Giovanni News

From the moment that Scott Schoonover raised his baton to invoke that incredible athletic overture it was re-confirmed to me that DON GIOVANNI is indeed the zenith of 18th Century opera

Sometimes it seems there is so much theater happening that it's difficult to keep track of it all. From personal experience, despite all the datebooks, smart phones, tablets, desktop computers and laptops...it's hard to keep everything straight in this wacky business of the show.

The first production in Hune Company's 2015 Living Room Series is the world premier of NOT MAD. Founder and Artistic Director Matt Hune directs this unique work that has been written and created by the company.

The Old Globe's presentation of Kiss Me, Kate, the classic musical comedy featuring a book by Sam and Bella Spewack and an iconic score by Cole Porter, will now add a week by popular demand and run through August 9 on the Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage in the Old Globe Theatre, part of the Globe's Conrad Prebys Theatre Center. Tickets for the extension will go on sale this Sunday, July 12 at noon.

The Old Globe's presentation of Kiss Me, Kate, the classic musical comedy featuring a book by Sam and Bella Spewackand an iconic score by Cole Porter, is a spectacular revival in collaboration with Hartford Stage, choreographed by Peggy Hickey and directed by Hartford Stage Artistic Director and former Old Globe Shakespeare Festival Artistic Director Darko Tresnjak, who won the 2014 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical for A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, which made its world premiere at The Old Globe and Hartford Stage in 2013. The Old Globe engagement runs now through August 2, with opening night tonight, July 9, on the Donald and Darlene ShileyStage in the Old Globe Theatre, part of the Globe's Conrad Prebys Theatre Center. Click below to watch highlights from the show!

The Playwrights Foundation's 38th Annual Bay Area Playwrights Festival (BAPF) runs July 17-26, 2015 at the Tides Theatre in San Francisco. BAPF 2015 builds on the festival's historic legacy of innovation in theater that then moves to theaters across the country.

We still have a lot of work to do, clearly, but I'm not daunted

Berkeley Repertory Theatre today announces key casting for three highly anticipated productions of its 48th season. Tony and Academy Award winner Frances McDormand will star in Macbeth, actor Steven Epp will make his seventh Berkeley Rep appearance in Treasure Island, and award-winning actress Kathleen Chalfant will play the lead role in the West Coast premiere of For Peter Pan on her 70th birthday. The Theatre previously announced the casting of award-winning British actress Samantha Barks in the title role in the world premiere of Amélie, A New Musical, set to begin its run in August.

dell'Arte Opera Ensemble, which offers role debut and training opportunities to emerging opera artists, celebrates its twelfth season of high-quality, affordable NYC performances with a Beaumarchais Trilogy featuring fully-staged productions of Il barbiere di Siviglia by Giovanni Paisiello, Le nozze di Figaro by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Rosina by Hiram Titus, and Les Belles et Les Beaus, a Beaumarchais Concert featuring excerpts of other settings of the Rosina/Figaro trilogy, including music of Rossini, Massenet, Milhaud, Corigliano, plus alternate arias from Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro not heard in the mainstage production. The Metamorphosis Chamber Orchestra led by Artistic Director Pierre Lidar, collaborates for the season.  

Author Rayme Michaels is pleased to announce the promotion of his urban comedy drama, 'Screw the Devil's Daiquiri.' When womanizer, and possible schizophrenic, John Hazel, is suddenly offered a serious job promotion by the CEO of his company, David Wall, under the condition that John help him kill his wife, John finds himself between a rock and a hard place when Mr. Wall's wife, Victoria Wall, asks John to do the same for her. John, an office temp, photographer and university teaching assistant of philosophy, has more than enough on his post-traumatic, hyperactive mind, without something as absurd as this weighing down on him, not to mention that he is haunted-well, annoyed more than anything-by either the spirits or imaginary spirits of Giovanni Boccaccio, Francois Rabelais and a she-devil named Sabrina. Influences such as these do not help with John's very prurient but fascinating mind, which his psychologist tries as best as she knows how to get to the bottom of. His life-long existential crisis, having two hit men on his back, a bad-to-the-bone best friend named Alex, and a manic, sex-crazed, power-hungry, confrontational co-worker named Jackie, who happens to be Mr. Wall's mistress, certainly do not help matters either. Life does not seem to want to let up on John. Will he make it through this very bizarre time of tribulation, or will he end up behind bars, stone-cold dead, or simply cracking under the weight of it all? 'Screw the Devil's Daiquiri' is available in both print and ebook formats. Book Details: 'Screw the Devil's Daiquiri' By Rayme Michaels Publisher: Melange Books Published: November 2014 ISBN: 978-1612359311 ASIN: B00LBBLZCE Pages: 224 Genre: Urban Comedy, Drama About The Author: After high school, Rayme Michaels studied Theater Arts Performance and Radio Broadcasting in college, and then, in his undergrad, majored in Philosophy with a minor in Psychology. He then went on to get a Master's Degree in Comparative Philosophy while working as a teaching assistant. Screw the Devil's Daiquiri is his first full-length novel, but it is his third book, his other two being novellas released in 2012. His first book was a quirky relationship/sex comedy entitled Incorrigibility. His second one is a dark, gory, romantic vampire thriller called Red Love, which won Honorable Mention right at the top of the list for General Fiction in the 2014 London Book Festival. He became a bookworm at the age of eight and has been influenced by, and continues to enjoy, a wide variety of writers that range from the solemn to the satirical, the serious to the jovial, both in fiction and non-fiction, contemporary and old. This invariably comes out in his writing, since his literary interests are very broad. As an existential thinker, he is fascinated by the human mind and the human predicament, yet, as a Rabelaisian human being, laughter and joy are the reasons he gets up in the morning. Well...that and sex, of course. Oh, and his first name is pronounced with two syllables, by the way. The 'e' is not silent. For review copies, author interviews, or more information, please contact: Rayme Michaels Email: theray_81 (at) hotmail.com Website: http://melange-books.com/authors/raymemichaels/screwthedevil.html Blog: http://www.rayme-michaels.blogspot.com Lulu: http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/Rayme Twitter: https://twitter.com/Rayme_Michaels Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Rayme-Michaels/1654482248109702 PR by BookBuzz.net

Worriers' highly anticipated debut full-length effort Imaginary Life, will be released August 7 via Don Giovanni Records.

Sometimes it seems there is so much theater happening that it's difficult to keep track of it all. From personal experience, despite all the datebooks, smart phones, tablets, desktop computers and laptops...it's hard to keep everything straight in this wacky business of the show.

Michael Ricigliano Jr.'s A QUEEN FOR A DAY, directed by John Gould Rubin began performances on April 13th and opened on May 3rd to rave reviews at the Theatre at St. Clement's will complete its run on July 5th to focus on the show's future.

Music Mountain, America's oldest continuing summer chamber music festival, continues its 86th season with Swingtime Big Band on Saturday, July 25th (6:30pm) playing the best music of the Swing Era! Plus pre-concert dinner at Falls Village Inn (5pm). The weekend continues on Sunday, July 26th (3pm) with the Avalon String Quartet performing Faure, Debussy, and Ravel with guest artists Jan Opalach, Bass-Baritone and Jonathan Yates, Piano and Music Mountain's new Musical Director. For the second season, Music Mountain is offering an extended summer program filled with Music Mountain debuts, first time guests, brand new series', and returning favorite bands and ensembles! Chamber, country, opera, jazz, and folk concerts are scheduled thru September 27th.

Ballet NY will present the world premiere of What Ever, choreographed by Medhi Bahiri, as well as works by John Butler, William Forsythe and Stanton Welch, July 9 - 11 at Ailey Citigroup Theater, 405 West 55th Street (at 9th Avenue).

The Old Globe's presentation of Kiss Me, Kate, the classic musical comedy featuring a book by Sam and Bella Spewack and an iconic score by Cole Porter, begins tonight, July 1, on the Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage in the Old Globe Theatre, part of the Globe's Conrad Prebys Theatre Center.

East West Players (EWP), the nation's longest running professional theatre of color and the largest creator of Asian Pacific artistic work, announced today that Tim Dang, Producing Artistic Director for the past 22 years, will step down in June 2016 at the end of the organization's 50th Anniversary celebration. This will give the organization a full year to transition to a new strategic plan and to mentor new leadership for the next chapter of the organization.

Sometimes it seems there is so much theater happening that it's difficult to keep track of it all. From personal experience, despite all the datebooks, smart phones, tablets, desktop computers and laptops...it's hard to keep everything straight in this wacky business of the show.

Due to high demand for conversation about the creation of devised theatre, Boston's ensemble-created theatre troupe, Project: Project, will host a talkback about the two-year process of creating Shiver: A Fairytale of Anxious Proportions1 after the show's performance on Saturday, June 27 at 8pm at Boston Playwrights' Theatre (949 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston).

Mark Wahlberg and Seth MacFarlane are back, reprising their roles in the sequel to the 2012 comedy TED.