Jeanne Donovan Fisher News

-This summer marks another historic milestone for the annual Bard SummerScape festival. For the first time since its founding, this season's focus is on the music and culture of Italy, with seven weeks of music, opera, theater, dance, film, and cabaret keyed to the theme of the 27th Bard Music Festival, "Puccini and His World." This intensive examination of the life and times of Giacomo Puccini opens a window onto Italy's rich musical heritage from Palestrina to Menotti, by way of the most popular and successful - yet, paradoxically, frequently critically underrated - opera composer of all time. Complementing the music festival, some of the Tuscan master's most compelling compatriots provide other key SummerScape highlights.

This summer marks another historic milestone for the annual Bard SummerScape festival. For the first time since its founding, this season's focus is on the music and culture of Italy, with seven weeks of music, opera,theater, dance, film, and cabaret keyed to the theme of the 27th Bard Music Festival, "Puccini and His World." This intensive examination of the life and times of Giacomo Puccini opens a window onto Italy's rich musical heritage from Palestrina to Menotti, by way of the most popular and successful - yet, paradoxically, frequently critically underrated - opera composer of all time. Complementing the music festival, some of the Tuscan master's most compelling compatriots provide other key SummerScape highlights. These include a rare, fully staged production of Iris, a forerunner of Madama Butterfly by Puccini's close contemporary Pietro Mascagni; the world premiere of Demolishing Everything with Amazing Speed, four newly unearthed puppet plays from leading Italian Futurist Fortunato Depero, as reimagined by Dan Hurlin;the world premiere of Fantasque, a new ballet set to the music of Respighi and Rossini by John Heginbotham and Amy Trompetter; a film series on "Puccini and the Operatic Impulse in Cinema"; and the return of Bard's authentic and sensationally popularSpiegeltent,hosted by the inimitable Mx. Justin Vivian Bond. Taking place between July 1 and August 14 in the Frank Gehry-designed Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts and other venues on Bard College's stunning Hudson River campus, SummerScape's 2016 offerings provide new opportunities to discover that, as Time Out New York puts it, "the experience of entering the Fisher Center and encountering something totally new is unforgettable and enriching." Tickets go on sale on Monday, February 15; click here for more information.

Classical Greek theatre will take over Classic Stage Company when it begins its 2015/2016 season with the inaugural GREEK FESTIVAL!

Classical Greek theatre will take over Classic Stage Company when it begins its 2015/2016 season with the inaugural GREEK FESTIVAL!

Sundance Institute today announced the 13 projects selected for its annual June Directors and Screenwriters Labs, taking place at the Sundance Resort in Utah from May 25 through June 25.

On October 21, Joan and George Hornig hosted the launch of the second season of the Sundance Institute Theatre Club, a series of private dinners in New York for Institute supporters. Guests joined playwright Heidi Schreck for dinner at Chez Josephine before a performance of Schreck's play Grand Concourse at Playwrights Horizons. Schreck's work was supported by the Sundance Institute Theatre Program. Scroll down for photos from the event!

The Brewing Dept. will present a free, outdoor production of Chuck Mee's bobrauschenbergamerica directed by Emily Kaplan this August. The production runs today, August 14 - 30th, 2014 at 108th Street Lawn in Riverside Park (enter at 108th Street and Riverside Drive).

The Brewing Dept. will present a free, outdoor production of Chuck Mee's bobrauschenbergamerica directed by Emily Kaplan this August. The production runs August 14 - 30th, 2014 at 108th Street Lawn in Riverside Park (enter at 108th Street and Riverside Drive).

The Public Theater last night presented the one-night-only Public Theater annual gala ONE THRILLING COMBINATION at the Delacorte Theater. Directed by Ted Sperling, the gala event celebrated Marvin Hamlisch, The Public Theater and the 40th anniversary of the creation of A Chorus Line. Performers incuded: John Lithgow, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Zachary Quinto, Martha Plimpton, Billy Porter, Jonathan Groff, Sutton Foster, Joshua Bell, Lindsay Mendez, Claybourne Elder,Krysta Rodriguez, Marissa McGowan, Laura Shoop, Peter Dugan, Nikka Graff Lanzarone, Jessica Wu, Mylinda Hull,Brooke Sunny Moriber, Nicole Lewis and more! BroadwayWorld was there for the special night and you can check out photos from the star-studded arrivals below!

Sundance Institute today announced the 13 projects selected for its annual June Directors and Screenwriters Labs, taking place at the Sundance Resort in Utah from May 26 through June 26.

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge and directed by Phyllida Lloyd, composed by Mel Mercier, with lighting design by Jean Kalman and Mike Gunning, set design by Chloe Obolensky and choreography by Kim Brandstrup, will play the BAM Harvey Theater (651 Fulton St), tonight, December 10 - 22, 2013 as part of the Next Wave Festival.

The inimitable Olivier Award winner and Tony Award nominee Fiona Shaw (Medea, 2002 Next Wave; Happy Days, 2008 Spring Season; John Gabriel Borkman, 2011 Spring Season) and dancer Daniel Hay-Gordon perform one of the best loved poems in the English language, Samuel Taylor Coleridge's epic The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, under the acclaimed direction of Phyllida Lloyd. This fiery, pared-down adaption of the 215-year-old tale tells of consequences paid while marooned at sea and of man's wanderings throughout the world in search of meaning.

Sundance Institute today announced that it will present actress and arts advocate Glenn Close with its Vanguard Leadership Award in recognition of her distinguished career in entertainment and advocacy of independent film. The award presentation will take place at the fourth annual 'Celebrate Sundance Institute' benefit, chaired by Institute Trustees Jeanne Donovan Fisher and Pat Mitchell, on June 4, 2014 in New York.

The Brewing Dept. will present a free, outdoor production of Chuck Mee's bobrauschenbergamerica directed by Emily Kaplan this Labor Day weekend.

The Brewing Dept. will present a free, outdoor production of Chuck Mee's bobrauschenbergamerica directed by Emily Kaplan this Labor Day weekend.

Lapham's Quarterly (Editor and Publisher Lewis Lapham) announced today their annual gala, the DECADES BALL: The 1950s, will take place on Monday, June 3 at Capitale (130 Bowery at Grand Street).

Lapham's Quarterly (Editor and Publisher Lewis Lapham) announced today their annual gala, the DECADES BALL: The 1950s, will take place on Monday, June 3 at Capitale (130 Bowery at Grand Street).

One of history's most personal and powerful antiwar statements, Trojan Women, written by Euripides in 451 BC, is brought to vital life in a propulsive new staging by acclaimed director Anne Bogart and SITI Company from a new adaptation by Irish playwright Jocelyn Clarke.

One of history's most personal and powerful antiwar statements, Trojan Women, written by Euripides in 451 BC, is brought to vital life in a propulsive new staging by acclaimed director Anne Bogart and SITI Company from a new adaptation by Irish playwright Jocelyn Clarke.

As it enters the final four months of its Legacy Tour, the Merce Cunningham Dance Company (MCDC) announced today that it has commissioned artist Daniel Arsham to create the décor for its final performances, to be held December 29 - 31 at Park Avenue Armory in New York City.