Helen Hayes News

Creative Arts Lab presents STAGE LIFE, a rousing celebration of lives well-lived in and around the Theatre - The work, the art, the passion, the craziness and the joy, conceived and adapted by Martin Tackel.

Sundance Institute announces the slate of theatremakers from the U.S. and Middle East / North Africa who will convene at the Theatre Program's second annual Theatre Lab in Morocco next month. The Lab, which will take place from May 6 - 27 at the Fellah Hotel outside Marrakech, comprises three uninterrupted weeks of consultation, mentorship and workshop performance of new work for the stage. The Theatre Lab alternates locations each season, moving between the Sundance Resort in Utah, and a venue in the Middle East/North African region, as part of a multi-year commitment to international work and a means of facilitating cultural exchange between artists. Led by Sundance Institute Theatre Program Director Philip Himberg and Producing Director Christopher Hibma, teams of creative advisors, actors and dramaturgs will collaborate with writers and directors, independent from commercial or public pressures, as they develop their projects.

Lou Volpe, the retired theatre education pioneer, is being given the prestigious Bucks County Playhouse Hall of Fame Award, following such honorees as Angela Lansbury, Oscar Hammerstein and Shirley Jones.

Sundance Institute announces the slate of theatremakers from the U.S. and Middle East / North Africa who will convene at the Theatre Program's second annual Theatre Lab in Morocco next month. The Lab, which will take place from May 6 - 27 at the Fellah Hotel outside Marrakech, comprises three uninterrupted weeks of consultation, mentorship and workshop performance of new work for the stage. The Theatre Lab alternates locations each season, moving between the Sundance Resort in Utah, and a venue in the Middle East/North African region, as part of a multi-year commitment to international work and a means of facilitating cultural exchange between artists. Led by Sundance Institute Theatre Program Director Philip Himberg and Producing Director Christopher Hibma, teams of creative advisors, actors and dramaturgs will collaborate with writers and directors, independent from commercial or public pressures, as they develop their projects.  

Refusing to end their 2017/2018 season, Delaware Theatre Company reprises their hit production Maurice Hines is Tappin' Thru Life. Happy to be performing for Wilmington audiences again, tap dancing legend Maurice Hines will wow audiences for one weekend only, Friday, June 1 to Sunday, June 3, 2018.

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts today announced programming for its 2018-2019 season of Performances for Young Audiences, featuring trailblazing journeys in theater, music, and dance that will inspire and resonate with audiences of all ages. The Kennedy Center has commissioned and co-commissioned six world premiere works that will bring audiences on expeditions through time and place to Birmingham in the 1960s, through a young man's imagination in present day New York City, and even to the stars and beyond.

Junkyard Dog Productions announces today that the North American Tour of the Tony Award-winning smash hit Broadway musical COME FROM AWAY will launch at Seattle's 5th Avenue Theatre on Tuesday, October 9, 2018. The tour will go on to play more than 60 cities including Los Angeles, CA (The Ahmanson); Denver, CO (Buell Theatre); San Francisco, CA (Golden Gate Theatre); Vancouver, BC (Queen Elizabeth); Calgary, AB (Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium); Orlando, FL (Dr. Phillips Center); Cleveland, OH (Connor Palace); Ottawa, ON (National Art Centre) and many more across the United States and Canada.

After multiple Helen Hayes nominations for their 2015 production of SWEENEY TODD [PROG METAL VERSION], Landless Theatre Company is back with their second MetalTheatre adaptation: THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD [SYMPHONIC METAL VERSION]. A captivating cast and three-piece rock orchestra guide us through the choose-your-own-adventure story with a blend of spot-on comedy and seamless rock arrangements.

HERSHEY FELDER PRESENTS the Midwest Premiere of Our Great Tchaikovsky, a new play-with-music featuring the compositions of Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Directed by Trevor Hay with a book and performance by Hershey Felder. Following critically acclaimed and record breaking productions at San Diego Rep, Hartford Stage, Los Angeles' Wallis Annenberg, Theatreworks Silicon Valley and London's West End, Felder's newest work takes on Russia's most celebrated and perhaps most mysterious composer, Tchaikovsky. A time-bending story of culture and politics that explores the mystery around some of the greatest music ever composed, Our Great Tchaikovsky will begin April 11 and close May 13.

The Bonnie and Terry Burman New Play Award, a national new play contest at Barrington Stage Company (BSC), the award-winning theatre in Downtown Pittsfield, MA under the leadership of Artistic Director Julianne Boyd, is accepting submissions through April 30, 2018. The Grand Prize winner will receive $25,000 from Barrington Stage Company.

MCC Theater has just announced that Obie-winning director Robert O'Hara (In the Continuum) has just signed on to direct the New York premiere of BLKS by Aziza Barnes. The play will run April 18 - May 26, 2019 at The Newman Mills Theater.

Vietgone by Qui Nguyen is the Vietnamese-American playwright's own creation story-a telling of his parents' 1975 refugee camp romance in a "geek theater" spectacle that's at turns affecting, sage, raucous, and fantastical. A screenwriter for Marvel Studios and founder of Obie Award-winning company Vampire Cowboys, Nguyen's work champions representation and diversity on stage while dripping with pop culture nods, contemporary music, and action-adventure narrative. The production pairs this Studio-commissioned playwright with director and Studio Cabinet member Natsu Onoda Power. Drawing on Vietgone's comic book aesthetics, Studio's Stage 4 is transformed into a garage concert with a live band and original funk-rock-punk-n-roll score, giving audiences a front row seat to this anything-but-typical story of boy meets girl.

The Smiling Land Foundation is proud to announce that the Toronto cast and band from the Canadian production of the Tony Award-winning musical COME FROM AWAY will perform at the 10th annual and final ROCKIN' BIG GIVE event at Toronto's Concert Hall on Saturday May 12, 2018.

Roundabout Theatre Company has announced the world - premiere production of TONI STONE, by Lydia R. Diamond, starring Emmy Award winner Uzo Aduba ( " Orange Is the New Black, " Godspell, The Wiz ) as " Toni Stone, " directed by Tony Award winner Pam MacKinnon.

On April 28th, 2018, Seth Bisen-Hersh will present an all-day, wall-to-wall concert of his songs at the renowned cabaret club, Don't Tell Mama, to celebrate the milestone of his 500th showcase. The four-part concert (1PM, 3:30PM, 6PM & 8:30PM) will consist of 100 of Seth Bisen-Hersh's songs, including 3 world premieres, featuring over 70 performers and cast reunions from every musical that Seth has produced in NYC.

Defunkt Theatre presents Girl in the Red Corner by Stephen Spotswood and directed by Paul Angelo, April 27-June 2, 2018. The show plays Thursdays through Sundays at 7:30 pm (no show Sunday, April 29) at The Back Door Theater, 4321 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Portland, OR (enter through the Common Grounds Coffee Shop).

The Public Theater (Artistic Director, Oskar Eustis; Executive Director, Patrick Willingham) will begin previews for the MOBILE UNIT's production of HENRY V on Monday, April 23.  Directed by Robert O'Hara, the free sit-down run of HENRY V follows a three-week tour to five boroughs bringing Shakespeare to audiences who have limited or no access to the arts.

Theatre for a New Audience (TFANA; Jeffrey Horowitz, Founding Artistic Director) announces four TFANA Talks in connection with its new, critically lauded production of William Shakespeare's tragicomedy The Winter's Tale, directed by OBIE Award-winner Arin Arbus. These free post-performance discussions take placeat Polonsky Shakespeare Center (262 Ashland Place), TFANA's home in the Brooklyn Cultural District, where The Winter's Tale runs through April 15

Check out video of Vanessa Hudgens, Anthony Ramos, Ana Villafane, Eden Espinosa and more as they bring uptown to the capital with In the Heights at the Kennedy Center!

Company of Fools' 22nd season of theatre programming will conclude with the charming production of Inside, Outside, Upside Down! - a mini-musical commissioned by Company of Fools (COF) and the Sun Valley Center for the Arts as part of its new BIG IDEA project, Bees. Two free public performances are scheduled for Saturday, April 21 at 6 p.m. and Sunday, April 22 at 2 p.m. Both will be held at the Liberty Theatre in Hailey and will be followed by a unique interactive workshop.