Dramatists Guild News

As BroadwayWorld speculated last month, Tony Award winner Jason Robert Brown (Parade, 13, The Last Five Years, Songs for a New World) will be joined by Tony Award-winning stage and screen star Anika Noni Rose (Dreamgirls) and The Caucasian Rhythm Kings for a special three-night concert engagement this spring at the Henry Street Settlement - Abrons Arts Center (466 Grand at Pitt), according to official press notes. The concerts will also be filmed for future broadcast on PBS.

Broadway Playwright Terrence McNally and SpeakEasy Stage Company Founder and Producing Artistic Director Paul Daigneault will be honored at SpeakEasy Stage Company's 20th Anniversary Gala on Monday, April 4th, 2011, from 6-9PM at the Renaissance Boston Waterfront Hotel.

PlayPenn, Philadelphia's professional new play development organization, will hold its seventh annual New Play Development Conference from July 8 - July 24 at both the Adrienne Theater and the Playground (2030 Sansom Street) in Philadelphia. The Conference will feature two weeks of intensive work on six works-in-progress by Lisa Dillman (American Wee-Pie); Jacqueline Goldfinger (Slip/Shot); Brian Quirk (Nerine); Lauren Yee (A Man, His Wife and His Hat); John Yearley (Another Girl); and Stefanie Zadravec (The Electric Baby).

Judy Kent, currently represented on Broadway as a producer of Driving Miss Daisy, presents an invitation-only reading of Welcome to My Life, a new pop/rock musical with a book by Alicia Dempster and Bobby Cronin, music and lyrics by Bobby Cronin. The reading will take place on April 11, 2011 at 2pm.

The Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park will continue its Thompson Shelterhouse season with the world premiere of BEHIND THE EYE by Carson Kreitzer. Commissioned by the Playhouse, this remarkable new play about the life of World War II photographer Lee Miller begins public previews on April 2 and continues through May 1.

Prospect Theater Company (Cara Reichel, Producing Artistic Director / Melissa Huber, Managing Director) celebrates April Fool's Day with a one-night-only concert presentation of founding member Peter Mills' comic song cycle Lonely Rhymes, on Friday, April 1st at 9:30pm.

To accrue all the characters, characteristics and components of a career as diverse and varied as that of stage and screen star John Leguizamo would be near-impossible for even the most gifted performers in the galaxy. Having appeared in nearly ninety films so far in his twenty-five year career - including a musical, MOULIN ROUGE, and an adaptation of Shakespeare, ROMEO + JULIET, both for noted directed Baz Luhrmann - as well as five off-Broadway and Broadway solo shows - MAMBO MOUTH, SPIC-O-RAMA, FREAK, SEXAHOLIX and, now, GHETTO KLOWN - Leguizamo is consistently challenging himself and revealing new sides to his personality and skills as an actor and performer with his daring choices of roles and searing performances. In this comprehensive career retrospective, we cover Broadway, Hollywood and much more and we even have his first comments on his new feature film opening this weekend, THE LINCOLN LAWYER. From Todd Haynes' POISON to Brian DePalma's CASUALTIES OF WAR and CARLITO'S WAY, to Spike Lee's SUMMER OF SAM, to TO WONG FOO, SUPER MARIO BROS. and more; singing Sondheim's 'Send In The Clowns'; plus, stories on his recently departed co-stars Dennis Hopper (LAND OF THE DEAD) and Brittany Murphy (SPUN), and first news on the David Koresh biopic WACO co-starring Kurt Russell and Adrien Brody, and FUGLY with Radha Mitchell - Leguizamo‘s performances speak (and sing) for themselves. King, cartoon, criminal, artist, clown or klown - Leguizamo can play them all. And play them damn well, as well.

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater will produce the first in-the-round staging of Ruined, the 2009 Pulitzer Prize winner for drama by Arena Stage Project Resident Lynn Nottage and directed by Resident Playwright Charles Randolph-Wright (Director of Arena Stage's Duke Ellington's Sophisticated Ladies). Ruined is the stirring tale of Mama Nadi, a mother figure loosely based on Bertolt Brecht's Mother Courage and Her Children, who provides refuge for women affected by civil war ravaging the Democratic Republic of Congo. The production features an expanded company with cast members playing live music and additional ensemble roles featuring University of Maryland students. Ruined runs April 22-June 5, 2011 in the Fichandler Stage.

The Flea Theater presents World Premiere of FUTURE ANXIETY by Laurel Haines, directed by Jim Simpson. The cast features 23 of The Bats, the resident acting company of The Flea. Previews begin April 15, with opening night slated for Thursday, April 28.

The Public Theater (Artistic Director Oskar Eustis; Interim Executive Director Joey Parnes) will begin previews on Friday, March 25 for the world premiere of URGE FOR GOING, written by Mona Mansour and directed by Hal Brooks. The third show in the 2010-2011 Public LAB season, URGE FOR GOING will run Friday, March 25 through Sunday, April 17 at The Public Theater (425 Lafayette Street), with an official press opening on Sunday, April 10. Single tickets are on sale now; all tickets for Public LAB productions are $15.

Asolo Repertory Theatre is thrilled to introduce Florida audiences to Las Meninas, by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage.

Two lost souls share an intimate moment, each learning to love and dream again, in playwright Nancy P. Moss's intimate historical drama Anna: Love in the Cold War. The play takes place during a bitter winter night in 1945 Leningrad, where oppression and suspicion are commonplace and one never knows who may be listening. Directed by Joshua A. Kashinsky, Anna: Love in the Cold War will begin performances on April 22nd at the Dorothy Strelsin Theatre, located at 312 West 36th Street.

'The Tenant' by Bill Donnelly- Story of sexual tension in a young couple, their pet parrot and an enigmatic stranger, set in a Midtown apartment house but venturing off the tangible plane. Plays April 29 to May 22, 2011 at The Producers' Club Theaters, Crown Theater, 358 West 44th Street (between 8th and 9th Avenues)

Partial Comfort Productions follows up its much-acclaimed productions of Samuel D. Hunter's A Bright New Boise and Thomas Bradshaw's The Bereaved with the World Premiere of Chad Beckim's A GOOD ENDING.

Chance Theater presents the World Premiere production of the quirky award-winning musical, The Boy in the Bathroom, April 23 - May 22, 2011. The play is directed by Chance Theater Artistic Director Oanh Nguyen. The production is a proud participant in both the 4th Annual Festival of New American Musicals and Arts Orange County's Imagination Celebration.

Ars Nova presents, as part of the Out Loud series, a FREE reading of: THIS IS MY OFFICE by Andy Bragen, directed by Hal Brooks. The one-man play will be read by Greg Keller.

New Repertory Theatre, in residence at the Arsenal Center for the Arts, is pleased to announce it will be producing Jason Robert Brown's award-winning musical The Last Five Years.

Artists Repertory Theatre presents a staged reading of Portland playwright George Taylor's Good Citizen as part of their ongoing PlayLab program.

Amas Musical Theatre (Donna Trinkoff/Producing Artistic Director) is announcing the launch of a new developmental showcase for musicals, The Glorious Bouquet Project.

59E59 Theaters (Elysabeth Kleinhans, Artistic Director; Peter Tear, Executive Producer) welcomes Ego Actus Design with the NYC premiere of PLAY NICE!, written by Robin Rice Lichtig and directed by Joan Kane. PLAY NICE! ends performances on Sunday, March 27.