John F Kennedy News

The Peace Center has added three classical music concerts to the schedule

The National YoungArts Foundation (YoungArts) announced that applications for the 2020 YoungArts competition will be accepted beginning today, June 4, through October 11, 2019 at youngarts.org/apply. Approximately 700 of the country's most accomplished 15- to 18-year-old artists will be selected through a blind adjudication process and provided with lifelong support through funding, mentorship, community, and creative and professional development opportunities.

Acclaimed TV late night show host, admired stand-up comedian, best-selling children's book author, much-in-demand corporate speaker, lovable TV and movie voice-over artist, pioneering car builder and mechanic, and philanthropist….it's no wonder that Jay Leno is widely characterized as "the hardest working man in show business."

The Orlando Repertory Theatre (Orlando REP), in partnership with UCF, is proud to announce the 2019 - 2020 Season. Orlando REP is Florida's only professional theatre for families and young audiences. The 2019 - 2020 Season shines the light on the family unit and celebrates that wondrous connection, with all the complications and beauty that come along with it.

The first national touring production of Ain't Too Proud - The Life and Times of The Temptations will officially launch at the Providence Performing Arts Center in Providence, Rhode Island, in July 2020, before the tour goes on to play more than 50 cities coast-to-coast for more than 100 touring weeks, including a homecoming to The Temptations' roots in Detroit, and a triumphant return to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC.

This fall, artists and audiences from the Washington, D.C. area, the U.S., and around the globe come together at the nation's cultural capital to dance, sing, create, collaborate, listen, learn, talk, share, and celebrate the opening of the REACH, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts's unprecedented new expansion. At a preview event today, May 29, which marks both President Kennedy's 102nd birthday and 100 days until the historic opening, the Kennedy Center unveiled preliminary details of the free 16-day REACH Opening Festival on September 7-22.

Red Caravan presents a new take on William Shakespeare's Measure for Measure, adapted & directed by Andrew Willis-Woodward with original music by Rona Siddiqui.

Perhaps Leonard Bernstein's most uplifting composition is paired with one of the most significant compositions by musical master Ludwig van Beethoven's in "Bernstein and Beethoven: Part II" on Saturday, June 1, 2019 at 8 p.m. at The Music Center at Strathmore.

Although she turns 80 years old this July, the legendary vocalist Mavis Staples shows no sign of slowing down. Today she is thrilled to release her 12th studio album, We Get By, which features songs written and produced by multi-Grammy award-winner Ben Harper; watch the album's trailer HERE.

Jay Leno is returning to the Geffen Playhouse for a special one-night-only fundraiser to benefit No Limits for deaf children, a nationwide non-profit organization that teaches children with hearing loss the skills to succeed in school and in life through its national theater program and after school centers, as well as Geffen's education and community engagement programs. This marks the third time A Special Evening with Jay Leno and Friends has taken place at Geffen Playhouse.

First published in the UK 75 years ago, Four Quartets is considered the crowning achievement of TS Eliot's career as a poet. Now three visionaries, Pam Tanowitz, Kaija Saariaho and Brice Marden respond to the four-part poem in a ravishing union of dance, music and visual art, as the entire work is narrated by American actor Kathleen Chalfant. A Barbican co-commission and European premiere, this collaborative performance of the work is the first to be authorised by the TS Eliot Estate. A production of Bard Fisher Center, Four Quartets premiered at Bard SummerScape in July 2018 to critical acclaim, The New York Times calling it 'the greatest creation of dance theater so far this century".

A&E Network is celebrating the lives of two American icons, Farrah Fawcett and John F. Kennedy Jr., surrounding the anniversaries of their tragic deaths through two in-depth original documentaries airing under the celebrated 'Biography' banner. These comprehensive explorations of their lives include never before-seen footage and exclusive interviews with those closest to them. These two-hour documentaries, 'Biography: Farrah Fawcett Forever' and 'Biography: JFK Jr. - The Final Year' will air Tuesday, July 9 at 9pm ET/PT and Tuesday, July 16th at 9pm ET/PT respectively.

Athena Theatre presents the next step in the development of Athena Writes 2018 Playwrighting Fellow Jeremy O'Brian's work. Proceeds from the June 10th staged reading will seed further development of the play O'Brian created during his fellowship.

On Wednesday, May 22, 2019, Shea's Performing Arts Center and The Lipke Foundation will present a check for $10,000 to the theatre program of Buffalo Academy for Visual and Performing Arts (BAVPA) in recognition of their Kenny Award for Outstanding Musical Production for their production of Les Miserables, which ran at BAVPA from March 27 - March 30, 2019. Expected attendees include Mayor Byron W. Brown, Buffalo Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Kriner Cash, Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes, Shea's Performing Arts Center President Michael G. Murphy, and Lipke Foundation representative/Kenny Awards Director Carlisle Lipke Mitchell.

The Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation (SDCF), the not-for-profit foundation of Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC), will host a conversation entitled 'Producing Theatre for an Ageless Audience', moderated by Linda Hartzell, SDC Foundation Trustee and Artistic Director Emerita of Seattle Children's Theatre, with luminary directors Mark Brokaw and Marcia Milgrom Dodge and playwright Timothy Allen McDonald on Monday May, 20, 2019 from 6:00-8:00 PM at SDC, 321 W. 44th St., Suite 804.

Lincoln Center Theater (under the direction of Andre Bishop) has announced that its award-winning production of Lerner & Loewe's MY FAIR LADY, directed by Bartlett Sher, will ends its long run at the Vivian Beaumont Theater on Sunday, July 7. The production, which won the 2018 Drama Desk, Outer Critics and Drama League Awards for Best Musical Revival, will have played a total of 548 performances (39 previews and 509 performances).

A memorial service will be held Monday, May 20 at 2:00pm for Alan Wasser, the highly-respected, veteran Broadway general manager who died April 14 in New York, due to complications from Parkinson's disease.  Wasser was 70 years old. 

The Ellis Island Honors Society (EIHS) has announced the recipients of the 34th Ellis Island Medals of Honor. This annual medal is awarded to 100 Americans, both native-born and naturalized, whose accomplishments in their field and inspired service to our nation are worthy of commendation. The Ellis Island Medals of Honor recognizes individuals who have made it their mission to share with those less fortunate their wealth of knowledge, indomitable courage, boundless compassion, unique talents and selfless generosity. They do so while acknowledging their debt to their ethnic heritage as they uphold the ideals and spirit of America.

San Francisco Ballet (SF Ballet) is presented by The Royal Danish Ballet at The Royal Danish Opera House in Copenhagen, Denmark, October 30-November 2, 2019, with four performances of Artistic Director and Principal Choreographer Helgi Tomasson's Romeo & Juliet, set to Sergei Prokofiev's lush and evocative score of the same name. The tour marks the Company's first appearance at The Royal Danish Opera House, which was designed by Danish architect Henning Larsen and publicly inaugurated in 2005.

The Broadway community mourns the loss of veteran General Manager, Producer and 2017 Tony Honors for Excellence in Theatre recipient Alan Wasser, who passed away on April 14, 2019 at age 70. To commemorate his life and work, the Committee of Theatre Owners will dim the lights of the Majestic, Marquis and St. James Theatres in New York for one minute on Monday, May 20 at exactly 6:45pm.