Dramatists Guild News

The GLAAD Award-winning play CANDY & DOROTHY by David Johnston will receive its Utah Premiere by In The Now Productions this June.

The final writer for the annual PLAYWRIGHTS FOR A CAUSE benefit event is Planet Connections' own award-winning writer GABRIELLE FOX. 

Project Y Theatre Company presents the World Premiere of TRUTH/DARE by Emmy nominee Tori Keenan-Zelt. The play, which was selected for Kilroy's Long List in 2014, will be directed by Andrew William Smith. Performances run through June 12 at IRT Theatre in the West Village.

Her Story Theater, a company dedicated to raising awareness of the epidemic of sexual exploitation, has announced the world premiere of MONGERS - the fourth play in its cycle of dramas exposing sex trafficking practices in Chicago. Written by Her Story Theater Founder and Producing Artistic Director Mary Bonnett, and directed by John Mossman, Co-Founder of The Artistic Home, MONGERS follows a Chicago criminal defense attorney with a secret sex life who deals with his sensitive 16-year-old son's legal crisis on the day he takes a deposition from the mother of a murdered teenage sex trafficked victim. Bonnett's play uncovers the nationwide, anonymous brotherhood of men who use the Internet to find and compare notes on the women and underage girls they pay for sex. It also explores the toxicity of many of the prevailing notions of masculinity and how they contribute to an environment that allows these abuses to exist. Though the characters are composites of people Bonnett interviewed and the plot details are inspired by real-life events in Chicago. Bonnett's script includes actual posts from online chats among men engaged in this activity along with dialogue she imagined for the characters.

On Day 25, we celebrate the composing team behind the hit Broadway revival of Once On This Island, Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty!

The American Shakespeare Center (ASC) today announces that Amy E. Witting's Anne Page Hates Fun and Mary Elizabeth Hamilton's 16 Winters or the Bear's Tale are the first two winners of 'Shakespeare's New Contemporaries,' an international playwriting competition designed to create a modern canon of companion pieces for each of Shakespeare's 38 plays.

Project Y Theatre Company presents the World Premiere of TRUTH/DARE by Emmy nominee Tori Keenan-Zelt. The play, which was selected for Kilroy's Long List in 2014, will be directed by Andrew William Smith. Previews begin May 30 at IRT Theatre in the West Village, with opening slated for Today, June 2.

F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Diamond as Big as the Ritz, (www.theritzmusical.com) is set for a staged reading for the theater industry at 7pm, Monday, June 18, and 1PM Tuesday, June 19 at the Dramatists Guild Fund's The Music Hall, 356 W. 40th St., 2nd Floor.

Producing Artistic Director Elizabeth Flemming and Out of the Box Theatrics announces the second season of the sold out reading series Building theBox. Curated by Associate Artistic Director, Ethan Paulini, this new series features 4 new pieces that are being considered for full production in the 2019 (and beyond) season.

Deidrie Henry returns to The Armory to star as Billie Holiday in Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill, Lanie Robertson's riveting portrait of Holiday's life told through an imagined final performance in a small bar in South Philadelphia in 1959. Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill begins preview performances on May 26, opens on June 1, and runs through July 1 on the U.S. Bank Main Stage.

Native Voices at the Autry, America's leading Native American theatre company, presents its 24th Annual Festival of New Plays at the Autry Museum of the American West and La Jolla Playhouse. The festival features staged readings of new and in-progress plays by Native writers followed by talkbacks in which each audience member becomes an important part of the collaborative process. 

Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) announces The 2018 TRU Voices New Plays Reading Series, with Jasper on June 11, 2018 at 7pm and Adele's Wayon June 18, 2018 at 7pm at the Soho Playhouse, 15 Vandam St., New York, NY. Tickets are free, but RSVP is required. RSVP by emailing TRUVoicesSeries@gmail.com, or by calling 212-714-7628.

Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) announces The 2018 TRU Voices New Plays Reading Series, with Jasper on June 11, 2018 at 7pm and Adele's Wayon June 18, 2018 at 7pm at the Soho Playhouse, 15 Vandam St., New York, NY.

McCarter is proud to welcome a group of esteemed and emerging playwrights and theater artists to Princeton for the Sallie B. Goodman Artists' Retreat. The annual Retreat in June is a centerpiece of McCarter's LAB, a platform and creative incubator devoted to ongoing theatrical development and artist cultivation. The 2018 Retreat will take place from June 6 - June 13.

Project Y Theatre Company presents the World Premiere of TRUTH/DARE by Emmy nominee Tori Keenan-Zelt. The play, which was selected for Kilroy's Long List in 2014, will be directed by Andrew William Smith. Previews begin May 30 at IRT Theatre in the West Village, with opening slated for Saturday, June 2.

Project Y Theatre Company presents the 3rd Annual WOMEN IN THEATRE FESTIVAL from May 30 - June 24 at IRT Theatre (154 Christopher Street, between Washington & Greenwich Streets in the West Village). The Festival seeks to broaden the opportunities for women in the entertainment industry by producing new work by women with more than 50% female representation of all artists involved.

"People are given one moment to connect. Not two, not three, one! They don't take it, it's gone forever…" as Johnny implores Frankie in Terrance McNally's sweet and spicy two-hander, Frankie and Johnny at the Clair de Lune, about a short-order cook and the waitress he romances. 

LAUNDRYFEST will make its world premiere at The Soap Box, 110 Saratoga Ave, Brooklyn NY 11233. The show will be comprised of site specific and site responsive pieces in an actual laundromat. The festival, produced by The Motor Company (Lillian Meredith, Artistic Director; Jessica Schmidt, Producing Director), will feature new short plays and musicals by Sean Pollock, Billy Recce, Ben Holbrook and Cherry Lou Sy. Directors include NJ Agwuna, David Kahawaii, Phoebe Padget, and Lillian Meredith. The festival is co-curated and co-produced by Sean Pollock. The performance schedule is Friday, June 8th, Today June 9th, Friday, June 15th, and Today June 16th at 9:00PM; Sunday June 10th and Sunday June 17th at 7:00PM. Admission is free of charge to the public.

Deidrie Henry returns to The Armory to star as Billie Holiday in Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill, Lanie Robertson's riveting portrait of Holiday's life told through an imagined final performance in a small bar in South Philadelphia in 1959. Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill begins preview performances on May 26, opens on June 1, and runs through July 1 on the U.S. Bank Main Stage. Bill Fennelly returns to The Armory to direct after previously directing Gypsy, Black Pearl Sings and, most recently, Little Shop of Horrors. Deidrie Henry, who most recently played Blanche in A Streetcar Named Desire at The Armory, will be joined on stage by Abdul Hamid Royal, the production's music director who also plays the role of Jimmy Powers, along with local musicians Charles Neal (drums) and Andre St. James (bass).

San Francisco Playhouse (Artistic Director Bill English; Producing Director Susi Damilano) announced casting for the second show of its 2017-18 Sandbox Series-the world premiere of In Braunau, written by Dipika Guha. Susannah Martin will direct.