John Patrick Shanley News

With great sadness, we announce the loss of Edward Allan Baker, beloved father, grandfather, brother, husband, playwright, teacher, colleague, and friend.  Ed Baker passed away on Saturday evening, November 20th 2021, surrounded by love from friends and family, at St. Vincent's Medical Center in Bridgeport,  CT. 

'What do you do when you're not sure?'  So begins the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning drama on stage this month at Clarksville's oldest professional theatre.

Nylon Fusion Company will present the World Premiere of Candlelight by John Patrick Shanley (Tony and Pulitzer Prize for Doubt; Tony nominee for Outside Mullingar), directed by Lori Kee (The Waiting Room with New Perspective Theatre), November 27-December 19 at The New Ohio Theatre (154 Christopher St #1E, New York, NY 10014).

Westport Country Playhouse has changed the date of “Family Fun Day” to Sunday, October 31, from 11 to 3 p.m., due to inclement weather forecast for October 30, the previously announced date. “Family Fun Day” features activities for kids, treats, food trucks, community food drive, beer tastings, and costume parade for kids and dogs.

Lynne Meadow (Artistic Director) and Barry Grove (Executive Producer) have announced a robust slate of playwright commissions through Manhattan Theatre Club's new partnership with the Edgerton Foundation, as well as a new round of commissions supported by ongoing partnerships with Bobbie Olsen and other donors.

Premiere Stages at Kean University will present the staged reading of Tylie Shider's Certain Aspects of Conflict in the Negro Family October 29-31 in Kean University's Liberty Hall Academic Center (1003 Morris Avenue Building 2, Union, N.J.).

Westport Country Playhouse and WSHU Public Radio Partner for Playhouse Radio Theater's Halloween Play “Spectres and Spirits.” Free-of-charge audio play's broadcast premiere on Saturday, October 30.

Pace University's Actors Studio Drama School Master of Fine Arts Program today announced the return of its emblematic Repertory Season featuring the acting, directing, and playwriting Class of 2020 with five consecutive weeks of live performances, beginning Oct. 20, 2021. 

In 1983, Sally Ride, or as proclaimed in the play, “She should be called Dr. Ride,” an Astrophysicist became the first and youngest American woman in Space aboard the Orbiter Challenger. Liza Birkenmeier’s play is not about Sally Ride, even though her name is mentioned throughout the 85 minutes. However, under the veil of the ’80s in St. Louis, Missouri we meet four women living out their lives and by a matter of opinion telling stories that boldly go where none of them have gone before so to speak. At its heart, Birkenmeier’s script is compelling, enlightening, and stunning from top to bottom, a true marvel of live theatre. In her script, we get to meet characters that are not as often displayed on-stage, and that is what makes this show so endearing. Being that this show is set in the 80’s smartphones, and other things like social media, don’t exist yet; which renders the compelling humanity shown throughout the script. It’s a breath of fresh air as we learn of these women, and how they may or may not enjoy their current way of life, and yet so different in a matter of opinions and lifestyle they are all one and the same.

The Tennessee Williams & New Orleans Literary Festival, the largest literary and theatrical festival in Louisiana, has appointed Taylor Bradley, a Los Angeles-based writer / event coordinator, to the role of Publicist. Now in its 36th year, The Tennessee Williams & New Orleans Literary Festival has managed to overcome numerous challenges over the decades, the pandemic and Hurricane Ida included.

Hudson Theatre Works will open on October 7th with Bunnies by New Jersey Playwright, Joanne Hoersch.  Bunnies tells the story of five Playboy Bunnies, who n 1973, at the New York Playboy Club, find themselves uplifted by the rise of feminism, haunted by the GoodBar murder and conflicted about their jobs as sex symbols, while they bond in humor and compassion over the course of one evening. 

Westport Country Playhouse announces its upcoming 92nd Season, from April to November 2022, featuring five productions, staged before a live audience, under the artistic direction of Mark Lamos. “The season will make you feel, think, and spark conversation,” said Lamos.

Westport Country Playhouse has selected two HD videos from its archives of performances captured live on stage for streaming on demand. The Playhouse’s 2018 production of “Man of La Mancha,” the Tony Award-winning musical following Don Quixote’s quest for “The Impossible Dream,” will stream on-demand from Monday, August 23-Sunday, September 5.

The Bridge Production Group will present World Premiere short plays by Pulitzer Prize and Academy Award-winning playwright John Patrick Shanley (Doubt), a staged reading of a new play by Lyle Kessler (Orphans), and a workshop on devised theatre with new presentations from The Assembly.

Franklin Stage Company, Delaware County's only admission-free professional theater, will present Lucas Hnath's comedy A Doll's House, Part 2, July 23–August 15th on the lawn outside FSC's historic theater, Chapel Hall, in Franklin, NY.

Westport Country Playhouse's New Works Initiative will present the second play in its 2021 season with a virtual workshop of “Culture Shock,” written by Gloria Majule, and directed by Taylor Reynolds, on Wednesday, July 14.

Westport Country Playhouse will present “An Evening with Ali Stroker,” 2019 Tony Award winner for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for her role as Ado Annie in the Broadway production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Oklahoma!, on Saturday July 24, at 8 p.m. 

The Bridge Production Group's residency at the Brooklyn Navy Yards will also feature world premiere short plays by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright John Patrick Shanley (Doubt), a staged reading of a new play by Pulitzer Prize-nominee Lyle Kessler (Orphans), and the Picnic Plays, a series of informal readings of new work currently in development. 

The Bridge Production Group has announced a return to live theatre with an outdoor summer residency at the Brooklyn Navy Yards this August that will include a production of [title of show] packed with Broadway talent, world premiere short plays by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright John Patrick Shanley (Doubt) & more.

Westport Country Playhouse will add to its 2021 Season lineup the HD video production from its archives, “Of Mice and Men,” by Nobel Prize and Pulitzer Prize-winning author John Steinbeck, streaming on demand, Monday, September 13 through Sunday, September 26.