Jon Marans News

Community and collaboration are the watchwords of Bristol Riverside Theatre's production of Henrik Ibsen's An Enemy of the People, running tonight, May 12-May 31. Co-directed by Susan D. Atkinson and Amy Kaissar, the high-voltage drama, which concludes BRT's Mainstage Season, features an ensemble of professional actors Keith Baker, Kevin Bergen, Mark Collmer, Brian Brillinger, Laura Giknis, Marc LeVasseur, Shamus Hunter McCarty, P. Brendan Mulvey and Sabrina Proffitt performing alongside Bucks County community members. The production is supported in part by a generous grant from PECO.

The 5th Avenue Theatre New Works Program will bring a new kind of festival to Seattle's vibrant arts community this summer with its inaugural NextFest: A Festival of New Musicals. Taking place in the historic theater's rehearsal halls and studios July 20-August 15, 2015, NextFest is a celebration of new musicals at various stages of development ranging from a first read-through of new text and music all the way to a fully staged studio presentation of a work.

In the second major grant announcement of fiscal year 2015, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) will make a $30,000 award to The 5th Avenue Theatre to support a musical in the company's 2016/17 season. The NEA will make 1,023 awards totaling $74.3 million nationwide in this funding round. Through its grant-making to thousands of nonprofits each year, the NEA promotes opportunities for people in communities across America to experience the arts and exercise their creativity.

Penguin Rep Theatre's 2015 season officially begins May 15, 2015, with the New York premiere of Small World by Frederick Stroppel, directed by artistic director Joe Brancato.

1st Stage, Tysons Corner's award winning professional theater, announces the extension of Old Wicked Songs by playwright Jon Marans. Michael Chamberlin directs the production at 1st Stage.

Community and collaboration are the watchwords of Bristol Riverside Theatre's production of Henrik Ibsen's An Enemy of the People, running May 12-May 31. Co-directed by Susan D. Atkinson and Amy Kaissar, the high-voltage drama, which concludes BRT's Mainstage Season, features an ensemble of professional actors Keith Baker, Kevin Bergen, Mark Collmer, Brian Brillinger, Laura Giknis, Marc LeVasseur, Shamus Hunter McCarty, P. Brendan Mulvey and Sabrina Proffitt performing alongside Bucks County community members. The production is supported in part by a generous grant from PECO.

1st Stage, Tysons Corner's award winning professional theater, announces tonight's April 10 opening of Old Wicked Songs by playwright Jon Marans. Michael Chamberlin directs the production at 1st Stage.

1st Stage, Tysons Corner's award winning professional theater, announces the April 10 opening of Old Wicked Songs by playwright Jon Marans. Michael Chamberlin directs the production at 1st Stage.

An historical drama about unlikely relationships forged during a time of international turmoil has been chosen as the winner of the first-ever International Jewish Playwriting Competition: The David and Clare Rosen Memorial Play Contest, presented by National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene. NTYF is the longest consecutively-producing Yiddish Theatre Company and Jewish performing arts organization in the world.

John Patrick Shanley's thought-provoking drama DOUBT, A PARABLE certainly has earned its share of accolades since it premiered at the Manhattan Theatre Club in 2004. Winner of the 2005 Pulitzer Prize and the Tony Award for Best Play, Shanley's screenplay for the film adaptation was also nominated for an Academy Award. The single act play has been brought back in a meticulously detailed production by 1st Stage in Tysons. The playwright's work is reason enough to head to the intimate space 1st Stage calls its home near Tysons Galleria. Shanley's tense, four-person rumination on scandal, gender roles, Catholic church politics, and the power of doubt to bind us or tear us apart is worth a look any time it finds its way to a stage. I just wish the 1st Stage production had more of a spark to ignite the passionate debate and ambiguous mystery Shanley has written.

With nearly 2000 subscribers in attendance, The 5th Avenue Theatre Executive Producer and Artistic Director David Armstrong revealed the season line-up for this celebrated theater's 8-show 2015/16 season.

Five plays - one about a young woman's coming of age at the intersection of the Jewish and American communities; one about the friendship between the actor and civil rights activist Paul Robeson and Soviet Jews during WWII; one about a feisty, successful Yiddish actress who fiercely guards her agonizing secrets from a zealous director; one about love and scandal in the 1921 Yiddish Art Theater's production of Ansky's 'The Dybbuk'; and one which takes place during 1945 at the closing of WWII in the Jewish neighborhood of Saratoga Springs known as 'Gut' -- have been chosen as the finalists in first-ever National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene's [NYTF] International David and Clare Rosen Memorial Play Contest.

Actor/director Frank Ferrante commences his 15th season with Teatro ZinZanni when the Seattle-based cirque show opens it's latest offering The Hot Spot on February 5. The run plays through June 7.

Bristol Riverside Theatre rings in the new year with Always...Patsy Cline by Ted Swindley running January 27-February 22. Directed by Susan D. Atkinson, the cast features Jo Twiss and Jessica Wagner. Based on a true story, this intimate musical combines down-home country humor and heartache to recount the unlikely friendship between country music legend Patsy Cline and her most devoted fan, Louise Seger.

Bristol Riverside Theatre concludes its 2013-2014 season with the popular cult classic Little Shop of Horrors by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman today, May 6-June 8. Directed by Susan D. Atkinson, the ensemble cast features Berlando Drake, Carl Clemons-Hopkins, Laura C. Giknis, Nate Golden, Daniel Marcus, Andrew McMath, Candace Thomas, Danny Vaccaro, and Lindsey Warren.

The Barrow Group announces its production of The Beautiful Dark by Erik Gernand. The play will run in the TBG Studio Theatre, 312 West 36th Street, floor 3, NY, NY from tonight, April 23 through May 18, 2014.

Bristol Riverside Theatre concludes its 2013-2014 season with the popular cult classic Little Shop of Horrors by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman on May 6-June 8. Directed by Susan D. Atkinson, the ensemble cast features Berlando Drake, Carl Clemons-Hopkins, Laura C. Giknis, Nate Golden, Daniel Marcus, Andrew McMath, Candace Thomas, Danny Vaccaro, and Lindsey Warren.

The Barrow Group announces its production of The Beautiful Dark by Erik Gernand. The play will run in the TBG Studio Theatre, 312 West 36th Street, floor 3, NY, NY from April 23 through May 18, 2014.

Copa de Oro Productions and the Segal Centre for Performing Arts have secured the rights to the English-language adaptation of Belles-Soeurs, the Quebec musical sensation based on the play by Michel Tremblay. BELLES SŒURS: THE MUSICAL will premiere to Montreal audiences as part of the Segal Centre's 2014-2015 Season from October 19 - November 9, 2014.