Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig News

A Noise Within (ANW) is proud to announce the return of its Words Within Resident Artist Reading Festival from July 26 through July 28, 2019. ANW will partner with three Los Angeles-based theatre companies, Lower Depth Theatre Ensemble, East West Players, and Latino Theater Company, for the free reading festival, titled inVision. A Noise Within and its festival partners will produce eight staged readings over the course of three days at ANW's East Pasadena campus. This is the second reading festival ANW has produced. ANW's first reading festival, The American Dream, launched the classic repertory theatre company's 25th anniversary season when it premiered in summer 2016. The festival is an extension of ANW's popular Words Within reading series, which began over 10 years ago and to date has produced 46 staged reading performances by the company's resident artists.

With over 725 stories to choose from, the eight writers we commissioned to reimagine Aesop's Fables were spoilt for choice. Each of the writers has had their own unique take on them - from Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig's joyful musical with a crow chorus through to as piece by Chris Goode which takes the basis of a rehearsal room and then smashes through the fourth wall with an act of animalistic rebellion.

The Unicorn will be continuing their hugely popular workshops this summer holidays. Led by professional theatre-makers, participants can learn great new skills and make new friends. From dance, set design, drama, puppetry and more. Workshops range from a day or two days, through to the five day Play In A Week workshops. The performance-based workshops close with a sharing for friends and family.

California Shakespeare Theater continues its 2019 summer season with The Good Person of Szechwan by Bertolt Brecht, translated by Wendy Arons and adapted by Tony Kushner, playing July 3 through July 21, 2019 at the Bruns Amphitheater. A Pay What You Can performance will be held on Wednesday, July 3. Tickets will be available starting at 10am on the day of the show through TodayTix and the Cal Shakes Box Office at 510.548.9666.

Unicorn Artistic Director Justin Audibert and Associate Director Rachel Bagshaw direct a series of eight newly commissioned plays from leading voices in theatre based on Aesop's Fables classic tales. They will play in repertory to two age groups, one for ages 4-7 and one for ages 8-12.

UCSB's Department of Theater and Dance presents the third annual New Works Lab May 9 19 in the Performing Arts Theater. New Works Lab showcases bare bones developmental productions of half-hour scripted and devised plays. The program provides a basic 'fringe festival' level of technical and design support so that each work may evolve in content and structure through the final performance. The platform has most notably given Malique Guinn, a fourth-year undergraduate at the time, the opportunity to realize his play Gang Sines which would go onto to win him the 2018 Kennedy Center Hip Hop Theater Creator Award.

The University of Texas Department of Theatre and Dance at Austin presents UTNT (UT New Theatre), March 12-31, 2019 in multiple locations throughout the F. Loren Winship Drama Building. Established in 2007 by nationally renowned playwright Steven Dietz, UTNT (UT New Theatre) is an annual showcase of newly developed works for the American stage from playwrights of the Department of Theatre and Dance's master of fine arts program and Michener Center for Writers. Now in its twelfth year, UTNT brings to the stage compelling works by I-Chia Chiu, Hannah Kenah, Daria Miyeko Marinelli and Thom May.

United States Artists (USA) is thrilled to announce its 2019 USA Fellows. This year, 45 artists and collectives working across disciplines will each receive an unrestricted $50,000 cash award.

In January, New Conservatory Theatre Center presents Late Company, written by "the hottest name in Canadian theatre" (The Montreal Gazette), Jordan Tannahill and directed by fearless local sensation, Evren Odcikin. This gripping, fast-paced drama centers around a family grappling to find meaning and redemption after the suicide of their son, who was frequently bullied about his sexuality. In keeping with NCTC's foundation of anti-bullying activism and prevention, Late Company is proud to partner with No Bully, Queer Life Space, and San Francisco Suicide Prevention to increase awareness of the effects of cyberbullying on LGBT youth.

One of the theater world's most prestigious playwriting prizes, the Yale Drama Series Prize, was given to Leah Nanako Winkler for her play God Said This. The 2018 award recipient was chosen by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Ayad Akhtar. The winning play received a private staged reading at Lincoln Center Theater's Claire Tow Theater on October 30, 2018.

California Shakespeare Theater announced today the return of its record-breaking hit play black odyssey for a special limited engagement, September 25 through October 7, 2018 at the Bruns Amphitheater. Marcus Gardley's music-filled journey through African-American folklore garnered box office records, critical acclaim, sold-out houses, and standing ovations during its initial August 2017 run.

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.

East West Players (EWP), the nation's longest-running professional theater of color in the country and the largest producing organization of Asian American artistic work, is pleased to announce a new series of community conversations and readings titled, Counter-Culture, as part of its 53rd Anniversary Season, Culture Shock.

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival will open the U.S. premiere of Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig's Snow in Midsummer, directed by Justin Audibert, on August 5 in the Angus Bowmer Theatre. Preview performances are August 2, 3 and 4, and the play runs through Oct. 27, 2018.

The year-end New Works Lab at UCSB, which challenges students to write, direct, design, and perform short plays, gives students a chance to experiment with form, style, and collaboration. This year's plays offered comedy, drama, and an excursion into the absurd, while expressing insecurities about the future on both a personal and global level.

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival invites audiences to enjoy two plays by William Shakespeare-plus one about saving his words and securing his legacy-under the stars when its flagship outdoor theatre opens the weekend of June 15-17, 2018. The Allen Elizabethan Theatre will feature Romeo and Juliet, directed by Damaso Rodriguez; Lauren Gunderson's The Book of Will, directed by Christopher Liam Moore; and Love's Labor's Lost, directed by Amanda Dehnert. Previews begin June 5, and all three shows will run through the weekend of October 12-14.

Yangtze Repertory Theatre (Chongren Fan, Artistic Director; Sally Shen, Executive Director) announces a new production of Romulus the Great, by Friedrich Durrenmatt, based on the translation by Gerhard Nellhaus, directed by Chongren Fan. With performances beginning on Thursday, June 7th at the TBG Theatre (312 West 36thStreet, 3F), Romulus The Great will celebrate it's opening night on Saturday, June 9, and will play through Saturday, June 23.

UCSB's Department of Theater and Dance is proud to present the annual New Works Lab, a workshop production by six UCSB student playwrights. The production is split into two programs: Gold Bill and Blue Bill. Under the mentorship of Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig, Vickie J. Scott, Daniel Stein and Una Mladenovic, New Works Lab will be held May 10 through May 20 in the Studio Theater.

It seemed unlikely to me that a play set in a fantastical arcade, complete with the old favorite Dance Dance Revolution, would be able to stir deep emotions in an audience. But Rorschach Theatre's impactful production of Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig's 410[GONE], directed by Gregory Keng Strasser, does just that. It uses unlikely imagery to tell a highly personal but universal story of trauma and recovery.

One of the theater world's most prestigious playwriting prizes, the Yale Drama Series Prize, will be given to Leah Nanako Winkler for her play God Said This. The 2018 award recipient was chosen by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Ayad Akhtar. The winning play will receive a private staged reading at Lincoln Center Theater's Claire Tow Theater onOctober 30, 2018.