Jenkins News

The winners of this year's Critics' Circle Theatre Awards were announced today at a ceremony at the Prince of Wales Theatre in London's West End.

Historic Royal Palaces and IMG announce that Lionel Richie has been added to the line-up for Hampton Court Palace Festival 2018 supported by Viking, award-winning cruise line. These are Lionel's only London shows of 2018. Tickets for the Lionel Richie concerts will go on sale at 10am on Friday 2 February. Tickets can be purchased from www.hamptoncourtpalacefestival.com.

WICKED! alumni Shoshana Bean will be celebrating her latest musical project release Spectrum with a one-night concert at The Ace Theatre in Downtown Los Angeles. We had the wonderful opportunity to chat with the powerhouse songstress before prepping for her L.A. engagement.

Word for Word's first production of their 25th Anniversary Season is Lucia Berlin:Stories running February 14-March 11, in the Z Below Theater in San Francisco. Lucia Berlin:Stories opens with press performances February 17 & 18, Saturday 8 PM and Sunday 3 PM  (previews Feb. 14 - 16). The stories are from Lucia Berlin's posthumously published, critically acclaimed, A Manual for Cleaning Women featuring the stories 'Her First Detox', 'Emergency Room Notebook 1977', 'Unmanageable', '502' and 'Here It Is Saturday'. Directed by Nancy Shelby and JoAnne Winter, Lucia Berlin:Stories is set to an evocative jazz score by Marcus Shelby, and illuminated with vibrant projections by Naomie Kremer. Author Lydia Davis in The New Yorker described Berlin's work: 'Lucia Berlin's stories are electric, they buzz and crackle as the live wires touch....This is exhilarating writing' On Sunday, February 25,following the 3PM performance: Lucia's Sons, a post-show talk with Jeff Berlin and David Berlin in conversation with the audience and remarking about the performances, stories, and their life with their mother Lucia Berlin. 

According to the Tampa Bay Times, an enterprising group of students has taken on the task of producing a brand new musical centered around popular grocery store chain Publix.

The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize has announced 10 Finalists for its prestigious playwriting award, the oldest and largest prize awarded to women playwrights writing in the English language. Chosen from over 150 nominated plays, the Finalists are:

An advocate for social advancement in the arts, VAULT Festival will hold a round table on gender equality leading to the launch of its progression scheme for talented emerging female writers, Writers Gap. A New Writers Award, partnership with the Integrated Fringe Platform and massive HeForShe arts week celebration featuring Jamz Supernova and Etta Bond will all contribute to VAULT's continued commitment to championing the best and most relevant contemporary theatre. With support from WeAreWaterloo, the programme scales immersive and site specific theatre, comedy, dance, cabaret, film and much more. VAULT Festival returns from 24th January to 18th March 2018 with over 300 shows exploring a myriad of topical themes with over 53% of shows written or directed by women. Full programme and tickets available now via vaultfestival.com.

Ubisoft announced today its first foray in to live entertainment experience with a pilot tour of JUST DANCE LIVE, an immersive and interactive experience, based on the #1 music video game franchise of all time. The tour will play locally at Aon Grand Ballroom at Navy Pier in Chicago (March 15-18).

This week at Talkhouse, American Folk writer/director David Heinz and star Amber Rubarth write about their experiences filming their critically acclaimed new movie (read it HERE), filmmaker Michael Lehmann (Heathers, “American Horror Story”) revisits his overlooked second feature film Meet the Applegates (

Shoreditch Town Hall today announces further productions in the venue's spring programme, which brings together work exploring the themes of identity, time and place. This June sees the UK premiere of ANU & CoisCeim Dance Theatre's These Rooms, an intense, immersive blend of theatre, dance and visual art by David Bolger, Owen Boss and Louise Lowe. The work is co-commissioned by 14-18 NOW, the UK's official arts programme for the First World War centenary, LIFT and Shoreditch Town Hall, and tells the story of 15 civilian men who were killed in house-to-house raids by British soldiers on a single Dublin street on 28 April 1916, five days into the Easter Rising. Prior to this, acclaimed theatre-maker Christopher Brett Bailey returns to Shoreditch Town Hall, where he previously performed in Wedding, with a new solo show, Suicide Notes… The Spoken Word of Christopher Brett Bailey; Hackney-based Access All Areas presents MADHOUSE: re:exit, an underground adventure by five learning disabled artists; and the critically acclaimed magician Vincent Gambini performs a work-in-progress of his new piece, The Chore of Enchantment.

Scarborough's Stephen Joseph Theatre company is preparing to spend a month in New York this spring. The company is taking one of last summer season's hit shows, Alan Ayckbourn's A Brief History of Women, to the city to be part of the annual Brits Off Broadway festival organised by 59e59 Theaters. The show will be seen at the theatre - which is located at 59 East 59th Street - from 1 to 27 May.

Artists Rep presents the World Premiere of Magellanica, by E.M. Lewis, directed by Damaso Rodriguez from January 20 through February 18 on the theatre's Morrison Stage. Magellanica is a five-part epic play written by Oregon playwright E.M. Lewis. This production is made possible through major funding from the Oregon Community Foundation (OCF) Creative Heights Initiative and the Edgerton Foundation New Play Award. Magellanica is a part of Portland's Fertile Ground Festival of New Works.

Kicking off its 2018 season, Hershey Area Playhouse is proud to present The Secret Garden, a musical based off of the 1911 novel of the same name by Frances Hodgson Burnett with script and lyrics by Marsha Norman and music by Lucy Simon.

Freeform, Disney's young adult television and streaming network, will premiere brand new episodes of breakout comedies “grown-ish” and “Alone Together,” as well as fan-favorite series “The Fosters” and “Beyond.” Also in February, Freeform will celebrate the 80th Anniversary of the release of the beloved Disney animated classic “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” with an all-day marathon on Sunday, Feb. 4, beginning at 11:30 a.m. EST.

The Houston Symphony and Music Director Andr s Orozco-Estrada announced today details of the 2018-19 season, which marks Orozco-Estrada's fifth year as music director. Highlights of the season include conducting appearances by world-class violinists Joshua Bell and Itzhak Perlman; the world premiere of Aurora, a violin concerto by Houston Symphony Composer-in-Residence Jimmy L pez; and a semi-staged opera performance of Bart k's Bluebeard's Castle.

The Offies 2018 finalists were announced live on Twitter & Facebook at 1pm today by OffWestEnd Panel Judge & Critic for The Stage Mark Shenton.

My Land's Shore is the epic musical based on the true story of a Welsh miner who was swept away by the wheels of history to become the first martyr of the Welsh working class, will receive its Welsh professional premiere in Merthyr in February 2018. A story of guilt, love, injustice and rebellion, set during the Merthyr Rising of 1831, concerning one of the most iconic figures in the history of Wales (Dic Penderyn) and written by two Welsh creatives - composer/lyricist Christopher J. Orton and librettist/lyricist Robert Gould, My Land's Shore has its roots in the very fabric of the hearts and minds of the Welsh nation.

The nominations for the 90th Annual ACADEMY AWARDS were announced this morning on a global live stream. Find out which of your favorite theater stars received a nomination!

A Red Orchid Theatre announces the extension of Traitor, an adaptation of Heinrich Ibsen's An Enemy of the People, written by Ensemble Member Brett Neveu and directed by Ensemble Member Michael Shannon, due to overwhelming demand. The production features Ensemble Members Dado, Kirsten Fitzgerald, Larry Grimm, Guy Van Swearingen and Natalie West, with Jacob Alexander, Mary Jo Bolduc, Missi Davis, Kristin Ellis, Nation Henrickson, Frank Nall and Steve Walker, featuring lighting design by Ensemble Member Mike Durst. Traitor will add Wednesday evening performances in February and now runs through March 4, 2018. 2018 at A Red Orchid Theatre, 1531 N. Wells. Tickets for the extension are on sale now.

Based on Shakespeare's delightful comic romp Much Ado About Nothing, the opera embodies the composer's love for the Bard