Cincinnati Playhouse News

On Saturday, May 10, 2014 at 3:00 p.m. in Wharton Center's Pasant Theatre, six mid-Michigan high school students will be recognized as finalists in this year's Young Playwrights Festival. Each finalist's play will be directed and performed by MSU Department of Theatre students. The Saturday performance is free and open to the public with first come, first served seating. Doors open at 2:30 p.m.

Obie Award-winning Metropolitan Playhouse revives WITHIN THE LAW, by Bayard Veiller, running May 31 - June 29, 2014, directed by Associate Director Michael Hardart at Metropolitan Playhouse (220 E 4th Street). From 1912, a story of a good girl gone bad...all while playing by the rules.

TheatreWorks, the nationally acclaimed theatre of Silicon Valley, has announced the appointment of Giovanna Sardelli to the position of Director of New Works. Sardelli brings stellar national directing credits and close ties with many of today's hottest rising playwrights to the company, which has established itself as a leader in cultivating and producing new works. No stranger to TheatreWorks, Sardelli helmed the company's 2013 production of Somewhere by rising star Matthew Lopez, as well as the TheatreWorks' 2011World Premiere of Pulitzer Prize-nominee Rajiv Joseph's The North Pool, named by the San Francisco Chronicle as one of that year's ten best productions in the Bay Area.

New Ground Theatre Festival, Cleveland Play House's annual showcase of new theatrical works will open with the world premiere production of Deborah Zoe Laufer's thought-provoking Informed Consent. The Festival is comprised of 25 performances of works ranging from fully-produced, large-scale collaborations to solo performances, to readings of plays hot off the writer's printer that represent a variety of new work from nationally-recognized artists. This year's lineup also includes work from Tony Award nominee and CWRU/CPH alumna, Elizabeth A. Davis, as well as critically acclaimed playwrights George Brant and Eric Coble, and Roe Green Award Winner Heidi Schreck. For the third consecutive year, the Roe Green Award brings a leading American playwright to Cleveland to develop a new project culminating in a reading and public conversation with the playwright. CPH is indebted to Honorary Producer Roe Green, Supporting Sponsor Ohio Savings Bank and Associate Sponsors Ulmer & Berne, Westlake Reed Leskosky and Walter Haverfield. The New Ground Theatre Festival will run from today, May 7 - 17.

The Reduced Shakespeare Company finally tackles the subject of comedy, condensing the complete history (abridged) into a concise two-hour package that doesn't miss a trick. From cavemen to clowns, shtick to Stooges, and Seinfeld to the Supreme Court, there's something for everyone in the myriad sketches offered up by this trio of talented comedians. With the exception of the mention of a few of George Carlin's infamous seven words, THE COMPLETE HISTORY OF COMEDY (ABRIDGED) at Merrimack Repertory Theatre is good family entertainment and the kids might even learn to appreciate the pioneers of the art form.

People's Light is proud to announce new play commissions for Eisa Davis, Colman Domingo, Kate Fodor, Karen Hartman, Dominique Morisseau, and Kathryn Petersen. These six playwrights are the first participants in our New Play Frontiers residency program. New Play Frontiers is an initiative to conceive, develop, and produce new plays that explore our American identity through stories of deep meaning to specific populations in the five-county region that surround our theatre.

The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey's 52nd Season opens with The Tempest, Shakespeare's final great work. Performances begin May 28th and continue through June 22nd at the F.M. Kirby Shakespeare Theatre, 36 Madison Ave. (at Lancaster Road) in Madison. Individual tickets are now on sale and can be purchased by calling the Box Office at 973-408-5600 or by visiting www.ShakespeareNJ.org. Performances are Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Sundays at 7:30 p.m.; Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m.; and Saturdays and Sundays at 2 p.m. Individual tickets range from $15 to $75.

New Dramatists,Tony® Honor recipient and the nation's premiere playwright development workshop, announces that Emily Morse will assume the position of Artistic Director beginning in July. Morse, on staff at New Dramatists since 2001 and currently serving as Director of Artistic Development, assumes the position from Todd London who leaves New Dramatists after eighteen years to become the Executive Director/Professor of Drama at the University of Washington where he'll oversee undergraduate, MFA and PhD programs, training and productions. London's appointment is awaiting final approval by the university Board of Regent's.

Broadway In Chicago has announced additional principal casting for the world premiere of AMAZING GRACE, the new musical with music and lyrics by Christopher Smith and a book by Christopher Smith and Arthur Giron, directed by Gabriel Barre (Andrew Lippas' The Wild Party) and choreographed by Tony Award winner Christopher Gattelli (Newsies).

San Francisco Playhouse (Artistic Director Bill English & Producing Director Susi Damilano) continues its provocative eleventh season with Seminar by recent Susan Blackburn Award nominee Theresa Rebeck (Smash, The Scene).

From today, April 24 through June 1, one of William Shakespeare's most famous histories 'Richard III' gets an innovative PNT treatment in this boldly re-imagined tale of power, treachery, seduction, and fate.

Berkeley Repertory Theatre welcomes back Pulitzer Prize winner Tony Kushner for the West Coast premiere of his latest play, The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures, an epic tale of love, family, sex, money, and politics. Kushner reunites with one of his favorite collaborators, Michael Leibert Artistic Director Tony Taccone, to bring this sweeping drama to the Roda Theatre. With his trademark mix of soaring intellect and searing emotion, the legendary writer unfurls a poignant story about an Italian family in Brooklyn. When retired longshoreman Gus Marcantonio decides to die, his kids come home with a raucous parade of lovers and spouses to find that even the house keeps secrets. A portrait of a dysfunctional family filled with weighty dialogue, humor, and passion, Kushner's four-act play previews Friday, May 16, opens on Wednesday, May 21, and runs through Sunday, June 29, 2014.

David Ives' seductive play of gender politics and power VENUS IN FUR brings Broadway's hottest date night to the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park's Robert S. Marx Theatre today, April 19 through May 17.

The Production Company's Managing Director of the 2014 Reading Series, Dean Farell Bruggeman, and Artistic Directors August Viverito and T L Kolman proudly announce the third selection for the company's new-play-reading series with Ed Graczyk's beautiful The Blue Moon Dancing, directed by David Youse. The reading takes place at our new studio space, dubbed The Production Company Workspace, at 14731 Oxnard St., Van Nuys, CA 91411, on Sunday, April 27 @ 7 pm, and Monday, April 28 @ 8 PM. Admission is complimentary.

Berkeley Repertory Theatre continues the second half of its season with Tribes, a sophisticated and moving family drama by celebrated British playwright Nina Raine. Her profound and powerful new play became an award-winning hit in London and New York. Now renowned director Jonathan Moscone brings it to Berkeley Rep this April for its Bay Area premiere. Tribes follows Billy, a young man who was born deaf into a loquacious and highly opinionated academic family who raised him to lip-read and integrate into the hearing world. When he meets Sylvia - raised by Deaf parents and going deaf herself - Billy decides it's time to speak on his own terms and to be heard. Playing out in words, sign language, and sometimes mesmerizing silence, this penetrating drama examines familial love, notions of belonging, and the intersections of communication. Tribes began previews Friday, April 11, opens tonight, April 16, and closes on Sunday, May 11, 2014.

Continuing its 26th Season, Lookingglass Theatre Company presents the World Premiere of In the Garden: A Darwinian Love Story, by Artistic Associate Sara Gmitter and directed by Jessica Thebus. In the Garden runs today, April 16 - June 15, 2014 at Lookingglass Theatre Company, located inside Chicago's historic Water Tower Water Works, 821 N. Michigan Ave. at Pearson. The Press Opening is Saturday, April 26, 2014 at 7:30 p.m..

Provocative. Intense. Engrossing. These are all words that have been used to describe Rajiv Joseph's exciting new play THE NORTH POOL, which closes the Playhouse's 2013-14 season May 3 to June 1. The two-person thriller is a riveting psychological drama that promises to keep audiences guessing until its final moments.

Northlight Theatre, under the direction of Artistic Director BJ Jones and Executive Director Timothy J. Evans, presents Lost in Yonkers by Neil Simon, directed by Devon de Mayo. The production will run at Northlight Theatre, 9501 Skokie Blvd in Skokie, from May 2 - June 8, 2014. The Press Opening is Friday, May 9, at 7:30 pm.

Music Theatre of Connecticut MainStage, Fairfield County's award-winning professional theatre company, concludes its 2013/2014 Season with 'The Fantasticks' a musical with book by Tom Jones, music by Harvey Schmidt, lyrics by Tom Jones and based on 'Les Romanesques' by Edmond Rostand. Performances are April 11 - May 4, Todays and Saturdays at 8pm, with matinees Saturdays at 4pm and Sundays at 2pm, at MTC MainStage Studio Theatre, 246 Post Road East (Colonial Green/Lower Level) in downtown Westport, CT. Tickets range from $25-$45 ($5 discount for seniors/students) and are available by calling 203.454.3883 or visiting www.musictheatreofct.com.

During his decade of producing shoestring theatre in a proud but dilapidated auditorium, impresario Buz Davis could only dream of the day he might return to find that hall had received a multi-million dollar renovation, and that he was once again at the fore of creating captivating theatre there. That dream comes true this spring.