Clare Barron News

It all starts with a full ensemble tap routine, with the students dressed in cute sailor outfits.

PAGE 73 PRODUCTIONS (Page 73) (Michael Walkup, Artistic Director; Amanda Feldman, Managing Director; Rebecca Yaggy, Director of Development; Liz Jones and Asher Richelli, Founding Directors) announced today that applications are open for the 2021 Page 73 Playwriting Fellowship and the Interstate 73 Writers Group.

Complete casting, creatives, and more have been announced for New York Theatre Workshop's adaptation of Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov, for the previously announced production helmed by Sam Gold.

Somewhere in America, an army of pre-teen competitive dancers plots to take over the world.

In David Mamet's book On Directing Film, he breaks down the way a linear narrative can be conveyed by placing images in direct contrast to each other. a?oeThe dream and the film are the juxtaposition of images in order to answer a question.a?? Certainly, with a majority of the action taking place upstage of a scrim and the fusion of filmed and live material, ArtsEmerson's Detroit Red, an original play by Will Power about Malcolm X's early adult life in Roxbury, leaves one feeling more as though one has watched a movie or woken from a dream than sat through a performance. Recently, I also saw Gloria: A Life, which is playing at the American Repertory Theatre. While I admittedly found the show to be trite and pandering, it obtusely fused projection effects with live performance in a way that felt cheap, gimmicky, and more like a new SnapChat filter than anything else. Contrast that with Ari Herzig's film work for Detroit Red, which snaps the audience effectively between viewpoints in black and white and splays broad images across the haziness of Adam Rigg's nondescript set. The success of the production lies in the success of the filmed elements, which establish a framing device, pinpointing the action to an exact moment in time. Additionally, the projections act as effective abstractions, allowing the actors to waver between realism and poetry as photos of their faces appear as oversized watermarks in space. Lighting designer Alan Edwards equally contributes to the cinematic feel of the piece. Sharp shafts of light slice through open space and act, ingeniously, as the camera lens might in film, focusing our attention on specifics and the relevant details. Aside from a few extraneous hat changes for the three actors who take on all the roles in the piece, between the work of Herzig, Rigg, and Edwards, the performance seems to be a study in the logistics of jump-cuts or cross-fades in real time. Adding to the film-instead-of-theatre feeling in the space, the performance actively roused and engaged the audience, which had a huge swathe of Boston school groups present. The crowd felt comfortable verbalizing responses, in part, because of our physical separation from the action presented to us, and to be able to laugh, cheer, gasp, and grimace in solidarity with those around you is a rare treat.

Earlier this week, New York Theatre Workshop (NYTW) celebrated its 2020 Gala, honoring NYTW Usual Suspect & Tony Award-winning director Rachel Chavkin (Hadestown, Light Shining in Buckinghamshire, Three Pianos at NYTW) and Tony Award-winning producer Jordan Roth (Producer of Hadestown; President of Jujamcyn Theaters). 

Clare Barron's wild, award-winning comedy about a group of pre-teen dancers fighting for a national final will premiere at Adelaide Festival next month.

Believe it or not, Dear Readers, I was a dancer in my youth. I took tap lessons for 12 years starting in 3rd Grade. And while I didn't do much in the way of competitions, I did see my fair share of stage moms and dancer heartache. So, a play such as Clare Barron's a?oeDance Nationa??, currently being offered from Washington Ensemble Theatre, should be right up my alley. Or it would be if it had a real story. Instead what we got was a too-long one act play that chose to shock more than anything else. With a series of vignettes and dance numbers that ultimately amounted to nothing, the show repeatedly attempts to be over the top rather than clever and has no arc or through line to hold it all together.

PAGE 73 PRODUCTIONS (Page 73) (Michael Walkup, Artistic Director; Amanda Feldman, Managing Director; Rebecca Yaggy, Director of Development; Liz Jones and Asher Richelli, Founding Directors) has named Emma Goidel the 2020 Page 73 Playwriting Fellow. Selected from over 400 applicants, Goidel will receive a $10,000 award and an additional $10,000 budgeted for developing several new plays over the course of the year.

The Chicago premiere of Clare Barron's DANCE NATION, now at Steppenwolf with direction and choreography from Lee Sunday Evans (who also helmed the original production at Playwrights Horizons), is alternately wild, messy, and confusinga?"much like the experience of early adolescence for the play's characters.

Page 73 (Michael Walkup, Artistic Director; Amanda Feldman, Managing Director; Rebecca Yaggy, Director of Development; Liz Jones and Asher Richelli, Founding Directors) have announced complete casting for the world premiere of STEW, written by Zora Howard (Premature, IFC Films) and directed by Colette Robert (Behind the Sheet). Performances of STEW begin on Monday, January 20 at the Walkerspace Theatre for a limited run through Saturday, February 22. Opening night is set for Saturday, February 1.

Steppenwolf Theatre Company presents the Chicago premiere production of Pulitzer Prize Finalist Dance Nation by Clare Barron, directed and choreographed by Lee Sunday Evans.

Steppenwolf Theatre Company presents the Chicago premiere production of Pulitzer Prize Finalist Dance Nation by Clare Barron, directed and choreographed by Lee Sunday Evans.

Playwright Clare Barron has a keen eye and a gift for seamlessly blending the mundane and the weird. The Wilbury Theatre Group's stellar production of her 2015 Obie-winning play 'You Got Older' powerfully captures Barron's charming oddball pathos.

Steppenwolf Theatre Company is now in rehearsals with Pulitzer Prize Finalist Dance Nation by Clare Barron, directed and choreographed by Lee Sunday Evans. Steppenwolf's production features ensemble members Audrey Francis (The Moms/Vanessa), Tim Hopper (Dance Teacher Pat), Caroline Neff (Zuzu), and Karen Rodriguez (Amina) with Ariana Burks (Sofia), Adithi Chandrashekar (Connie), Shanésia Davis (Ashlee), Torrey Hanson (Luke) and Ellen Maddow (Maeve). A success-driven pre-teen dance troupe finds themselves trying to understand their ambition, insecurities, changing bodies, rivalries and friendships while exploring the desires, confusion and sometimes feral nature of adolescence.

Steppenwolf Theatre Company is now in rehearsals with Pulitzer Prize Finalist Dance Nation by Clare Barron, directed and choreographed by Lee Sunday Evans. Steppenwolf's production features ensemble members Audrey Francis (The Moms/Vanessa), Tim Hopper (Dance Teacher Pat), Caroline Neff (Zuzu), and Karen Rodriguez (Amina) with Ariana Burks (Sofia), Adithi Chandrashekar (Connie), Shanésia Davis (Ashlee), Torrey Hanson (Luke) and Ellen Maddow (Maeve). A success-driven pre-teen dance troupe finds themselves trying to understand their ambition, insecurities, changing bodies, rivalries and friendships while exploring the desires, confusion and sometimes feral nature of adolescence.

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The Wilbury Theatre Group continues its 2019/20 Main Series season with 2X CLARE BARRON: Dance Nation / You Got Older, running in rotating rep. November 21 - December 22.

Charly Evon Simpson was the recipient of the 2019-20 Paula Vogel Playwriting Award. She was presented with the award at The Vineyard's annual Emerging Artists Luncheon on Monday, November 25 at the National Arts Club.