Erika Chong Shuch News

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater announces the full company for Pulitzer Prize winner Paula Vogel's thought-provoking play Indecent. Inspired by the 1923 Broadway debut of Sholem Asch's Yiddish drama The God of Vengeance, and the controversy that surrounded its themes of censorship, immigration and anti-Semitism, Vogel explores the behind-the-scenes story of the courageous artists who risked their careers and lives to perform this piece of theater under the most challenging circumstances. Infused with music that combines standards from Yiddish theater with folk traditions of the early to mid-20th century, Indecent, a co-production with Baltimore Center Stage and Kansas City Repertory, is directed by Eric Rosen, with choreography by Erika Chong Shuch and music direction and original music by Alexander Sovronsky. The production runs November 23 - December 30, 2018 in the Kreeger Theater.

Theatre Bay Area, the third-largest regional theatre service organization in North America, announced the finalists for the 2018 TBA Awards. The fifth annual TBA Awards Celebration will be held on Monday, Nov. 5 at the Herbst Theatre (401 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco). Tickets for the public go on sale Friday, September 28, 2018, through City Box Office.

Pittsburgh Public Theater begins its 44th season with a new management team - Artistic Director Marya Sea Kaminski and Managing Director Lou Castelli - and the Pittsburgh premiere of Kate Hamill's innovative comedy, Pride and Prejudice. Directed by Desdemona Chiang, Pride and Prejudice runs September 27 - October 28, 2018 at the O'Reilly Theater, Pittsburgh Public Theater's home in the heart of Downtown's Cultural District.

California Shakespeare Theater (Cal Shakes) announced further details today for the Shakespearean centerpiece to the 2018 Epic Season, The War of the Roses. The War of the Roses is a monumental evening of theater spanning four history plays-the Henry VI trilogy and Richard III. Presented as an action-packed evening, The War of the Roses will deliver a fast-paced, far-ranging, vividly theatrical depiction of two powerful families-the Lancasters and the Yorks-and their decades-long fight for the English throne. Political unrest and power grabs collide with weak leadership and civil strife as the country fights against the threat of tyranny.

With a mission to produce one new play by each of its six members, 6NewPlays officially closes up shop this fall with WAKEFIELD by Brian Thorstenson. Inspired by Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story of the same name, Wakefield starts at the moment Hawthorne's story ends, when the husband Henry Wakefield returns home after 20 years. Veteran actor Anne Darragh plays Sophia, Henry's wife, alongside Thorstenson as Henry. Erin Mei-Ling Stuart co-directs. Wakefield runs October 5 - 14 at Studio 210 in the Mission. Tickets, $20 - $25, will go on sale in August.

The Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival (Davis McCallum, Artistic Director; Kate Liberman, Managing Director) is proud to announce complete casting for the 2018 summer season. The previously announced season will include two Shakespeare classics, RICHARD II and THE TAMING OF THE SHREW, alongside David Farr's adaptation of THE HEART OF ROBIN HOOD, and the world premiere of Seth Bockley's RIP VAN WINKLE; or, CUT THE OLD MOON INTO STARS, the first-ever mainstage commission by HVSF, featuring 40-plus members of the Hudson Valley community alongside a cast of 4 professional actors. The season will also feature the HVSF Conservatory Company in an original clown piece, THE SEA-MAID'S MUSIC, devised and directed by Zachary Fine.

BroadwayWorld has a full list of the Helen Hayes Awards winners updating LIVE below! Named for actor Helen Hayes - a Washington native and legendary First Lady of the American Theatre - the Helen Hayes Awards celebrates excellence in professional theatre throughout the Washington region and has become a hallmark recognized by theatre makers and theatre lovers far beyond Washington D.C.

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival invites audiences to "be our guest" for a Falstaffian romp through merry old Windsor; a heroic, Homeric journey home to Ithaka; and a revelatory musical journey of self-discovery when its outdoor theatre opens the weekend of June 16-18. The Allen Elizabethan Theatre will feature The Merry Wives of Windsor, directed by Dawn Monique Williams; The Odyssey, adapted and directed by Mary Zimmerman; and Disney's Beauty and the Beast, directed by Eric Tucker. Previews begin June 6, and all three shows will run through the weekend of October 13-15.

The Tony Award-winning Oregon Shakespeare Festival will launch its 82nd year with preview performances beginning on February 17, and the season officially kicks off Today night, February 24, in the Angus Bowmer Theatre with Shakespeare's Julius Caesar (director, Shana Cooper).

The 2017 Helen Hayes Award nominations were announced tonight. A line-up of leading theatre artists announced nominations in 47 categories of artistic excellence. Award recipients will be announced at the Helen Hayes Awards gala event to be held at the Lincoln Theatre on Monday, May 15 with an after-party hosted at Washington's legendary 9:30 Club.

The Tony Award-winning Oregon Shakespeare Festival will launch its 82nd year with preview performances beginning on February 17, and the season officially kicks off Friday night, February 24, in the Angus Bowmer Theatre with Shakespeare's Julius Caesar (director, Shana Cooper).

"War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery and Ignorance is Strength."  Greenway Arts Alliance Presents: George Orwell's 1984, directed by Kate Jopson as the first production of their novel to stage program Greenway Reads. 300 Fairfax High School students are reading the novel and will attend matinee's of the theatrical production. The adaptation by Alan Lyddiard creates an interactive and engaging experience for audience members. Jopson said, "We're trying to create an immersive experience. The elements of the play and its themes are all around us in the real world. We try to emphasize that and as soon as you arrive at the theater there's not anywhere you're not in the set of 1984, even in the lobby and bathrooms."  

Borderlands Theater presents the rolling world premiere of Nogales: Storytellers in Cartel Country by Richard Montoya (American Night, Water & Power) of the acclaimed Chicano performance troupe Culture Clash (Bowl of Beans, Chavez Ravine.) Nogales: Storytellers in Cartel Country traces in reverse the devastating headlines of a Mexican boy shot by US Border Patrol across the border fence. San Francisco theater artist, Sean San Jose, co-founder ofCampo Santo, directs. Nogales: Storytellers in Cartel Country begins with previews September 7th, Opening gala September 9th, and closes September 25th.

Today, The Ground Floor: Berkeley Rep's Center for the Creation and Development of New Work announces that it has selected 18 projects for its fifth Summer Residency Lab featuring works from more than 30 talented artists. This June, as part of an extraordinary laboratory for collaboration, some of the nation's most prominent and promising writers, directors, designers, performers, and composers will unite at the Theatre's Harrison Street campus over an intense four-week period to share ideas, break bread, and create new plays. Dozens more local and out-of-town actors and directors will join the Summer Residency Lab, bringing the number of participating artists close to 100.

American Conservatory Theater continues its 2015-16 season with The Unfortunates (February 3-April 10, 2016), a darkly comic musical that uses a unique mix of early 20th century American blues and gospel stylings fused with modern and syncopated rhythms to transport audiences to a world of memory and mythmaking. Inspired by the classic and mysterious blues song, "St. James Infirmary," made famous in the 1920s by Louis Armstrong, The Unfortunates tells the story of Big Joe, a stalwart, tough-talking soldier cursed with oversized hands, who journeys through a dream world in which he confronts a series of enemies and risks everything to save his armless love, Rae, from the plague that has decimated all but a handful of survivors. The search for salvation is marked by the characters' willingness to make music in the face of loss, and search for love in a time of desperation. Journeying from a prison camp to the underworld, The

American Conservatory Theater continues its 2015-16 seasonwith THE UNFORTUNATES (tonight, February 3, through April 10, 2016), a darkly comic musical that uses a unique mix of early 20th century American blues and gospel stylings fused with modern and syncopated rhythms to transport audiences to a world of memory and mythmaking.

Kicking off Folger Theatre's 2016 commemoration of 400 years of William Shakespeare is one of his most beloved comedies, A Midsummer Night's Dream. On stage from January 26 through March 6, 2016, this hilarious and heartfelt celebration of the follies and foibles of human beings is directed by four-time Helen Hayes Award-winner Aaron Posner. It is performed by an all-star cast, including Holly Twyford as Bottom, Eric Hissom as Oberon, Caroline Stefanie Clay as Titania, and Erin Weaver as a mischievous Puck. Tickets are available online at www.folger.edu/theatre or by calling the Folger Box Office at (202) 544-7077.

American Conservatory Theater continues its 2015-16 seasonwith THE UNFORTUNATES (February 3-April 10, 2016), a darkly comic musical that uses a unique mix of early 20th century American blues and gospel stylings fused with modern and syncopated rhythms to transport audiences to a world of memory and mythmaking.

Kicking off Folger Theatre's 2016 commemoration of 400 years of William Shakespeare is one of his most beloved comedies, A Midsummer Night's Dream. On stage from January 26 through March 6, 2016, this hilarious and heartfelt celebration of the follies and foibles of human beings is directed by four-time Helen Hayes Award-winner Aaron Posner. It is performed by an all-star cast, including Holly Twyford as Bottom, Eric Hissom as Oberon, Caroline Stefanie Clay as Titania, and Erin Weaver as a mischievous Puck. Tickets are available online at www.folger.edu/theatre or by calling the Folger Box Office at (202) 544-7077.

California Shakespeare Theater continues its 2015 season with Pulitzer-Prize winning playwright Nilo Cruz's powerfully-penned adaptation of Life Is a Dream, Pedro Calderon de la Barca's epic tale of love, power, and destiny, Life Is a Dream. Directed by Magic Theatre's Artistic Director Loretta Greco in her Cal Shakes debut, Life Is a Dream plays at the Bruns Amphitheater from July 8 through August 2.