jonathan O'Boyle the production opens at Trafalgar Studios 2 on 20 April, with previews from 18 April, and runs until 12 May.
Court Theatre, under the continuing leadership of Charles Newell, Marilyn F. Vitale Artistic Director, announces the extension of All My Sons by Arthur Miller, directed by Charles Newell and featuring Kate Collins, John Judd and Timothy Edward Kane. All My Sons now runs through February 18, 2018 at Court Theatre, 5535 S. Ellis Ave. Tickets to extension performances of All My Sons go on sale Friday, February 2, 2018 and available by calling the box office at (773) 753-4472 orwww.CourtTheatre.org.
The Dramaworkshop, Palm Beach Dramaworks' lab for developing new plays, will be presenting staged readings of two fascinating works, both of which are open to the public. Up first is Lyle Kessler's House on Fire, a play that will receive its world premiere at PBD during the 2018-2019 season. This darkly comic twist on the Prodigal Son story will be performed on February 23 and 24.
Rivendell Theatre Ensemble proudly announces its 2018 Season, "The Reckoning." The season includes three plays about women who come face to face with an essential truth that threatens to shatter the things they love most. The 2018 Season will be performed at Rivendell Theatre Ensemble, 5779 N. Ridge Avenue in Chicago.
The New Colony is pleased to announce its sell-out world premiere THE LIGHT is adding three additional weeks of performances, extending through February 25, 2018 at The Den Theatre (2B), 1333 N. Milwaukee Ave. in Chicago's Wicker Park neighborhood. Tickets for all performance are currently available at www.thenewcolony.org.
The Greenhouse Theater Center is pleased to announce the line-up for its 2018 SOLO PERFORMANCE LAB, featuring four world premiere solo works presented in two free programs: February 17 and March 3, 2018 in the Greenhouse Theatre Center's Downstairs Mainstage, 2257 N. Lincoln Ave. in Chicago.
A Red Orchid Theatre announces the extension of Traitor, an adaptation of Heinrich Ibsen's An Enemy of the People, written by Ensemble Member Brett Neveu and directed by Ensemble Member Michael Shannon, due to overwhelming demand. The production features Ensemble Members Dado, Kirsten Fitzgerald, Larry Grimm, Guy Van Swearingen and Natalie West, with Jacob Alexander, Mary Jo Bolduc, Missi Davis, Kristin Ellis, Nation Henrickson, Frank Nall and Steve Walker, featuring lighting design by Ensemble Member Mike Durst. Traitor will add Wednesday evening performances in February and now runs through March 4, 2018. 2018 at A Red Orchid Theatre, 1531 N. Wells. Tickets for the extension are on sale now.
Producers Darlene Kaplan, Laura Janik Cronin and Scott J. Newsome, have announced, today, the cast and creative team for the Off-Broadway premiere of The Stone Witch, a play by Shem Bitterman (A Death in Colombia, Influence). Performances begin Monday, March 12, 2018 for an open-ended engagement at The Westside Theatre - Upstairs (407 West 43rd Street between 9th and 10th Avenues). Opening Night is set for Sunday evening, March 25, 2018 at 6:30PM.
Theatre for a New Audience (TFANA; Jeffrey Horowitz, Founding Artistic Director) announces a free post-performance discussion moderated by Pulitzer Prize-winning theatre critic and Negroland: A Memoir author Margo Jefferson in connection with TFANA's world premiere production of Adrienne Kennedy's He Brought Her Heart Back in a Box. The talk, which begins at 8.30 PM is open to all and features director Charlotte Braithwaite and playwrights Lydia Diamond and Jackie Sibblies Drury, follows the January 20 performance of Kennedy's first new play in a decade, which begins at 7:30 that evening, at Polonsky Shakespeare Center (262 Ashland Place, Brooklyn, NY 11217). The discussion will also be streamed live on Theatre for a New Audience's Facebook page. He Brought Her Heart Back in a Box runs January 18-February 11. To reserve a seat to this panel, visit www.tfana.org/heartpanel.
