John Langs News

A Contemporary Theatre announces a wide range of dynamic shows to close out its 50th year.

A Contemporary Theatre announces a wide range of dynamic shows to close out its 50th year.

Othello—The name speaks to one of William Shakespeare's most acclaimed tragedies first produced in 1603, and has seen thousands of reincarnations, perhaps hundreds of thousands in the past four centuries. How does American Players Theatre (APT) at their Up the Hill venue renew the drama's intense spirit? On an August summer evening, APT stages under John Langs direction, Andrew Boyce's scenic design and Matthew J. Le Febvre's striking costume design a very intimate and evocaive “Tragedy of the Moor of Venice.” 

ACT opens its doors to the public for an exciting afternoon in celebration of its 50-year legacy, and 90 years of its historic landmark home in downtown Seattle. Families and members of the community are invited to a rare opportunity to peek behind the scenes with a preview of the 2016 season, artistic workshops, open rehearsals, and exclusive guided tours of five unique theatres. In addition to a behind-the-scenes glimpse, attendees will be treated to a prop-making class with ACT's scenic department and the chance to read a scene with an ACT staff member. To close the celebration, attendees will be treated to cake and a champagne toast to the next 50 years of ACT.

The 2015 ACT New Play Award recipient is Moby Pomerance, for The Piano Men, a true story of an American spy working on the Manhattan Project. In the 1950s, Americans believed they knew the identity of all the spies who worked on the atomic bomb: David Greenglass and Klaus Fuchs. They were wrong. There was one more, a young man of 18 named Ted Hall.

When the lights went out, there was no sound.  No applause, no cheering, and no uncomfortable laughing. Jim DeVita had silenced the audience in the Touchstone Theatre. That is the power of Lisa Peterson and Denis O'Hare's An Iliad.

A college classroom, perhaps set in Ireland because a bottle of Jameson Whiskey appears for the poet to quench his thirst, greets the Touchstone Theatre Audiences at American Players Theatre (APT) in their opening play An Iliad. Outside the classroom rumblings and unrest from unidentified crowds can be heard--Unite James DeVita enters playing the narrator, the poet, the teacher in corduroy pants, tweed suit coat, a woolen vest, pliad tie and white shirt. Similar dress to what the part-time teacher, poet and writer James Joyce, who set contemporary literature on edge with his epic 'Ulysses', the latinized name of hero warrior Odysseus in Homer's 8th century 'Iliad' and 'Odyssey.' Lisa Peterson and Denis O'Hare wrote the stunning 2012 adaptation of 'Iliad' directed at APT by John Langs.

American Players Theatre (APT) will launch its 36th Season tonight, June 6, 2015 with a preview performance of William Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor. The performance begins at 8:00 p.m. Tickets are still available.

The 2015 ACT New Play Award recipient is Moby Pomerance, for The Piano Men, a true story of an American spy working on the Manhattan Project. In the 1950s, Americans believed they knew the identity of all the spies who worked on the atomic bomb: David Greenglass and Klaus Fuchs. They were wrong. There was one more, a young man of 18 named Ted Hall.

American Players Theatre (APT) will launch its 36th Season June 6, 2015 with a preview performance of William Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor.

When going to see a show you hope for at least one aspect of the show be something good that you can hold onto. The acting, directing, sets, lights, something to make the night worthwhile. Lucky for all of us the current production of Shakespeare's tragic tale of betrayal and lies "Othello", currently playing from Seattle Shakespeare Company, is firing on so many levels that you're just not sure where to focus your attentions. But then, this should be no big surprise as it's from director John Langs whose name attached to a piece is usually the harbinger of "this one's gonna be good!"

According to The Stranger, Dwayne Clark, a first-time playwright, had a sold-out opening at the premiere of his play SEVEN WAYS TO GET THERE last weekend. The play about Clark's personal experiences with group therapy, was cowritten by Bryan Willis and directed by John Langs.

There are two main problems with doing a show about therapy, such as ACT's world premiere of "Seven Ways to Get There" currently playing. First, that someone else's therapy on stage can be good for the author but often times deadly for the audience. Luckily Bryan Willis and Dwayne J. Clark's new play avoids that trap. But the larger trap is that therapy doesn't really have a definite ending so you either portray an unrealistic look at the world of therapy or, as is the case here, the play just kind of ends as the people involved with the therapy continue onward working on their issues. And while the show definitely has engaging characters and performances, that lack of closure and finality for the audience doesn't work out so well theatrically.

?American Players Theatre (APT) announces its 36th Summer Season, June 6 to October 18, 2015, a diverse lineup of eight classical and contemporary plays in repertory that includes the work of two visiting Chicago directors: Derrick Sanders, founding artistic director of Congo Square Theatre Company, makes his APT debut directing The Island by Athol Fugard, John Kani and Winston Ntshona in APT's intimate 200-seat Touchstone Theatre; and Jeff Award winner William Brown returns to direct Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire in APT's flagship 1148-seat outdoor amphitheater Up the Hill.

ACT - A Contemporary Theatre is pleased to announce that single tickets for the 2015 season have now officially gone on sale.

Every season productions come along that are so good that they remind me why us theater folk perform, produce and see theater. Personally, these are the shows that recharge my theatrical batteries so I can sit through the not so great ones (I'm looking at you "Flashdance: The Musical"). Such a show is the latest installment from The Seagull Project, Chekhov's "The Three Sisters" which manages such clarity of story, intent and meaning that you can practically feel the pain and frustration in the character's lives along with them.

With nearly 2000 subscribers in attendance, The 5th Avenue Theatre Executive Producer and Artistic Director David Armstrong revealed the season line-up for this celebrated theater's 8-show 2015/16 season.

Seattle media have honored ACT's ambitious 2014-15 season with a number of awards. Details below!

Seattle Theater Writers critics' circle just announced the nomination slate of the fourth annual Gypsy Rose Lee Awards,theater awards devoted to recognizing excellence across the economic spectrum of professional Seattle theaters in the prior calendar year.