David Mamet News

Michael Dale reviews Oleanna and Circle Mirror Transformation. In 1992, when David Mamet directed the premiere production of his controversial play, Oleanna, the name 'Long Dong Silver' was still fresh in the minds of Americans who followed the Anita Hill/Clarence Thomas hearings. Susan Faludi's bestseller, Backlash, was urging women to stand up to 'The Undeclared War Against American Women' while Camille Paglia criticized the feminist movement for teaching women to see themselves as victims. Take Back The Night rallies on college campuses encouraged women to publicly announce the names of men who have raped them, though the definition of what exactly constituted a rape was still being publicly debated.

American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) is proud to announce its fourth David Mamet Writing Contest in conjunction with its West Coast premiere production of November, Mamet's newest satire on the buffoonery of presidential politics.

Two-time Tony Award®-nominated singer and actor, Tom Wopat, gave a master class to more than 90 students and faculty members at UNC Charlotte's Lab Theater in Robinson Hall on Thursday (Oct. 22). Critically acclaimed jazz pianist, Bruce Barth, accompanied Wopat during the session, which was organized by the UNCC Department of Theatre and the Blumenthal Performing Arts Center's Education Department.

Today's Broadway Blogs on BroadwayWorld.com from Monday, October 26, 2009.

Tony® Award-winner Liev Schreiber and Golden Globe nominee Scarlett Johansson, in her Broadway debut, will star in Arthur Miller's A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE directed by Gregory Mosher on Broadway at the Cort Theatre (138 West 48th Street). Performances begin Monday, December 28, 2009 and the official opening is Sunday, January 24, 2010. The limited engagement will run for 14 weeks only.

Ground Zero Theatre (GZT) and Hit & Myth Productions (H&M) present SPEED-THE-PLOW by David Mamet, a biting Hollywood comedy at The Studio at Vertigo Theatre Centre (115-9th Avenue, Base of the Calgary Tower), November 10-22, 2009.

Caldwell Theatre Company presents The Voysey Interitance, a drama written over 100 years ago that still resonates heavily today.

Historically, English adaptations of Aeschylus' 'Agamemnon' have rendered its ancient Greek poetry into proven English poetic forms. The results have been often good and occasionally brilliant. Yet the original Greek meters provide clues as to how a section of a play was performed (sung, spoken or spoken to musical accompaniment). This has prompted Alexander Harrington, a director known for his mastery of oratorical theater, to attempt something radical: approximating Aeschylus' actual, original poetic meters in a new translation. This intrepid idea has resulted in a script of surprisingly clear stage speech and unusual poetic quality. It will debut November 12 to 29, 2009 in La MaMa's large Annex Theater, performed by The Eleventh Hour Theatre Company.

You loved him last season in CHICAGO! Now, Broadway, television and music star Tom Wopat returns to perform his interpretation of songs like 'But Not for Me', 'Deacon Blues', 'That's Life and 2 Grey Rooms'. The Tony nominated singer and actor recently came out with his eighth studio album, Consider it Swung.

Animal Crackers runs through October 25, 2009 in the Goodman's Albert Theatre. Tickets are currently available by season subscription - www.ExploreTheGoodman.org or call 312.443.3800. Individual tickets ($25 - $83) are on sale now.

The consequences of love can be horrifying, yet miraculously tender. Callie meets Sara and an astonishing chain of events is set into motion. This story pays homage to life's abrupt and unexpected transformations...to romance, and to the search for personal identity.

Goodman Theatre launches its new 2009/2010 Season with tap dancing, acrobatics, tumbling, guitar- and ukulele-playing in an original take on the rarely-produced Marx Brothers classic musical Animal Crackers, written by George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind, with music and lyrics by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby

Two-time Tony-nominated singer and actor Tom Wopat comes to the Blumenthal Performing Arts Center's Booth Playhouse Oct. 20 - 25 to perform songs from his recently released eighth studio album, Consider It Swung.

RACE, starring James Spader, David Alan Grier, Kerry Washington, and Richard Thomas, just started rehearsals on Tuesday, October 20th, 2009. The RACE cast took a quick break from rehearsal and 'met the press' at the Atlantic Theatre Company Studios and BroadwayWorld.com's cameras were there

-A 32-person ensemble of 24 high school students and 8 teachers from Chicago Public Schools (CPS), led by a team of Chicago Shakespeare Theater (CST) artists, is preparing for a four-week intensive rehearsal, beginning on September 26, culminating in a 60-minute adaptation of William Shakespeare's popular comedy, A Midsummer Night's Dream. CST's landmark education program, CPS Shakespeare! brings together students and their teachers from across the city in a collaborative process with a team of theater professionals, including the director, designers, text coaches and a fight choreographer.

Cutthroat competition reaches new heights in Glengarry Glen Ross, David Mamet's Pulitzer prize-winning play presented by Deep Dish Theater Company October 23 to November 14. This modern classic, directed by Deep Dish Artistic Director Paul Frellick, will continue the company's ninth season at University Mall.

American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) continues its ongoing relationship with Tony Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Mamet with the West Coast premiere of his hilarious presidential farce November, directed by the acclaimed Ron Lagomarsino (The Gamester and The Imaginary Invalid at A.C.T.).

-A 32-person ensemble of 24 high school students and 8 teachers from Chicago Public Schools (CPS), led by a team of Chicago Shakespeare Theater (CST) artists, is preparing for a four-week intensive rehearsal, beginning on September 26, culminating in a 60-minute adaptation of William Shakespeare's popular comedy, A Midsummer Night's Dream. CST's landmark education program, CPS Shakespeare! brings together students and their teachers from across the city in a collaborative process with a team of theater professionals, including the director, designers, text coaches and a fight choreographer.

The RACE marquee was recently unveiled at The Walter Kerr and our BroadwayWorld.com cameras were there to bring you some images of the display.

OLEANNA star Julia Stiles, a native New Yorker, revealed her 'New York City' favorites to the Sunday NY Post.