Jenny Schwartz News

Playwrights Horizons has announced casting for PLACEBO, the world premiere of a new play by Obie Award winner Melissa James Gibson (This at PH, What Rhymes with America, Suitcase, [sic], the FX series "The Americans," "House of Cards" on Netflix.). Directed by Obie Award winner Daniel Aukin (This at PH, The Fortress of Solitude, Bad Jews, 4,000 Miles, [sic]), the play will be the fourth production of the theater company's 2014/2015 Season.

New Georges will remount their critically acclaimed production of Kate Benson's A Beautiful Day in November on the Banks of the Greatest of the Great Lakes directed by Lee Sunday Evans in association with Women's Project Theater, January 12-February 7 at City Center Stage II (131 West 55th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues). Performances will be 1/12-1/17, 1/20-1/24, 1/27-1/30 & 2/3-2/7 at 7:30pm, 1/17, 1/24, 1/25, 2/1 & 2/7 at 2:30pm, 1/31 at 8pm and 2/6 at 3pm. Tickets ($35-$45) are available online at www.nycitycenter.org or by calling 212.581.1212.

Vineyard Theatre today announced that the world premiere of the musical BROOKLYNITE, helmed by Tony Award-winning director Michael Mayer (HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH, SPRING AWAKENING), would begin performances Friday January 29th, with an opening night set for Wednesday February 25th. This limited engagement continues through Sunday March 22nd.

Playwrights Horizons is now accepting entries for its popular LIVEforFIVE online lottery for up to two $5 tickets each to the world premiere of POCATELLO, a new play by Obie, Drama Desk and Lortel awards winner and 2014 MacArthur Foundation 'Genius' grantee Samuel D. Hunter (The Whale at PH, The Few, A Bright New Boise), directed by Davis McCallum (The Whale at PH, The Few, London Wall, A Bright New Boise, Water by the Spoonful).

Playwrights Horizons today announced several major initiatives that will expand the ways in which theater writers are compensated. As a writer's theater dedicated to the support and development of contemporary American playwrights, composers and lyricists and to the production of their new work, Playwrights Horizons is committed to establishing new standards in compensation that will directly benefit all of its writers and taking a leadership position in responding to the reality that theater writers are among the lowest-compensated creative artists in America.

Vineyard Theatre today announced that Clare Barron has been awarded the 2014 Paula Vogel Playwriting Award, presented annually to an emerging playwright of exceptional promise.

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!

Rehearsals begin tomorrow, Tuesday, October 21 for the Playwrights Horizons production of POCATELLO, the world premiere of a new play by Obie, Drama Desk and Lortel awards winner and 2014 MacArthur Foundation 'Genius' grantee Samuel D. Hunter (The Whale at PH, The Few, A Bright New Boise). Directed by Davis McCallum (The Whale at PH, The Few, London Wall, A Bright New Boise, Water by the Spoonful), the play will be the third production of the theater company's 2014/2015 Season.

'Mad Men' star Vincent Kartheiser and Broadway's Larry Pine (CASA VALENTINA) play Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler, respectively, in BILLY & RAY, Mike Bencivenga's new play -- directed by the legendary director/writer/producer Garry Marshall -- being given its NY premiere this fall at the Vineyard Theatre (108 E. 15 St.), with an official opening tonight, October 20, 2014.

Playwrights Horizons is now accepting entries for its popular LIVEforFIVE online lottery for up to two $5 tickets each to the world premiere of GRAND CONCOURSE, a new play by playwright and two-time Obie Award-winning actress Heidi Schreck (There Are No More Big Secrets, Creature, Showtime's "Nurse Jackie"), directed by Kip Fagan (The Revisionist, Asuncion).

The National Music Theater Institute (NMTI) students have just returned to campus from two weeks training in New York City; scroll down for photos from the visit! NMTI is the newest credit-earning, semester-long intensive from the National Theater Institute at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center. Utilizing the O'Neill's 50-year experience in training young theater artists and history of developing new musicals (including Nine, Avenue Q, In The Heights, [title of show], and Violet), NMTI offers broad-based training in all areas of musical theater: acting, singing, directing, writing, dance, composition, and choreography. In addition to the semester's rigorous curriculum-classes 14 hours a day, 7 days a week with emphasis on collaboration and the creation of original work- two weeks of the semester are spent learning in the epicenter of American music theater.

'Mad Men' star Vincent Kartheiser and Broadway's Larry Pine (CASA VALENTINA) will play Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler, respectively, in BILLY & RAY, Mike Bencivenga's new play -- directed by the legendary director/writer/producer Garry Marshall -- being given its NY premiere this fall at the Vineyard Theatre (108 E. 15 St.), with previews scheduled to begin tonight, October 1 prior to an official opening on October 20, it has been announced by Vineyard's Artistic Directors Douglas Aibel and Sarah Stern.

Playwrights Horizons announced the appointment of Liz Fallon Culp as the institution's new Director of Development. Ms. Culp joins the acclaimed theater company direct from New York Public Radio (WNYC/WQXR), where she served as the Senior Director of Major Gifts and Legacy Giving. She began with the theater company this month, leading its seven-person Development department.

Tonight, September 29 (8 pm), Symphony Space will present Sundance...Sings!, spotlighting songs from groundbreaking shows developed with support from the Sundance Institute Theatre Program, sung by a stellar cast. Christine Ebersole, Ann Harada, Annie Golden, Joshua Henry, and fourteen other notables will take the stage at the Peter Jay Sharp Theatre in selections from the Broadway oeuvre of Stew + Heidi Rodewald, Scott Frankel, Adam Guettel, Lisa Kron, Michael John LaChiusa, Bill Finn, Steven Lutvak, Duncan Sheik, and others.

Actors' Shakespeare Project (ASP), under the leadership of Artistic Director Allyn Burrows, Executive Producer Sara Stackhouse, and Mara Sidmore Director of Education Programs, Projects, and Partnerships enters its second decade presenting a season of powerful stories, awesome artists, diverse venues, and integrated youth and community education projects.

Playwrights Horizons announced today that their New York premiere production of the acclaimed new play Bootycandy, written and directed by Obie Award winner Robert O'Hara, would extend an additional week. The production is the season opener of the theater company's 2014/2015 Season. After opening on Wednesday, September 10, the limited engagement -- originally scheduled to play through Sunday, October 12 -- will now play through Sunday, October 19 at Playwrights Horizons' Mainstage Theater (416 West 42nd Street).

Tickets go on sale to the general public and rehearsals begin today, Tuesday, September 16 for the Playwrights Horizons World Premiere production of GRAND CONCOURSE, a new play by playwright and two-time Obie Award-winning actress Heidi Schreck (There Are No More Big Secrets, Creature). Directed by Kip Fagan (The Revisionist, Asuncion), the play is the second production of the acclaimed theater company's 2014/2015 Season. It follows the critically-acclaimed Bootycandy, a new play written and directed by Robert O'Hara, now playing on the Mainstage.

On Monday, September 29 (8 pm), Symphony Space will present Sundance…Sings!, spotlighting songs from groundbreaking shows developed with support from the Sundance Institute Theatre Program, sung by a stellar cast. Christine Ebersole, Ann Harada, Annie Golden, Joshua Henry, and fourteen other notables will take the stage at the Peter Jay Sharp Theatre in selections from the Broadway oeuvre of Stew + Heidi Rodewald, Scott Frankel, Adam Guettel, Lisa Kron, Michael John LaChiusa, Bill Finn, Steven Lutvak, Duncan Sheik, and others.

Actors' Shakespeare Project (ASP), under the leadership of Artistic Director Allyn Burrows, Executive Producer Sara Stackhouse, and Mara Sidmore Director of Education Programs, Projects, and Partnerships enters its second decade presenting a season of powerful stories, awesome artists, diverse venues, and integrated youth and community education projects.

'Mad Men' star Vincent Kartheiser and Broadway's Larry Pine (CASA VALENTINA) will play Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler, respectively, in BILLY & RAY, Mike Bencivenga's new play -- directed by the legendary director/writer/producer Garry Marshall -- being given its NY premiere this fall at the Vineyard Theatre (108 E. 15 St.), with previews scheduled to begin October 1 prior to an official opening on October 20, it has been announced by Vineyard's Artistic Directors Douglas Aibel and Sarah Stern.