Ellen McLaughlin News

Aurora Theatre Company continues its 18th season with Henrik Ibsen's rarely-produced masterwork JOHN GABRIEL BORKMAN, in a new version by David Eldridge. Aurora Theatre Company founding Artistic Director Barbara Oliver, who directed the company's hit production of Ibsen's The Master Builder, returns to helm this fiercely relevant drama, featuring Bay Area stage veteran James Carpenter (The Master Builder) in the title role, and stage and television actress Karen Grassle (Little House on the Prairie) in her Aurora debut.

YALE REPERTORY THEATRE (James Bundy, Artistic Director; Victoria Nolan, Managing Director) presents the world premiere of COMPULSION by Rinne Groff, directed by Oskar Eustis, at Yale Repertory Theatre (1120 Chapel Street, New Haven) January 29-February 28. Opening Night is Thursday, February 4.

Theater for the New City is pleased to announce that Charles Busch's new comedy THE DIVINE SISTER will play a limited premiere showcase engagement at Theater for the New City's Cino Theater (155 First Avenue). The developmental production, directed by Busch's longtime collaborator Carl Andress (The Third Story; Die, Mommie, Die!) will play a limited engagement of 24 performances from Saturday, February 6 through Sunday, March 7.

Aurora Theatre Company presents the World Premiere of lauded Chicago playwright Joel Drake Johnson's THE FIRST GRADE. Aurora Theatre Company Artistic Director Tom Ross directs this new play from Johnson, whom The Chicago Reader declared 'balances gallows humor with acute insight and compassion. He creates characters so real you wonder what will happen to them after the final blackout.' Featuring Julia Brothers and Warren David Keith, along with Rebecca Schweitzer, Paul Santiago, Tina Sanchez, and Adrian Anchondo, THE FIRST GRADE plays January 22-February 28 at the Aurora Theatre in Berkeley.

The New York premiere of Orpheus X, with original music and text by 2007 Pulitzer Finalist Rinde Eckert, video by Denise Marika and directed by Robert Woodruff, draws from several literary and poetic sources, including the Sixth Century Greek poet Ibyous and the Roman poets Virgil and Ovid. Messrs.

Red Bull Theater's Revelation Readings series will feature Eric Bogosian, Michael Emerson and more. The series began readings on September 14th and will continue the series through June 14, 2010. The series is meant to rediscover neglected classics, and to develop new plays of heightened language and classical themes.

Arena Stage presents The Quality of Life, written by playwright and Emmy Award-winner Jane Anderson and directed by Lisa Peterson (Arena's The Rainmaker). In this 'magnetic work of theater' (San Francisco Chronicle) filled with compassion, honesty and humor, we find two couples dealing very differently with devastation.

As previously reported, Tony and Emmy winner Mandy Patinkin is set to start in Yale Repertory Theatre's COMPULSION, in his Yale Rep debut. (James Bundy, Artistic Director; Victoria Nolan, Managing Director). Today, the theatre has announced the performance schedule for the production, written by Rinne Groff, directed by Oskar Eustis, and co-produced with The Public Theater and Berkeley Repertory Theatre.

Red Bull Theater has announced the Revelation Readings 2009-2010 schedule.

Arena Stage presents The Quality of Life, written by playwright and Emmy Award-winner Jane Anderson and directed by Lisa Peterson (Arena's The Rainmaker). In this 'magnetic work of theater' (San Francisco Chronicle) filled with compassion, honesty and humor, we find two couples dealing very differently with devastation.

Arena Stage presents The Quality of Life, written by playwright and Emmy Award-winner Jane Anderson and directed by Lisa Peterson (Arena's The Rainmaker). In this 'magnetic work of theater' (San Francisco Chronicle) filled with compassion, honesty and humor, we find two couples dealing very differently with devastation.

Red Bull Theater has announced the Revelation Readings 2009-2010 schedule.

Eric Schaeffer, Artistic Director of the Tony Award®-winning Signature Theatre, today announced that Signature Theatre is expanding its American Musical Voices Project (AMVP) for a fourth year with the commission and production of a new musical by Adam Guettel for its 2011-2012 season. Also announced as part of The Next Generation segment of the AMVP were two additional musical commissions awarded to Peter Foley and Marisa Michelson as well as honoree grants given to Chris Miller and Scott Davenport Richards for the development of future musical ideas. Signature, with the support of The Shen Family Foundation, has awarded $595,000 to artists in honors and commissions in the past three years. The American Musical Voices Project is the largest single musical theater commissioning and producing initiative at any non-profit theater in America.

Chautauqua Theater Company Artistic Directors Vivienne Benesch and Ethan McSweeny are proud to announce the second production of the 2009 season: Tennessee Williams' classic The Glass Menagerie.

Motherhood Out Loud, a new American play, conceived by Susan R. Rose and Joan Stein, produced by Ms. Rose, Ms. Stein, Renee Landegger and Judith Resnick, directed by Lisa Peterson, and written by more than 15 writers, will have a special work-in-progress, 3-performance engagement as part of Bay Street Theatre's 2009 'Bay Street at the Parrish' season. Motherhood Out Loud plays July 30 - August 1 at the Parrish Art Museum in Southampton, NY.

Playwrights Horizons, under the leadership of Artistic Director Tim Sanford and Managing Director Leslie Marcus, is proud to announce four World Premieres for its 2009/2010 Season. Presented at the theater company's home at 416 West 42nd Street.

The Humana Festival of New American Plays, Actors Theatre of Louisville's main venue for producing new work, is an annual event held in February and March.

Ripe Time has announced that it will present the world premiere of Fire Throws, written and directed by Rachel Dickstein, based on Sophocles's Antigone, beginning Wednesday, February 18, at 8pm at 3LD Art & Technology Center, 80 Greenwich Street at Rector Street. Opening night is set for Sunday, February 22 at 8pm. In Fire Throws a contemporary Antigone challenges her past, re-examining her own story of sacrifice through the kaleidoscopic frenzy of a fever dream. Through video projection, live music, and dance-inspired staging, Fire Throws explodes the classic text into a cutting-edge meditation on desire, drive, and what is at stake in breaking the rules. Fire Throws features two Antigones: the one we know from the original story and the 2400-year-old symbol she has become, looking back on her story and searching for the person inside the icon. Antigone's brazen defense of the sanctity of burial takes a new relevance when staged blocks away from ground zero; and Creon's misguided use and abuse of power is a cautionary tale in a world of divisive politics. Ripe Time uses its signature physical and visual story-telling style to re-invigorate a great classic with a contemporary and relevant energy.

Winner of the 1967 Pulitzer Prize, Edward Albee's A Delicate Balance comes to Arena Stage in a contemporary and provocative new staging under the direction of experienced Albee collaborator Pam MacKinnon. Featuring Broadway stars Kathleen Chalfant (Wit, Angels in America), Terry Beaver (Henry IV, The Last Night of Ballyhoo), Ellen McLaughlin (Angels in America) and Carla Harting (Eurydice),joined by Helen Hedman and James Slaughter, A Delicate Balance runs February 6-March 15, 2009 at Arena Stage in Crystal City. The press opening performance is Thursday, February 12, 2009 at 8:00 p.m. 'Albee is fearless about writing stories that get us in the solar plexus, and he does so with his brilliant wit, dynamic storytelling and rigorous use of language,' shares Artistic Director Molly Smith. 'His work draws the best artists, and with this production audiences are fortunate to have an enormously strong cast and creative team-approved by Albee himself.' A frequent director of Albee plays, MacKinnon has directed The Play About the Baby, the world premieres of Peter and Jerry: Homelife and The Zoo Story (now titled At Home at the Zoo) and Occupant, as well as the U.S. regional and European premieres of The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?

The previously announced Kathleen Chalfant (Obie Award-winner for Wit) and Ellen McLaughlin (original Angel in Broadway's Angels in America) will be joined by Terry Beaver, Carla Harting, Helen Hedman and James Slaughter for the upcoming production of Edward Albee's provocative drama A Delicate Balance. Directed by Pam MacKinnon, A Delicate Balance will officially open February 12, 2009 at 8:00 p.m. at Arena Stage in Crystal City. The show will run February 6 through March 15, 2009. Full release to follow at a later date.