John Simon News

High Line Art, presented by Friends of the High Line, and the Trisha Brown Dance Company are pleased to present Trisha Brown's seminal work Roof Piece as part of High Line Art's spring 2011 program. The event marks the culmination of the 40th anniversary of the Trisha Brown Dance Company and the first time the piece will be performed in its original context, outdoors on rooftops, since its premiere in 1971. Trisha Brown's Roof Piece will be performed on roofs of buildings surrounding the southern section of the High Line on June 9 and 10 at 7:00pm, and twice on June 11 at 5:00 pm and 7:00 pm. A rain date is scheduled for Sunday, June 12th.

Betty Cuningham Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition of paintings by Beverly McIver. A recent addition to the gallery's roster, McIver will be having her first exhibition at the gallery.

The legendary Broadway star, actress/singer Betty Buckley will offer her successful Song Interpretation Workshop with a round of six classes open to participants in May 2011. The Fort Worth native will assist aspiring artists, educators and experienced performers in the craft of singing, acting and storytelling.

Revealing his vision for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater for the first time, incoming Artistic Director Robert Battle today announced highlights of the company's 2011/12 performance season, offering a program that extends the vital legacy of Alvin Ailey (1931-1989) in exciting new directions.

The first ballot for Best Play was radically fractured, with no single candidate garnering more than five of the 24 total votes. On the third (weighted) ballot, the race remained competitive, with Good People and Jerusalem winning 23 points and Other Desert Cities running just behind them with 22 points. Since no play reached the necessary threshold of 37 points, the Circle moves to a fourth ballot-newly approved in a bylaw change in January-that reduced the field to the third ballot's top four vote-getters (including The Motherf**ker with the Hat, which had received 11 points, narrowly edging out such contenders as Bengal Tiger in the Baghdad Zoo, The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity, War Horse and The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures). On this ballot, in which previous proxy voters did not participate, Good People won with 34 points, with Other Desert Cities in second place with 30 points.

Good People, written by David Lindsay-Abaire, today won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award (NYDCC) for Best Play of the 2010-2011 season. The award for Best Foreign Play play went to Jerusalem, written by Jez Butterworth. The Book of Mormon received the award for Best Musical. The selections were made at the 76th annual voting meeting of the organization today at the offices of Time Out New York in Manhattan.

President Thomas J. Schwarz will preside at the 39th Commencement ceremony of Purchase College State University of New York on Friday, May 20 at 1 PM at the Westchester County Center. Degrees will be awarded to approximately 990 undergraduates and 60 graduate students.

Adam Feldman, president of the New York Drama Critics' Circle (NYDCC), has announced that the Circle will meet at the offices of Time Out New York magazine on Monday, May 9, to select the winners of the 76th annual New York Drama Critics' Circle Awards, which will be announced at approximately 7pm, immediately following the meeting.

Adam Feldman, president of the New York Drama Critics' Circle (NYDCC), has announced that the Circle will meet at the offices of Time Out New York magazine on Monday, May 9, to select the winners of the 76th annual New York Drama Critics' Circle Awards, which will be announced at approximately 7pm, immediately following the meeting.

The BritWeek Film and TV Summit, a co-production between the Los Angeles chapter of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts and Variety, is committed to exploring how entertainment breaks through and crosses over in the U.K. and U.S.

The BritWeek Film and TV Summit, a co-production between the Los Angeles chapter of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts and Variety, is committed to exploring how entertainment breaks through and crosses over in the U.K. and U.S.

The legendary Broadway star, actress/singer Betty Buckley will offer her successful Song Interpretation Workshop with a round of six classes open to participants in May 2011. The Fort Worth native will assist aspiring artists, educators and experienced performers in the craft of singing, acting and storytelling.

Zaccho Dance Theatre presents internationally acclaimed choreographer Joanna Haigood's performance installation The Monkey and the Devil, created in collaboration with visual artist Charles Trapolin. Haigood's visceral hybrid of dance, theater, and visual art combines contemporary movement, hip-hop elements, and spoken text in an energetic production that is both searing and immediate.

Poet David Ferry, a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at Suffolk University since 2009, has won the 2011 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, which recognizes the extraordinary lifetime accomplishments of a living U.S. poet.

Zaccho Dance Theatre presents internationally acclaimed choreographer Joanna Haigood's performance installation The Monkey and the Devil, created in collaboration with visual artist Charles Trapolin. Haigood's visceral hybrid of dance, theater, and visual art combines contemporary movement, hip-hop elements, and spoken text in an energetic production that is both searing and immediate.

Gregory Amenoff Receives the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation 2011 Fine Arts Fellowship

Marin Theatre Company closes its 2010-11 Season with Edward Albee's Tiny Alice, the first Bay Area production of this infamous play in over 35 years, which runs June 2 through 26.

The national tour of the new Broadway musical comedy THE ADDAMS FAMILY, based on the bizarre and beloved family of characters created by legendary cartoonist Charles Addams, announces the first leg of its tour route through the New Year. Launching on September 15 at the Mahalia Jackson Theater for the Performing Arts in New Orleans, the national tour of THE ADDAMS FAMILY will visit: New Orleans, LA 9/15 - 9/24 Mahalia Jackson Theater for the Performing Arts St. Louis, MO 9/27 - 10/9 The Fabulous Fox Theatre Charlotte, NC 10/11 - 10/16 Ovens Auditorium Tampa, FL 10/18 - 10/23 David A. Straz, Jr. Center for the Performing Arts Miami, FL 10/25 - 10/30 Adrienne Arsht Center Orlando, FL 11/1 - 11/6 Bob Carr Performing Arts Centre West Palm Beach, FL 11/8 - 11/13 The Raymond Kravis Center for the Performing Arts Toronto, ON 11/16 - 11/27 Toronto Centre for the Arts Schenectady, NY 11/29 - 12/4 The Proctors Theatre Buffalo, NY 12/6 - 12/11 Shea's Performing Arts Center Chicago, IL 12/13 - 1/1 The Cadillac Palace Theatre The production will continue on to more than 30 cities in the U.S. and Canada in 2011 and 2012, including Houston, Boston, Hartford, Durham, Baltimore, Cleveland, St. Paul, San Diego, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., Pittsburgh and more. Additional cities will be announced in the coming weeks. For more information, please visit www.TheAddamsFamilyMusical.com. THE ADDAMS FAMILY, entering its second year on Broadway, began performances in March 2010 at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre and immediately became one of Broadway's biggest hits, regularly grossing over $1 million a week. To date, it has grossed over $59 million. Prior to Broadway, the musical grossed $12,031,010 during 8 weeks at the Oriental Theatre in Chicago, becoming the most successful pre-Broadway engagement in that city's history (a city that also hosted the world premieres of such huge successes as The Producers and Spamalot). Chris Jones of the Chicago Tribune described the production as "classic, full-tilt, fast paced, old-fashioned musical comedy!" and John Simon of Bloomberg News called it "uproarious! A glitzy-gloomy musical entirely worthy of the macabre drawings by Charles Addams." THE ADDAMS FAMILY features a book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, and music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa. The production is directed and designed (sets and costumes) by Phelim McDermott and Julian Crouch with creative consultation by Jerry Zaks and choreography by Sergio Trujillo. The production features lighting design by Natasha Katz, sound design by Acme Sound Partners and puppetry by Basil Twist. The production also features music supervision by Mary-Mitchell Campbell, orchestrations by Larry Hochman, dance arrangements by August Eriksmoen, hair design by Tom Watson, make-up design by Angelina Avallone and special effects design by Greg Meeh. THE ADDAMS FAMILY features an original story. It's every parent's nightmare. Your little girl has suddenly become a young woman, and what's worse, has fallen deliriously in love with a sweet, smart young man from a respectable family. Yes, Wednesday Addams, the ultimate princess of darkness, has a "normal" boyfriend, and for parents Gomez and Morticia, it's a shocking development that turns the Addams house upside down when they are forced to host a dinner for the young man and his parents. In a prolific career spanning six decades, Charles Addams created several thousand cartoons, sketches and drawings, many of which were published in The New Yorker. But it was his creation of characters that came to be known as The Addams Family that brought Addams his greatest acclaim. With a unique style that combined the twisted, macabre and just plain weird with charm, wit and enchantment, Addams' drawings have entertained millions worldwide and served as the inspiration for multiple television series and motion pictures. THE ADDAMS FAMILY is produced on Broadway by Stuart Oken, Roy Furman, Michael Leavitt, Five Cent Prods., Stephen Schuler, Decca Theatricals, Scott M. Delman, Stuart Ditsky, Terry Allen Kramer, Stephanie P. McClelland, James L. Nederlander, Eva Price, Jam Theatricals/Mary Lu Roffe, Pittsburgh CLO/Gutterman-Swinsky, Vivek Tiwary/Gary Kaplan, The Weinstein Co./Clarence, LLC and Adam Zotovich/Tribe Theatricals, by special arrangement with Elephant Eye Theatrical. For more information on THE ADDAMS FAMILY, visit Uwww.theaddamsfamilymusical.comU. For tour booking information, please contact Meredith Blair at The Booking Group (212) 869-9280 mblair@thebookinggroup.com

In conjunction with Women's History Month, The Riverside Theatre is hosting five exceptional women for Women of Excellence in the Arts, an evening of conversation sharing the beauty and power of women in the arts as experienced through the unique artistic journeys of Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Carol Maillard, Ntozake Shange, Tamara Tunie and Glory Van Scott.

In conjunction with Women's History Month, The Riverside Theatre is hosting five exceptional women for Women of Excellence in the Arts, an evening of conversation sharing the beauty and power of women in the arts as experienced through the unique artistic journeys of Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Carol Maillard, Ntozake Shange, Tamara Tunie and Glory Van Scott. The event takes place on Monday, March 28, 7:00 p.m. at the Theatre, located in the historic Riverside Church, 91 Claremont Ave. (bet. 120th & 122nd St.), Morningside Heights.