David Mamet News

Two-Time Tony Award nominee André De Shields will be honored with the 'Living Legend' Award at The 2009 National Black Theatre Festival's Opening Night Gala and Awards banquet on Monday, August 3 in Winston-Salem, NC. The awards gala celebrating 20 years will kick off the Festival which runs through August 8.

Celebrated theater and film actor Jack Gilpin is signing on to the Edinburgh-bound cast of Couples Counseling in the role of Dr. Bob Melmud.

Exploding onto the cultural landscape, the previously unknown playwright David Mamet established his place as a seismic force in theater with American Buffalo. TheaterWorks presents this raw, urgent and hilarious classic in an all-new production featuring audience favorite Andrew Benator (Lobby Hero, Proof, The SantaLand Diaries), John Ahlin (The Lonesome West and The Seafarer) and newcomer Zachary Spicer.

Atlantic Theater Company (Neil Pepe, Artistic Director; Jeffory Lawson, Managing Director) is proud to announce casting for the first production of its 2009-2010 season, the world premiere of Bekah Brunstetter's play OOHRAH!, directed by Evan Cabnet. The production will feature Cassie Beck, Sami Gayle, Darren Goldstein, J.R. Horne, Jennifer Mudge, Lucas Near-Verbrugghe and Maximilian Osinski.

RACE, the new play written and directed by DAVID MAMET, is proud to welcome DAVID ALAN GRIER to the cast alongside previously announced cast members JAMES SPADER, RICHARD THOMAS and KERRY WASHINGTON.

The Alchemy Theatre, in association with LAByrinth Theater Company, are presenting the critically 'Sweet Storm' by Scott Hudson, who was recently awarded the Daryl Roth 2009 Creative Spirit Award, Off Broadway at The Kirk Theatre (Theatre Row), 410 West 42nd Street, NYC.

PICT artistic director Andrew S. Paul directs a cast of thirteen in the Pittsburgh professional premiere of Alan Bennett's award-winning play The History Boys. Very funny and deeply moving, the play explores the anarchy of adolescence, the nature of history, and the methods and very purpose of education today. Featured in the production are Bernard Cuffling, Linda Kimbrough, Dave Droxler and Andy Lutz.

Autumn Fruits are a ripe and tasty treat in the 7th Annual Fresh Fruit Festival. Autumn Fruits, two short plays about growing old in New York, written by Barbara Kahn and Suellen Rubin, will be performed Friday July 24, 2009 at 7:30pm and Saturday, July 25, 2009 at 2:30pm.

Celebrated theater and film actor Jack Gilpin is signing on to the Edinburgh-bound cast of Couples Counseling in the role of Dr. Bob Melmud.

Lynne Meadow (Artistic Director) and Barry Grove (Executive Producer) have announced today that Golden Globe nominee Alicia Silverstone will join the previously announced Laura Linney in the cast of Manhattan Theatre Club's upcoming New York premiere of TIME STANDS STILL by Pulitzer Prize winner Donald Margulies with direction by Tony Award winner Daniel Sullivan.

Women's Project, the 32-year-old non-profit theater dedicated to producing plays written and directed by women, will increase main stage production next season by 50%. The theater's board of directors authorized Julie Crosby, producing artistic director, to increase main stage productions from two to three at the company's Julia Miles Theater on West 55th Street.

Goodman Theatre is proud to present the Chicago premiere of Dael Orlandersmith's Stoop Stories, September 12 - October 11, 2009 the Goodman's 400-seat flexible Owen Bruner Theatre. Tickets are $10 - $40 and go on sale Friday, August 7 at GoodmanTheatre.org.

Tickets will go on sale this Sunday, July 19, 2009 for the first-ever Broadway production of OLEANNA, the provocative drama by Pulitzer Prize winner David Mamet. Direct from a smash hit engagement in Los Angeles, starring Bill Pullman and Julia Stiles and directed by Tony Award winner Doug Hughes, OLEANNA is a gripping account of a power struggle between a male university professor and one of his female students.

Tickets will go on sale this Sunday, July 19, 2009 for the first-ever Broadway production of OLEANNA, the provocative drama by Pulitzer Prize winner David Mamet. Direct from a smash hit engagement in Los Angeles, starring Bill Pullman and Julia Stiles and directed by Tony Award winner Doug Hughes, OLEANNA is a gripping account of a power struggle between a male university professor and one of his female students.

Adapted from the screenplay by Jeff Nathanson and the book written by Frank Abagnale Jr. and Stan Redding, the original musical CATCH ME IF YOU CAN boasts a book by four-time Tony Award-winner Terrence McNally, who joins forces with the collaborative team behind the hit musical Hairspray (which also premiered at the 5th), including five-time Tony Award-winning director Jack O'Brien, Tony Award-winning choreographer Jerry Mitchell, and Tony Award-winning composing team Marc Shaiman (music & lyrics) and Scott Wittman (lyrics). 'Catch' a sneak peek photo flash right here on BroadwayWorld!

Due to additional critical and audience response, The Alchemy Theatre, in association with LAByrinth Theater Company, production of the acclaimed 'Sweet Storm' by Scott Hudson, (recently awarded the Daryl Roth 2009 Creative Spirit Award), will be extended for the absolute final time Off Broadway at The Kirk Theatre (Theatre Row), 410 West 42nd Street, NYC.

While publicists and studio executives tire themselves out today making calls and greasing the marketing wheels, celebrities took things into their own hands on Twitter. Here are a few 140-character messages that showed up this morning from those internet savvy celebs ? or possibly their overpaid ghost tweeters...

A nonfiction author, columnist, television personality and former psychotherapist, Meri Wallace's past works include the full-length plays Yom Kippur and Secrets Women Share (both at the MITF.) Among her short plays are: At the Bank (Queens' Players); Saving Carmella and The Match (Where Eagles Dare Short Play Lab); Marta's Spa (Love Creek); Jordan, Save My Brother, and The Boat Man (Accidental Angels Festival); and Jeannie (published in an anthology of short plays for young actors edited by Dr. Roger Ellis).

Aurora Theatre Company opens its 18th season, focusing on 'family and fortune,' with Clifford Odets' classic Depression-era drama AWAKE AND SING! Bay Area theater veteran Joy Carlin (Jack Goes Boating, Hysteria, The Price), who first directed this play for Berkeley Repertory Theatre 24 years ago, revisits this landmark drama for Aurora.

Roundabout Theatre Company (Todd Haimes, Artistic Director), in association with Sonia Friedman Productions and Ostar Productions presents Sienna Miller as 'Miss Julie', Jonny Lee Miller as 'John' and Marin Ireland as 'Christine' in the American premiere of playwright Patrick Marber's drama After Miss Julie, a version of Strindberg's Miss Julie, directed by Mark Brokaw.