Craig Johnson News

ArtServe has been named a a?oe2020 Top-Rated Nonprofita?? by GreatNonprofits, the leading provider of user reviews of charities and nonprofits.

To assist in community efforts to combat the spread to COVID-19, ArtServe has temporarily closed for at least 30 days until the situation can be re-evaluated. Meanwhile, all ArtServe events and activities have been cancelled through May. The ArtServe staff will continue to work remotely.

North Raleigh Arts and Creative Theatre (NRACT) has announced the upcoming production of Disney's Freaky Friday written by Bridget Carpenter with music and lyrics from Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey. Freaky Friday is based on the beloved 1972 novel by Mary Rodger and the hit Disney films.

North Raleigh Arts & Creative Theatre (NRACT) is proud to present the holiday comedy Fruitcakes, by Julian Wiles. This family-friendly play is just the recipe for a fun-filled and touching evening of holiday cheer. Jamie, a kid who has run away from home, at first thinks the town's inhabitants are nuttier than fruitcakes but soon he comes to admire, appreciate, and adore this quirky little town. A moving story of alienation, understanding and reconciliation, Fruitcakes provides audiences with a heaping helping of holiday warmth and Christmas cheer.

Now over 20 million albums into their career, there can be no doubt as to why The B-52s remain one of rock music's most beloved and enduring bands. As The B-52s continue to celebrate their 40th Anniversary, the band announced a world-wide tour today that is expected to cover more than 10 countries and will include a headlining North American summer tour, including a stop at the Majestic Theatre (224 E. Houston St.) in San Antonio, TX on August 21, 2019 at 7PM. Special guests OMD and Berlin will open the show. Tickets go on sale this Friday, April 12 at NOON.

Florian Zeller's adventurous script, winner of the 2014 Moliere Prize for best new play in France, takes up questions that are (or will be!) central for many of us: how do we care for aging parents who are losing their memories, disappearing into dementia, and (perhaps) undergoing personality changes to boot? And how do we--if we are the unfortunate elder in decline--keep a grip on our own identity, track what's happening around us, and bear the weight of the unrelenting disaster underway?

Minnesota Jewish Theatre Company (MJTC) continues its 24th season with The Chanukah Guest by Jenna Zark, based off the book by Eric A. Kimmel- a play commissioned by MJTC.

Actors Co-op Theatre Company (Ovation Award-Winner 2017 Best Play, Intimate Theatre for 33 Variations) presents the first show in its 27th Season with the thriller ROPE, written by Patrick Hamilton, directed by Ken Sawyer, produced by Kevin Shewey.  ROPE will preview on Thursday, September 20 at 8pm and will open Friday, September 21 at 8pm and run through Sunday, October 29 at the Actors Co-op Crossley Theatre, 1760 N. Gower St. 90028 (on the campus of the First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood) in Hollywood.

Minnesota Jewish Theatre Company (MJTC) is pleased to announce its 24th season of staging stories about Jewish history and culture with themes universal to people of all backgrounds. MJTC is led by Producing Artistic Director Barbara Brooks.

The Tony Award-winning SPRING AWAKENING begs the question: 'How will we know what to do if our parents won't tell us?' The provocative show, which opened June 1st, closes out North Raleigh Arts and Creative Theatre's (NRACT) 2017-2018 season. Adapted from Frank Wedekind's 1890 play 'Spring's Awakening A Children's Tragedy,' the musical tells the story of a group of teenagers coming of age and sexual awakening amid a repressive German society. More than a century after Wedekind's play was first performed, the themes of SPRING AWAKENING, including that of sexuality, rape, abuse, incest, abortion, homosexuality, and suicide, are as relevant today as ever, which is why NRACT's Director Tim Locklear felt this was an important story to tell. Billed for mature audiences due to content and brief nudity, NRACT's SPRING AWAKENING holds a mirror up to the way in which we communicate with and listen to each other, especially our children, a haunting lesson that will linger long after the final bow.

The Found Theatre of Long Beach presents 'The Lover' by renowned British playwright, director, actor and political activist Harold Pinter, the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2005. First produced on the London stage in 1963, 'The Lover' explores the private intricacies of a modern marriage in a way that is as fresh and shocking today as it was more than 50 years ago.

On Friday, April 6, The Music Hall welcomes to the stage #1 New York Times bestselling author C.J. Box, who has sold more than 10 million novels in the U.S. alone. He'll talk about THE DISAPPEARED, his latest western mystery featuring Joe Pickett, as part of The Music Hall's Writers in the Loft series.

Netflix announces five features and one short premiering at SFFILM 2018 (April 4-17 in San Francisco, CA).

Netflix Announces Films, Documentaries and Doc Shorts at SFFILM 2018: Feature Films Kodachrome, Alex Strangelove and Manhunt;  Original Documentary Features Mercury 13 and Shirkers; Original Documentary Short End Game. All titles will launch globally on Netflix in 2018.

On Friday, April 6, The Music Hall welcomes to the stage #1 New York Times bestselling author C.J. Box, who has sold more than 10 million novels in the U.S. alone. He'll talk about THE DISAPPEARED, his latest western mystery featuring Joe Pickett, as part of The Music Hall's Writers in the Loft series.

FLY BY NIGHT is a musical that may have a name that implies something that is rushed together to get it done, but that is not is a case in this charming and well put together production playing through December 10th at the Coronado Playhouse.

As chilly weather settles into Minnesota, local playwright Kira Obolensky has a wintery new musical to share. 'The Overcoat: A Low-Fi Musical' is the first play in the Playwrights' Center's 2017-18 Ruth Easton New Play Series, a long-running series offering Playwrights' Center Core Writers 20 hours of workshop time to develop a new play and giving theater fans a chance to see free public readings of the plays in progress.

Casey Stangl (Fully Committed) returns to the Jungle from Los Angeles to direct Jennifer Haley's award-winning The Nether opening September 16 and on stage through October 15 at the Lyn-Lake neighborhood theater, 2951 Lyndale Ave. S. in Minneapolis. A smart and tightly wound drama, The Nether is both serpentine crime story and haunting sci-fi thriller exploring the consequences of living out private dreams in a world of ever-advancing technology.

IDIOT'S DELIGHT is one of those deceptive plays that makes you think it's a light and fun romp through the past, until you begin to see the seriousness behind the beautiful clothes and pretty music. WWI vet Robert E. Sherwood's play premiered in 1936 and is eerily prescient about the impending war in Europe. Or maybe not; maybe it was obvious at the time that the world was heading to another Great War, only 20 years after the first one. But even now, 80 years after it was written, the themes of nationalism, loyalty, changing borders, and a great sadness at the cost of war on all sides ring true. This one left me feeling a little depressed, but with much to contemplate, and also thoroughly entertained, as always, by Girl Friday Productions' biennial contribution to the #TCTheater world. Girl Friday specializes in 'larger scale American plays of exceptional literary merit that are less frequently produced today,' and IDIOT'S DELIGHT is indeed a delight, but one that is most certainly not for idiots.