Debbie Allen News

The Kennedy Center announces the September calendar of events for Millennium Stage, its free daily performance series featuring art and artists representing countless artistic styles.  Highlights of the September calendar feature performances as part of the REACH Opening Festival (September 7-22), the free 16-day celebration marking the opening of the center's newly expanded campus.

More artists and activities have been added to the REACH Opening Festival, the free 16-day celebration highlighting the many and varied ways that the Kennedy Center's newly expanded campus will connect, inspire, and engage audiences and artists. Please see below for an updated artist roster, and visit https:cms.kennedy-center.orgfestivalsreach for additional information.

More artists and activities have been added to the REACH Opening Festival, the free 16-day celebration highlighting the many and varied ways that the Kennedy Center's newly expanded campus will connect, inspire, and engage audiences and artists.

On Sunday night, the Tony Awards honored legendary orchestrator and arranger Harold Wheeler with one of three 2019 Lifetime Achievement Awards. Wheeler is currently represented on Broadway with AIN'T TOO PROUD - THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE TEMPTATIONS. Watch Howard Wheeler accept the 2019 Lifetime Achievement Award here.

The National YoungArts Foundation (YoungArts) announced that applications for the 2020 YoungArts competition will be accepted beginning today, June 4, through October 11, 2019 at youngarts.org/apply. Approximately 700 of the country's most accomplished 15- to 18-year-old artists will be selected through a blind adjudication process and provided with lifelong support through funding, mentorship, community, and creative and professional development opportunities.

Deciding where to go for college or university is nothing short of daunting. To help out, we're rounding up some of the top theatre schools to give students some stats to consider when getting ready to apply or even transfer.

Just can't get enough of Gwen Verdon, following the finale of Fosse/Verdon last week? Check out this flashback video of Verdon, interviewed backstage at the 1986 Broadway revival of Sweet Charity.

This fall, artists and audiences from the Washington, D.C. area, the U.S., and around the globe come together at the nation's cultural capital to dance, sing, create, collaborate, listen, learn, talk, share, and celebrate the opening of the REACH, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts's unprecedented new expansion. At a preview event today, May 29, which marks both President Kennedy's 102nd birthday and 100 days until the historic opening, the Kennedy Center unveiled preliminary details of the free 16-day REACH Opening Festival on September 7-22.

HB Studio, one of New York's oldest acting studios, will celebrate the legacy of Uta Hagen, long-time HB Studio master teacher, with the UTA HAGEN AT 100 GALA, on Monday, June 10 at Tribeca Rooftop (2 Desbrosses Street).  The evening will begin at 6pm with cocktails, followed by a dinner at 7pm. 

Playhouse on Park's education department, Playhouse Theatre Academy, is thrilled to welcome back Stephanie Pope for another Fosse Adult Master Class on Monday, June 17 from 6:30-8:30pm at The 224 Ecospace! All performers (ages 16 and up!) who have a vested interest in the performing arts are encouraged to attend this amazing class.

ABC has renewed record-breaking series “Grey's Anatomy” for two additional seasons (Seasons 16 and 17). In addition, ABC has renewed “Station 19” for a third season and “How to Get Away with Murder” for a sixth season. Executive producer and showrunner Krista Vernoff will helm both “Grey's Anatomy” and “Station 19,” giving fans two hours of feels on Thursdays and providing a seamless crossover narrative on both series.

The Frank Silvera Writers' Workshop will present Douglas Lyons's new family comedy Chicken & Biscuits Monday May 13th at 7pm; at The Billie Holiday Theatre. Chicken & Biscuits, written in residence at The Directors Company, has previously been selected and performed in the Front Porch Reading Series and Queen Theatre's 2019 New American Voices Reading Series.

The National YoungArts Foundation (YoungArts) congratulates the 55th class of U.S. Presidential Scholars, with special acknowledgement to the 20 U.S. Presidential Scholars in the Arts who are YoungArts winners. The U.S. Presidential Scholars award one of the nation's highest honors for high school students who exemplify academic excellence is presented on behalf of the President of the United States and honors up to 161 graduating high school seniors of high potential each year. The U.S. Presidential Scholars in the Arts (full list below) were nominated by YoungArts to The White House Commission on Presidential Scholars and selected based on academic and artistic excellence, leadership qualities and community service. For students who would like to be considered for this outstanding honor in the future, the YoungArts application opens on June 4, 2019 at youngarts.org/apply.

The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts announced today the 2019/2020 season, expanding its reach with twelve months of groundbreaking produced and presented works in dance, music, theater, cinema, and contemporary circus from renowned artists and companies around Southern California, the country, and the world. The season begins September 17, 2019, marking the fourth year of programming under the leadership of Artistic Director Paul Crewes and Executive Director/CEO Rachel Fine, and the seventh for the institution.

The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts announced today the 2019/2020 season, expanding its reach with twelve months of groundbreaking produced and presented works in dance, music, theater, cinema, and contemporary circus from renowned artists and companies around Southern California, the country, and the world. The season begins September 17, 2019, marking the fourth year of programming under the leadership of Artistic Director Paul Crewes and Executive Director/CEO Rachel Fine, and the seventh for the institution.

According to the New York Times, actress Rosemary Harris, musician Harold Wheeler and playwright Terrence McNally will all be honored with Lifetime Achievement Awards at the 2019 Tonys.

What does an archive considered to be "the crown jewels" of public and network television and Anton Chekhov have in common? They are all headed to BroadwayHD, the premier streaming service for live theater, in May.  This month, BroadwayHD will be adding a selection of premier titles from the Broadway Digital Archive, which brings together Broadway plays and great works of literature produced for television over the past five decades. 

Set in 1960s New York, Sweet Charity centres around unlucky-in-love dance hall hostess, Charity Hope Valentine who has dreams of making a better life for herself. This revival of Cy Coleman, Dorothy Fields and Neil Simon's show marks Josie Rourke's final production as Artistic Director of the Donmar Warehouse, and it's safe to say Rourke isn't going out quietly!

Like the rest of you, I've spent this week obsessing over 'Fosse Verdon' on FX and especially Gwen Verdon, played brilliantly on the series by Michelle Williams, in a performance that makes you want to reinvestigate what made Gwen so great. Sweet Charity is the perfect place to start. Gwen became a star and won her first Tony in a featured role in Can Can and she gained worldwide acclaim (and number 2 in a total of four Tonys) as Lola in Damn Yankees on stage and screen and of course there were many other shows and movies and TV appearances, but Sweet Charity was the show Bob Fosse (and Cy Coleman and Dorothy Fields and Neil Simon) created just for her. She may have lost the Tony to Angela Lansbury in Mame, but Gwen got that iconic poster and all those songs.

Worlds will collide in Seattle once again, as ABC is set to air a TGIT crossover event on Thursday, May 2, featuring all-new episodes of “Grey's Anatomy” and “Station 19” from 8:00-10:00 p.m. EDT.