Ian Belknap News

Chicago Slam Works combines the art forms of poetry, comedy, storytelling, music and creative non-fiction into one action-packed slam competition - 'The LitMash'. Presented on the first Monday of the month, the May 5 'The LitMash' features Ian Belknap among others. Tickets are $8 and can be purchased at the door. 'The LitMash' is at the Haymarket Pub and Brewery, 737 W. Randolph Street. Doors open at 7:30 p.m. and the performance starts at 8 p.m. For more information visit www.ChicagoSlamWorks.com.

NATURAL GAS, the five-year-old house improv team of The Gift Theatre, appears Friday nights at Wicker Park's The Den Theatre, performing entirely improvised group sets in addition to their standing Wednesday night set at The Gift in Jefferson Park. Every other week is YOU & ME-a two-person, entirely improvised show featuring ensemble member/The Gift artistic director Michael Patrick Thornton with a special guest from the Chicago arts community.

The Acting Company will present a staged reading of Nude with Violin, Noel Coward's satire on modern art, criticism, pretension and the value placed on art at 7 pm on Monday, March 24 at the Signature Theatre (Alice Griffin Jewel Box), 480 West 42nd Street (9th-10th Avenues).

Steppenwolf Theatre Company has announced the line-up for Late Night @ Garage Rep, a series of cross-genre performances Today nights during Garage Rep 2014, starting tonight, March 6. The line-up includes a performance by Salonathon; the play with music, Duo: 1 Is 1, 2 Is Math; Kevin Coval and Young Chicago Authors; James Anthony Zoccoli's Wiggerlover [whiteboy+blackdad=greyareas]; Ian Belknap's one-man Bring Me The Head Of James Franco, That I May Prepare a Savory Goulash In The Narrow And Misshapen Pot Of His Skull; The Gift Theatre's improv group, Natural Gas; and Chicago Dance Crash's Follow The Reader.

Patti LuPone steps back into the role that led to her 1985 Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical as Moll in The Cradle Will Rock on Monday, May 19, 7pm at Broadway's Bernard Jacobs Theatre, 242 West 45th Street. The concert staging of Marc Blitzstein's iconic work will benefit The Acting Company, co-founded by John Houseman, Cradle's original producer in 1937, who directed Ms. LuPone and a cast of Acting Company Alumni in a revival almost 50 years later. Lonny Price (Lincoln Center's Sweeney Todd and Company) will direct; Michael Barrett (Caramoor, NY Festival of Song) will again serve as musical director and play the score as he did in the 1980's production. Tickets will go on sale next month; information on benefit tickets including dinner with Ms. LuPone and the cast is available from 212-258-3111.

The Guthrie Theater and The Acting Company (TAC) reunite for a sixth year, presenting Hamlet, Shakespeare's story of a Danish prince's search for vengeance, justice and truth, in repertory with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, a reworking of the same tragedy from the point of view of two minor characters and their static existence in a world beyond their comprehension. This two-week engagement April 22 - May 4, on the McGuire Proscenium Stage, will conclude a successful seven-month 42-city tour, during which time these productions played to thousands of adults and students in large and small markets around the United States. Both Hamlet and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead will showcase the talents of graduates of the University of Minnesota/Guthrie Theater B.F.A. Actor Training Program, as well as alumni of A Guthrie Experience for Actors in Training.

The Acting Company will present a benefit staged reading of Murderers, a new play by Jeffrey Hatcher (Never Gonna Dance, Tuesdays with Morrie) at 7 pm on Monday, February 24 at the Mainstage Theater (Playwrights Horizons), 416 West 42nd Street (9th-10thAvenues). The performance-starring Acting Company Alumna and Tony-winner Harriet Harris (Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella, Encores!Little Me), Marylouise Burke (TV's Alpha House) and Reg Rogers (The Big Knife)-will be followed by a reception with the cast and director, Ian Belknap, Artistic Director of The Acting Company. Tickets @ $35 and $60 (Patron) are available from 212-258-3111.

Performances of Steppenwolf Theatre Company's fifth annual Garage Rep are scheduled to begin February 14, 2014, featuring The New Colony's world-premiere production of reWILDing Genius, Prologue Theatre Company's Chicago-premiere production of Saturday Night/Sunday Morning and Walkabout Theater Company's world-premiere production of The Wild. These innovative storefront companies perform in rotating repertory for ten weeks through April 20, 2013 (press performances are March 8 and 9, 2014). Performances are scheduled Wednesday through Sunday in the Garage Theater (1624 N Halsted St); a full performance schedule, including the line-up for Late Night @ Garage Rep, follows. Garage Rep single tickets ($20) and three-play passes ($45), as well as Late Night single tickets ($5) are on sale now through Audience Services (1650 N Halsted St), 312-335-1650 and steppenwolf.org.

Steppenwolf Theatre Company has announced the line-up for Late Night @ Garage Rep, a series of cross-genre performances Thursday nights during Garage Rep 2014, starting March 6. The line-up includes a performance by Salonathon; the play with music, Duo: 1 Is 1, 2 Is Math; Kevin Coval and Young Chicago Authors; James Anthony Zoccoli's Wiggerlover [whiteboy+blackdad=greyareas]; Ian Belknap's one-man Bring Me The Head Of James Franco, That I May Prepare a Savory Goulash In The Narrow And Misshapen Pot Of His Skull; The Gift Theatre's improv group, Natural Gas; and Chicago Dance Crash's Follow The Reader.

The Acting Company will present a benefit staged reading of The Real Inspector Hound by Tom Stoppard at 7 pm on Monday, January 13 at the Pearl Theatre, 555 West 42nd Street (9th-10th Avenues). The performance--starring John Glover (Macbeth), Francesca Faridany (Macbeth), Julia Coffey, Lee Aaron Rosen Acting Company Members Sam Tsoutsouvas, Michele Tauber, Andy Weems, Stephen Pilkington (The Winslow Boy) and Andy Nagosky--will be followed by a reception with the cast and director, Ian Belknap, Artistic Director of The Acting Company.

After 27 years, Tom Stoppard's seminal work, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead returns to the New York stage directed by Tony-winner John Rando (Urinetown, A Christmas Story). Presented by The Acting Company in rotating repertory with Hamlet, directed by Ian Belknap, performances begin tonight, January 9 and run through February 1 at the Pearl Theater, 555 West 42nd Street, NYC.

After 27 years, Tom Stoppard's seminal work, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead returns to the New York stage directed by Tony-winner John Rando (Urinetown, A Christmas Story). Presented by The Acting Company in rotating repertory with Hamlet, directed by Ian Belknap, performances begin January 9 and run through February 1 at the Pearl Theater, 555 West 42nd Street, NYC.

The Acting Company presents a benefit staged reading of Holiday by Philip Barry at 7 pm tonight, Monday, December 16 at the Mainstage Theater (at Playwrights Horizons), 416 West 42nd Street (9th-10th Avenues).

The Acting Company will present a benefit staged reading of Holiday by Philip Barry at 7 pm on Monday, December 16 at the Mainstage Theater (at Playwrights Horizons), 416 West 42nd Street (9th-10th Avenues). The performance-starring Acting Company Founding Member David Schramm (Finian's Rainbow, TV's Wings), Carson Elrod (Peter and the Starcatcher, Noises Off), Andrew Hovelson (Lucky Guy, Enemy of the People), Liv Rooth (Venus in Fur, Born Yesterday, Is He Dead?), Danielle Skraastad (All My Sons), Brendan Titley (Macbeth), Finn Wittrock (Death of a Salesman), Acting Company Alum Georgia Cohen, David Quay and Victoria Mack-will be followed by a reception with the cast and director,Janet Zarish, Head of Acting, Graduate Acting Program at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and an Acting Company Alumna. Tickets @ $35 and $60 (Patron) are available from 212-258-3111.

After 27 years, Tom Stoppard's seminal work, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead returns to the New York stage directed by Tony-winner John Rando (Urinetown, A Christmas Story). Presented by The Acting Company in rotating repertory with Hamlet, directed by Ian Belknap, performances begin January 9 and run through February 1 at the Pearl Theater, 555 West 42nd Street, NYC.

Theatre for a New Audience's inaugural production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, directed by multiple Tony Award-winner Julie Taymor with original music composed by Academy Award and Golden Globe-winning Elliot Goldenthal, opened on November 2 at the Theatre's newly-named building, Polonsky Shakespeare Center, 262 Ashland Place between Lafayette Avenue and Fulton Street, Brooklyn. BroadwayWorld has photos from the opening night festivities below!

'To be, or not to be - that is the question' addressed by the Tony Award-winning Acting Company as they bring their newest production, William Shakespeare's Hamlet, to the Harris Center/Three Stages. According to the New York Times 'The Acting Company endures as the major touring classical theater in the United States.' This will be the first production of Hamlet in The Acting Company's 41-year history.

'To be, or not to be - that is the question' addressed by the Tony Award-winning Acting Company as they bring their newest production, William Shakespeare's Hamlet, to the Harris Center/Three Stages. According to the New York Times 'The Acting Company endures as the major touring classical theater in the United States.' This will be the first production of Hamlet in The Acting Company's 41-year history.

A unique, three-generation collaboration brings professional actors, college students and high school drama classes together in a week-long Shakespeare immersion that culminates in a professional performance of HAMLET by the world famous Acting Company, at California State University Northridge's Valley Performing Arts Center.

John Rando (Urinetown, A Christmas Story, Lincoln Centers's Carousel, All in the Timing) will direct Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead for The Acting Company," announced its producer, Margot Harley. Tom Stoppard's TONY-winning play will run off-Broadway in rotating repertory with Hamlet, directed by Ian Belknap, beginning in January 2014. Prior to New York, Hamlet will play a fall tour of western states beginning at Cal State-Northridge. A national tour of both plays, including an extended stay at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, begins in February. This is the 41st season and tour for The Acting Company, the sixth tour in association with the Guthrie.