THE HAIRY APE at the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble through July 17 tells the story of Robert 'Yank' Smith, a brutish ship laborer who searches for a sense of belonging in a world controlled by the wealthy elite who he believes only see him as a dirty and hairy ape rather than a real human being. As head coal stoker on an ocean liner, Yank (Haile D'Alan whose incredible and extremely physical performance lifts the entire production to the highest artistic quality) is in his element where he rules his dark, hot, hard-drinking smoky world while managing a group of six other coal stokers who seem to prove their resemblance to simians no matter what they do thanks to the brilliant and totally physical ape-like choreography of their every move by director Steven Berkoff. It's truly a wonder as to how the ensemble manages to keep their energy at such a high level throughout the entire show.
In anticipation of Pride Week, Thank You For Coming Out (TYFCO) is teaming up with Fun Home to hold an improv workshop benefiting the organizations I'm From Driftwood and How We G.L.O.W. Each of the four groups amplify the LGBTQ voice in a different way and aim to promote an understanding among communities. This workshop will encourage empathy, inclusivity and acceptance within the LGBTQ community by using and teaching the ideals of improv - listening, trust, respect, affirmation and connection with each other through the principle of Yes, And. TYFCO and Fun Home's main goal is that both I'm From Driftwood and How We G.L.O.W. can take what they learned back to their organizations and continue to inspire others.
Thank You For Coming Out presents Pride Night at the Magnet Theater on Monday, June 20, 2016, at 254 West 29th Street, Ground Floor, NYC. Tickets are available to reserve at www.magnettheater.com. Tickets are $7 for each hour, and 100 percent of the ticket proceeds from the entire evening are being donated by the Magnet Theater to I'm From Driftwood (https://imfromdriftwood.com).
The Drama Book Shop, now celebrating its 99th year, will welcome playwright Paula Vogel and director Rebecca Taichman, the creative forces behind Indecent, for a discussion about the play. The event will take place on Friday, June 10th at 5:00PM. It is free to the public. For those unable to attend, the Tony Award-winning Drama Book Shop will live-stream the conversation on their Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/dramabookshop) and on their Periscope channel @dramabookshop.
Amphibian Stage Productions has announced the cast and creative team for its fourth main stage play of the 2016 season, Smart Pretty Funny by Kathleen Culebro. Starring Gretchen Corbett, Rene Moreno, Vanessa DeSilvio, Ivan Jasso, and Anastasia Muñoz, the play will run Thursday, October 20 through Sunday, November 13 at the Berlene T. and Jarrell R. Milburn Theatre at Amphibian Stage Productions.
Victory Gardens Theater announces the June lineup for The VG Reading Series. This regularly scheduled program of play readings provides playwrights a platform to develop their plays-in-progress, and will give audiences opportunities to experience exciting new work throughout the year. The Reading Series adds to VG's current programming of world premieres and new plays and the IGNITION Festival of New Plays.
2016 marks the centenary of the year Eugene O'Neill began writing ground-breaking plays in Provincetown, considered the birthplace of modern American theater. This year, the 11th Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theater (TW Fest) will offer new approaches to staging O'Neill from the perspective of Tennessee Williams' genre-busting dramas.
Erin Markey, Josh Sharp, April Kidwell, Michael Cyril Creighton and Phillip Taratula will join the cast of the sixth annual "Night Of A Thousand Judys" - the Pride concert to benefit The Ali Forney Center presented by The Meeting* hosted by Justin Sayre. The event will take place at Merkin Concert Hall at the Kaufman Center (129 West 67th Street in Manhattan) on Monday, June 6.
Roundabout Theatre Company (Todd Haimes, Artistic Director) and Education at Roundabout (Jennifer DiBella, Director of Education) are pleased to announce that Baltimore School for the Arts in the US and Showdown Theatre Arts in the UK will present the London premiere of PROSPECT HIGH: BROOKLYN. Written by Daniel Robert Sullivan and a team of New York City teenagers, Prospect High: Brooklyn was developed in partnership with Education at Roundabout and the Fox Foundation Resident Actor Fellowships. The play is in the midst of a Rolling World Premiere in 23 high school productions across the US, September 2015 - September 2016, but this will be the very first international production. The schools will present the play today, June 4th at 11:30 AM and 2:30 PM. Tickets may be reserved by writing BoxOffice@TristanBatesTheatre.co.uk. Call 020 3841 6611 for more information.
TACT kicks off its 2016 - '17 season with its 6th annual newTACTics New Play Festival (Owen Thompson and Yetti Steinman, Producers, with Lauren Miller, newTACTics advisor), a fresh collection of four unpredictable and engaging new works. The original plays at newTACTics always invite you to expect the unexpected, and this year's offerings are no exception.
Barrett Foa and Marissa Mulder will join Annie Golden, Lillias White, Alice Ripley, Nathan Lee Graham, Vivian Reed, Lady Rizo,Gay Marshall, Carol Lipnik, Rob Maitner, Gabrielle Stravelli, T. Oliver Reid and Nadia Quinn & Ahna O'Reilly with the Playbillies to headline the sixth annual 'Night Of A Thousand Judys' - the Pride concert to benefit The Ali Forney Center presented by The Meeting* hosted by Justin Sayre.
Premiere Stages at Kean University will launch its much-anticipated 2016 Season with a free staged reading of Jeff Talbott's provocative new play, Three Rules for the Dragon, June 17-19 in Kean's Murphy Dunn Theatre. Selected from over 400 submissions, Three Rules for the Dragon is the first of two scripts scheduled for expanded development as part of the 2016 Premiere Stages Play Festival.
Target Margin Theater presents The ICEMAN Lab, a radical new reimaging of The Iceman Cometh, with four diverse theater artists each tackling a separate act of the play. This fresh take on O'Neill's classic will give audiences the opportunity to see each act as a separate experiment or all together in a single sitting. The four acts of The ICEMAN Lab play a varied schedule at the HERE Arts Center (145 6th Avenue) beginning today, June 2 through June 25, with special marathon performances on June 11 and June 18.
Gary DiMauro, Therese Steiner, and Showstoppers NY present a special engagement of I LOVED LUCY, Lee Tannen's loving and candid play about his friendship with Lucille Ball, on Thursday, July 21 at 8pm at the Lucille Lortel Theatre (121 Christopher Street). Direct from the play's critically acclaimed London premiere at the Jermyn Street Theatre, Sandra Dickinson reprises her celebrated performance as Lucy. Jermyn Street Theatre's Artistic Director Anthony Biggs is set to direct.
?Rhinebeck Writers Retreat is presenting a reading of the new musical, INTO THE WILD, book and lyrics by Janet Allard and music and lyrics by Niko Tsakalakos, on June 13 in New York City for an invited industry audience. INTO THE WILD is based on the acclaimed best selling book by Jon Krakauer and "Back to the Wild" by the Christopher J. McCandless Foundation.
Adventure Stage Chicago (ASC), a Northwestern Settlement (the Settlement) program, announces its 2016 - 2017 season. Kicking off its thirteenth season, ASC continues its commitment to new work and original storytelling in the spirit of service and community-building.
Today in 1982, a return engagement of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas opened at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre, where it ran for 63 performances. The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas is a musical with a book by Texas author Larry L. King and Peter Masterson and music and lyrics by Carol Hall. It is based on a story by King that was inspired by the real-life Chicken Ranch in La Grange, Texas. The original Broadway production was directed by Peter Masterson and Tommy Tune and choreographed by Tune and Thommie Walsh. It opened on June 19, 1978 at the 46th Street Theatre and ran for 1,584 performances.
