Eugene O'Neill News

Lunar Energy Productions will present the World Premiere of By Rights We Should Be Giants, created and written by Lunar Energy ensemble members Nadia Sepsenwol and Tim Van Dyck, tonght, October 18-November 3 at The Secret Theatre (4402 23rd Street between 44th Avenue and 44th Road, Long Island City).

Johnny Mercer Foundation and Kaufman Center Present CELEBRATE! SONGS FROM THE JOHNNY MERCER FOUNDATION. 'Broadway Close Up Series' spotlights new songwriters in dazzling performances with Teacher/Mentors Tony Nominated composers Craig Carnelia & Andrew Lippa, Grammy Winning songwriter Lari White & Marilyn Maye Shine. Photos from the event inside!

Dynamic producing duo Executive Producer, Mr. Voza Rivers' New Heritage Theater and Ms. Debra Ann Byrd's Take Wing and Soar will team up to bring Pauletta Pearson Washington and Roscoe Orman to the New York stage for a revival production of Lorey Hayes' POWER PLAY, a story about politics, passion and the power of God.

The gala 44th Annual Jeff Equity Awards ceremony honoring excellence in professional theatre produced within the immediate Chicago area was held on Monday, October 15, at Drury Lane Oakbrook.

Denver Center Theatre Company (DCTC), with license from the American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER) and Broadway Impact, presents a one-night-only reading of "8," a play chronicling the historic trial in the federal constitutional challenge to California's Proposition 8, written by Academy Award-winning screenwriter and AFER Founding Board Member Dustin Lance Black. The reading is in partnership with One Colorado Education Fund, a statewide advocacy organization dedicated to securing and protecting equality and opportunity for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Coloradans and their families.

Off-Broadway's Irish Repertory Theatre launches its 25th Anniversary Season with Brian Friel's THE FREEDOM OF THE CITY - with an official press opening tonight, October 14 on the Irish Repertory's Francis J. Greenburger Mainstage (132 West 22nd Street). Performances are set to run through November 25. Ciaran O'Reilly directs.

The world premiere of Will Dunne's Love and Drowning has been extended through November 3, 2012 at 16th Street Theater, a program of the North Berwyn Park District. Love and Drowning is the final offering in 16th Street's Season Five 2012: Love, Faith and the Unknown. Post-show dialogues after every Thursday and Friday performances include speakers such as playwright Will Dunne, director Ann Filmer and special guests from Chicago's International Association for Near Death Studies.

Tritone Productions presents Steven Blanchard and Veanne Cox in a staged presentation of the new musical comedy, Jonathan Brielle's 40 Naked Women, A Monkey and Me directed by Michael Bush with book, music & lyrics by Jonathan Brielle; musical direction by Steven Ray Watkins and choreography by Kelli Barclay. The cast also includes Leanne Borghesi, Deidre Goodwin Brittney Lee Hamilton, John Herrera and Marcy McGuigan. The presentations take place Thursday, October 18 at 3 pm and Friday, October 19 at 2pm at S.I.R. Studios, 520 West 25th Street.

BroadwayWorld.com's SHOW BIZ: Rush, Lottery & Standing Room Only Ticketing Policies - updated on 10/12/2012.

Mildred's Umbrella Theatre Company proudly presents our Houston area premier of Kimberly Akimbo, by Pulitzer Prize- winning playwright, David Lindsay Abaire. The show will be directed by veteran Houston director, Ron Jones, starring Carolyn Boone, Kim Tobin-Lehl, Jennifer Decker, Luke Fedell and Ty Doran. The performances will run November 29 thru December 15, 2012 at Studio 101 at Spring Street Studios.

The National Playwrights Conference and the National Music Theater Conference, programs of the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, will be the focus of an evening at the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center at the City University of New York. The event, on Monday, October 15th, is free and open to the public and begins at 6:30pm at the Martin E. Segal Theater Center at 365 Fifth Avenue, New York.

Cutting Ball Theater opens its 14th season with Strindberg Cycle: The Chamber Plays in Rep, a festival of August Strindberg's five Chamber Plays in new translations by Paul Walsh.

The National Theatre Conference (NTC), an organization founded in 1925 that meets annually in New York to discuss relevant issues in today's theatre community and to celebrate outstanding achievement in the American theatre, has named the recipients of its 2012 awards. Broadway producer Elizabeth McCann has been named Person of the Year; the New Federal Theatre, under the direction of its founder, Woodie King, Jr., is the recipient of the Theatre of the Year Award; and playwright Dominique Morisseau has been selected as the winner of the Barrie and Bernice Stavis Playwright Award. All three will be presented with their awards and honored at the Players and at Signature Theatre during NTC's annual conference in New York October 26-28, 2012.

Manhood takes on a very different meaning for baby boomers who waited until middle age to marry. Having committed late in life, they got newborn babies and dying parents at the same time. Such is the situation of the protagonist in 'RIPE,' a new solo show by playwright/actor/journalist John Jiler, which begins with him on the phone to a pharmacist, ordering three boxes of diapers at the same time: two for his aging parents, and one for his new-born son. The play's about being caught in the middle. Theater for the New City, 155 First Ave., will present the piece tonight, October 11 to 28, directed by Sturgis Warner, who staged 'Palestine,' the widely acclaimed solo show by Najla Saïd (daughter of Edward W. Said) at the Fourth Street Theatre of NY Theatre Workshop in 2010.

Artistic Director Les Waters and Managing Director Jennifer Bielstein have announced that Waters will stage his inaugural production as Artistic Director with Long Day's Journey into Night by Eugene O'Neill. O'Neill's epic drama will play a limited engagement of 24 performances in the Pamela Brown Auditorium at Actors Theatre of Louisville as part of the Brown-Forman Series. It opens tonight, October 11 and runs through October 28.

Eclipse Theatre has announced the recipient of their Fourth Annual Corona Award: Steve Scott, Associate Producer of The Goodman Theatre. Eclipse's Corona Award honors an individual who has played an important role in supporting and nurturing the Chicago Theatre community as well as Eclipse Theatre.

Thomas Sadoski, a Tony nominee for his work in reasons to be pretty and who currently stars in HBO's The Newsroom, is set to appear in the world premiere production of Michael Golamco's Build in the Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater at the Geffen Playhouse.

The South Camden Theatre Company, a nonprofit professional theatre organization located in Camden, New Jersey opens its eight season titled "Home in Waterfront South" featuring works written by Clifford Odets, August Wilson, Joseph M. Paprzycki and Eugene O'Neill. Our eighth season will focus on our common desire for somewhere to call home; be it in our neighborhoods, hearts or minds.

American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.), in association with the American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER) and Broadway Impact, announced today the casting for the one-night-only staged reading of "8" taking place tonight, October 7, 2012, at 7 p.m., at A.C.T.'s Geary Theater (415 Geary Street, San Francisco). The landmark marriage equality play, written by Academy Award-winning screenwriter (Milk) and AFER Founding Board Member Dustin Lance Black, chronicles the historic trial in the federal constitutional challenge to California's Proposition 8. Proceeds from the reading benefit AFER and LGBTQ youth participating in A.C.T.'s ACTsmart (formerly known as ArtReach) program, which offers free student matinee tickets and theater-based pre- and postshow workshops at no cost to 23 public high schools in the Bay Area (including all 18 San Francisco public high schools) with large populations of underserved, low-income students who otherwise would have little exposure to the arts. Tickets range in price from $50 to $100. A limited number of $250 seats are available and include premium seating and access to a postperformance reception with the cast. Tickets are on sale now and may be purchased online at act-sf.org or by calling 415.749.2228.

The Chicago Neo-Futurists get presidential in 44 Plays for 44 Presidents. The show opens tonight, October 6 at 7:30 p.m. at The Neo-Futurarium, 5153 N. Ashland.