Jason Grote News

Five-time Obie Award-winning theater company Clubbed Thumb has announced initial casting for SUMMERWORKS, its annual series of new plays.

Jackalope's 8th season concludes with the world premiere of PROWESS, written by Ike Holter, directed by Marti Lyons, with the full cast and production team announced below.

For its 20th anniversary show, Collaboraction is exploring mankind, technology and our connection to it all with the world premiere of CONNECTED, the story of humankind as told by the nine planets in our solar system, starting with the Big Bang and stopping at numerous historical and future campfires along the way.

The Theatre @ Boston Court presents The Golden Dragon, by Roland Schimmelpfennig, translated by David Tushingham, directed by Boston Court Co-Artistic Director Michael Michetti. This world premiere production opens Sunday, May 8, 2016 at 5pm on the Main Stage at Boston Court Performing Arts Center, 70 North Mentor Avenue in Pasadena.

Point of Origin is an immersive theatre experience. It starts with a leg of lamb being placed in an oven on stage. As the aromas fill the theatre, the cast figures out how to tell three stories - about a shape-shifting hag witch from Finland; a slimy con artist from Greece; and their descendants, an Australian woman and an American woman who find themselves in New York. Sometimes these stories are told with words, other times through dance, but most deliciously they are told through food. The audience receives tastes of food throughout the performance and share in the leg of lamb at the end of the play.

Playwright Francis Weiss Rabkin and company Tight Braid Group present the interdisciplinary play Won't Be a Ghost. Growing out of several years of development, Won't Be a Ghost entwines the stories of two queer truth-tellers: Magnus Hirschfeld, early sexologist and gay rights advocate, and US Army whistleblower, Chelsea Manning. Taking structural cues from Ancient Greek tragedies, a chorus guides the audience from the gardens of Hirschfeld's Weimar-era Institute for Sexual Science to a US Army base in Iraq, where Manning tells her story via instant messenger.  Refusing martyrdom, they find grace in the unjust through rituals of healing.

The Hypocrites has announced its 20th Anniversary Season, featuring five dynamic productions, including a world premiere musical adaptation and two Chicago premieres. The company is also thrilled to launch a new play development initiative, with its first-ever new play commissions.

F*It Club, the New York Innovative Award-winning film and theatre company, continues its annual series of short, commissioned world-premiere plays at the IRT Theater as part of their 3B Development Series in Manhattan's West Village with The Spring Fling: Crush, six new short plays by  Kevin Artigue (The Forcings), Stephanie Del Rosso (Flee), Catya McMullen (Everything is Probably Going to be Okay), Seth Moore (Seawife), Gregory S. Moss (Billy Witch), and Ariel Stess (Heartbreak).

The Drama Desk and Obie Award-winning Keen Company will present a benefit reading in honor of the Tenth Season of Keen Teens on Monday March 21st at The Clurman Theatre, Theatre Row.   Casts will feature current Keen Teens, KT alumni, and professional actors including Heidi Armbruster, Laura Esterman, Peter Jay Fernandez, Autumn Hurlbert, Ted Koch, KK Moggie, Lauren Molina, Chris Perfetti, Jay Russell, Conor Ryan, and Keen Artistic Director Jonathan Silverstein as 'Principal Forsman.' All proceeds from the 10th Anniversary Readings will help support the continued growth of the Keen Teens program.

?Five-time Obie Award-winning theater company Clubbed Thumb has announced the line-up for SUMMERWORKS, its annual series of new plays. Now in its 21st season, SUMMERWORKS will run May 27 through July 9 at The Wild Project (195 E 3rd Street) in Manhattan, and will feature productions of three new plays: EVERY ANGEL IS BRUTAL by Julia Jarcho and directed by Knud Adams; THE TOMB OF KING TOT by Eric Dufault and directed by Portia Krieger; and TUMACHO by Ethan Lipton and directed by Leigh Silverman. Festival passes are now on sale at: https://www.artful.ly/clubbedthumb/store/passes.

For its 20th anniversary show, Collaboraction is exploring mankind, technology and our connection to it all with the world premiere of CONNECTED, the story of humankind as told by the nine planets in our solar system, starting with the Big Bang and stopping at numerous historical and future campfires along the way.

Sideshow Theatre Company will conclude its 2015/16 Season with CAUGHT, a new, head-spinning collaboration with playwright Christopher Chen, director Seth Bockley and Chicago's Xiong Art Gallery.

Robert Falls' and Seth Bockley's world premiere adaptation of Roberto Bolaño's famed novel, 2666, which has received extraordinary audience enthusiasm during previews, officially opens tonight, February 16, 2016.

Robert Falls' and Seth Bockley's world premiere adaptation of Roberto Bolaño's famed novel, 2666-which has received extraordinary audience enthusiasm during previews and officially opens tomorrow, February 16-has been extended. Four additional performances include March 17, 18 and 19 at 6:30pm and March 20 at 1pm. The 15-member all-Chicago ensemble cast remains unchanged during the added performances.

Following its hit production of No More Sad Things, Sideshow Theatre Company is pleased to continue its 2015/16 Season with the world premiere of David Jacobi's chilling new drama MAI DANG LAO, directed by artistic associate Marti Lyons, playing March 6 - April 10, 2016 at Victory Gardens Richard Christiansen Theater, 2433 N. Lincoln Ave. in Chicago.

The Drama Desk and Obie Award-winning Keen Company (Jonathan Silverstein - Artistic Director, Mark Armstrong - Keen Teens Producer) will present the Tenth Season of Keen Teens.  This season's offerings will be Thirty Million, a new musical with music and lyrics by Max Vernon; book by Jason Kim, directed by Mark Armstrong, with choreography by Brad Landers and musical direction by Lena Gabrielle; Landlines by Hannah Bos and Paul Thureen, directed by Liz Carlson; and How The Moon Would Talk by Nick Gandiello, directed by Sash Bischoff. Auditions will be February 3rd through 5th. To more information about auditions, please visit http://www.keencompany.org/ktaudition/.

Jackalope's 8th season continues with the world premieres of Rolling, written by Calamity West, directed by Nate Silver, and Prowess, written by Ike Holter, directed by Marti Lyons, with the full casts and production teams announced below.

In 2012, Dr. Charles Scarborough's medical license was revoked, and he was arrested for 821 counts of insurance fraud. Held on half a billion dollars' bail, and at 77 years old, his family thought he would spend the rest of his life in jail. 

After 15 years, 240 world premiere theater pieces, and being hailed 'the premiere short play festival in the Midwest' by the Chicago Reader, Collaboraction will stage its 15th and final SKETCHBOOK Festival at the place where it all started, the Chopin Theatre, 1543 W. Division St., Chicago, January 14-24, 2016.

After over two decades of non-linearity, experimental theatre artists Juliana Francis-Kelly and Tony Torn have created a naturalistic play inspired by real events.