Jack Willis News

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater announces select cast members for the upcoming 2016 productions of Sweat, The City of Conversation and All the Way.

What is the American dream? This question and many others were asked and explored on a ground-breaking public television series from the early 1970s. Combining elements of variety shows and sketch comedy, documentary film, witty animated sequences, and a who's who of pop culture icons, THE GREAT AMERICAN DREAM MACHINE paved the way for future television programming. Years before SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE and THE DAILY SHOW, a just before cult classics like THE GROOVE TUBE and KENTUCKY FRIED MOVIE offered topical and satirical comedy on film, THE GREAT AMERICAN DREAM MACHINE was pioneering television.

Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage's SWEAT, currently making its premiere at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, could be headed off-Broadway next year. 

Ashland, Ore.-The Oregon Shakespeare Festival will open Lynn Nottage's Sweat, the final production of the Festival's 2015 playbill, on August 2 in the Angus Bowmer Theatre. Preview performances are July 29, July 31 and August 1.

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater announces artist additions for the 2015/16 season, with select cast and creative team members announced for Destiny of Desire, Oliver!, Sweat and All the Way as part of the theater's 66th season.

Oh my! It's been a hell of a year for the Seattle Theatre scene and I can say we've been quite fortunate to see the incredible shows we have. So many amazing shows in fact that picking just a few stand outs (let alone a "best") is a near impossibility. But I have searched the deep dark recesses of my memory to find the shows and performances that really stood out and stuck with me beyond the evening and throughout the year. And so, without further ado, I'm thrilled to present the BWW 2014 Seattle Critic's Choice Awards (or Jay's Picks). Let the awesomeness flow!

Sometimes a bit of greatness, when combined with an equally great companion can form something so amazing that they surpass the heights to which they've already achieved. Such is the case with Tony Kushner's "Angels in America", the cycle of plays from August Wilson and, in my opinion, even Tarantino's "Kill Bill" saga. Well now we can add another set to the group as the Seattle Rep is now presenting the companion piece to the Robert Schenkkan's LBJ bio-play "All the Way" with the equally stunning "The Great Society". And if the first one grabbed you like it did me, then this one will only serve to extend that wild ride but in a very different way.

Robert Schenkkan's political drama All the Way has become the highest-grossing production in Seattle Repertory Theatre history, surpassing Lily Tomlin's The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe and Carrie Fisher's Wishful Drinking. The play is currently running now through Jan. 4, 2015 in the Bagley Wright Theatre. All the Way is presented in partnership with Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF).

I'm just going to stop you right here, Dear Reader. If you haven't already gone out and got your tickets for the Seattle Rep's production of Robert Schenkkan's "All the Way" then just stop reading this and go take care of that. I'll wait. Done? OK, now we can continue to talk about this juggernaut of a play that has completely lived up to all the hype that preceded it and more.

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) will open Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning playwright Robert Schenkkan's The Great Society at 1:00 p.m. Sunday, July 27 in the Angus Bowmer Theatre. The Great Society was commissioned by and co-produced with Seattle Repertory Theatre and developed through OSF's American Revolutions: the United States History Cycle and the Orchard Project.

As Denzel Washington, Kenny Leon and Co. usher in the umpteenth renaissance of Lorraine Hansberry's A RAISIN IN THE SUN, across the country, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival is mounting a 50th anniversary revival of the only other work the Hansberry- who died at 34 - lived to see produced.

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) is delighted that the American Repertory Theatre (ART) production of Robert Schenkkan's All the Way, staged in the fall of 2013 and directed by OSF Artistic Director Bill Rauch, received five Independent Reviewers of New England (IRNE) Awards. All the Way, which had its world premiere at OSF in 2012, is now playing on Broadway at the Neil Simon Theatre through June 29, 2014.

The Tony Award-winning Oregon Shakespeare Festival's 2014 preview performances begin tonight, February 14, and the season will open Friday night, February 21 in the Angus Bowmer Theatre with Shakespeare's The Tempest (director, Tony Taccone). On Saturday, Lorraine Hansberry's The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window (Juliette Carrillo) takes the stage, as does the classic Marx Brothers musical The Cocoanuts (David Ivers), and Sunday afternoon Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors (Kent Gash) opens in the Thomas Theatre.

A masterpiece of 20th Century theatre thunders back to life in a must see production. Kathleen Turner triumphs as Courage and Molly Smith's staging is solid in every way.

Artistic Director Molly Smith tackles a unique, in-the-round staging of Bertolt Brecht's powerhouse anti-war play Mother Courage and Her Children at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater. Iconic stage and screen actress and Academy Award nominee Kathleen Turner returns to Arena Stage following her sold-out run of Red Hot Patriot: The Kick-Ass Wit of Molly Ivins to make her professional singing debut as the tough-as-nails matriarch Mother Courage-a single mother determined to keep her family alive and her business afloat during war. Mother Courage and Her Children runs through March 9, 2014 in the Fichandler Stage. BroadwayWorld has a first look at opening night below!

Artistic Director Molly Smith tackles a unique, in-the-round staging of Bertolt Brecht's powerhouse anti-war play Mother Courage and Her Children at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater. Iconic stage and screen actress and Academy Award nominee Kathleen Turner returns to Arena Stage following her sold-out run of Red Hot Patriot: The Kick-Ass Wit of Molly Ivins to make her professional singing debut as the tough-as-nails matriarch Mother Courage-a single mother determined to keep her family alive and her business afloat during war. Mother Courage and Her Children runs tonight, January 31-March 9, 2014 in the Fichandler Stage. BroadwayWorld has a look at Turner and the cast below!

The Tony Award-winning Oregon Shakespeare Festival's 2014 preview performances begin February 14, and the season will open Friday night, February 21 in the Angus Bowmer Theatre with Shakespeare's The Tempest (director, Tony Taccone). On Saturday, Lorraine Hansberry's The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window (Juliette Carrillo) takes the stage, as does the classic Marx Brothers musical The Cocoanuts (David Ivers), and Sunday afternoon Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors (Kent Gash) opens in the Thomas Theatre.

Artistic Director Molly Smith tackles a unique, in-the-round staging of Bertolt Brecht's powerhouse anti-war play Mother Courage and Her Children at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater. Iconic stage and screen actress and Academy Award nominee Kathleen Turner returns to Arena Stage following her sold-out run of Red Hot Patriot: The Kick-Ass Wit of Molly Ivins to make her professional singing debut as the tough-as-nails matriarch Mother Courage-a single mother determined to keep her family alive and her business afloat during war. Mother Courage and Her Children runs January 31-March 9, 2014 in the Fichandler Stage. BroadwayWorld has a sneak peek at Turner and the cast below!

Artistic Director Molly Smith tackles a unique, in-the-round staging of Bertolt Brecht's powerhouse anti-war play Mother Courage and Her Children at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater. Iconic stage and screen actress and Academy Award nominee Kathleen Turner returns to Arena Stage following her sold-out run of Red Hot Patriot: The Kick-Ass Wit of Molly Ivins to make her professional singing debut as the tough-as-nails matriarch Mother Courage-a single mother determined to keep her family alive and her business afloat during war. Using the David Hare translation, the show fuses politics and satire to paint an unforgettable and provocative portrait of war, incorporating more than 10 pieces of original music composed in a rollicking, gypsy-punk style and performed by cast members doubling as musicians. Mother Courage and Her Children runs January 31-March 9, 2014 in the Fichandler Stage.

Artistic Director Molly Smith tackles a unique, in-the-round staging of Bertolt Brecht's powerhouse anti-war play Mother Courage and Her Children at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater. Iconic stage and screen actress and Academy Award nominee Kathleen Turner returns to Arena Stage following her sold-out run of Red Hot Patriot: The Kick-Ass Wit of Molly Ivins to make her professional singing debut as the tough-as-nails matriarch Mother Courage-a single mother determined to keep her family alive and her business afloat during war. Using the David Hare translation, the show fuses politics and satire to paint an unforgettable and provocative portrait of war, incorporating more than 10 pieces of original music composed in a rollicking, gypsy-punk style and performed by cast members doubling as musicians. Mother Courage and Her Children runs January 31-March 9, 2014 in the Fichandler Stage.