James Scruggs News

HERE welcomes composer and singer Gelsey Bell, OBIE and Doris Duke award-winning playwright Julia Jarcho, and NAACP-nominated theatre-maker Nia O. Witherspoon as new members of the HERE Artist Residency Program (HARP).

Liberation Theatre Company (LTC), will have public play readings by members of their Writing Residency Program as part of C-MORE Festival 2019, a production of nancy manocherian's the cell (Artistic Director, Kira Simring), March 31 through April 5, 2019 in Chelsea.

Each year, HERE offers a window into the creative process of their nationally recognized HERE Artist Residency Program (HARP). During the Culturemart Festival, running March 18-23, process becomes the focus, inviting audiences to experience work at various stages of development on their way to full productions.

Liberation Theatre Company (LTC), a Harlem-based independent theatrical producer and playwright development company established in 2009, is inviting applications from early-career playwrights to participate in the third year of their Writing Residency Program for 2019-2020.

Portland Stage will stage the World Premiere of Refuge Malja by Bess Welden with Arabic Translation by Ali Al-Mshakheel begins Oct 30 through Nov 18, opens for reviewers Friday Nov 2, 2018. When a Jewish-American war photographer feels compelled to assist a young refugee who steps in front of her camera, she calls an old friend to translate but hesitates to reveal why she is so drawn to the boy. This poetic, decade-spanning drama explores how we each define and find our own malja (refuge). Affiliate Artist Bess Welden's Refuge Malja was developed as part of the 2017 Little Festival of the Unexpected and was subsequently workshopped in the Studio Series in January of 2018. Refuge Malja is made possible with support from the Maine Humanities Council and the Maine Arts Commission.

In 1993, HERE barged into Soho and threw one hell of a party. It's been 25 years and the world has changed, but the OBIE-winning producer and presenter is still HERE.

HERE announces that applications for the HERE Artist Residency Program (HARP) are currently open. This multi-year, $100,000 residency program was created in 1999 and serves as a national model.

HERE's Board of Directors announces that long-time Producing/Executive Director Kim Whitener will step down from HERE Art Center this fall to return to creative producing and consulting with her company KiWi Productions, where she will work with a range of US artists and companies primarily in the contemporary opera-theater and music-theater worlds.

Beginning tomorrow, July 28, designer, director, master puppeteer, and MacArthur "genius" Basil Twist will perform in his singular creation, Symphonie Fantastique, during all Saturdayevening performances. The 20th-anniversary production, which has received near universal acclaim and is scheduled to close on September 2, will include Twist on July 28, August 4, 11, 18, 25 and September 1 at 8:30pm. Set to Hector Berlioz's revolutionary 1830 score, Symphonie Fantastique, for the first time in New York, features live piano accompaniment by Christopher O'Riley. Hailed as a creative masterpiece when it debuted in 1998, the production, which opened on April 4, is a presentation from HERE's Dream Music Puppetry Program and a centerpiece of HERE's 25th anniversary season.

HERE is thrilled to present Cabaret Fantastique, a culminating concert event featuring pianist Christopher O'Riley who performs his haunting solo piano arrangements of songs by Radiohead, Nirvana, Pink Floyd, The Smiths, Elliott Smith, Portishead, and Sun Kil Moon. Master puppeteer and MacArthur "genius" Basil Twist and company members from Symphonie Fantastique will accompany O'Riley with new puppet work. The one-of-a-kind event will take place on August 19 at 7pm. Known to millions as the host of NPR's From the Top, O'Riley is currently performing live piano accompaniment for Basil Twist's Symphonie Fantastique, which continues performances at HERE until September 2.

HERE (Kristin Marting, Founding Artistic Director, and Kim Whitener, Executive Director) is proud to announce its 2018-2019 season, which marks the OBIE-winning institution's 26th year of producing of daring new hybrid performance by new artists from all disciplines - theatre, music, art, dance, puppetry, and media art.

PROTOTYPE: Opera/Theatre/Now is pleased to announce programming for the seventh annual festival of fresh opera-theatre & music-theatre running January 5-13, 2019, featuring eight presentations that "shift the whole paradigm of what opera is and can be" (New York Observer).

Atlantic Theater Company (Neil Pepe, Artistic Director; Jeffory Lawson, Managing Director) will present Middle Eastern MixFest, a series of free readings co-curated by playwrights Mona Mansour and Heather Raffothat will run Wednesday, August 8th through Thursday, August 16th at Atlantic Stage 2 (330 West 16th Street).

HERE (Kristin Marting, Founding Artistic Director, and Kim Whitener, Executive Director) is proud to close their 25th anniversary season with the commissioned world premiere of American Weather, a new work by director and designer Chris Green, a member of the HERE Artist Residency Program since 2016. With a bittersweet verve, American Weather is a visceral work of material performance inspired by daily life in America.

On June 4, the OBIE-winner HERE will honor Tony Award-winner Eve Ensler and HERE's board chair and star attorney Bethany Haynes at Out of the Box for 25 Years, HERE's 25th Anniversary Gala. The evening celebrates HERE's quarter of a century history as a leader in thinking creatively, reimagining performance practice and taking audiences to new frontiers. HERE has been a champion for unconventional theater artists, puppeteers, musicians, and dancers for 25 years including Ensler, whose groundbreaking The Vagina Monologues was developed and premiered at HERE in 1996.

RATTLESTICK PLAYWRIGHTS THEATER (Daniella Topol, Artistic Director; Annie Middleton, Managing Director) is proud to announce the workshop production of SAINT VINCENT'S PROJECT: NOVENAS FOR A LOST HOSPITAL, presented in partnership with the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, NYC AIDS Memorial Board, The Stonewall Chorale, and St. John's in the Village.

The High Line presents a new season of Out of Line. Now in its third year, this series of acts and performances features a wide range of contemporary artists from all over New York City. Performances are held monthly on the High Line at 14th Street, from May through August.

RATTLESTICK PLAYWRIGHTS THEATER (Daniella Topol, Artistic Director; Annie Middleton, Managing Director) and ROSALIND PRODUCTIONS INC. (Abigail Rose Solomon, Executive Producer) are proud to announce casting for their annual F*CK!NG GOOD PLAYS FESTIVAL, which begins tonight, May 7, 2018 and will run through May 12 at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater.

Liberation Theatre Company (LTC) a Harlem-based independent theatrical producer and playwright development company established to support emerging Black playwrights, has chosen four promising new writers to participate in their Writing Residency Program for 2018-2019, the second year of the program.

In response to overwhelming demand and near universal critical acclaim, Symphonie Fantastique - the singular creation by designer, director, master puppeteer, and MacArthur "genius" Basil Twist - extends its 20th anniversary engagement to July 15. Set to Hector Berlioz's revolutionary 1830 score, Symphonie Fantastique, for the first time in New York, features live piano accompaniment by Christopher O'Riley. Hailed as a creative masterpiece when it debuted in 1998, the production, which opened on April 4, is a presentation from HERE's Dream Music Puppetry Program and a centerpiece of HERE's 25th anniversary season.