David Strathairn News

Looking for a quick roundup of this week's events? Look no further - here are some of the best articles the week had to offer!

Academy Award® nominee and Emmy® Award winner David Strathairn (Dr. Austin Sloper) will join Academy Award® nominee Jessica Chastain (Catherine Sloper) in the Tony Award®-winning play The Heiress. Written by Ruth Goetz & Augustus Goetz, The Heiress will be directed by Tony Award® nominated playwright and director Moisés Kaufman and will open in the Fall of 2012 at a theatre to be announced.

Provocative. If there was one word to describe this show it would be that; provocative. A.C.T.'s Scorched is a bizarre and powerful look into the repercussions of a drawn out war and how it changed lives in the past, as well as its continued effect on the lives of the living.

Tony Award winner Jefferson Mays, currently playing on Broadway in The Best Man, will head the cast of the inventive comedy/thriller, Stage Struck, by Simon Gray, a Script in Hand playreading at Westport Country Playhouse, on Monday, March 12, 7 p.m. The cast includes Jayne Atkinson, Michel Gill and Doug Stender. Part of Winter at the Playhouse, the reading will be directed by Anne Keefe, Playhouse artistic advisor. Tickets to the one-night-only event are $15.

American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) introduces a celebrated Middle Eastern voice to the Bay Area with the West Coast premiere of Wajdi Mouawad's haunting playScorched. After receiving more than 100 productions (in several languages) worldwide, the Lebanese-Canadian writer's new play will be directed at A.C.T. by Artistic Director Carey Perloff in a beautiful translation from the original French by distinguished Canadian author Linda Gaboriau.

Nathalie Armin, Paul Bhattacharjee, Simon Chandler, Michael Cochrane, Tariq Jordan, Belinda Lang, Shereen Martin, Daniel Rabin, Simon Rouse, Rick Warden and David Yip comprise the cast for THE BOMB - a partial history.

American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) introduces a celebrated Middle Eastern voice to the Bay Area with the West Coast premiere of Wajdi Mouawad's haunting playScorched. After receiving more than 100 productions (in several languages) worldwide, the Lebanese-Canadian writer's new play will be directed at A.C.T. by Artistic Director Carey Perloff in a beautiful translation from the original French by distinguished Canadian author Linda Gaboriau.

Following the success of Bill Irwin's season opener, Scapin, in 2010, American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) welcomes another Pickle Family Circus alumnus to its stage with Humor Abuse, Lorenzo Pisoni's celebrated one-man show cocreated with director Erica Schmidt.

American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) is proud to present the world premiere of Higher, written by A.C.T. Artistic Director Carey Perloff and directed by A.C.T. Associate Artistic Director Mark Rucker.

American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) introduces a celebrated Middle Eastern voice to the Bay Area with the West Coast premiere of Wajdi Mouawad's haunting playScorched. After receiving more than 100 productions (in several languages) worldwide, the Lebanese-Canadian writer's new play will be directed at A.C.T. by Artistic Director Carey Perloff in a beautiful translation from the original French by distinguished Canadian author Linda Gaboriau.

A complete recap of all of the HBO/Cinemax 2012 programming highlights for the coming year has been released by the networks.

Acclaimed actress Jessica Chastain, winner of 2011 New York, Los Angeles and Chicago Film Critics and National Board of Review Awards and recently nominated for Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Awards, will make her Broadway debut starring in the Tony Award®-winning play The Heiress.

THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM, starring Academy Award winners Matt Damon ('Good Will Hunting'), Julia Stiles ('Mona Lisa Smile') and David Strathairn ('Good Night and Good Luck') and based on novelist Robert Ludlum's best-selling spy thriller, will be broadcast on Saturday, Dec. 31 (8:30-11:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.

THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM, starring Academy Award winners Matt Damon ('Good Will Hunting'), Julia Stiles ('Mona Lisa Smile') and David Strathairn ('Good Night and Good Luck') and based on novelist Robert Ludlum's best-selling spy thriller, will be broadcast on Saturday, Dec. 31 (8:30-11:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.

American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) is proud to present the world premiere of Higher, written by A.C.T. Artistic Director Carey Perloff and directed by A.C.T. Associate Artistic Director Mark Rucker.

L.A. Theatre Works has partnered with INscribe Digital, a digital services provider of global ebook distribution, content conversion and marketing services to the publishing community via its ONE Digital platform, to globally distribute their enhanced eBook content, which allows readers to listen simultaneously on their digital devices The announcement was made today by INscribe EVP & GM, Anne Kubek.

Following the success of Bill Irwin's season opener, Scapin, in 2010, American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) welcomes another Pickle Family Circus alumnus to its stage with Humor Abuse, Lorenzo Pisoni's celebrated one-man show cocreated with director Erica Schmidt.

American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) Artistic Director Carey Perloff announced that an evening of short plays by modernist master Samuel Beckett replaces Twelfth Night for the 2011-12 season. The evening includes ENDGAME, Beckett's timeless rumination on the end of life, featuring two-time Tony Award winner and A.C.T. favorite Bill Irwin, who was recently hailed by The New York Times as 'an actor deeply steeped in the traditions of clowns, according to both the commedia dell'arte and Samuel Beckett,' and PLAY featuring A.C.T. core acting company members René Augesen, Anthony Fusco, and Omozé Idehenre. A longtime Bay Area favorite as one of the founders of the Pickle Family Circus, Irwin returns to A.C.T. after stealing the hearts of the Bay Area audiences last season as the loveable title character in Moliére's SCAPIN, which he also adapted and directed. Perloff, who has previously directed Beckett's WAITING FOR GODOT at A.C.T. and will helm the production, said: 'It was in Endgame that Beckett famously wrote: 'nothing is funnier than unhappiness.' And I cannot think of a more consummate artist than Bill Irwin to demonstrate that fact, undertaking the lead role of Hamm in this astonishing play. Endgame is a play Bill and I have wanted to do together for many years; when the opportunity suddenly presented itself to do it this season, we could not say no. I am thrilled to present Endgame in tandem with a comic gem from 1963 called PLAY, which will give our core company a chance to shine a spotlight on a hilarious tale of marriage and adultery that represents a very different side of Beckett's oeuvre. I hope that this Beckett pairing will add a rich chapter to A.C.T.'s explorations of the great modernists, Beckett and Pinter.' Endgame and Play play May 9-June 3, 2012, at the American Conservatory Theater (415 Geary Street, San Francisco). Press night is Wednesday, May 16, 2012, at 8 p.m. Tickets (starting at $10) are available by calling A.C.T. Ticket Services at 415.749.2228 or at www.act-sf.org.

An impressive ensemble of Broadway leading men and women are traveling to Romania to perform A Medley of Sondheim, a concert presentation of Stephen Sondheim's iconic musical numbers, presented within the framework of the 4th edition of the International Festival for Musical Performing Arts 'Life is Beautiful.'

An impressive ensemble of Broadway leading men and women are traveling to Romania to perform A Medley of Sondheim, a concert presentation of Stephen Sondheim's iconic musical numbers, presented within the framework of the 4th edition of the International Festival for Musical Performing Arts 'Life is Beautiful.'