David Strathairn News

The Fire Dept will present an expanded and updated version of its acclaimed At War: American Playwrights Respond to Iraq, an evening of alternately moving, haunting, and funny material by noted and emerging American playwrights, woven together to present a kaleidoscope of views on the war. Featuring a rotating repertory of celebrity hosts and guest performers including Bebe Neuwirth, Josh Hamilton, Bobby Cannavale, Derek Phillips, Daniel Sunjata and Fire Dept company members David Strathairn, Janeane Garofalo, Gloria Reuben and Tony Award winner Denis O'Hare.

Aidan Quinn will complete the cast of Richard Nelson's new history play Conversations in Tusculum at the Public Theater. Directed by Nelson, Quinn will play Brutus alongside the previously announced Brian Dennehy as Cicero, Joe Grifasi as Syrus, Gloria Reuben as Porcia, David Strathairn as Cassius, and Maria Tucci as Servilia.

The Fire Dept will present an expanded and updated version of its acclaimed At War: American Playwrights Respond to Iraq, an evening of alternately moving, haunting, and funny material by noted and emerging American playwrights, woven together to present a kaleidoscope of views on the war.

The Public Theater will open its spring season with the world premiere of Richard Nelson's new history play 'Conversations in Tusculum.' Directed by Nelson, the cast of six includes Brian Dennehy, Joe Grifasi, Gloria Reuben, David Strathairn and Maria Tucci. Conversations in Tusculum begins previews on Tuesday, February 19 and will run through Sunday, March 23 with an official press opening on Tuesday, March 11 at 7 PM.

Ars Nova presents, as part of the OUT LOUD series, a free reading of Our Enemies: Lively Scenes of Love and Combat, by Yussef El Guindi, directed by Joanna Settle. Our Enemies: Lively Scenes of Love and Combat on Monday, October 29 at 7 PM at Ars Nova

Classic Stage Company will present 'Monday Night Macbeth,' an exciting theatrical experience in which acclaimed actors - Ruben Santiago-Hudson, David Strathairn, Frances McDormand and members of Anne Bogart's SITI Company - will work through and explore a different act of Shakespeare's Macbeth with an acclaimed director in front of an audience on four Monday evenings

Culture Project has announced that it will produce Rebel Voices, a stage adaptation by Rob Urbinati of Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove's acclaimed book 'Voices of a People's History of the United States' (Seven Stories Press). Performances begin on November 10 with an official opening night set for Sunday, November 18 with special guest Howard Zinn.

The Public Theater's Artistic Director Oskar Eustis and Executive Director Mara Manus announced today the lineup for its 2007-08 season: seven exciting new productions that will mark the return of three of The Public's most-produced playwrights and introduce several emerging new voices to Public Theater audiences.

The Founding Producers and Board of Directors of Epic Theatre Center have voted to officially change the company's name to Epic Theatre Ensemble effective September 4, 2007

The Fire Dept announced today the final cast for the launch of 'The Salon Series,' staged readings of new plays that address compelling contemporary issues, on Monday, June 25 at 6:30PM at the National Arts Club.

Artistic Directors Jessica Blank, Erica Gould and Audrey Rosenberg announced today the launch of The Salon Series, staged readings of new plays that address compelling contemporary issues, followed by food, drink and intimate discussion among the artists, audience and noteworthy guest speakers

Culture Project has announced the schedule for its upcoming 2007 Women Center Stage Festival festival (WCS), the annual multi-disciplinary event featuring women artists whose work calls attention to human struggles globally, running June 25 through­ July 17, 2007

Variety.com reports that Academy Award nominee David Strathairn will be replacing Victor Slezak in the Epic Theater Center Production of Zak Berkman's Beauty on the Vine.

According to NYTimes.com, the lineup for New York Stage and Film and Vassar College's 23rd Powerhouse summer theater season will include productions of John Patrick Shanley's Romantic Poetry: A Musical Play, featuring a score by Henry Krieger (Dreamgirls) and starring Mark Linn-Baker and Idina Menzel, Stephen Belber's (Match) new play, Geometry of Fire, and concert readings of Pete Towshend's new rock opera, The Boy Who Heard Music, and R-E-S-P-E-C-T, a musical featuring hit songs originally by Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, the Staple Singers, Wilson Pickett and more.

Ars Nova (voted 'Best of New York' by New York Magazine), as part of the FREE Out Loud reading series, presents THE RED BEARD OF ESAU, written by Rachel Shukert and directed by Alex Timbers. THE RED BEARD OF ESAU will be read by Jeff Binder, Elliotte Crowell, Billy Eichner, Sam Forman, Van Hansis, David Josefsberg, Julie Lake, Maggie Lauren, Austin Lysy, Reginald Veneziano and Taylor Wilcox on Monday, January 29 at 7 PM at Ars Nova (511 West 54th Street). A Neanderthal woman and Cro-Magnon man embark on a passionate love affair at the very dawn of time. But fate, not to mention an assortment of mystics, priestesses, dwarfs, and beautful blonde Californian twins have other things in store for them. Things that could threaten their very existence! Can love survive? Find out in THE RED BEARD OF ESAU, the world's first genocidal romantic comedy. RACHEL SHUKERT (Writer) is a playwright and author based in New York City. Her plays include Bloody Mary (NYIT Award nominee), Sequins for Satan, The Blackstone Hotel, and Soiled Linens. Her work has been developed and produced at Ars Nova, the Williamstown Theater Festival, the Culture Project, the Ontological/Hysteric, and the EVOLVE series at Galapagos. In 2003, she was the Playwright-in-Residence at e74 productions in Amsterdam, and her work was performed extensively throughout the Netherlands. As a performer, she has appeared with Richard Foreman's Ontological/Hysteric Theater, in New York and internationally; Les Freres Courbusier, the T.E.A.M., Salt Theater, e74, and with her own company, the Bushwick Hotel, which she founded in 2002 with the director Stephen Brackett. She is a regular contributor to Nerve.com (2005 ASME finalist, 2006 'Best Writing' Webby Award) and her work will be featured in their latest print anthology. She has also contributed to Heeb Magazine, McSweeney's, Babble, Culturebot, and Critical Moment. Her upcoming collection of essays, Have You No Shame? will be published by Random House/Villard. ALEX TIMBERS (Director) Recent credits include Gutenberg! The Musical! (The Actor's Playhouse and 59E59), A Very Merry Unauthorized Children's Scientology Pageant (New York Theatre Workshop; OBIE Award- NYC and Garland Award, Best Director- LA), Hell House (St. Ann's Warehouse), underground with David Dorfman Dance (BAM Next Wave and US tour), Boozy (Culture Project- 10 Best of 2005, Daily News and Time Out), Marge (Summer Play Festival), Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson (Williamstown Theater Festival), and Heddatron (HERE). Alex is a Williamstown Directing Fellow, a Drama League Directing Fellow, and the Artistic Director of award-winning theater company Les Freres Corbusier. OUT LOUD has attracted a variety of the industry's top artists, including writers Stephen Belber, Jorge Cortinas, Daniel Goldfarb, Stephen Guirgis, Rinne Groff, Rogelio Martinez, Adam Rapp, Sarah Ruhl, Julian Sheppard, Jonathan Marc Sherman; directors Peter Askin, Jo Bonney, David Esbjornson, Moises Kaufman, Brian Kulick, James Lapine, Lisa Peterson, David Warren; and actors Jason Biggs, Kathleen Chalfant, Robert Sean Leonard, Marsha Mason, Denis O'Hare, Rosie Perez, Paul Rudd, Mercedes Reuhl, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Swoosie Kurtz, David Strathairn, Fred Weller. Ticket & Schedule Information THE RED BEARD OF ESAU will be read on Monday, January 29 at 7 PM. The Out Loud Series is FREE and open to the public. Reservations are required. Please call 212-977-1700. Ars Nova is located at 511 West 54th Street. For more information, check out www.arsnovanyc.com.

A number of Hollywood stars will headline a new independent film based on a screenplay by Tennessee Williams

Joan Allen, Stephen Lang, Matthew Modine and David Strathairn will appear at Symphony Space (Broadway at 95th St.) on Wednesday, September 27th for an evening of readings entitled 'Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience'

An all-star cast will headline Naked Angels' September 18th reading of the classic 1976 political drama All the President's Men

Tony Roberts, Lois Smith and David Strathairn will read short fiction in 'Selected Shorts,' a live version of the renowned National Public Radio show of the same name, on Tuesday, September 19, 7:30 p.m., at Westport Country Playhouse in Connecticut

Lawrence J. Sacharow, director of the theatre program at Fordham College at Lincoln Center, and Obie Award-winning director of Len Jenkin's 'Five of Us,' died Monday, August 14, at New York Hospital, of complications from leukemia. He was 68.