Christopher Chen News

With a mission to produce one new play by each of its six members, 6NewPlays officially closes up shop this fall with WAKEFIELD by Brian Thorstenson. Inspired by Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story of the same name, Wakefield starts at the moment Hawthorne's story ends, when the husband Henry Wakefield returns home after 20 years. Veteran actor Anne Darragh plays Sophia, Henry's wife, alongside Thorstenson as Henry. Erin Mei-Ling Stuart co-directs. Wakefield runs October 5 - 14 at Studio 210 in the Mission. Tickets, $20 - $25, will go on sale in August.

Evans's Production, with a Translation by Paula Wing, Will Feature a Cast of Three Women Bringing to Life Assassinated Journalist Anna Politkovskaya's Uncompromising Drive to Unveil Hard Truths

The Dramatists Guild of America is pleased to announce the co-recipients of the 2018 Lanford Wilson Award are Isaac Gomez and R. Eric Thomas. Their awards will be presented at the Guild's award ceremony, during their national conference, on Saturday, July 28, 2018, at the Hilton Midtown in New York.

The Public Theater will begin previews for the New York premiere of FIRE IN DREAMLAND, written by Rinne Groff on Tuesday, June 19. The company is currently hard at work in rehearsals, check out the photos below!

The Play Company (PlayCo), led by Founding Producer Kate Loewald and Managing Director Robert G. Bradshaw, today announces the complete cast for Toshiki Okada's Time's Journey Through a Room, marking PlayCo's third collaboration with Okada, translator Aya Ogawa, and director Dan Rothenberg, May 10 - June 10, 2018. This haunting play, set in post-Fukushima Japan, will star three Japanese born performers, all of whom are now based in New York: Yuki Kawahisa (Honoka), Maho Honda (Arisa) and Kensaku Shinohara (Kazuki). The play is both an intimate examination of how we move forward from life-altering events, and a study of how we experience time, asking whether we can ever be alive to the present moment. 

Ferocious Lotus Theatre Company, with the support of Intersection for the Arts, presents the world premiere of Leah Nanako Winkler's TWO MILE HOLLOW directed by Lily Tung Crystal. Ferocious Lotus is proud to produce Winkler's work since she was announced as the 2018 winner of the coveted Yale Drama Series Prize for her new play, GOD SAID THIS, and the 2018-2019 Jerome Fellow at The Lark. TWO MILE HOLLOW is part of a simultaneous world premiere with Artists at Play in Los Angeles, First Floor Theatre in Chicago, and Theatre Mu/Mixed Blood Theatre in Minneapolis.

The U.S. Premiere of Toshiki Okada's Time's Journey Through a Room opens this Sunday, May 20, at the Mezzanine Theatre at the A.R.T./New York Theatres. Presented by The Play Company (PlayCo), led by Founding Producer Kate Loewald and Managing Director Robert G. Bradshaw, Time's Journey Through a Room is PlayCo's third collaboration with Okada, translator Aya Ogawa and director Dan Rothenberg. This haunting play, set in Japan after the Fukushima disaster, stars the Japanese-born, New York based performers Yuki Kawahisa (Honoka), Maho Honda (Arisa) and Kensaku Shinohara (Kazuki). The play is both an intimate examination of how we move forward from life-altering events, and a study of how we experience time, asking whether we can ever be alive to the present moment. 

Today, Bay Area playwright collective 6NewPlays announced that tickets are now on sale for CHAMPAGNE, a play by Bay Area playwright Barry Eitel (The Ice Cream Sandwich Incident, The Speakeasy), performing at the Randall Museum (199 Museum Way, San Francisco 94114) June 21 - July 15, 2018. As the penultimate production by 6NewPlays, CHAMPAGNE is a surreal trip through a party at a Pacific Heights for a new social media start-up. Through a haze of ego and booze, the company and its founders are crucified by a collection of mistakes, from selling off user data to murdering fellow executives. Tickets are $20 and are available at brownpapertickets.com.

The Public Theater (Artistic Director, Oskar Eustis; Executive Director, Patrick Willingham) announced complete casting today for the New York premiere of FIRE IN DREAMLAND, written by Rinne Groff. Directed by Marissa Wolf, FIRE IN DREAMLAND continues The Public's Astor Anniversary Season at their landmark downtown home on Lafayette Street, celebrating 50 years of new work and the 50th Anniversary of HAIR. FIRE IN DREAMLAND begins performances on Tuesday, June 19 and runs through Sunday, August 5 in The Public's Anspacher Theater.

San Francisco Playhouse (Artistic Director Bill English; Producing Director Susi Damilano) announced today the six plays that will comprise its 2018-19 Mainstage Season. Opening the season with a play commissioned and developed by the Playhouse, You Mean to Do Me Harm by Christopher Chen, the company strengthens its commitment to new voices in theatre. The Playhouse's three-play Sandbox Series devoted to developing new works will be announced at a later date.

The Play Company (PlayCo), led by Founding Producer Kate Loewald and Managing Director Robert G. Bradshaw, today announces the complete cast for Toshiki Okada's Time's Journey Through a Room, marking PlayCo's third collaboration with Okada, translator Aya Ogawa, and director Dan Rothenberg, May 10 - June 10, 2018. This haunting play, set in post-Fukushima Japan, will star three Japanese born performers, all of whom are now based in New York: Yuki Kawahisa (Honoka), Maho Honda (Arisa) and Kensaku Shinohara (Kazuki). The play is both an intimate examination of how we move forward from life-altering events, and a study of how we experience time, asking whether we can ever be alive to the present moment. 

David Rainey, Executive Artistic Director of The Landing Theatre Company (LTC), announces the company's eighth season, featuring the 2018 winners of its annual New American Voices Play Reading Series, a Co-Production with Obsidian Theater of the World Premiere of Alexis Schaetzle's Wanda, Daisy and the Great Rapture, the Regional Premiere of Christopher Chen's 2017 Obie Award-winning play Caught, and David Mamet's Off-Broadway hit Oleanna.

Obie Award-winning playwright Christopher Chen brings the World Premiere of Passage to The Wilma Theater in collaboration with Wilma Artistic Director Blanka Zizka and the Wilma HotHouse Company of actors. Praised by The New Yorker for his ability to find "ingenious ways to pull the rug out from under the audience's feet," Chen's new play uses the theater's primal evocative powers to examine the most essential questions of our time. Passage begins on Wednesday, April 18th, 2018, and opens on Wednesday, April 25th, 2018. 

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).

San Francisco Playhouse (Artistic Director Bill English; Producing Director Susi Damilano) expanded its commitment to developing new plays and nurturing the voices of active playwrights with the launch of a 5-Year Commission Program dedicated to the creation of 20 new plays over the next 5 years. This will elevate the Playhouse's acclaimed New Play Program, now approaching its 10th season.

The Play Company (PlayCo), led by Founding Producer Kate Loewald and Managing Director Robert G. Bradshaw, presents Toshiki Okada's Time's Journey Through a Room, marking PlayCo's third collaboration with Okada, translator Aya Ogawa, and director Dan Rothenberg, May 10 - June 10, 2018. This haunting play, set in post-Fukushima Japan, is an intimate examination of how we move forward from life-altering events, and a study of how we experience time, asking whether we can ever be alive to the present moment.

San Francisco Playhouse (Artistic Director Bill English; Producing Director Susi Damilano) expanded its commitment to developing new plays and nurturing the voices of active playwrights with the launch of a 5-Year Commission Program dedicated to the creation of 20 new plays over the next 5 years. This will elevate the Playhouse's acclaimed New Play Program, now approaching its 10th season.

The unconventional Caught opens with an invitation for patrons to peruse an installation created by a Chinese artist. But once the audience actually meets said artist, the reality of the play begins to spiral out of control. Written by Christopher Chen and directed by Seth Gordon, this fourth wall-demolishing play runs from March 7 to 25 in The Rep's Studio Theatre.

WP Theater and The Bushwick Starr, in association with New Georges, are pleased to announce that due to popular demand, [PORTO], the upside-down romantic comedy written by Obie Award Winner Kate Benson (Super Magic Wild Forest, Desert) and directed by Obie Award winner Lee Sunday Evans (Bull in a China Shop, Caught), will extend. Previously scheduled through February 25,[PORTO] will now play its final performance on Sunday, March 4, 2018 at WP Theater (2162 Broadway).

The Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle (LADCC) has announced its nominations and special awards for excellence in Los Angeles, Orange County and Ventura County theatre for the year 2017 (Dec. 1, 2016 Nov. 30, 2017).