Goodman Theatre News

The League of Professional Theatre Women (Kelli Lynn Harrison & Lisa Rothe, Co-Presidents) will present the 2018 Theatre Women Awards at The TimesCenter (242 West 41st Streetbetween 7th and 8th Avenues) on Friday, March 16 beginning at 6:30PM. Tickets ($65-$250) are available for advance purchase at www.theatrewomen.org.

Written by Yasmina Reza, translated by Christopher Hampton and directed by Anne Occhiogrosso, Centenary Stage Company's mainstage theatrical season continues in the Lackland Performing Arts Center with Reza's 1998 Tony Award and 1996 Olivier Award winning comedy Art from February 16 through March 4.  "Wildly funny, naughtily provocative…" says the NY Post, it all begins when Serge buys an expensive painting by a celebrated artist.  A white canvas with white diagonal lines.  Old friends square off over the canvas, using it as an excuse to hilariously batter one another over various slights and failures.  Art is a hilarious exploration of the very notion of what constitutes art while examining the meaning of friendship.  'Anyone looking for a play that is funny, sophisticated, stylish, stimulating and moving should go to 'ART'.' (Independent, London).

The Gift Theatre is pleased to launch its 17th season with the world premiere of Stacy Amma Osei-Kuffour's haunting and often-humorous drama HANG MAN, directed by Jess McLeod, playing March 2 - April 29, 2018 at 4802 N. Milwaukee Ave. in Chicago. Single tickets and season subscriptions are currently available by calling the Gift's box office at 773-283-7071 or visiting thegifttheatre.org. The press opening is Thursday, March 8 at 7:30 pm.

Four TPS fellows - chosen from a competitive application process - will work under the direction of Kenley Smith, director of the TPS program, to develop new full-length scripts to be presented in a public reading at the Darkhorse Theatre this fall. Two Associates will serve as alternates for the program and will contribute to monthly workshop sessions in the first year and will fill two TPS fellow positions in 2019. TPS will work with actors from the Nashville community for workshops and readings.

Building on the Blaine County School District's mission of inspiring, engaging, educating and empowering every student, Company of Fools announces the 21st year of Stages of Wonder-an in-school dramatic arts program that has served as the theatre curriculum in local elementary schools since 1997.

Steppenwolf Theatre Company presents the Chicago premiere production of the Obie Award-winning play You Got Older, written by Clare Barron and directed by Jonathan Berry. This bawdy, irreverent and touching play features four ensemble members Glenn Davis (Mac), Audrey Francis (Hannah), Francis Guinan (Dad) and Caroline Neff (Mae), along with Emjoy Gavino (Jenny), David Lind(Matthew) and Gabriel Ruiz (Cowboy).

Samuel French, the world's premier theatrical publishing and licensing company, has announced the representation of performance rights for the American musical War Paint.

WaterTower Theatre Artistic Director, Joanie Schultz, today announced details for the inaugural DETOUR: A Festival of New Work (March 1 - 4, 2018). This year's Festival will consist of four new play readings, three devised works, and two "late nite" performances.  Highlights from this year's Festival include a reading from Oregon Shakespeare Festival's "Play On!" initiative commissioning modern adaptations of 39 of Shakespeare's works, three new works from rising company Dark Circles Contemporary Dance, the next installment of Brigham Mosley's laugh-out-loud creation, Movies That Should Be Musicals, and more.

Tony Kushner's Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winning masterpiece finally arrives at Berkeley Rep in its entirety - directed by artistic director Tony Taccone in his 20th anniversary season! BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast of the ambitious production, check it out below!

Sideshow Theatre Company is pleased to announce the newest playwrights chosen for its annual "The Freshness Initiative," the company's commissioning and new play development program, now in its fourth year. The 2018 Freshness Initiative will feature PRO-AM, written by Brynne Frauenhoffer and directed by Regina Victor and LORCA PLAY written by Ariel Zetina and directed by artistic director Jonathan L. Green. Free readings of the productions will be presented in July 2018 at Victory Gardens Theater. Sideshow world premieres developed through "The Freshness Initiative" include Kristiana Rae Colon's Tilikum, Philip Dawkins' The Happiest Place on Earth and Calamity West's Give It All Back.

Elizabeth Birnkrant, known for her roles in JESUS HOPPED THE A TRAIN for Eclipse Theatre, 1984 at Steppenwolf, VICES AND VIRTUES: THE GREAT WAR at Profiles Theatre and other roles with Sideshow, First Floor and Roadworks theatre companies, has been cast in the leading role of L'il Bit in The Artistic Home's production of Paula Vogel's Pulitzer Prize winning HOW I LEARNED TO DRIVE. The Artistic Home co-founder John Mossman will play Uncle Peck, the family member who has a sexual relationship with his niece Li'l Bit during her pre-teen and teenage years. Mossman, who directed The Artistic Home's BY THE BOG OF CATS last year, as an actor has most recently appeared as Leontes in THE WINTERS TALE and O'Trigger in THE RIVALS at Lakeside Shakespeare Theatre.  He has also appeared with The Artistic Home as MACBETH and as Shannon in NIGHT OF THE IGUANA. He played Atticus Finch in Oak Park Festival Theatre's TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD and performed in the Steppenwolf production of THE MARCH.

Pulitzer Prize-winning dramatist Quiara Alegria Hudes takes a poignant look at the way war permeates young men's lives in a play spanning three generations of the same Puerto Rican-American family. Elliot is a Marine Corps hero back from Iraq with an injured leg and a Purple Heart. His Pop was wounded in Vietnam; his flute-playing Grandpop fought in Korea. In a fugue-like form, different wars and different tales are strung together as Ginny, his mother, seeks to reconcile the disparate parts and heal emotional wounds. Hudes' spare, intense, and poetically resonant play speaks to the personal cost of war across the ages.

Court Theatre, under the continuing leadership of Charles Newell, Marilyn F. Vitale Artistic Director, announces the extension of All My Sons by Arthur Miller, directed by Charles Newell and featuring Kate Collins, John Judd and Timothy Edward Kane. All My Sons now runs through February 18, 2018 at Court Theatre, 5535 S. Ellis Ave. Tickets to extension performances of All My Sons go on sale Friday, February 2, 2018 and available by calling the box office at (773) 753-4472 orwww.CourtTheatre.org.

Andrew Hinderaker's stunning theatrical hybrid The Magic Play begins preview performances at The Armory on March 3, opens on March 9 and runs through April 1 on the U.S. Bank Main Stage. The Armory's production brings together the artistic team from the celebrated world premiere at Goodman Theatre/Olney Theatre Center, including director Halena Kays; magic creator/actor Brett Schneider; actor Sean Parris; master illusionist Jim Steinmeyer; scenic designer Lizzie Bracken, costume designer Alison Siple; aerial choreographer Sylvia Hernandez-DiStasi; and flying effects by ZFX, Inc. Portland Center State at The Armory's run of The Magic Play is a co-production with Actors Theatre of Louisville and Syracuse Stage.

A powerful story of a convict returning from a brief prison stay to resume his position as the neighborhood kingpin. Mike is at a crossroads in his life and when Jelly Belly returns, decisions need to be made that will effect these characters for a long time. The Chicago Defender wrote 'Employing gritty poetry of the streets, Smith introduces us to Jelly Belly, who attempts to regain the service of Kenny, a former drug runner who has gone straight. Kenny is torn between the hope of prosperity through hard work shared with his friend Mike, or the opportunistic life of a drug pusher Jelly Belly offers.' Jelly Belly don't mess with nobody. 

The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize has announced 10 Finalists for its prestigious playwriting award, the oldest and largest prize awarded to women playwrights writing in the English language. Chosen from over 150 nominated plays, the Finalists are:

Bristol Riverside Theatre presents the ever-popular musical The Producers with book by Mel Brooks and Thomas Meehan and music and lyrics by Mel Brooks on March 6-April 1. The multiple Tony-award winning musical is directed by Keith Baker, music directed by Douglass Lutz, with choreography by Stephen Casey and starring Danny Rutigliano and Michael Doherty and featuring Nicole Benoit, Fred Inkley, Morgan W. Reynolds, Jo Twiss, and Danny Vaccaro. The ensemble features Luke Bradt, Kathryn Brunner, Nicole Calabrese, Zachary J. Chiero, John D. DiFerdinando, Becca Goebel, Louis Jannuzzi III, Lauren Krigel, Patrick Ludt, Niklaus Patrick Miller, James E. Ofalt, Dominick Sannelli, Erika Wasko, and Keith Watford.

 The wackiest beach party in town continues! Pasadena Playhouse, the State Theatre of California, announces a one-week extension of Gilbert and Sullivan's Pirates of Penzance, as reimagined by the Chicago theatre hooligans The Hypocrites, now through February 25, due to high demand.  Tickets are now on sale at pasadenaplayhouse.org or by calling 626-356-7529.

Rivendell Theatre Ensemble proudly announces its 2018 Season, "The Reckoning." The season includes three plays about women who come face to face with an essential truth that threatens to shatter the things they love most. The 2018 Season will be performed at Rivendell Theatre Ensemble, 5779 N. Ridge Avenue in Chicago.

The New Colony is pleased to announce its sell-out world premiere THE LIGHT is adding three additional weeks of performances, extending through February 25, 2018 at The Den Theatre (2B), 1333 N. Milwaukee Ave. in Chicago's Wicker Park neighborhood. Tickets for all performance are currently available at www.thenewcolony.org.