John Steinbeck News

Across the Midwest of America in the 1930s, a combination of dust storms which devastated farmlands and the eviction of tenant farmers drove thousands to leave their homes and hit the road, desperately hoping to find work and a better life in the fertile valleys of California.

There are no sure bets in theater.  That's the excitement and reality of live performance and creative risk taking.  There are, however, reliable pockets of extraordinary levels of sustained excellence.  One can presume a visit to the small Greenwich Village basement space of the Axis Company will include mind-blowing ambiance.  Last Man Club beautifully overloads the senses and transports you to the Dust Bowl in the 1930s.

Playwright, librettist, scriptwriter and outspoken LGBTQ activist Terrence McNally has long believed in the power of the arts to transform society and make a difference. The new documentary American Masters - Terrence McNally: Every Act of Life, premiering nationwide Friday, June 14 at 9 p.m. on PBS (check local listings),pbs.org/americanmasters and the PBS Video app in honor of LGBT Pride Month, lifts the curtain on the life, career and inspirations of the complicated and brilliant Emmy- and four-time Tony Award-winning writer.

Madison Lyric Stage, an award-winning, professional theater company serving the Connecticut Shoreline, will present the Connecticut premier of the American musical drama Of Mice and Men May 31 - June 9 at the historic Deacon John Grave House and Farm in Madison, CT. This will be an immersive production for a maximum of 40 audience members per performance.

Of Mice and Men is the compelling story of two outsiders striving to find their place in an unforgiving world. Drifters in search of work, George and his simple-minded friend Lennie, have nothing in the world except each other and a dream, a dream that one day they will have some land of their own. Their hopes are doomed, as Lennie struggling against extreme cruelty and feelings of jealousy becomes a victim of his own strength.

Madison Lyric Stage, an award-winning, professional theater company serving the Connecticut Shoreline, will present the Connecticut premier of the American musical drama Of Mice and Men May 31 - June 9 at the historic Deacon John Grave House and Farm in Madison, CT. This will be an immersive production for a maximum of 40 audience members per performance.

Magic Theatre announced today that the company's 2019 Gala Fundraiser, Magic Masquerade: Warhol's Factory, will be held at Gallery 308 (Fort Mason Center, Landmark Building A, 2 Marina Blvd, San Francisco, CA 94123) on Thursday, May 16, 2019 at 6:00 p.m. Individual tickets to the Gala are available now for $500.00, with Silver Tier Tables (including 10 tickets with Premier seating) available for $5,000.00 and Gold Tier Tables (10 tickets with VIP seating, with an Artist at your table) are available for $10,000.00. Tickets and tables may be purchased online at magictheatre.org/engage/magic-gala, by calling 415-441-8822.

Magic Theatre announced today that the company's 2019 Gala Fundraiser, Magic Masquerade: Warhol's Factory, will be held at Gallery 308

Madison Lyric Stage, an award-winning, professional theater company serving the Connecticut Shoreline, will present the Connecticut premier of the American musical drama Of Mice and Men May 31 - June 9 at the historic Deacon John Grave House and Farm in Madison, CT. This will be an immersive production for a maximum of 40 audience members per performance.

Ferndale's Ringwald Theatre announces its 2019/2020 Season.

Los Altos Stage Company proudly presents Frank Galati's stage adaptation of John Steinbeck's classic piece of Americana, The Grapes of Wrath. The production runs  April 11-May 5.

The Frist Art Museum presents Dorothea Lange: Politics of Seeing, an exhibition that examines a broad range of the artist's work through the lens of social and political activism. The Frist is the only U.S. venue that is hosting this exhibition after its 2017 debut in California. In addition to presenting Lange's iconic photographs from the Great Depression, the exhibition will feature works from her early years as a studio portraitist in San Francisco, along with images of the grim conditions of incarcerated Japanese Americans during World War II, naval shipyard workers of different sexes and races contributing to the patriotic cause, and inequity in our judicial system in the 1950s. Organized by the Oakland Museum of California, which houses Lange's personal archive, the exhibition will be on view in the Frist's Upper-Level Galleries from March 15 through May 27, 2019.

On the back of another sold out London run, Letters Live is bringing its star-studded show to the Royal Albert Hall on 3 October 2019, in what will be its most ambitious night to date. The date will also see the launch of a new series of themed Letters of Note books, compiled by co-producer Shaun Usher.

Madison Lyric Stage, an award-winning, professional theater company serving the Connecticut Shoreline, will hold its season fundraiser on Saturday, April 6 at 7:30 p.m. at its new home, the Deacon John Grave House in Madison's historic town center.

The Tony Award winning Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) will launch its 84th year and Bill Rauch's final season as artistic director with preview performances beginning on March 1. The 2019 season officially kicks off Friday night, March 8, in the Angus Bowmer Theatre with Shakespeare's As You Like It (director, Rosa Joshi). On Saturday afternoon, Cambodian Rock Band (director, Chay Yew) opens in the Thomas Theatre, and Hairspray The Broadway Musical (director, Christopher Liam Moore) opens that evening in the Angus Bowmer Theatre. On Sunday afternoon, the drama by Southern Oregon based playwright Octavio Solis, Mother Road (director, Bill Rauch), will see its world premiere in the Angus Bowmer Theatre.

There are some stories you never forget. You cannot forget because they are seared into your memory like a brand. One of those is John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men. Omaha Community Playhouse has brought that story of loneliness, love, and hope to life with a brilliance you won't want to miss.

Migrant ranch workers in California during the Great Depression, George-an intelligent but uneducated man-and Lennie-a large man with the mind of a child-dream of making enough money to buy their own land. When a crime is accidentally committed, the two men are faced with a moral predicament in one of the most powerful and devastating stories of the 20th century.

Steppenwolf Theatre Company announced today the addition of longtime stage managerMalcolm Ewen into the world-renowned Steppenwolf ensemble. Ewen has worked at Steppenwolf since 1987 and has stage managed more than 40 shows and taken four Steppenwolf productions to Broadway-including The Grapes of Wrath and Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? both of which won Tony Awards.

Tickets for the upcoming production Of Mice and Men at the Omaha Community Playhouse (OCP) are now on sale to the public. Of Mice and Men will be performed in the Howard Drew Theatre at OCP Wednesdays through Sundays from Feb. 15 through March 17, 2019.

Madison Lyric Stage, a professional theater company serving the Connecticut Shoreline, announced that its 2019 mainstage season will include: Carlisle Floyd's opera Of Mice and Men, based on the John Steinbeck classic, in May/June; the Stephen Sondheim fairy tale musical Into the Woods in July; and, for Halloween, Engelbert Humperdinck's enchanted opera Hansel and Gretel in October. All three productions will be directed by Marc Deaton.