Danai Gurira News

The 8th Annual Lilly Awards Ceremony, which celebrates women of distinction in the American Theater, announced today that Julie Taymor, Denee Benton, Micki Grant,Toni-Leslie James, Mandy Greenfield, Madison Ferris, and Beanie Feldstein are this year's honorees.

Provocative director Liesl Tommy brings Broadway savvy, storytelling flair and a revolutionary sensibility to Macbeth, Shakespeare's masterpiece of suspense. In a world beset by civil war and invasion, Macbeth and his artful lady begin a series of murders, designed to further their own ambitions, only to plunge their lives into madness.

Morgan Creek, Program Pictures and Codeblack Films, a Lionsgate company kicked off a mobile cinema tour on behalf of the highly anticipated biopic of hip hop icon Tupac Shakur, “ALL EYEZ ON ME Experience” Cine-Transformer Tour at the Power 106 Powerhouse Concert in Los Angeles this past Saturday, May 6, 2017.

Playwrights Horizons begins accepting entries today, Monday, May 8 at 12 Noon, for the LIVEforFIVE online lottery for $5 tickets to their world premiere production of BELLA: AN AMERICAN TALL TALE, a new musical with book, music and lyrics by Obie Award winner Kirsten Childs (The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin at Playwrights, Miracle Brothers).

Rebecca Taichman has won the 2017 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play for INDECENT.

Acclaimed Off-Broadway theater company Playwrights Horizons will hold its annual Spring Gala on Monday evening, May 8, at the event space 583 Park Avenue. Titled A CELEBRATION OF SONG, the evening will honor three of the company's exceptional alumni writers: Tony Award nominee Scott Frankel (Grey Gardens and Far From Heaven at Playwrights), Tony Award nominee Michael Korie (Grey Gardens and Far From Heaven at Playwrights) and Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner Doug Wright (I Am My Own Wife and Grey Gardens at Playwrights). The Grey Gardens writing team has returned to Broadway with their new musical, War Paint, now playing at The Nederlander Theatre.

Yale Repertory Theatre continues its 50th Anniversary celebration with three productions in New York and New Haven.

Playwrights Horizons (Artistic Director, Tim Sanford; Managing Director, Leslie Marcus) has announced that the score for their World Premiere production of the musical IOWA has been preserved as an Original Cast Recording, produced by Michael Croiter (Matilda, The Visit, Big Fish) and Todd Almond. IOWA is written by Jenny Schwartz (God's Ear, Somewhere Fun) with music by Todd Almond (Girlfriend) and lyrics by Ms. Schwartz and Mr. Almond.

Synchronicity Theatre will present the regional premiere of Danai Gurira's historic Eclipsed, which tracks the lives of five Liberian women and their tales of survival near the end of the Second Liberian Civil War.

Primary Stages announced today that the Primary Stages 2017 Spring Fling will celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the Einhorn School of Performing Arts (ESPA) on Thursday, May 11, 2017 at 6:00 pm. The event, which will be held at The Highline Ballroom (431 West 16th Street), will honor Jeanine Tesori with the Einhorn Mentorship Award.

Goodman Theatre joins Los Angeles' Center Theatre Group (CTG) in a new co-commissioning partnership that also involves three other internationally renowned theaters-London's Royal Court Theatre and National Theatre, and New York's Second Stage-in the hopes of generating new plays to appear in multiple cities over the next decade.

Steppenwolf Theatre Company has shared that Artistic Director Anna D. Shapiro is one of three celebrated artists to be invited into an expanded relationship with the Center Theatre Group (CTG) in Los Angeles. CTG Artistic Director Michael Ritchie announced today Shapiro, as well as Matthew Bourne and Danai Gurira, will be Associate Artists with the company.

Center Theatre Group Artistic Director Michael Ritchie announced separate co-commissioning partnerships with four internationally renowned theatres.

Primary Stages has announced a reading of PARADING THE NOOSE, a new play by Connor Sampson, the recipient of the inaugural Jeffry Melnick New Playwright Award, established by Jeffry Melnick and administrated by Primary Stages.

Artistic Director Braden Abraham today announced Seattle Repertory Theatre's new nine-play 2017/2018 Season, which kicks off with a massive, community-driven musical adaptation, and continues with a theatrical take on a Jane Austen favorite, the launch of a  Broadway National Tour of a Tony Award-winning play, an August Wilson masterpiece, and much more.

The League of Chicago Theatres announces the 2017 Annual Gala, an elegant event that brings together friends of Chicago theatre to raise funds for programs to support Chicagoland's more than 250 member theatre companies. The Chicago theatre community will honor Michael and Mona Heath with the Tribute Award, Cheryl Lynn Bruce with the Lifetime Achievement Award and Lookingglass Theatre Company Ensemble with the Artistic Achievement Award.

The Guthrie Theater today announced the final two of nine productions to be offered as part of the theater's 2017-2018 subscription season: Indecent, a new play with music by Pulitzer Prize-winner Paula Vogel (How I Learned to Drive), conceived by Vogel and Rebecca Taichman; and the Guthrie's first production of the iconic American musical West Side Story, directed by Joseph Haj.

Playwrights Horizons has announced, following critical acclaim and popular demand, a one-week extension for The Profane, the world premiere of a new play by Horton Foote Prize winner Zayd Dohrn (Sick, Reborning) and directed by Kip Fagan (Grand Concourse at Playwrights, Exit Strategy).

TCG has just published an exciting line-up of new plays from Stephen Adly Guirgis, David Lindsay-Abaire, Danai Gurira, Wallace Shawn, and Anne Washburn. Scroll down for details!

A new trailer for the Tupac Shakur biopic ALL EYEZ ON ME was released today. Newcomer Demetrius Shipp Jr. stars as the legendary rapper who was gunned down in 1996 in Las Vegas, NV. The film, set to hit theaters on June 16th, is directed by Benny Boom.