John Patrick Shanley News

Premiere Stages at Kean University will present the premiere production of Certain Aspects of Conflict in the Negro Family by TyLie Shider, the recepient of the 2021/22 Liberty Live Commission, on October 13-23 under the tent at Kean University's Liberty Hall Museum (1003 Morris Avenue, Union, N.J.).

Storytelling for the sake of enlightenment and teaching is what many think of when they hear of parables. Allegories intimate there is something deeper to be found under the surface. And many a Sunday preacher has used the pulpit to convey an everyday lesson to live by.  John Patrick Shanley’s DOUBT, A PARABLE has been a smash on Broadway in 2004 winning the Pulitzer prize and TONY Awards  for Best Play and Best Lead Actress by the fabulous Cherry Jones. In 2008 it was made into a remarkable film starring Meryl Streep. And now Buffalo gets to sit attentively as the Irish Classical Theatre presents it’s gripping production as the season opener. 

On September 22 at 8:00 pm, the Barn Theatre School opened the 2005 Pulitzer Prize-winning performance DOUBT by John Patrick Shanley. 

Today's top stories include Lea Michele out of Funny Girl for 10 days after testing positive for COVID-19. Learn more about Julie Benko's upcoming schedule. In other Funny Girl news, Barbara Tirrell made her debut in the show one day after she was hired as an offstage cover for Mrs. Brice, Mrs. Strakosh, and Mrs. Meeker.

Check out what is happening in NOLA Theatre. From Northhampton to LA... see all the places you can go while taking in a show this month!

Your favorite podcast hosts Jason A. Coombs and Samantha Tuozzolo sit down with actor and content creator Marc Reign, who discusses working with iconic playwright John Patrick Shanely on the off-Broadway play CANDLELIGHT at the Nylon Fusion Theater Company last fall. As someone with over 31,000 Instagram followers due to his prolific and entertaining comedy sketches, Marc also gives advice to his fellow actors on how to grow their social media pages organically. Watch thus video for the full episode.

Paradox: New Moves Student Choreography Showcase presents the advanced composition/choreography class and their investigation and concepts of the human condition. New Moves guides students in creating original group works, applying the choreographic knowledge acquired throughout the three-part composition/choreography series.  

What did our critic think of DOUBT: A PARABLE at The Lantern Theatre? This production is a powerful first step back into live entertainment for The Lantern.

The season will open on September 24 and 25, with our first children’s show in 2 years.  “Red and the Hoods” directed by Beatriz Esteban-Messina. On October 1 and 2nd our in- house company, the Forge, will be performing our 10 Minute Play Festival benefit with writers like John Patrick Shanley, Sarah T. Schwab and Richard Vetere.

Starring real-life father and son, Tony Award winner Reed Birney and Ephraim Birney, Chester Bailey will begin previews on the Francis J. Greenburger Mainstage at Irish Repertory Theatre on October 12, 2022, and is set to open on October 19, for a limited run through November 13, 2022.

Actor’s Express will continue its 34th season with a production of Desire Under the Elms, a landmark American play by Eugene O’Neill, American playwright and Nobel laureate in literature. Performances run August 6-28, 2022.

The Music Conservatory of Westchester is holding its 21st Annual Golf & Tennis Classic and Gala at Brae Burn Country Club in Purchase on Monday, June 27, 2022. Tony Award winner Santino Fontana, (Tootsie) and the voice of Prince Hans in Disney's Frozen, will emcee the event celebrating the incredible careers of the recipients of this year's awards:

SDCF announces the host theatre for its 2022 Lloyd Richards New Futures Residency program: Actors Theatre of Louisville in Louisville, KY. Applications are being accepted now for a Resident Artist, who will be mentored by Actors Theatre of Louisville's Executive Artistic Director Robert Barry Fleming for one year while also undertaking their own artistic projects at the host theatre.

John Patrick Shanley’s The Dreamer Examines His Pillow, is a complex and intricate story that dives not only into the depths of our subconscious but boldly sits on the surface level of our emotions as well. Allowing us as the audience to not only deep dive within the minds of these characters, but into our own past or current circumstances. Shanley’s piece while complex is told within the length of 3 scenes ultimately ending with the audience making up their own conclusion to not only the events of the story but our own lives as we’ve grown so accustomed. John Patrick Shanley achieves masterful work here even with this being an earlier part of his repertoire. Shanley, most famously known as the Pulitzer Prize/Tony Award-winning playwright for Doubt, and the Oscar-winning Moonstruck has written 23 plays most of which he has gone on to direct, and is a Screenwriter on 9 Feature Films. Out of his 23 plays few have been performed in the Tampa Bay area, so it’s a much-needed breath of fresh air that TampaRep has decided to produce one of his earlier works, and still find relevance in the piece today. Director Chris Marshall, who has wanted to direct a Shanley play for some time says it best in his Director’s Notes, “...Our process has been about using the power of language to connect, though to do so is terrifying. It’s been equally about fierce listening and seeking to be affected as a listener, something we do less and less of these days. In these spaces (the theatre as theatre and as the room to hold scenic representations), we have finite opportunity, space, and time to connect, to learn, to discover. What a gift.”

Today, Irish American Writers & Artists, Inc. (IAW&A) announced that Larry Kirwan will receive its 2022 prestigious annual Eugene O'Neill Lifetime Achievement Award during an in-person event at the Skylight Room at Rosie O'Grady's in midtown Manhattan on October 24, 2022.

Bay Street Theater & Sag Harbor Center for the Arts is pleased to share production photos of Windfall, the first show of the 2022 Mainstage Season. The new comedy by Scooter Pietsch, directed by Jason Alexander, will make its East Coast premiere this week on Tuesday, May 31, and runs through June 19.

Roundabout Theatre Company will conclude the New York premiere of Birthday Candles by Noah Haidle, starring Emmy Award winner Debra Messing, directed by Vivienne Benesch on Sunday, May 29.

Beck Center for the Arts is pleased to announce its 2022-2023 Professional Theater Season, the 89th season which includes Tony Award® Winners, comedies, dramas, return of the blockbuster Elf the Musical, and the twelfth collaboration with Baldwin Wallace University Musical Theatre program.  

Rehearsals have begun for the Tampa Repertory Theatre's production of The Dreamer Examines His Pillow by Tony Award-winning playwright John Patrick Shanley. The play has not been staged professionally anywhere in Florida since it was created in 1986. 

The Pulitzer Prize Board has just announced that Fat Ham has won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Other finalists included: Selling Kabul, and Kristina Wong, Sweatshop Overlord.