David Zak News

Black Button Eyes Productions is pleased to announce casting for its Chicago premiere musical NEVERMORE The Imaginary Life and Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe, the moving life story of the iconic American writer told through haunting music, poetic storytelling and stunning stagecraft, with book, music and lyrics by Jonathan Christenson.

Three men - a great American playwright, his trusted and loyal assistant, and a young Canadian street hustler - find themselves together for two days in a hotel room in Vancouver.

Flying Elephant Productions has announced its inaugural season, launching this winter with the world premiere of WE THE PEOPLE SONGS OF THE RESISTANCE, a political song cycle about the 2016 election, which takes audiences from the conventions through election night and its immediate aftermath into the realization of Trump's America and finally, a call to action from We The People.

Casting for Pride Films and Plays' Chicago premiere of YANK! A WWII Love Story was announced today by David Zak, Executive Director of Pride Films and Plays.

Three men - a great American playwright, his trusted and loyal assistant, and a young Canadian street hustler - find themselves together for two days in a hotel room in Vancouver. The ensuing battle for power, love and loyalty is frequently funny, engagingly dark and ultimately moving. HIS GREATNESS, inspired by a 'potentially true story' during the declining days of Tennessee Williams, is an intimate insight into the mind of a familiar public figure, grappling with the loss of former glory and desperate for a return to form and success. Pride Films and Plays will stage the play from October 14 November 12, 2017 in The Buena, the 50-seat venue of the Pride Arts Center. The Buena is located at 4147 N. Broadway, Chicago. The press opening will be Tuesday, October 17 at 7:30 pm.

Permoveo Productions, in association with Pride Films & Plays, has announced the extension of the world premiere production of The CiviliTy of Albert Cashier now playing at Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont Ave., through October 22, starring former Glee Project star and America's Got Talent Contestant Dani Shay.

Reviewing the comedy's 2015 Off-Broadway production by Primary Stages, THE NEW YORK TIMES called it a clever canap of a comedy...Mr. Payne is a deft and witty writer.' THE NEW YORKER said of it As hiding gets harder, pitch-perfect comedy ensues: slamming doors, strange disguises, preposterous excuses Eventually, the four must decide whether face-saving domestic lies are worth it, or whether ostracism beats living in fear. In our own era of surveillance and paranoia, their mid-century problems don't feel so far away.

Three men - a great American playwright, his trusted and loyal assistant, and a young Canadian street hustler - find themselves together for two days in a hotel room in Vancouver. The ensuing battle for power, love and loyalty is frequently funny, engagingly dark and ultimately moving. HIS GREATNESS, inspired by a 'potentially true story' during the declining days of Tennessee Williams, is an intimate insight into the mind of a familiar public figure, grappling with the loss of former glory and desperate for a return to form and success. Pride Films and Plays will stage the play from October 14 November 12, 2017 in The Buena, the 50-seat venue of the Pride Arts Center. The Buena is located at 4147 N. Broadway, Chicago. The press opening will be Tuesday, October 17 at 7:30 pm.

Pride Films and Plays' annual fall benefit, Simply Sensational, will feature Broadway musical theater star NICK ADAMS, who originated the role of Adam/Felicia in PRISCILLA: QUEEN OF THE DESERT, in its American premiere on Broadway. Prior to PRISCILLA, Adams had major roles in the hit revivals of A CHORUS LINE, GUYS AND DOLLS, CHICAGO and LA CAGE AUX FOLLES and leads in productions at top U.S. regional theaters including Paper Mill Playhouse, Gateway Playhouse and North Shore Music Theater in the New York metro area, and Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera. Adams has also been active in film and television work, with roles in the films SEX AND THE CITY 2, and AN ENGLISHMAN IN NEW YORK, and the TV series SMASH, AS THE WORLD TURNS, and THE GUIDING LIGHT. The festivities will take place in The Broadway, the 85-seat venue at Pride Arts Center, 4139 N. Broadway, Chicago. A limited number of VIP tickets are available for the benefit at $75, and include reserved center-section seating for the 7:15 pm performance. General Admission tickets are $50 and include the performance and a post-show dessert reception.SELECT tickets are also available for a $1,000.00, which includes 2 VIP tickets and admission for two to a show rehearsal with Nick the night before the benefit.

Pride Films and Plays will curate and screen a monthly festival of LGBTQ independent films from around the world, PFP Executive Director David Zak announced today. The inaugural screening will be held Tuesday, October 10, the eve of National Coming Out Day on October 11, 2017.  To celebrate that occasion, the PRIDE FILM FESTIVAL premiere will feature six films focused on the theme of coming out. Zak says, "Coming out is an experience shared by all out LGBT people - yet our experiences in that passage all have their uniquenesses. The films of the first PRIDE FILM FESTIVAL screening are each special in their own ways of capturing that moment when we open our hearts and share our identity with someone new."

Permoveo Productions, in association with Pride Films & Plays, presents the world premiere production of The CiviliTy of Albert Cashier playing at Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont Ave., now through October 15, starring former Glee Project star and America's Got Talent Contestant Dani Shay. Opening night is tonight, September 6th, and BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

Permoveo Productions, in association with Pride Films & Plays, presents the world premiere production of The CiviliTy of Albert Cashier playing at Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont Ave., August 31 - October 15, starring former Glee Project star and America's Got Talent Contestant Dani Shay. The production is co-composed and directed by Keaton Wooden, co-composed by Joe Stevens, written by Jay Paul Deratany and is music directed by Jon Schneidman.

Permoveo Productions, in association with Pride Films & Plays, presents the world premiere production of The CiviliTy of Albert Cashier playing at Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont Ave., August 31 - October 15, starring former Glee Project star and America's Got Talent Contestant Dani Shay.

Full casting was announced today for Pride Films and Plays' Chicago premiere of PERFECT ARRANGEMENT by Associate Artistic Director Derek Van Barham, who's directing the production. In Topher Payne's comedy, it's 1950, and new colors are being added to the Red Scare. Two U.S. State Department employees, Bob and Norma, have been tasked with identifying sexual deviants within their ranks. There's just one problem: Both Bob and Norma are gay, and have married each other's partners and moved next door to each other as a carefully constructed cover. Inspired by the true story of the earliest stirrings of the American gay rights movement, madcap classic sitcom-style laughs give way to provocative drama as two "All-American" couples are forced to stare down the closet door.

Permoveo Productions, in association with Pride Films & Plays, presents the world premiere production of The CiviliTy of Albert Cashier playing at Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont Ave., August 31 - October 15, starring former Glee Project star and America's Got Talent Contestant Dani Shay. Watch Shay perform 'Bullet In a Gun' from the show below!

Permoveo Productions, in association with Pride Films & Plays, presents the world premiere production of The CiviliTy of Albert Cashier playing at Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont Ave., August 31 - October 15, starring former Glee Project star and America's Got Talent Contestant Dani Shay. The production is co-composed and directed by Keaton Wooden, co-composed by Joe Stevens, written by Jay Paul Deratany and is music directed by Jon Schneidman.

Permoveo Productions, in association with Pride Films & Plays, presents the world premiere production of The CiviliTy of Albert Cashier playing at Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont Ave., August 31 - October 15, starring former Glee Project star and America's Got Talent Contestant Dani Shay.

Pride Films and Plays' 2017-18 season - its first full season in residence at the Pride Arts Center - will bring Chicago its first look at three plays that examine gay and lesbian lives in earlier decades of the 20th Century, according to Executive Director David Zak and Artistic Director Nelson Rodriguez.

Underscore Theatre Company is pleased to present the world premiere musical thriller MY NAME IS ANNIE KING, the story of a young man who stumbles into the world of a religious cult in backcountry Missouri, becoming intoxicated by its leader and his ideologies. With a bluegrass/folk infused score by Aaron Albert and Katy Rea and book by Krista Pioppa, the new musical is directed by Alex Higgin-Houser. In the tradition of Underscore's 2016 hit musical Haymarket: The Anarchist's Songbook, some members of the cast will play their own instruments. MY NAME IS ANNIE KING will play April 21 - May 28, 2017 at Underscore's new resident home Pride Arts Center (The Broadway), 4139 N. Broadway in Chicago. Tickets are currently available at underscoretheatre.org. 

Perpetual drifter Walker Janeway reappears in New York for the reading of his father's will. He and his sister expect to inherit the famed Janeway House that their father Ned designed with his business partner, Theo. But when the house is left to Theo's son instead, the betrayal leads Walker to unearth a cryptic journal that he believes proves his father is a fraud. The truth of the past, however, is much different than any of them realize. Shifting from present to past, THREE DAYS OF RAIN examines the depth of family secrets and how one event can be seen from many points of view.