Friedrich Durrenmatt News

Hideki Noda and Colin Teevan's play THE BEE returns for an International Tour in 2012 visiting New York, London, Hong Kong and Tokyo; opening for previews at Soho Theatre on Tuesday 24 January, with a press night on 26 January, 2012.

According to published reports, London's Donmar Warehouse has just announced the 2012 line-up. Josie Rourke, who will take over for artistic director Michael Grandage, will direct George Farquhar's The Recruiting Officer, which runs February 9-April 14. Peter Gill will helm Robert Holman's Making Noise Quietly, which runs April 19-May 26; and Rourke will then direct Friedrich Durrenmatt's The Physicists, which runs May 31-July 21.

On June 25, the Adelaide Cabaret Festival wrapped up its 11th annual celebration of that art form in grand style, proving that the art of cabaret is very much alive.

Friedrich Durrenmatt's THE VISIT (adapted by Maurice Valency) is like one of those expressionistic German films from the 1920's directed by Robert Wiene or F.W. Murnau come to life on the stage. In fact, the characters and their stylized mannerisms seem like they would be right at home in one of the villages that Dr. Caligari might bring his somnambulist Cesare to for exhibition purposes. That's probably one of the reasons I found this unique and moralistic work so fascinating. Stray Dog Theatre is presenting this macabre and unusual play as the closer for their current season, and it's a brilliantly staged affair.

New York's OBIE Award-winning Epic Theatre Ensemble (Zak Berkman, Melissa Friedman, Ron Russell, Founding Executive Directors) today announced the cast and creative team for the New York premiere of Sarah Ruhl's Passion Play (In The Next Room… or the vibrator play) and directed by Mark Wing-Davey (The Singing Forest). The cast will include Brendan Averett, Polly Noonan, Daniel Pearce, Alex Podulke, Keith Reddin, Godfrey L. Simmons Jr., T. Ryder Smith, Felix Solis Jr., Kate Turnbull and Nicole Wiesner.

A cast of performing arts luminaries will join Gala Chair and Host Liza Minnelli at the 18th annual Kennedy Center Spring Gala, Sunday, May 2 at 8:30 pm in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall.

New York's OBIE Award-winning Epic Theatre Ensemble (Zak Berkman, Melissa Friedman, Ron Russell, Founding Executive Directors) today announced the cast and creative team for the New York premiere of Sarah Ruhl's Passion Play (In The Next Room… or the vibrator play) and directed by Mark Wing-Davey (The Singing Forest). The cast will include Brendan Averett, Polly Noonan, Daniel Pearce, Alex Podulke, Keith Reddin, Godfrey L. Simmons Jr., T. Ryder Smith, Felix Solis Jr., Kate Turnbull and Nicole Wiesner.

A cast of performing arts luminaries will join Gala Chair and Host Liza Minnelli at the 18th annual Kennedy Center Spring Gala, Sunday, May 2 at 8:30 pm in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall.

New York's OBIE Award-winning Epic Theatre Ensemble (Zak Berkman, Melissa Friedman, Ron Russell, Founding Executive Directors) today announced the cast and creative team for the New York premiere of Sarah Ruhl's Passion Play (In The Next Room… or the vibrator play) and directed by Mark Wing-Davey (The Singing Forest). The cast will include Brendan Averett, Polly Noonan, Daniel Pearce, Alex Podulke, Keith Reddin, Godfrey L. Simmons Jr., T. Ryder Smith, Felix Solis Jr., Kate Turnbull and Nicole Wiesner.

Gala Chair Liza Minnelli, her co-host Harvey Fierstein and some of Broadway's biggest stars will appear at the 18th annual Kennedy Center Spring Gala, Sunday, May 2nd at 8:30 pm in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall. The evening will celebrate Roger L. Stevens, founding chairman of the Kennedy Center, founding chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, and executive producer of over 200 Broadway shows. The evening will feature performances from some of his legendary contributions to Broadway. Casting will be announced at a later date.

Acclaimed stage, screen and television actress, Nan Martin, passed away Thursday morning (March 4) due to complications from emphysema. She was 82.

As we celebrate Halloween and All Saints' Day, the temperatures are finally starting to drop here a bit on the Central Coast to more fall like numbers - but there's no drop in the variety of live theatre and entertainment opportunities to be found here to fit most every taste and budget!

Having recently returned from 2 weeks in the Midwest - I am reminded that in many parts of the country, this is harvest time when farmers are concerned about getting the crops out of the fields in between fall rains and before the first snows arrive. But here on the California Central Coast, the temperatures are still warm - and so is the hospitality in our numerous live theatre and performance venues!

Upon returning from MN & IA where I performed a couple of weddings, preached at a friend's ordination, and caught a matinee of the National Tour of 'Wicked,' the Central Coast was hammered by a storm that dropped several inches of rain, leaving thousands of households without power (erego the late posting this week). However - the shows must go on ... and so they shall!

As Fall officially arrives on the California Central Coast, a number of curtains fall on several area theatre productions - but one curtain falls so that another may rise on some other theatrical offering that is well worth your time!

Good theatre should be like good food, the more you know about where it came from and how it was made, the better it tastes.

Hard to believe that we bid farwell to September this week and welcome the beginning of October - the first full month of fall! Many areas of the country are experiencing fall colors and cooler temperatures - and even here on the California Central Coast, a change can be felt in the air. But regardless of the change of season in the weather - the seasons of our various area theatres continue to provide a steady diet and wide variety of quality live entertainment for your viewing pleasure!

In churches around the World, Sunday, October 4th, was World Communion Sunday - that one Sunday out of the year when churches set aside their theological and philosophical differences and celebrate that which they share in common ... what a novel idea! And up and down the Central Coast, theatres continue to celebrate what THEY have in common - a feast of quality live entertainment to fit every budget and taste!

Hard to believe that we bid farwell to September this week and welcome the beginning of October - the first full month of fall! Many areas of the country are experiencing fall colors and cooler temperatures - and even here on the California Central Coast, a change can be felt in the air. But regardless of the change of season in the weather - the seasons of our various area theatres continue to provide a steady diet and wide variety of quality live entertainment for your viewing pleasure!

As Fall officially arrives on the California Central Coast, a number of curtains fall on several area theatre productions - but one curtain falls so that another may rise on some other theatrical offering that is well worth your time!