F. Roberts News

Philadelphia Theatre Company mourns the loss of Philadelphia cultural icon Suzanne Roberts. Roberts had a transformative effect on the landscape of Philadelphia, especially its vast arts and cultural community.

We live in an age where our leaders convince people that made-up things are really true. That's what witches do.  So the Witches are the preoccupation of First Maria Ensemble's upcoming production of 'Macbeth,' directed by Celeste Moratti, to be presented December 6 to 21 at Teatro Circulo, 64 East 4th Street.  The company made an auspicious debut in 2016 with 'Hamlet,' which Theater Pizazz (JK Clarke) called one of the season's best small-company productions of Shakespeare plays and Front Row Center (Holli Harms) added, 'Here is hoping that Celeste Moratti continues on this trajectory of directorial discoveries.' 

To share an outstanding production of the 2013 Hamlet Marathon in Milan, Italy with a wider audience, First Maria LLC will present Shakespeare's 'Hamlet,' directed by Celeste Moratti and performed by a mixed American-Italian company, March 4 to 20, 2016 at Teatro Circulo, 64 East 4th Street, Manhattan. The production trims politics out of the plot in order to emphasize each character's role as either a child or a parent, highlighting mistakes of mothers and fathers and the conflicts in children between filial duty and the emergence of conscience. The performance is entirely in English.

IU Press was doubly honored at this year'sAfrican Studies Association (ASA) meeting with book and service awards. During the ASA awards ceremony on Saturday night, Land, Mobility, and Belonging in West Africa by Carola Lentz was named co-winner of this year's Melville J. Herskovits Award. Lentz shares the award with Allen and Barbara Isaacman, authors of Dams, Displacement and the Delusion of Development: Cahora Bassa and its Legacies in Mozambique.

Australia

New York music icon Michael Feinstein recently helped raise more than $170,000 to continue funding music therapy programs and support research initiatives of the Institute for Music and Neurologic Function

Philly's top theaters are honored at the Merriam Theater.

Joan Allen, Michael Rupert and Christine Ebersole are among the stars lined up for the Playwrights Horizons gala High Standards on April 3