Christopher Durang News

Join celebrated cabaret performer Jamie deRoy when she celebrates Oscar with an evening featuring Academy Award-winning songs and winners as the theme of her Multi MAC Award-winning variety show, Jamie deRoy & friends on Monday, February 16th (7:00PM) at the New York hotspot The Metropolitan Room (34 West 22nd Street - between 5th & 6th Avenues).

eXit Productions presents the New York premiere of Margie Pignataro's original work WONDERLAND IN ALICE: THE UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE-opening on February 4 at the Dionysus Theatre Complex's L'il Peach Theatre (270 West 36th Street) in Manhattan. Ben Gougeon and Doug Spagnola will direct. WONDERLAND IN ALICE: THE UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE is a post-modern trip through the worlds of Wonderland and quantum mechanics. Inspired by Lewis Carroll's beloved Alice stories, WONDERLAND IN ALICE: THE UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE follows Alice through the ten-dimensions of time and space as she searches for identity in an uncertain world. With help from characters such as the Schizophrenic Cat, the Syphillitic Worm and Tofurky, Alice finds her place in a post-9/11 world by learning to understand quantum physics, human sexuality and the power of choice. WONDERLAND IN ALICE: THE UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE premiered in Lubbock, TX with the Experimental Artists Theatre! (EAT!) in August of 2008. Directed by Ben Gougeon and Doug Spagnola, the cast of WONDERLAND IN ALICE: THE UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE includes: Christa Hinckley, Joe Jung, Carmen Rae Meyers, Terrence Monte, James Redfern, Caitlin Sams, Megan Simard and Miles Warner, with costume design by Shana Albery.

Oskar Eustis, Artistic Director of The Public Theater, has announced the 26-member Broadway cast of HAIR: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical. Newcomers to the cast include Gavin Creel, Caissie Levy and Sasha Allen, who join the rest of the tribe, who are reprising their roles from Central Park last summer. Currently in rehearsal at the Union Square Theatre, HAIR begins preview performances on Friday, March 6 at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre (302 West 45th Street, NYC) with an Opening Night set for Tuesday, March 31, 2009.

Broadway's most talked about new musical and the biggest Tony Award-winner in years is coming to Cleveland. Spring Awakening, the 8-time Tony Award? winning Broadway musical, will open at PlayhouseSquare's PalaceTheatre and play for 16 performances, March 3-15. Spring Awakening is part of the KeyBank Broadway Series at PlayhouseSquare. Spring Awakening swept the 2007 Tony Awards? winning eight out of its eleven nominations, including Best Musical, Best Director (Michael Mayer), Best Book (Steven Sater), Best Choreography (Bill T. Jones), Best Orchestrations (Duncan Sheik), Best Lighting Design (Kevin Adams), Best Featured Actor (John Gallagher Jr.).

Playwrights Horizons announces completion of a major renovation to 440 Studios, which is Lower Manhattan's largest rehearsal space complex (located at 440 Lafayette Street). The $1.2 million project took 8 months for demolition and renovation.

Playwrights Horizons announces completion of a major renovation to 440 Studios, which is Lower Manhattan's largest rehearsal space complex (located at 440 Lafayette Street). The $1.2 million project took 8 months for demolition and renovation. 440 Studios is the third and fourth floors of the Playwrights Horizons Theater School. When not in use by the School for classes, workshops and productions, the rehearsal studios and theaters are rented out to hundreds of New York City cultural groups each year. The School and the studios are an integral part of Playwrights Horizons and perform a vital service for students, the theater community and the surrounding neighborhood. The renovation of the third floor was made possible, in large part, through generous capital funding from New York City and New York State.

As of this morning, Wednesday, January 28, Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) is now accepting entries for its popular LIVEforFIVE online lottery for $5 tickets to its next production, the New York premiere of THE SAVANNAH DISPUTATION, a new play by Evan Smith (Psych and The Uneasy Chair at Playwrights Horizons, Servicemen at The New Group). At least 50 tickets will be available via the online lottery. A ticketing initiative created last season as part of the theater company's Arts Access program, LIVEforFIVE makes $5 tickets available for the first preview performance of each Playwrights Horizons production through a lottery via the company's website (www.playwrightshorizons.org). The LIVEforFIVE lottery for THE SAVANNAH DISPUTATION will be for tickets to the first preview on Friday, February 6 at 8:00 PM at Playwrights Horizons' Mainstage Theater (416 West 42nd Street).

eXit Productions presents the New York premiere of Margie Pignataro's original work WONDERLAND IN ALICE: THE UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE-opening on February 4 at the Dionysus Theatre Complex's L'il Peach Theatre (270 West 36th Street) in Manhattan. Ben Gougeon and Doug Spagnola will direct. WONDERLAND IN ALICE: THE UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE is a post-modern trip through the worlds of Wonderland and quantum mechanics. Inspired by Lewis Carroll's beloved Alice stories, WONDERLAND IN ALICE: THE UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE follows Alice through the ten-dimensions of time and space as she searches for identity in an uncertain world. With help from characters such as the Schizophrenic Cat, the Syphillitic Worm and Tofurky, Alice finds her place in a post-9/11 world by learning to understand quantum physics, human sexuality and the power of choice. WONDERLAND IN ALICE: THE UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE premiered in Lubbock, TX with the Experimental Artists Theatre! (EAT!) in August of 2008. Directed by Ben Gougeon and Doug Spagnola, the cast of WONDERLAND IN ALICE: THE UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE includes: Christa Hinckley, Joe Jung, Carmen Rae Meyers, Terrence Monte, James Redfern, Caitlin Sams, Megan Simard and Miles Warner, with costume design by Shana Albery.

McCarter Theatre is pleased to welcome its new Managing Director, Timothy J. Shields. Mr. Shields, a nationally recognized theater executive, was appointed Managing Director by the McCarter Theatre Board of Trustees in September and began work at McCarter on January 5, 2009. 'My acceptance of the position at McCarter Theatre represents something of a homecoming, as I worked at McCarter from 1983 to 1992, and most of my family is on the East Coast,' said Shields. 'The opportunity to become Managing Director of a Tony Award-winning regional theater with such a great reputation was simply too hard to pass up.' He added, 'The unbelievably high level of the productions and presentations that McCarter does for its audiences is work that any arts professional would be pleased to be associated with, and everyone strives to make the work even better. Any organization that has that sort of ambition is one that I'm proud to lead.' Mr. Shields comes to McCarter from Milwaukee Repertory Theater, where he has served as Managing Director since 1998. During his tenure, The Rep's operating budget more than doubled, ticket sales and contributed income reached record levels, and statewide tours of Rep productions in 2006, 2007, and 2008 were re-established.

Blue Coyote Theater Group is proud to present the NY premiere of David Johnston's CONVERSATIONS ON RUSSIAN LITERATURE PLUS THREE MORE PLAYS, directed by Kyle Ancowitz, Gary Shrader and Stephen Speights. CONVERSATIONS ON RUSSIAN LITERATURE PLUS THREE MORE PLAYS begins previews on Wednesday, February 11 for a limited engagement through Saturday, March 7. Opening Night is Saturday, February 14 at 8 PM. The performance schedule is Wednesday - Saturday at 8:00 PM. Performances are at the Access Theater (380 Broadway, just north of White Street). Tickets are $18 ($10 during previews) and are available by calling SmartTix at 212-868-4444 or online at www.smarttix.com. Playwright David Johnston returns to Blue Coyote with the New York premieres of four short plays: CONVERSATIONS ON RUSSIAN LITERATURE, PLAY RUSSIA, FOR THOSE OF US WHO HAVE LIVED IN FRANCE and MOTHRA IS WAITING. Each play examines the romanticism, idealism and absurdism of journeys to other countries (and sometimes other planets) through the prism of David Johnston's 'fertile imagination' and his 'trademark off-kilter sensibility' (New York Times). In PLAY RUSSIA-a must-see for theater nerds-Mr. Johnston upends the most revered Russian playwright, Chekhov, with hilarious results. MOTHRA IS WAITING finds two middle-aged chanteuses waiting for the cult-horror-classic bug Mothra to rescue them from their meaningless lives in Bridgeport to become Goddesses on Infant Island. The Francophile desires of Henry Kissinger, Mary Queen of Scots and modern-day American Lunelle Snead converge in FOR THOSE OF US WHO HAVE LIVED IN FRANCE. In CONVERSATIONS ON RUSSIAN LITERATURE, we return to Russia where post-Cold War espionage and intrigue collides with Russia's literary masters.

New York Stories, featuring the premiere of five short plays by Paul Manuel Kane, will open at the Roy Arias Theaters on January 22, 2009. The production is directed by best-selling political author and biographer Paul Alexander. The evening focuses on five specific instances of tested friendships, changing relationships and lives in flux.

New York Stories, featuring the premiere of five short plays by Paul Manuel Kane, will open at the Roy Arias Theaters on January 22, 2009. The production is directed by best-selling political author and biographer Paul Alexander. The evening focuses on five specific instances of tested friendships, changing relationships and lives in flux.

The Public Theater (Artistic Director Oskar Eustis; Executive Director Andrew D. Hamingson) announced initial casting for Christopher Durang's WHY TORTURE IS WRONG, AND THE PEOPLE WHO LOVE THEM and Craig Lucas's THE SINGING FOREST. Nicholas Martin will direct Why Torture Is Wrong... with a cast of seven that includes Amir Arison, David Aaron Baker, Kristine Nielsen and John Pankow. Mark Wing-Davey will direct a cast of nine that includes Academy Award winner Olympia Dukakis in The Singing Forest. The cast for Why Torture Is Wrong..., which runs March 24 to April 26, will include Amir Arison (Queens Boulevard at Signature), David Aaron Baker (Dead Man's Cell Phone at Playwrights Horizons), Kristine Nielsen (Crazy Mary at Playwrights Horizons), and John Pankow (The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie at The New Group). Early casting for The Singing Forest, running April 7 to May 17, will feature Olympia Dukakis (Academy Award winner for Moonstruck) as Loe Reiman. Ms. Dukakis' New York stage credits include the Encores! production of 70, Girls, 70, Barra Grant's A Mother, A Daughter and a Gun, Social Security directed by Mike Nichols, Rose (Outer Critics Award and Drama Desk nom.), Who's Who in Hell, The Aspern Papers, Night of the Iguana, Christopher Durang's The Marriage of Bette and Boo (Obie Award), Sam Shepard's Curse of the Starving Class, Peer Gynt, Titus Andronicus, Electra, Vaclav Havel's Memorandum, Brecht's A Man's a Man (Obie Award), One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and A View From the Bridge (Theatre World Award).

The shows for Surfside Player's 51st season have been announced, they include: At the Mainstage will show Frost/Nixon, by Peter Morgan, Harvey, by Mary Chase, Prisoner of Second Avenue, by Neil Simon, Chicago, book by Fred Ebb and Bob Fosse, Music by John Kander, Lyrics by Fred Ebb, Fiddler on the Roof, book by Joseph Stein, Music by Jerry Bock, Lyrics by Sheldon Harnick At the Second Stage will show Boy Gets Girl, by Rebecca Gilman, Beyond Therapy, by Christopher Durang There will also be Special Events like The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Holiday Cabaret Further information: 783-3127 or www.surfsideplayers.com.

New York Stories, featuring the premiere of five short plays by Paul Manuel Kane, will open at the Roy Arias Theaters on January 22, 2009. The production is directed by best-selling political author and biographer Paul Alexander. The evening focuses on five specific instances of tested friendships, changing relationships and lives in flux.

Broadway's most talked about new musical and the biggest Tony Award?-winner in years is coming to the Fabulous Fox Theatre in St. Louis. Spring Awakening, the 8-time Tony Award? winning Broadway musical, will play a two-week engagement from February 10-22, 2009. Curtain times for the U.S. Bank Broadway Series presentation are Tuesdays through Fridays at 8 p.m.; Saturdays at 2 & 8 p.m.; Sunday, February 15 at 2 & 7:30 p.m.; and Sunday, February 22 at 2 p.m. There is also a weekday matinee on Thursday, February 19 at 1 p.m.

Rattlestick Playwrights Theater (David Van Asselt, Artistic Director and Sandra Coudert, Managing Director) continues its 14th anniversary season with the World Premiere of That Pretty Pretty; or, The Rape Play, a new comedy by Sheila Callaghan, directed by Kip Fagan (Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom, Nelson). Performances begin Tuesday, February 10th. Opening night is Monday, February 23rd at 7pm. The show will run through Sunday, March 15th.

The American Conservatory Theater Master of Fine Arts Program presents Maxim Gorky's Philistines in a fresh new version by Andrew Upton, the co-artistic director of Australia's Sydney Theatre Company and an acclaimed adaptor of Russian plays.

McCarter Theatre Center announces the complete cast of George Bernard Shaw's still provocative Mrs. Warren's Profession, the third show of the theater's 2008-2009 season. Directed by McCarter Artistic Director Emily Mann, the production will feature Suzanne Bertish, Robin Chadwick, Edward Hibbert, Madeleine Hutchins, Michael Izquierdo, and Rocco Sisto. Mrs. Warren's Profession begins performances in the Berlind Theatre on Friday, January 9 and runs through February 15. (Press opening Friday, January 16).

New York Stories, featuring the premiere of five short plays by Paul Manuel Kane, will open at the Roy Arias Theaters on January 22, 2009. The production is directed by best-selling political author and biographer Paul Alexander. The evening focuses on five specific instances of tested friendships, changing relationships and lives in flux.