Joseph Ziegler News

This week, we go around our Broadway World to feature stories in St. Louis, Orlando, Sacramento, and more. Check out our top 10 stories around our Broadway World below, which include HAIRSPRAY at The Muny, THE FLICK in Orlando, Transcendence Theatre's 'Broadway Under the Stars',  just to name a few.

SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER opened recently at Stratford Festival's Avon Theatre. As you watch it, it quickly becomes apparent as to why this play has withheld the test of time. Laugh out loud humour, beautiful set design, and an excellent cast make for an enjoyable evening (or matinee) at the theatre.

On Thursday May 29th, THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK opened at the Stratford Festival. It was an honest, stunning production that featured beautiful performances by all involved.

Performances of the 2015 Stratford Festival Season began yesterday afternoon with the first performance of Rodgers and Hammerstein's THE SOUND OF MUSIC. Today the festival will present the first performance of THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK.

Swift advance sales have prompted the Stratford Festival to extend the runs of four productions, just as the box office has opened to the public. Performances of Carousel, The Alchemist, The Physicists and The Last Wife have been added to the schedule.

Ben Power's 2009 play A Tender Thing is a creative re-imagining of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, with the two title characters as older figures in a lifelong relationship. Soulpepper Theatre Company's current production (on at the Young Centre through October 1st) features real-life couple Joseph Ziegler and Nancy Palk as the two star-crossed lovers. Though their performances are filled with warmth and knowing, they can't escape an essentially dreary production that pulls away the beauty of Shakespeare's language, even as it revels in some over-theatricalized decisions that mute the genuine emotion sitting at the heart of a less-than-perfect work.

'By the time the show is over, you will have been taken on a journey more compelling and magical than you could have imagined. For this, I think, is our principal function-as we delight, provoke and entertain, we must always surprise.' These are Jackie Maxwell, the Shaw Festival's Artistic Director, hopes for those who attend one or more of the theatre offerings.

The celebrated 1957 film 12 Angry Men is a drama that began its life on television as part of a CBS series, Studio One, where it premiered in 1954. The work, penned by ex-serviceman Reginald Rose and inspired by his direct experience as a juror, went on to win an Emmy, and in its later form, an Academy Award nomination. It tells the story of twelve jurors who debate the fate of a sixteen year-old Latino boy on trial for murdering his father. The work starts out with one Not-Guilty vote, and explores the various prejudices of each juror (none of whom are given names) while simutaneously examining the nature of justice on both epic and intimate levels.

Canadian Stage presents the Canadian premiere of Tribes, the sharp, daring and jarringly emotional play by Nina Raine recognized by the 2012 Drama Desk and New York Theatre Critics Circle Awards. Tribes is directed by Daryl Cloran and features Stephen Drabicki, Patricia Fagan, Holly Lewis, Nancy Palk, Dylan Trowbridge and Joseph Ziegler on stage at the Berkeley Street Theatre (26 Berkeley Street) fromFeb. 2 to Mar. 2, 2014.

Soulpepper Theatre vet Gregory Prest sat down with BWW before a rehearsal to talk about his character in 'Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead', his time at Soulpepper so far, and being an actor.

Albert Schultz, General Director of the Young Centre for the Performing Arts and Artistic Director of Soulpepper Theatre Company, previously announced The Word Festival, a celebration of the works of Charles Dickens in the 200th anniversary of his birth.

Albert Schultz, General Director of the Young Centre for the Performing Arts and Artistic Director of Soulpepper Theatre Company, today announced The Word Festival, a celebration of the works of Charles Dickens in the 200th anniversary of his birth.

Albert Schultz, Founding Artistic Director of Soulpepper Theatre Company and General Director of the Young Centre for the Performing Arts today announced a full year's slate of artistic and community-based activity for Soulpepper and the Young Centre in 2013. Over 700 performances representing the remarkable artistic and cultural diversity of the city will happen under the Young Centre's roof next year, including festivals, cabarets, and community partnerships. Soulpepper Theatre Company's repertory season features fifteen plays including two marathon-style theatrical events to be staged in their entirety: Tony Kushner's Pulitzer Prize-winning Angels in America (Part One: Millennium Approaches & Part Two: Perestroika) and Alan Ayckbourn's The Norman Conquests (Table Manners, Living Together & Round and Round the Garden). Soulpepper's season includes adaptations of plays from the classical canon (Beaumarchais/Rossini's The Barber of Seville, Schnitzler's La Ronde, and Dickens' Great Expectations) alongside twentieth-century gems by Tom Stoppard, Joe Orton, Sam Shepard and Canada's John Murrell.

Albert Schultz, Founding Artistic Director of Soulpepper Theatre Company, today announced the 12 plays comprising Soulpepper's 15th anniversary season, including ten new productions, two remounts, and a revisit, to run in repertory from January to December, 2012. The season includes plays from Canada, Ireland, England, the United States and Russia, and brings Soulpepper to 107 original productions over 15 seasons. The season opens with Soulpepper's very first original full-length play, continuing the company's commitment to new works about the city of Toronto as seen in this year's Window on Toronto and 2009's Civil Elegies.

On June 27th Toronto celebrated the 32nd Annual Dora Mavor Moore Awards which honour excellence in Canada theatre. BWW was on hand for the complete event, including the VIP reception where nominees mingled with sponsors and patrons, the award show itself and of course, the happening after-party which shut down Front St for most of the night. We are thrilled to bring you exclusive coverage of the entire night.

The 32nd Annual Dora Mavor Moore Awards for the 2010/2011 season were handed out in a star-studded ceremony in Toronto on the evening of Monday, June 27 at the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts' Bluma Appel Theatre, co-hosted by Gemini-nominated comedian/writer/actor Craig Lauzon of CBC-TV's Royal Canadian Air Farce and actress Michaela Washburn, Dora-nominated for her principal role in Theatre Passe Muraille's Such Creatures.

At a press conference held June 7 at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts, the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts (TAPA) announced 171 nominations for 197 eligible productions that opened between June 1, 2010 and May 31, 2011 for the 32nd annual Dora Mavor Moore Awards which honour excellence in the performing arts in Toronto.

Soulpepper brings back their Dora Award Winning Production of Our Town this year at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts. With an all-star cast of top-notch Canadian talent, this show is sure to please audiences of all ages. BWW spoke with Oliver Dennis about the history of the show, the audience reaction this time around and what the piece means to him.