Goodman Theatre News

Two time Tony Award winner Brian Dennehy has passed away at 81 from natural causes. 

Chicago Dramatists has welcomed five new resident playwrights. Read the announcement below:

Two time Tony Award winner Brian Dennehy has passed away at 81 from natural causes. 

San Francisco Playhouse announced their new Empathy Gym Fireside Chat series which will be streamed live for free on YouTube. Each week, Artistic Director Bill English invites playwrights to join him for a one-hour conversation about playwriting, business, and the future of theatre. Audience members can participate in the conversation by leaving a comment on YouTube.

Join WGN-TV's a?oeAround Towna?? correspondent Ana Belaval and a star-studded line-up of more than 20 top Chicago stage performers for Chicago Offstage! Live at Home, a virtual streaming event debuting live on Season of Concern's new YouTube channel (https://tinyurl.com/soctube) on Sunday, April 19, at 6 p.m. CST.

Nominations for the 35th Annual Lucille Lortel Awards for Outstanding Achievement Off-Broadway were announced today by theatre veterans Jeremy Jordan and Ashley Spencer. The Awards will be presented during a special online event on Sunday, May 3, broadcast on the official website - www.LortelAwards.org - beginning at 7:00pm ET. A virtual 'host' and presenters will be announced at a later date. As always, the Lortel Awards will be a benefit for The Actors Fund and fans are encouraged to make donations at actorsfund.org/Lortel. The Lucille Lortel Awards are produced by the Off-Broadway League and the Lucille Lortel Theatre Foundation. Additional support is provided by TDF.

Chicago Dramatists has announced its new slate of resident playwrights.

Today, Goodman Theatre makes available for online streaming its production of Jocelyn Bioh's School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play directed by Lili-Anne Brown, while performances are suspended to mitigate spread of COVID-19.

Nationally recognized playwrights Lauren Gunderson, Academy Award winner Tarell Alvin McCraney, Pulitzer Prize winner Robert Schenkkan, Tony Award winner David Henry Hwang, and Karen Zacarías will select the winning plays for #ENOUGH: Plays to End Gun Violence, a playwriting contest for middle and high school students.

The Chicago Tribune has reported that Goodman Theatre production manager Scott Conn is working to find all of the personal protection equipment stored in the theater's scenic shops and get it to hospitals and emergency care workers.

The Ojai Playwrights Conference is postponing their previously announced benefit celebration, a?oeImagining America,a?? scheduled for Saturday, May 2, 2020, at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City.

In an effort to help mitigate community spread of COVID-19 (coronavirus), Goodman Theatre is suspending performances starting tomorrow (Friday, March 13) until further notice. This action is consistent with the directive of Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot. The suspension affects the current production of School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play by Jocelyn Bioh, directed by Lili-Anne Brown, a Chicago premiere that is currently in previews and was slated to open Monday, March 16-as well as all production-related events. Molly Sweeney by Brian Friel, directed by Robert Falls, has been postponed to an April 20 opening.

Vineyard Theatre has announced that starting tomorrow, Friday, March 13  all performances of Dana H. will be suspended through March 31. The theatre will play to 50% capacity April 1 - 12. This is in accordance with guidelines from the CDC and state and local health officials' executive orders.  

Texas Woman's University's College Audition Prep Program is back better than ever this year with two great options for high school musical theater and acting students: a new two week Intensive stay camp hosted by Texas Woman's University on their beautiful Denton, Texas campus OR a four day Weekend event packed with master classes, dance classes, mock auditions and college program overview presentations.

Westport Country Playhouse will present a Script in Hand playreading of 'Mrs. Mannerly,' a comedy about a young boy and his manners teacher, by Jeffrey Hatcher, on Monday, March 23, at 7 p.m. The cast includes award-winning Broadway, film, and television actors Isabel Keating as Mrs. Mannerly, and Richard Kind as Jeffrey. Co-curators and co-directors of the Script in Hand Series are Anne Keefe, Playhouse associate artist, and Mark Shanahan, director, actor, and playwright. Tickets to Script in Hand Playreadings are $20 each.

The Ojai Playwrights Conference is coming to Los Angeles for the first time with a benefit celebration, a?oeImagining America,a?? to take place on Saturday, May 2, 2020, at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City. 

The Old Globe has announced the 2020 Classical Directing Fellowships, a program of the Karen and Stuart Tanz Fellowships at The Old Globe, led by the Globe's Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director Barry Edelstein, a leading Shakespearean scholar, author, and director.

The Third Avenue Playhouse, located in historic downtown Sturgeon Bay, announces its lineup of six plays for the upcoming 2020 season. The plays include an early career work from playwright David Mamet, a 1964 musical by the legendary composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim, a multi-award winning classic about the unlikely friendship between an elderly lady and her driver, the story of an unconventional advice columnist, and a farcical take on the making of Gone With The Wind.

Twenty-one Chicago high school students will compete in the finals of the 11th Annual August Wilson Monologue Competition for a chance to represent Chicago in the National Competition at the August Wilson Theatre in New York City. Hundreds of students competed across the city in preliminary rounds. The finals will be held at the Goodman Theatre, 170 N Dearborn on Monday, March 9, 2020 at 6:00 pm. The August Wilson Monologue Competition is free and open to the public.

Chicago Shakespeare Theater announces the cast and creative team for its upcoming production of As You Like It, presented April 30a?"June 21, 2020 in the Courtyard Theater. This vibrant, '60s-inspired adaptation infuses Shakespeare's romantic comedy with the hit songs of The Beatlesa?"lifting the playwright's timeless verse in beautiful harmony with the immortal music of the a?oeFab Four.a??