Elise Thoron News

Literature to Life (LTL) is bringing a slate of classic and important stories to people across the country this spring. Learn more about the full lineup here!

Literature to Life (LTL) will host spring gala events in both New York City and Washington, D.C., featuring live performances, cocktails and hors d'oeuvres, and more.

Literature to Life will present The Latehomecomer at The Rogue Performance Festival. Learn more here!

Playwrights Horizons has revealed the cast for the world premiere of TEETH, a new musical by Michael R. Jackson and Anna K. Jacobs. Learn how to purchase tickets!

Literature to Life (LTL) is slated to kick off its fall season, which includes shows both in New York City and across the country. Through innovative theatrical performances, LTL aims to kindle an enduring passion for the written word, immersing audiences in both iconic and contemporary American novels.

 Literature to Life (LTL), the renowned educational program of the American Place Theatre, has announced its participation in the 2023 National Book Festival, presented by the Library of Congress.

 Penn Live Arts (PLA) presents the 2023 Philadelphia Children's Festival, May 20-23, 2023, four days of entertainment for children and their families, including shadow magic, silent storytelling, beloved books brought to life, Native American culture merged with hip hop, and the popular outdoor PLAYground.

City Councilman Keith Powers, former Mayor Bill DeBlasio, former acting students of Wynn Handman and maybe a star or two will gather Monday, September 12 at 11:00 AM on the southeast corner of 7th Avenue and 56th Street for the naming of West 56th Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues as Wynn Handman Way.

Literature to Life is partnering with Dominican Artists Collective, Dominican Writers Association, and XCLSV Events to present WAO–UNA TERTULIA, a gathering to share ideas and talents centered around Dominican culture, artists, and voices.

The Board of Directors of the Literature to Life has announced that Lisa Beth Vettoso has joined the organization as its new Executive Director, overseeing all aspects of Literature to Life, including strategic planning, programmatic development, and fundraising initiatives.

This October, National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene (Folksbiene)-led by Zalmen Mlotek, Artistic Director, and Dominick Balletta, Executive Director-presents Folksbiene! LIVE: 'Welcome to Our Suke/Sukkah', a four-day festival of family-friendly performances during Chol Hamoed (the intermediary days of Sukkos) from October 5th to 8th.

Over the last three decades, the celebrated East Village-based Canadian poet/performer Adeena Karasick and Grammy Award-winning composer/trumpeter Frank London have each transformed the worlds of poetry and music with work that is sensual and political, steeped in Jewish mysticism, exploding notions of high and low culture.

Wynn Handman, the famed New York acting teacher and Artistic Director of The American Place Theatre, died at home April 11, 2020 of Covid-19 related pneumonia. He was 97.

Hudson Hall at the historic Hudson Opera House invites audiences to embrace a sense of adventure with a new season of music, theater, exhibitions, film, book launches, special events, and community programs this August to December.

Play On Shakespeare today announces an expansive list of compelling actors and dynamic directors confirmed to participate in the Play on! Festival, presented in association with Classic Stage Company (CSC) and Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF). Play on! features 39 readings of new, work-in-progress translations of Shakespeare's plays into contemporary modern English by some of today's most exciting playwrights-May 29-June 30 at the Lynn F. Angelson Theater at CSC (136 E. 13th Street). In 2015, Oregon Shakespeare Festival launched an ambitious 39-play, three-year commissioning project, Play on!, tasking 36 playwrights-more than half of whom were women and playwrights of color, each paired with a dramaturg-to translate Shakespeare's canon in celebration of the enduring impact of the Bard's work. Supported by a generous grant from the Hitz Foundation and inspired by long-time patron Dave Hitz's passion for Shakespeare, the project was and continues to be led by Lue Morgan Douthit. For more information, visit playonfestival.org.

The Queens College Evening Readings series is back for the spring season with highly anticipated readings by acclaimed writer Brad Gooch and performer Cherita Armstrong.

Play On Shakespeare in association with Classic Stage Company (CSC) and Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) presents the Play on! festival-featuring 39 readings of new, work-in-progress translations of Shakespeare's plays into contemporary modern English by some of today's most exciting playwrights-May 29-June 30 at the Lynn F. Angelson Theater at CSC (136 E. 13th Street).In 2015, Oregon Shakespeare Festival launched an ambitious 39-play, three-year commissioning project, Play on!, tasking 36 playwrights-more than half of whom were women and playwrights of color, each paired with a dramaturg-to translate Shakespeare's canon in celebration of the enduring impact of the Bard's work. Supported by a generous grant from the Hitz Foundation and inspired by long-time patron Dave Hitz's passion for Shakespeare, the project was and continues to be led by Lue Morgan Douthit. For more information, visit playonfestival.org.

Peak Performances today announces a groundbreaking venture with Catapult Opera, the new chamber opera company led by Neal Goren, the internationally acclaimed former artistic director of Gotham Chamber Opera. This ongoing collaboration will launch in Fall 2020 with the world premiere of Robert Wilson's staging of Gian Carlo Menotti's Amahl and the Night Visitors, conducted by Goren, and will include the development and premiere of two Catapult productions each season at Peak Performances' home, the Alexander Kasser Theater at Montclair State University (1 Normal Ave, Montclair, NJ 07043).

'A Ukrainian Jew walked into a bar in Havana....' Wait, haven't I heard this one before? Not by a longshot. HATUEY: MEMORY OF FIRE, the opera by Frank London and Elise Thoron, performed in Yiddish, English and Spanish, is a unique work that ambitiously crosses many creative lines in a work inspired by a kind of Yiddish epic poem.

Peak Performances kicks off its 2018-19 season with the world premiere of Hatuey: Memory of Fire, a rousing Afro-Cuban-Yiddish opera performed in English, Yiddish and Spanish, with music by Frank London, libretto by Elise Thoron, direction by Mary Birnbaum, and choreography by Maija Garcia.