2017 Regional Theatre Tony Award recipient Dallas Theater Center announces titles for the 2019-2020 season, including In the Heights, Lin-Manuel Miranda's family-favorite musical; ANN, a no-holds-barred portrait of Ann Richards, the legendary governor of Texas; Little Women, a celebrated new adaptation by Kate Hamill of the beloved classic book; American Mariachi, the feel-good comedy filled with infectious music; Pipeline, a powerful drama about the state of American education; and The Supreme Leader, a world premiere fictionalized coming-of-age comedy about Kim Jong-Un. Productions will take place at the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre at the AT&T Performing Arts Center and at the Kalita Humphreys Theater. Full season tickets are on sale now at www.DallasTheaterCenter.org and by phone at (214) 522-8499.
Harvey Williams, Founder and Executive Director of KC Melting Pot Theatre (KCMPT) in Kansas City announced that Dr. Nicole Hodges Persley has been appointed as Artistic Director. After three years as Associate Artistic Director, Hodges Persley has helped to position KCMPT as a theater company to watch in the Kansas City regional theater landscape. Under her creative influence, the company has produced timely and thought-provoking shows such as the revivals of Angelina W. Grimke's 1916 anti-lynching play Rachel and Amiri Baraka's 1964 Obie award-winning play Dutchman as well as cutting edge new American voices such as Pulitzer Prize winner Dominique Morriseau and emerging playwright Lewis J. Morrow. Hodges Persley draws season inspiration from an eclectic array of sources from historic social and arts movements to #Black Lives Matter and African American music genres.
Director Patricia McGregor returns to the Geffen Playhouse after her successful directorial stint of Dominique Morriseau's SKELETON CREW last year. This time, Patricia directs the west coast premiere of LIGHTS OUT: NAT 'KING' COLE (now, already in previews), co-written by herself and Coleman Domingo. Patricia took some time after a long day of rehearsals to chat with me over the phone.
In time for Black History Month, BroadwayHD, the premiere streaming service for live theater in the US and countries across the globe, has pulled together a special playlist that honors African Americans on the stage. From Audra McDonald as Billie Holiday in Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill, to Duke Ellington's Sophisticated Ladies, and the galvanizing drama Pipeline, by award-winning playwright Dominique Morriseau, BroadwayHD presents this month hours of exciting theater celebrating the writing, performances, and music of some of the most talented individuals to ever appear on the stage.
The Movement Theatre Company is proud to announce the extension of the New York Premiere production of WHAT TO SEND UP WHEN IT GOES DOWN by Aleshea Harris (Is God Is), directed by Whitney White (Macbeth in Stride). Originally scheduled to play its final performance on December 8, 2018, WHAT TO SEND UP WHEN IT GOES DOWN will now play an additional week through December 16, 2018.
The Movement Theatre Company announces complete casting for the New York Premiere production of WHAT TO SEND UP WHEN IT GOES DOWN by Aleshea Harris (Is God Is), directed by Whitney White (Macbeth in Stride) at the A.R.T./New York Theatres in the Jeffrey and Paula Gural Theatre from November 11, 2018 - December 8, 2018. Opening night will be Monday, November 19, 2018.
Theater Alliance launches Season 16 with the WORD BECOMES ACTION FESTIVAL. Building on the success of last year's inaugural festival, this second annual festival explores themes from upcoming productions and bringing together performances, readings, and workshops to illuminate divergent perspectives. The festival is made possible thanks to the support of The Revada Foundation and DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities.
National New Play Network (NNPN), the country's alliance of professional theaters that collaborate in innovative ways to develop, produce, and extend the life of new plays, has added three new Core Members: Silk Road Rising (Chicago), Company One (Boston), and City Theatre Company (Pittsburgh). As of the date of this release, NNPN has 114 Members Theaters, comprised of 32 Cores and 82 Associates.
Following a record-breaking season last year, Black Theatre Troupe prepares to open its 2018/19 season. The longest continually-running Black theatre company in the United States, Black Theatre Troupe will produce six productions in the coming year, including two new collaborations with noted organizations Tempe Center for the Arts and Childsplay.
Theater Alliance's 16th Season tackles the pressing issues of our American moment - gun violence, the bitter battles around identity politics, and a patriarchal system that simultaneously benefits from and undervalues the contributions of women. These essential conversations will gain further exploration through the company's annual Word Becomes Action Festival and Hothouse Play Development Series.
The Huntington Theatre Company presents the powerful drama Skeleton Crew, by Dominique Morriseau (Detroit '67 and Paradise Blue) and directed by Megan Sandberg-Zakian (Nat Turner in Jerusalem at New York Theatre Workshop and The Convert at Underground Railway Theater). Skeleton Crew runs from March 2 through March 31, 2018 at the South End / Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA.
The AUDELCO and Obie Award-winning Billie Holiday Theatre brings back the groundbreaking 50in50: Women's Voices Initiative with the Obie Award-winning Frank Silvera Writers' Workshop with a reading March 17, 2018 at 7pm in The Billie Holiday Theatre, 1368 Fulton Street, Brooklyn, NY.
The Huntington Theatre Company presents the powerful drama Skeleton Crew, by Dominique Morriseau (Detroit '67 and Paradise Blue) and directed by Megan Sandberg-Zakian (Nat Turner in Jerusalem at New York Theatre Workshop and The Convert at Underground Railway Theater). Skeleton Crew runs from March 2 through March 31, 2018 at the South End / Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA.
The American Playwriting Foundation (David Bar Katz, Executive Director), established to make annual grants to new American plays, has selected Gracie Gardner for The 2017 Relentless Award, the largest annual cash prize in American theater awarded to a play. Established in honor of Philip Seymour Hoffman and his pursuit of truth in the theater, this year's Relentless Award Winner Pussy Sludge is about a young woman who is also an oil well.
Playwright Chisa Hutchinson is known for wrapping her pointed, socially probing plays with irreverence and bawdy humor, mixing hot-button issues with barbed comedy to both provoke and entertain.
Playwright Chisa Hutchinson is known for wrapping her pointed, socially probing plays with irreverence and bawdy humor, mixing hot-button issues with barbed comedy to both provoke and entertain.
Playwright Chisa Hutchinson is known for wrapping her pointed, socially probing plays with irreverence and bawdy humor, mixing hot-button issues with barbed comedy to both provoke and entertain.
SKELETON CREW, currently running in rotation with Death of a Salesman at Trinity Rep is a story similar to Death of a Salesman in that it focuses on workers being forced away from their careers. This group works in an auto factory and face plant closure while realizing that all the hard work and years they've put into their jobs can be snatched away with little-to-no-notice. The cast is small and the sets are minimal but the layers in this play are sprawling and completely relatable, even to people who have never been in this kind of work. Everyone has suffered the jolt of unrealized expectations; everyone has had their loyalties and priorities tested and everyone has made mistakes. This may be a play about factory workers on the surface, but it's an incredibly human story of choices, perseverance and relationships.
