Daniel Ostling News

After 16 years, George Bernard Shaw returns to the American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) stage in a sumptuous production of one of his most witty and richly invigorating works - Major Barbara. Salvation Army officer Major Barbara gets in an intriguing tangle of morality and religion when her church accepts money from her estranged father-a wealthy armaments manufacturer. If the price of supporting the poor is complicity with the country's most successful gun factory, who has the right to be righteous about saving the poor? Timely and topical, Major Barbara is a devilishly funny satire exploring themes of business, faith, family, and philanthropy. In the wake of highly successful Canadian productions, including No Exit, The Overcoat and Vigil, Major Barbara is co-produced with one of A.C.T.'s favorite Canadian collaborators, Theatre Calgary, which hosted A.C.T.'s visionary Tosca Project during its 2011 tour. Directed by Theatre Calgary Artistic Director Dennis Garnhum, Major Barbara features an international cast of both Canadian and American actors. This is the first staging of Major Barbara during A.C.T.'s tenure at The Geary Theater. Major Barbara runs January 8-February 2, 2014, at A.C.T.'s Geary Theater (415 Geary Street, San Francisco). Press night is Wednesday, January 15, 2014. Tickets ($20 -$140) are on sale now and may be purchased online at act-sf.org or by calling 415.749.2228.

Music soars in Mary Zimmerman stage adaptation of "The Jungle Book" entering its final week at the Huntington Theatre Company in Boston, but this new theatrical version based on the Kipling and Disney classics is ultimately unfulfilling, needing more depth and heart.

Tony Award-winning director and playwright Mary Zimmerman will transform the Matthews stage of McCarter Theatre Center with her sublime theater magic with her production of The White Snake, based by the classic Chinese fable. This electrifying, radiant, and delightful play will run October 15 through November 3.

Kicking off its 26th Season, Lookingglass Theatre Company presents the World Premiere stage adaptation of Marguerite Duras' The North China Lover, translated by Leigh Hafrey and adapted and directed by Ensemble Member Heidi Stillman. The North China Lover runs now through November 10, 2013, with opening set for tonight, October 5, at Lookingglass Theatre Company, located inside Chicago's historic Water Tower Water Works, 821 N. Michigan Ave. at Pearson. You never forget your first lover. The affair plays like a moving picture over and over in your mind: passionate, consuming, secret, taboo. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

Kicking off its 26th Season, Lookingglass Theatre Company presents the World Premiere stage adaptation of Marguerite Duras' The North China Lover, translated byLeigh Hafrey and adapted and directed by Ensemble Member Heidi Stillman. The North China Lover runs September 25 - November 10, 2013 at Lookingglass Theatre Company, located inside Chicago's historic Water Tower Water Works, 821 N. Michigan Ave. at Pearson. You never forget your first lover. The affair plays like a moving picture over and over in your mind: passionate, consuming, secret, taboo.

Kicking off its 26th Season, Lookingglass Theatre Company presents the World Premiere of Marguerite Duras' The North China Lover, adapted and directed by Ensemble Member Heidi Stillman. The North China Lover runs tonight, September 25 - October 4, 2013 at Lookingglass Theatre Company, located inside Chicago's historic Water Tower Water Works, 821 N. Michigan Ave. at Pearson. The Press Opening is Saturday, October 5, 2013 at 7:30 p.m.

Mary Zimmerman returns to the Huntington Theatre Company for The Jungle Book, a world premiere stage adaptation produced in association with Chicago's Goodman Theatre. The production premiered in Chicago on June 21 and plays at the Huntington tonight, September 7 - October 6, 2013.

Lookingglass Theatre Company presents the World Premiere stage adaptation of Marguerite Duras' The North China Lover, translated by Leigh Hafrey and adapted and directed by Ensemble Member Heidi Stillman. The North China Lover runs September 25 - November 10, 2013.

The Jungle has arrived in Boston! Rehearsals at the Huntington Theatre Company begin today for the world premiere adaptation of The Jungle Book. The production, wholly reimagined for the stage by Tony Award winner Mary Zimmerman (Candide) is based on Nobel Laureate Rudyard Kipling's 1893 collection of stories set in the Indian jungle and Walt Disney's 1967 animated film. Zimmerman's adaptation is a music-and movement-filled adventure of young Mowgli's coming-of-age in the animal kingdom featuring the movie's best-loved songs in wholly new Indian-inspired arrangements. Legendary Academy Award and Grammy winner Richard M. Sherman - whose numerous songwriting credits with brother Robert B. Sherman include the motion pictures The Jungle Book, Mary Poppins, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and The AristoCats - collaborates on this production, providing Music Director Doug Peck access and permission to adapt songs that Sherman and his brother wrote for the film, plus never-before-heard material. Tony Award-winning choreographer Christopher Gattelli with Indian dance consultant Hema Rajagopalan combine elements of classical Indian dance forms with jazz, tap, and more to enhance the storytelling.

Kicking off its 26th Season, Lookingglass Theatre Company presents the World Premiere of Marguerite Duras' The North China Lover, adapted and directed by Ensemble Member Heidi Stillman. The North China Lover runs September 25 - October 4, 2013 at Lookingglass Theatre Company, located inside Chicago's historic Water Tower Water Works, 821 N. Michigan Ave. at Pearson. The Press Opening is Saturday, October 5, 2013 at 7:30 p.m.

Goodman Theatre's world premiere of Disney's The Jungle Book opened tonight, July 1, and runs through August 11, 2013. Let's see what the critics had to say...

They tell the story (based on a true one) of Guang (Julius Ahn), an illegal immigrant who gets stuck in a Bronx elevator for 81 hours while making deliveries for the Happy Dragon Chinese Restaurant.

California Shakespeare Theater continues its 2013 season with a theatrically inventive production of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, directed byShana Cooper (2011's Taming of the Shrew) playing at the Bruns Amphitheater July 3-28.

Mary Zimmerman returns to the Huntington Theatre Company for The Jungle Book, a world premiere stage adaptation produced in association with Chicago's Goodman Theatre. The production premieres in Chicago on June 21 and plays at the Huntington September 7 - October 6, 2013. Based on Nobel Laureate Rudyard Kipling's 1893 collection of stories set in the Indian jungle and Walt Disney's 1967 animated film, Zimmerman's adaptation of The Jungle Book is a music- and movement-filled adventure of young Mowgli's coming-of-age in the animal kingdom.

'Stuck Elevator' is a thought-provoking, sometimes funny, often stirring piece that opens the door to the dark side of the American dream exposing, in the story of one lone man, the flawed and feckless nature of our attitude toward immigrants. Paying now thru April 28 at A.C.T.in San Francisco

In the spirit of the beloved hit The Black Rider, American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) continues the tradition of introducing eclectic, unforgettable musical projects to the stage with the world premiere of Stuck Elevator. Inventively staged by internationally acclaimed artist Chay Yew-and introducing the prodigious work of composer Byron Au Yong and librettist Aaron Jafferis-Stuck Elevator unleashes an evocative collision of stories, sounds, instruments, and ideas. Stuck Elevator will run tonight, April 4-28, 2013, at A.C.T.'s Geary Theater (415 Geary Street, San Francisco). Click below to watch behind-the-scenes interviews with the cast and creative team, and a sneak peek performance of 'Shame' from the world premiere musical!

'The jungle is jumpin'!' The creative team is set and casting is underway for The Jungle Book (June 21 - July 28), Tony Award-winner Mary Zimmerman's world-premiere stage adaptation, based on Walt Disney's 1967 animated film and Nobel Laureate Rudyard Kipling's 1893 collection of stories set in the Indian jungle.

In the spirit of the beloved hit The Black Rider, American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) continues the tradition of introducing eclectic, unforgettable musical projects to the stage with the world premiere of Stuck Elevator. Inventively staged by internationally acclaimed artist Chay Yew-and introducing the prodigious work of composer Byron Au Yong and librettist Aaron Jafferis-Stuck Elevator unleashes an evocative collision of stories, sounds, instruments, and ideas. Stuck Elevator will run April 4-28, 2013, at A.C.T.'s Geary Theater (415 Geary Street, San Francisco). Click below to watch behind-the-scenes interviews with the cast and creative team, and a sneak peek performance of 'Shame' from the world premiere musical!

"Myths are public dreams," wrote the renowned mythologist Joseph Campbell, "and dreams are personal myths"-a sentiment echoed by the therapist in Mary Zimmerman's 'Metamorphoses,' now playing at Arena Stage. Yet, Zimmerman's 'Metamorphoses' is so much more than dream. It is theatre as ritual, as rite of passage deep as an archetype, humorous as a limerick, and as universal as our need to love. It is a full-scale baptism in the journey of the soul as it finds its way to love. If you let yourself, especially if get front row seats, you'll get more than a gentle sprinkle of this production's amazing theatrics; you and your companion will get splashed in the waters of redemption.

In the spirit of the beloved hit The Black Rider, American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) continues the tradition of introducing eclectic, unforgettable musical projects to the stage with the world premiere of Stuck Elevator. A visionary musical work, Stuck Elevator is based on the true story of Gu?ng (?), a Chinese deliveryman who was trapped in a Bronx elevator for 81 hours.