Christopher Akerlind News

In joining a small group of Equity theatres given permission to produce live, Portland Stage already has achieved an artistic milestone during the pandemic. But with their well-crafted, emotionally satisfying production of Lanford Wilson’s TALLEY’S FOLLY, they bring a dose of hope to theatre-starved audiences – not only in practical terms but in artistic ones as well.

Portland Stage, a professional regional theater located in Portland, Maine, is one of a handful of theaters nationwide to have won the endorsement of the Actors Equity Association to produce live theater with an audience.

The Metropolitan Opera announced today that the ongoing health crisis has resulted in the cancellation of the entire 2020-21 season, but the company also announced ambitious artistic plans for its 2021-22 season, which will open with the Met premiere of Terence Blanchard's Fire Shut Up in My Bones.

Portland Stage has announced they have received Equity's approval to mount the 1980 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Talley's Folly by Lanford Wilson.

The Menier Chocolate Factory today announced that all remaining tickets for March for performances of Paula Vogel's Tony Award-winning Indecent will be sold at £20 each. These tickets will go on sale from 6am on Wednesday 11 March.

The Menier Chocolate Factory today presents the European première of Paula Vogel's Tony Award-winning play Indecent. Rebecca Taichman directs Cory English - The Middle (Male); Beverley Klein - The Elder (Female); Finbar Lynch - The Stage Manager; Molly Osborne - The Ingenue (Female); Peter Polycarpou - The Elder (Male); Alexandra Silber - The Middle (Female); Joseph Timms - The Ingenue (Male); Merlin Shepherd - The Clarinettist; Anna Lowenstein - The Violinist, and Josh Middleton - The Accordionist.

On Saturday evening February 22, 2020, Los Angeles Opera presented a vocally glorious rendition of Gaetano Donizetti's Bel Canto opera Roberto Devereux. Roberto was one of the loves of England's Elizabeth I, so the opera is centered around their relationship and Roberto's forbidden love for Sara, the wife of the Duke of Nottingham.

Inspired by Tudor-era English history, Roberto Devereux finds Queen Elizabeth I clinging onto her power, influence and heart in the final year of her reign. Her younger lover Devereux-fighting charges of treason-is discovered to have a secret affection for another woman. As Elizabeth searches for her rival, she soon realizes the 'other woman' is much closer to her than she ever could have imagined, while Devereux is left to fight for his freedom-and his head-all on his own.

A seminal work of Jewish culture or an act of traitorous libel? Indecent explores the origins of the highly controversial play The God of Vengeance by Sholem Asch. We follow the path of the artists who risked their careers and lives to perform it in this deeply moving play accompanied by a small live klezmer band.

With the critically acclaimed production of The Boy Friend currently running at the theatre, the Menier Chocolate Factory today announce the forthcoming two productions a?" the European première of Paula Vogel's Tony Award-winning play Indecent, directed by Rebecca Taichman; and Alan Bennett's Habeas Corpus directed by Patrick Marber, who returns to the Menier following his smash-hit production of Tom Stoppard's Travesties.

General Director Ken McConnell and Artistic Director Tobias Picker today announced Tulsa Opera's 73rd season comprising Verdi's Rigoletto; Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice in a new production with dance; and Mr. Picker and librettist Aryeh Lev Stollman's new opera Awakenings, based on the book by Oliver Sacks and directed by Tulsa native James Robinson. 

The Guthrie Theater presents the perennial holiday favorite A Christmas Carol, written by Charles Dickens, adapted by Crispin Whittell and directed by Lauren Keating. A Twin Cities holiday tradition for many, this season marks the Guthrie's 45th production, making it the longest run of A Christmas Carol in regional theater history. 

The Guthrie Theater presents the perennial holiday favorite A Christmas Carol, written by Charles Dickens, adapted by Crispin Whittell and directed by Lauren Keating. A Twin Cities holiday tradition for many, this season marks the Guthrie's 45th production, making it the longest run of A Christmas Carol in regional theater history. 

New York Theatre Workshop (NYTW) (Artistic Director James C. Nicola and Managing Director Jeremy Blocker) announced today a one-week final extension for the World Premiere of Sing Street, a new musical based on the motion picture written and directed by John Carney (Once, Begin Again). Sing Street features a book by Tony Award winner & NYTW Usual Suspect Enda Walsh (Once, Lazarus), music and lyrics by Gary Clark (frontman of Danny Wilson) & Carney, direction by Tony Award winner & NYTW Usual Suspect Rebecca Taichman (Indecent) and choreography by Obie Award winner Sonya Tayeh (Hundred Days).

Memories are explored in THE GLASS MENAGERIE and this interview with actor Remy Auberjonois, starring in the Guthrie's production through Oct. 27.

New York Theatre Workshop (NYTW) announces the full cast and creative team for the World Premiere of Sing Street, a new musical based on the motion picture written and directed by John Carney (Once, Begin Again).

The Knight of Illumination (KOI) Awards, the awards dedicated to celebrating British and international lighting and video designers for their work in the UK, is pleased to announce the 2019 shortlist of nominees for the Theatre category.

Playwright Lynn Nottage matters.  Winner of a MacArthur 'genius' grant, she's also been named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time Magazine in 2019.  She's the only woman to win two Pulitzer Prizes for drama (for RUINED in 2009 and SWEAT in 2017). Nottage calls FLOYD'S her 'side hustle' to SWEAT.  Commissioned by the Guthrie, it had its world premiere there this past weekend.

Fire Shut Up in My Bones has opened at Opera Theatre St. Louis. It is gorgeous! Deeply intimate and honest, the beautifully told story almost overshadows the music by the great jazz trumpeter Terrence Blanchard.

INDECENT now onstage at Center Theatre Group/Ahmanson Theatre in a co-production with Huntington Theatre Company, magnificently directed by Rebecca Taichman, is as close to a Broadway-quality production as you will ever see in the City of Angels, with incredibly entertaining, stylized movement performed by triple-threat performers, guaranteed to draw you into not only the story but the necessity of its truth being brought to the stage now.