Guthrie Theatre News

Lou Spisto, Executive Producer of the Tony Award-winning Old Globe, is pleased to announce the Theatre's complete 2009 Summer Season.

Producers Ben Sprecher and Louise Forlenza of the newly formed production entity GLOBAL BROADWAY Inc. officially signed a deal this evening with the Vereinigte Buhnen Wien Theatre to bring the hit musical REBECCA to Broadway in 2010. The signing took place in front of the sold-out re-opening night audience for REBECCA following the performance with Sprecher, Forlenza, VBW Artistic Director Kathrin Zechner and Manager Thomas Drozda. REBECCA, based on the classic Daphne Du Maurier novel (and later turned into an Oscar-winning film by Alfred Hitchcock) features book and lyrics by Michael Kunze, music by Sylvester Levay, and direction by Francesca Zambello, director of Broadway's The Little Mermaid and the new musical Little House on the Prairie, which just had its world premiere at the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis.

Roundabout Theatre Company (Todd Haimes, Artistic Director) announces the full cast for The Language of Trees, a new play by Steven Levenson, directed by Alex Timbers. The Language of Trees will feature Maggie Burke as 'Kay Danley,' Natalie Gold as 'Loretta Trumble-Pinkerstone,' Michael Hayden as 'Denton Pinkerstone,' Gio Perez as 'Eben Trumble-Pinkerstone' and Michael Warner as 'Bill Clinton.'

Producers Emily Miller and New York Theatre Barn have announced that Tony Award-Winner Cady Huffman (The Producers, The Will Rogers Follies) will star in WOOD, which is an official selection of the upcoming 2008 New York Musical Theatre Festival.

Arena Stage presents the world premiere of Daniel Beaty's Resurrection, a drama with a unique blend of music, poetry and dance. A co-production with Connecticut's Hartford Stage, Resurrection explores the interwoven lives of six African-American men struggling to make a living and to make their lives worth living. Beaty dazzled Arena audiences last summer with sold-out performances of his award-winning solo show Emergency (formerly Emergence-SEE!). He now returns to Arena with his first ensemble production-a talented cast of six actors led by director Oz Scott (director of Broadway's original for colored girls... and the Goodman Theatre's recent premiere The Ballad of Emmett Till). The production harmonizes with an innovative score by Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR), a Haitian-American composer who blends classical violin with piano and bass. To keep the interplay between text and score dynamic, Roumain's original score will be musically styled live each performance by his collaborator Elan Vytal a.k.a. DJ Scientific. Resurrection runs August 29-October 5, 2008 at Arena Stage in Crystal City. The press opening performance is Thursday, September 4 at 8:00pm.

Today Berkeley Repertory Theatre, which in the last 40 years has earned a reputation for developing provocative new plays, received a prestigious grant to fund its 50th world premiere: the Edgerton Foundation presented this Tony Award-winning theatre with its coveted New American Play Award to support the latest work from the team that made Eurydice a national hit. The $54,000 grant will provide extra rehearsal time for In the Next Room (or the vibrator play), an elegant comedy that Berkeley Rep has commissioned from MacArthur fellow Sarah Ruhl.

Manhattan Theatre Club announced casting for the upcoming world premiere Broadway production of Nick Whitby's TO BE OR NOT TO BE, based on the 1942 motion picture To Be Or Not To Be.

American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) artistic director Carey Perloff announced casting today for A.C.T.'s season finale, Perloff's new production of John Ford's 'Tis Pity She's a Whore.

Arena Stage presents Charles Ludlam's comic masterpiece The Mystery of Irma Vep. This clever, quick-change marathon ransacks literary, cinematic and pop culture as it satirizes everything from Hitchcock's Rebecca and classic horror film The Mummy's Curse to Wuthering Heights and Shakespeare. Arena Stage is excited to welcome back Brad Oscar (Broadway's Spamalot and The Producers, Arena's Cabaret and Damn Yankees) and J. Fred Shiffman (The Arthur Miller Festival, She Loves Me, Cabaret) as they portray all of the characters--men, women and monsters--in this gender-bending 'tour de force.' The Mystery of Irma Vep runs June 6 - July 13 at Arena Stage in Crystal City. The press opening performance is Thursday, June 12 at 8:00 p.m.

Previews begin tomorrow, Tuesday May 6th, for Signature Theatre Company's world premiere production of Edward Albee's 'Occupant' starring Mercedes Ruehl and Larry Bryggman.

Les Waters, the associate artistic director of Berkeley Repertory Theatre, heads east again this week to open the world premiere of Cardenio in Cambridge.

Legendary designers John Conklin and Robert Fletcher are among the recipients of the 2008 TDF/Irene Sharaff Awards. For his achievements as both a costume and set designer, John Conklin will receive the TDF/Irene Sharaff Awards' special Robert L. B. Tobin Award for Lifetime Achievement in Theatrical Design. Acclaimed costume designer Robert Fletcher, who also produced, performed and designed sets, will receive the 2008 TDF/Irene Sharaff Lifetime Achievement Award at a ceremony on Friday, March 28, at the Hudson Theatre in New York City.

Paper Mill Playhouse announces its mainstage production of The Miracle Worker. The Miracle Worker will run at the Millburn theatre from January 23, 2008 through February 24, 2008. There are three added student matinee performances on February 6, 13 and 14 at 11AM. The Miracle Worker is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

The Geffen Playhouse has added an additional two weeks of performances to the West Coast premiere of Neil LaBute's Fat Pig at its Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater.

National Corporate Theatre Fund (NCTF) will hold its Annual Chairman's Awards Gala and benefit on Monday, May 21 at New York's Tavern On The Green

Jo Bonney (SubUrbia), who also directed the 2004 World premiere production in New York, heads for the left coast and helms the West Coast premiere of Fat Pig

­Yale Repertory Theatre, under the leadership of Artistic Director James Bundy and Managing Director Victoria Nolan, presents Frank Wedekind's shocking classic drama Lulu as translated by Carl R. Mueller, adapted for this production by Mark Lamos and Drew Lichtenberg, and directed by Mark Lamos, from March 30 through April 21. (Press night is Thursday, April 5 at 8 p.m.).

Pablo Schreiber and Rebecca Brooksher star in Lincoln Center Theater's production of Dying City, a new play by Christopher Shinn that opened on Sunday, March 4th at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater

Manhattan Theatre Club (Lynne Meadow, artistic director; Barry Grove, executive producer) is pleased to announce full casting for the world premiere of LoveMusik, a new musical featuring the songs of Kurt Weill, starring Tony Awardâ winners Michael Cerveris and Donna Murphy.