Christopher Durang News

The Hermitage Artist Retreat is pleased to announce that multi-award-winning Director and Playwright Emily Mann will head its National Artist Advisory Committee, replacing Brooklyn Academy of Music Executive Producer Joseph V. Melillo, who has held the position since its inception in 2005. The group is responsible for recommending mid-career artists who are invited to receive six-week residencies at the Hermitage Artist Retreat on Manasota Key in Englewood, FL. The prestigious committee includes some of America's finest directors, curators, and artists. Serving with Ms. Mann are Dr. Tony Bannon, Director Burchfield-Penny Arts Center; Dan Cameron, former Chief Curator, Orange County Museum of Art; Michael Bigelow Dixon, Assistant Professor of Theater, Transylvania University; Kenneth Fischer, President, University Musical Society; Linda S. Golding, Founder/Director, The Reservoir; Colleen Jennings-Roggensack, Executive Director, Arizona State University Gammage; Christopher Merrill, Director, International Writing program, University of Iowa; Josip Novakovich, author; Christopher Offutt, Novelist; Carey Perloff, Artistic Director, American Conservatory Theatre; Barbara Shepherd, Director of National Partnerships –Education, The Kennedy Center; and Franklin Sirmans, Department Head and Curator of Contemporary Art, Los Angles County Museum of Art. 

May is the last full month of spring and it also signals the last big month for theater in Des Moines before a couple of quieter months. All of these productions wrap up on May 17th, so catch them while you can!

Emily Mann, McCarter Theatre Center's Artistic Director and Resident Playwright, has been named the recipient of the 2015 Margo Jones Award presented by The Ohio State University Libraries and OSU Arts and Humanities. The award honors those who have demonstrated a significant impact, understanding and affirmation of the craft of playwriting, and who have encouraged the living theatre everywhere.

The Old Globe presents George Bernard Shaw's Arms and the Man, joining celebrated director Jessica Stone, who recently made her Globe debut with Christopher Durang's Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike. Shaw's romantic comedy, which continues the Globe's 80th Anniversary festivities as part of the Balboa Park Centennial Celebration, will run May 9 - June 14, 2015 on the Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage in the Old Globe Theatre, part of the Globe's Conrad Prebys Theatre Center. Opening night is Thursday, May 14 at 8:00 p.m. Scroll down for a sneak peek at the cast in costume!

The Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park's 2014-15 Robert S. Marx Theatre season comes to a riotous close with VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE, Christopher Durang's madcap comedy about melancholy people. A smash hit on Broadway, VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE earned numerous critical accolades, including the 2013 Drama Desk and Tony awards for best play. It runs tonight, April 25 through May 23 in the Marx Theatre.

Virginia Repertory Theatre announces the opening of Christopher Durang's award-winning Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike at the Sara Belle and Neil November Theatre, 114 West Broad Street on Friday, April 24 with a preview tonight, April 23. The production runs through May 17, 2014. Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike won the 2013 Tony Award for Best Play, an Outer Critics Circle Award, the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play, and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play.

Theatre East will present Elizabeth Parrish with the Laurette Taylor Award on Thursday, May 28th at Ramscale Studio South, 463 West Street, in the West Village Highline district, NYC. The benefit starts at 7pm with an exclusive cocktail reception, followed by dinner at 8pm. The award will be presented to Ms. Parrish by Kate Mulgrew (Orange is the New Black).

Looking for something fun to do in Nashville this week? Have no fear, gentle BWW Nashville readers, our team of writers have done the necessary legwork - we're all about saving you time and helping you make informed decisions about how to spend your entertainment dollar, after all - and we are delighted to present you with our very first Critic's Choice column, filled to the veritable brim with suggestions for great stuff going on around our fair state. Now, get out there and have some fun, y'all! And while you're at it, you'll be doing some good for the community by supporting the arts in the Volunteer State!

Geva Theatre Center presents Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike - Christopher Durang's laugh-out-loud, Tony Award-winning comedy, directed by Bruce Jordan. Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike begins performances May 5, opens May 9, and runs in the Elaine P. Wilson Mainstage through May 31.

City Theatre continues its 40th anniversary season with Midsummer (a play with songs), on the Mainstage May 9 - 31, 2015. The play is written by David Greig and singer-songwriter Gordon McIntyre, and is directed by City Theatre Artistic Director Tracy Brigden.

Roundabout Theatre Company (Todd Haimes, Artistic Director) just announced the fourth annual Roundabout Underground Reading Series, a five-night event that includes nightly readings of new plays written and directed by emerging artists, curtain speeches by Roundabout Underground artist alumni and post-show receptions.

Now onstage at TPAC's Andrew Johnson Theatre as the season-ending production from Nashville Repertory Theatre, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike has a lot to say and, for the most part, it does so with vigor and bite. Durang's play somehow remains an artful blending of hilarity and gloom that succeeds on many levels, credit for which is due both writer and director, in this case Nashville's own imaginative visionary aka Nate Eppler.

Props master Evelyn Pearson is a wealth of information and insight into the set design, story, and props of the shows that Nashville Repertory Theatre produces. In the midst of tech week and opening weekend, she was kind enough to take some time to answer questions regarding the newest production, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, written by Christopher Durang.

Today we are talking to an Emmy Award-winning stage and screen star notable for her iconic leading role on long-running musical dramedy series GLEE in addition to numerous high profile roles in films, television and Broadway - the heartfelt and hilarious Jane Lynch. Discussing all aspects of her exciting new concert tour SEE JANE SING, Lynch opens up about the songs, stories and surprises that are in store for the lucky attendees at her East Coast appearances as well as clues us in on some of the musical selections that we can anticipate enjoying with Lynch accompanied by frequent collaborator Kate Flannery as well as her band. Additionally, Lynch reflects on the final season of GLEE, noting her favorite performances and moments as well as shares her insights into the worldwide phenomenon itself and whether or not she would enjoy being involved in a reunion or future iteration of the international hit down the line. Plus, Lynch looks ahead to new projects including several feature films as well as a pilot for a brand new sitcom that very well could appear on small screens across the country as soon as this Fall. Plus, Lynch recounts stories from her hit Broadway run in ANNIE, muses on future stage roles, touches on the upcoming spate of new episodes of her Golden Globe-winning hosting gig on HOLLYWOOD GAME night and much, much more!

The Old Globe today announced the complete cast and creative team for George Bernard Shaw's Arms and the Man, joining celebrated director Jessica Stone, who recently made her Globe debut with Christopher Durang's Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike. Shaw's romantic comedy, which continues the Globe's 80th Anniversary festivities as part of the Balboa Park Centennial Celebration, will run May 9 - June 14, 2015 on the Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage in the Old Globe Theatre, part of the Globe's Conrad Prebys Theatre Center. Preview performances run May 9 through 13. Opening night is Thursday, May 14 at 8:00 p.m.

The Playwrights Horizons world premiere of IOWA, a new musical play written by Susan Smith Blackburn Prize finalist Jenny Schwartz (God's Ear, Somewhere Fun), music by Todd Almond (Stage Kiss at PH, Kansas City Choir Boy, The Tempest, On the Levee) and lyrics by Mr. Almond and Ms. Schwartz, opens tonight, April 13, 2015.

As the lights came up at the start of Cleveland Play House's VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE, the audience is exposed to a comfortable large morning room, backed up by a piano area, and stairs to an upstairs. On stage left is a patio, on stage right the house's entrance. Were in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, in a home situated on a lake.

Arena Stage has a gem in Christopher Durang's Tony Award winning play VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE.

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater presents the Washington, D.C. premiere of Christopher Durang's Tony Award-winning comedy Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike. Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike runs now through May 3, 2015 in the Fichandler Stage. BroadwayWorld has photos from the opening night festivities below!

A quaint, well-loved home is where the scene is set. Minimal set dressings to mask the beautiful awkwardness of the first scene - with remnants of Anton Chekov's greatest works scattered upon the mantle. A seagull, a sister, a cluster of cherry blossoms, and a brood of hens watch over the home from their perch. These little trinkets are entirely appropriate since three of the four title roles were named after Chekov's characters. Vanya, the brother in the play, blames the unfortunate circumstance of his unusual name on his having professors for parents.