John Murrell News

Florida Studio Theatre announces the U.S. premiere of Taking Shakespeare, by John Murrell, the final show in the Summer Mainstage Season. The show will run in the Gompertz Theatre today, July 23 through August 17, 2014.

Florida Studio Theatre announces the U.S. premiere of Taking Shakespeare, by John Murrell, the final show in the Summer Mainstage Season. The show will run in the Gompertz Theatre July 23 through August 17, 2014.

The Stratford Festival will present its 2014 Legacy Award to Martha Henry. Her extraordinary contributions to the Festival and to the performing arts in Canada will be celebrated at a gala at Toronto's Four Seasons Hotel on Monday, September 29.

Florida Studio Theatre presents an exciting new Summer Mainstage and Cabaret Season. The Mainstage kicks off with the foot-stomping musical Pump Boys and Dinettes, the humorous and inspirational drama Becoming Dr. Ruth, and the thought-provoking Taking Shakespeare. The Summer Cabaret Season will consist of At The Hop, by America's Premiere Doo-Wop group, The Alley Cats, Clearly Invisible: Magic Up Close with Carl Seiger, and Somewhere Over the Rose, The Songs and Stories of Judy Garland and Bette Midler.

Florida Studio Theatre presents an exciting new Summer Mainstage and Cabaret Season. The Mainstage kicks off with the foot-stomping musical Pump Boys and Dinettes, the humorous and inspirational drama Becoming Dr. Ruth, and the thought-provoking Taking Shakespeare. The Summer Cabaret Season will consist of At The Hop, by America's Premiere Doo-Wop group, The Alley Cats, Clearly Invisible: Magic Up Close with Carl Seiger, and Somewhere Over the Rose, The Songs and Stories of Judy Garland and Bette Midler.

Florida Studio Theatre presents an exciting new Summer Mainstage and Cabaret Season. The Mainstage kicks off with the foot-stomping musical Pump Boys and Dinettes, the humorous and inspirational drama Becoming Dr. Ruth, and the thought-provoking Taking Shakespeare. The Summer Cabaret Season will consist of At The Hop, by America's Premiere Doo-Wop group, The Alley Cats, Clearly Invisible: Magic Up Close with Carl Seiger, and Somewhere Over the Rose, The Songs and Stories of Judy Garland and Bette Midler.

International Voices Project (IVP) will present the fifth season presenting a series of play readings by playwrights from around the world. The series is presented in collaboration with consulates and cultural institutions throughout Chicago. The 2014 engagement's represented countries include Austria, Norway, Uganda, Sweden, Germany, Canada, Egypt and Chile. The readings take place at the Victory Gardens Biograph Theater, McVeigh Theatre - I think we are supposed to add that - 2433 N. Lincoln Ave, April 7 - 29 Monday and Tuesday nights at 7:30 p.m. A reception follows each evening's readings. The International Voices Project is the largest event of its kind in the country and introduces Chicago audiences to some of the most exciting voices on the international theater scene. Performances are free to the public and reservations are requested. For more information about IVP, or to reserve your seat, visit IVPChicago.com or call 773.250.7055.

The Human Race Theatre Company, Dayton's only professional regional theatre company, launches its 28th season next September with a richly diverse 6-play combination of productions on its Eichelberger Loft Series. 'Selecting the season is one of the hardest, yet most exciting parts of my job,' says Producing Artistic Director Kevin Moore. 'Thanks to a wonderful committee of readers, I am able to hand select just the right shows for our audience. It's a season for everyone, with something old and something new; something funny, and something blue.'

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater announces the full company for the world-premiere historical drama Camp David, penned by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Lawrence Wright and directed by Artistic Director Molly Smith. Based on true events surrounding the 1978 Camp David Accords, the play follows the 13-day meeting between President Jimmy Carter, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat as they attempted to create the impossible: peace in the Middle East. The production features Tony Award nominee Hallie Foote (Broadway's Dividing the Estate) as Rosalynn Carter, Egyptian actor and activist Khaled Nabawy (Kingdom of Heaven, Fair Game) as Anwar Sadat, Tony Award winner Ron Rifkin (Alias, Broadway's Cabaret) as Menachem Begin and Emmy Award winner Richard Thomas (The Waltons) as President Jimmy Carter. Camp David runs March 21-May 4, 2014 in the Kreeger Theater.

Artistic Director Molly Smith tackles a unique, in-the-round staging of Bertolt Brecht's powerhouse anti-war play Mother Courage and Her Children at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater. Iconic stage and screen actress and Academy Award nominee Kathleen Turner returns to Arena Stage following her sold-out run of Red Hot Patriot: The Kick-Ass Wit of Molly Ivins to make her professional singing debut as the tough-as-nails matriarch Mother Courage-a single mother determined to keep her family alive and her business afloat during war. Using the David Hare translation, the show fuses politics and satire to paint an unforgettable and provocative portrait of war, incorporating more than 10 pieces of original music composed in a rollicking, gypsy-punk style and performed by cast members doubling as musicians. Mother Courage and Her Children runs January 31-March 9, 2014 in the Fichandler Stage.

A new Hudson-based theatre company, Stone Soup Productions, presents the Canadian classic Waiting for the Parade by John Murrell at the Hudson Village Theatre from November 7 to 17, 2013.

Sampradaya Dance Creations, renowned for its innovative dance productions under the artistic direction of Lata Pada, originally created the spectacular dance-theatre production TAJ, written by the Governor General Award-winning playwright John Murrell, as a commission for Toronto's 2011 Luminato Festival.

The Velocity of Autumn, a new two-character play from Cleveland-based playwright Eric Coble, opens at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater under the direction of Artistic Director Molly Smith and by special arrangement with HOP Theatricals, LLC.

The Velocity of Autumn, a new two-character play from Cleveland-based playwright Eric Coble, opens at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater under the direction of Artistic Director Molly Smith and by special arrangement with HOP Theatricals, LLC.

Tuesday night marked the opening of TAKING SHAKESPEARE at Stratford Festival's intimate Studio Theatre. This play, written by Canadian playwright John Murrell, and directed by Diana LeBlanc, tells the story of an unlikely bond that develops between a professor (Martha Henry) and a struggling university student (Luke Humphrey) as they explore Shakespeare's OTHELLO and slowly begin to learn more about one another in the process. This show not only provides a master class in acting, but a master class in OTHELLO as well. It is both poignant and funny and it is sure to leave the audience reflecting on important moments from their own lives (happy or sad) and the people who have left an impact on them over the years.

On July 13, 1953, Sir Alec Guiness walked onto a stage located in a large tent in Stratford, Ontario, Canada, and spoke the first lines of what has become the internationally-recognized celebration of theatre known as The Stratford Festival. Now housed in five theatres, offering plays and other entertainment from late April to November, it is the largest repertoire theatre in North America. The theatrical offerings are not only the writings of Shakespeare, but a variety of classical and contemporary works, including musicals.

To meet the demand for tickets, the Stratford Festival is adding two performances of Taking Shakespeare, the John Murrell play featuring Martha Henry and Luke Humphrey, directed by Diana Leblanc.

Carole Frechette's THINKING OF YU tells the story of Maggie (Danielle Desormeaux), a woman who becomes fixated on a small newspaper article about Yu Dongyue, a Chinese journalist just released from prison after serving 17 years for throwing paint on a portrait of Chairman Mao during the 1989 student riots in Tiananmen Square. He is now mentally disabled, having suffered repeated beatings over almost two decades.

Carole Frechette is a multi award-winning playwright based in Montreal. Her newest play, THINKING OF YU, which is set against the backdrop of the student riots at Tiananmen Square, is making its Quebec English-language debut at the Centaur Theatre in April. BroadwayWorld caught up with Ms. Frechette to talk about her inspiration for writing the play and the themes that unite her oeuvre to date.