Gina Taylor News

Cell Short Takes is sponsoring the Eyes on L.A.: Hat Stories Contest, which ties in with the current run of Regina Taylor?s award-winning production of Crowns at Pasadena Playhouse. Cell Short Takes is looking for favorite hat stories from Los Angeles County residents over the age of 18, who are legal residents of the United States or D.C. Contestants are to submit their Eyes on L.A.: Hat Stories in cell short takes format by mail, postmarked for receipt by Friday, August 14, 2009. Cell phone short takes are films shot entirely on cell phones lasting between 5 and 10 minutes in length. Short takes will be viewed and voted on by your peers and the Cell Short Takes online community.

Cell Short Takes is sponsoring the Eyes on L.A.: Hat Stories Contest, which ties in with the current run of Regina Taylor?s award-winning production of Crowns at Pasadena Playhouse. Cell Short Takes is looking for favorite hat stories from Los Angeles County residents over the age of 18, who are legal residents of the United States or D.C. Contestants are to submit their Eyes on L.A.: Hat Stories in cell short takes format by mail, postmarked for receipt by Friday, August 14, 2009. Cell phone short takes are films shot entirely on cell phones lasting between 5 and 10 minutes in length. Short takes will be viewed and voted on by your peers and the Cell Short Takes online community.

Second Stage Theatre (Carole Rothman, Artistic Director) will launch its 31st season this fall with the New York premiere of Anna Deavere Smith's LET ME DOWN EASY. Conceived, written, and performed by Ms. Smith and directed by Leonard Foglia, LET ME DOWN EASY will begin preview performances on Tuesday, September 15 and will officially open on Wednesday, October 7 at 6:45pm.

Second Stage Theatre (Carole Rothman, Artistic Director; Ellen Richard, Executive Director) will conclude its 30th Anniversary mainstage season with the New York premiere of VANITIES, a new musical written by Jack Heifner, featuring music and lyrics by David Kirshenbaum, directed by Judith Ivey. With musical staging by Dan Knechtges, VANITIES will feature Lauren Kennedy, Sarah Stiles, and Anneliese van der Pol and will begin preview performances on Thursday, July 2. Opening night is Thursday, July 16 at 6:30pm

Goodman Theatre welcomes children of all ethnicities to audition for this year's production of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol adapted by Tom Creamer and directed by William Brown. Performers aged 5 to 17 are needed for several roles-including the role of Tiny Tim and the Cratchit children.

Vassar & New York Stage and Film's Powerhouse season will continue through Sunday, August 2, with the Mainstage play Vera Laughed (through 8/2); the Martel Musical Tina Girlstar (7/31 - 8/1); the ever-popular Readings Festival 2 (7/30 - 8/2); and a free concert reading by the Powerhouse Apprentice Company of the new musical Hello! My Baby.

Goodman Theatre is proud to present the Chicago premiere of Dael Orlandersmith's Stoop Stories, September 12 - October 11, 2009 the Goodman's 400-seat flexible Owen Bruner Theatre. Tickets are $10 - $40 and go on sale Friday, August 7 at GoodmanTheatre.org.

Second Stage Theatre (Carole Rothman, Artistic Director; Ellen Richard, Executive Director) concludes its 30th Anniversary mainstage season with the New York premiere of VANITIES, a new musical written by Jack Heifner, featuring music and lyrics by David Kirshenbaum, directed by Judith Ivey. With musical staging by Dan Knechtges, VANITIES features Lauren Kennedy, Sarah Stiles, and Anneliese van der Pol.

The National Playwrights Conference (NPC) at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center continues its 45th year with staged readings of House of Gold by Gregory Moss on July 16 at 8:15 pm and July 17 at 3:15 pm and Spoon Lake Blues by Josh Tobiessen on July 18 at 8:15 pm and July 19 at 3:15 pm.

Second Stage Theatre (Carole Rothman, Artistic Director; Ellen Richard, Executive Director) will conclude its 30th Anniversary mainstage season with the New York premiere of VANITIES, a new musical written by Jack Heifner, featuring music and lyrics by David Kirshenbaum, directed by Judith Ivey. With musical staging by Dan Knechtges, VANITIES will feature Lauren Kennedy, Sarah Stiles, and Anneliese van der Pol and will begin preview performances on Thursday, July 2. Opening night is Thursday, July 16 at 6:30pm

Chicago is officially one theater company richer after The Ruckus Theater recently karate-chopped and high-fived its way into the Central Time Zone. Made up of an industrious group of Michigan ex-pats, The Ruckus is composed of actors, directors, playwrights, musicians, casting directors, publicity managers, grant writers, baristas, grad students, poets, computer fixers, appointment-makers and census-takers who aim to create a new kind of company-a casteless theater that blends the lines between playwright and actor, audience and company member.

On Monday, June 29, Goodman Theatre Outgoing Board Chairman Shawn M. Donnelley and Artistic Director Robert Falls were honored with stars bearing their names as part of the Goodman's 'Walkway of Stars.' The stars were presented in appreciation and gratitude for their achievements and service to the theater, and commemorated Donnelley's leadership gift of $1 million to Goodman Theatre's endowment. A ribbon cutting and unveiling of the two stars followed brief remarks by Executive Director Roche Schulfer during an afternoon ceremony on the theater's black granite entryway beneath the 73-foot Goodman marquee at 170 North Dearborn Street. Present were members of the Goodman's Board of Trustees as well as friends of the theater, including: Chairman-Elect Patricia Cox; Goodman Resident Artistic Associate Henry Godinez; Academy Award-nominated playwright José Rivera; Goodman Trustees Sherry Barrat of Northern Trust, Ruth Ann Gillis of Exelon Corporation, Vikki Hood of Kirkland & Ellis; Goodman Scenemakers Council members Shannon Kinsella and Cheryl McPhilimy; Premiere Society Donors Robert Kohl and Clark Pellett; and classics scholar Dr. Christopher Kelly, Donnelley's husband.

Second Stage Theatre (Carole Rothman, Artistic Director; Ellen Richard, Executive Director) will conclude its 30th Anniversary mainstage season with the New York premiere of VANITIES, a new musical written by Jack Heifner, featuring music and lyrics by David Kirshenbaum, directed by Judith Ivey. With musical staging by Dan Knechtges, VANITIES will feature Lauren Kennedy, Sarah Stiles, and Anneliese van der Pol and will begin preview performances on Thursday, July 2. Opening night is Thursday, July 16 at 6:30pm

Second Stage Theatre (Carole Rothman, Artistic Director; Ellen Richard, Executive Director) will conclude its 30th Anniversary mainstage season with the New York premiere of VANITIES, a new musical written by Jack Heifner, featuring music and lyrics by David Kirshenbaum, directed by Judith Ivey.

Casting has just been announced for Vassar & New York Stage and Film Powerhouse Theater's three musicals of the 25th anniversary season.

Today Goodman Theatre announced a change in its upcoming 2009/2010 season lineup. Artistic Director Robert Falls has canceled the previously scheduled Joan D'Arc, directed by Aida Karic, and in its place selected Stoop Stories, an explosive solo piece by Dael Orlandersmith. A Chicago premiere, Stoop Stories will run September 11 - October 11 in the Goodman's 400-seat flexible Owen Bruner Theatre.

For the fifth consecutive summer, Goodman Theatre welcomes young people from the Chicagoland area as participants in its General Theater Studies program (GTS), a free, six week intensive introduction to the theater arts.

Goodman Theatre's Board of Trustees proudly announces Patricia Cox as the new Chairman-Elect. Cox, whose involvement with the Goodman spans two decades, is currently its Vice Chairman. A founding member of Chicago's legendary St. Nicholas Theatre Company (with Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Mamet and actors William H. Macy and Stephen Schachter), Cox was among the city's first performing arts marketing, development and management leaders to emerge under the late, great Lyric Opera impresario Danny Newman. She has since worked with and consulted for a wide range of not-for-profit arts organizations in Chicago and across the country. Cox will assume chairmanship in the fall, as current Chairman Shawn M. Donnelley concludes her two-year tenure.

'Hooray for Joey Slotnick!' Director Henry Wishcamper has tapped Chicago native Joey Slotnick for the lead role of the African explorer 'Captain Jeffrey T. Spaulding'-the heightened vaudevillian persona created by Groucho Marx for the 1929 stage and screen original-in Goodman Theatre's season opening musical Animal Crackers, written by George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind, with music and lyrics by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby.

In celebration of Pasadena Playhouse upcoming production of CROWNS, which opens on July 12, the Community Outreach Program invites the community to enjoy two candid and lively CONVERSATION WITH...events with acclaimed artist/author Synthia SAINT JAMES on June 14 and playwright/actress Regina Taylor on June 20.