Joshua Bennett News

The Audio Publishers Association has announced finalists for the 2023 Audie Awards®, the premier awards program recognizing distinction in audiobooks and spoken-word entertainment. Winners across 26 competitive categories will be revealed at the Audie Awards Gala on March 28. The ceremony will be streamed to the public from Chelsea Piers’ Pier Sixty in NYC. 

HBO Documentary Films’ Original four-part documentary series HOSTAGES, a Show of Force Production, will debut WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28 (9:00-10:00 p.m. ET/PT) with two episodes airing back-to-back, followed by the final two episodes airing back-to-back on Thursday, September 29 at the same time on HBO.

As luck would have it for this lady, I had the privilege to review GUYS & DOLLS at Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia Sunday, April 24, and let me tell you, hearing those performers sing was well worth the three-hour drive. The Musical Theatre program at SAU is thriving, and the future of those actors is bright!

The Audio Publishers Association (APA) have announced finalists for the 2022 Audie Awards. Finalists include Cynthia Erivo for Best Female Narrator and Lin-Manuel Miranda for Best Male Narrator. Leslie Odom Jr., Annie Golden, Telly Leung, and Jason Tam are also featured on audiobooks that made the list. Check out the full list of nominations now!

Each episode of the series focuses on a different American poem, which guests read and discuss with Elisa New, the series creator, host and director. Guests in the upcoming season will include Tony Kushner, Gloria Estefan, Donna Lynne Champlin, and more.

The Whiting Foundation has announced the winners of the 2021 Whiting Awards. These ten writers, working in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama, will each be awarded $50,000, to “devote themselves full-time to their own writing or to take bold new risks in their work.”

Nationally recognized poets Joshua Bennett, Rachel Hadas, Linda Gregerson, David Yezzi and Charles Martin bring their poetry to Central New York via the new online series from Syracuse Stage, a?oePoetry & Play.a??

The Academy of American Poets is pleased to present its Falla?"Winter Season, which will be entirely virtual and run from September 2020 through February 2021.

ATLANTA'S MISSING AND MURDERED: THE LOST CHILDREN, debuting SUNDAY, APRIL 5 (8:00-9:00 p.m. ET/PT), is a five-part documentary series offering an unprecedented look at the abduction and murder of at least 30 African American children and young adults in Atlanta between 1979 and 1981.

HBO has confirmed their slate of captivating documentaries for the first half of 2020, including ATLANTA CHILD MURDERS (working title), a documentary series reexamining the missing and murdered children of Atlanta in the late-'70s and early-'80s in collaboration with Show of Force, Roc Nation and Get Lifted Film Co.; WELCOME TO CHECHNYA, directed by David France, chronicling a group of brave activists risking their lives to confront the ongoing anti-LGBTQ persecution in the repressive and closed Russian republic of Chechnya; NATALIE WOOD: WHAT REMAINS BEHIND, intimately exploring Natalie Wood's life, career and tragic death through the unique perspective of her daughter Natasha Gregson Wagner and others who knew her best; and McMILLION$, from executive producer Mark Wahlberg and directors James Lee Hernandez and Brian Lazarte, a six-part documentary series chronicling the stranger-than-fiction story of the mysterious McDonald's Monopoly game promotion scam and the mastermind who developed the complex scheme, stealing millions of dollars and building a vast network of co-conspirators across the U.S. 

BWW Cabaret Editor invites the journalists on the team to an informal discussion about the art form of cabaret, their passion, and what excited them in 2019.

A heartfelt and talent-filled benefit took place at Don't Tell Mama for the Young Minds Foundation Friday night.

Members of the NYC Cabaret community band together to fight teen suicide in a benefit at famed hotspot Don't Tell Mama.

Salon is a weekly open mic night where artists can try out new material in a judgment-free zone. I recently did some undercover reporting. It wasn't dangerous or glamorous, like Hunter S. Thompson or Nellie Bly, though it was both alluring and scary at times. I infiltrated the cabaret community to see what it's like being a nightclub singer - and I had a really good time, but I don't want to do it again. I don't know how cabaret performers do it. It's exhausting and it's expensive. You spend all your time promoting yourself, you pay musicians, press reps, photographers and dry cleaners, and every day you run the risk of waking up with a cold and no voice, and an obligation to sing. It's nerve-wracking. Still, these artists continue to produce art for a willing audience: they do it for love of the art and of the audience. It begs the question, though, when a cabaret performer doesn't have a show to do, how do they keep their skills up? How do they continue to grow without spending precious earned cash on an expensive master class?

HBO Documentary Films, Show of Force, Roc Nation and Get Lifted Film Co. are currently in production on a new documentary series reexamining the Atlanta Child Murders of the late-'70s and early-'80s. It offers a never-before-seen look at the murder of at least 30 African American children and young adults that occurred over a two-year period in Atlanta, from the initial disappearance and discovery of two murdered teenage boys and the fear that gripped the city, to the prosecution and indictment of 23-year-old Atlanta native Wayne Williams and the rush to officially shut down the case.

This holiday season, Grand Rapids Civic Theatre invites you to be part of a world unlike any other: A place where it's wetter, and the seaweed is always greener …

Glimmerglass Film Days will explore the theme “Passages” in Cooperstown November 8-12.  A program of Otsego 2000, Film Days features 32 films, 26 filmmakers and special guests, panels, receptions with local food and drink, a companion art exhibit, a pop-up bookstore, a free film for kids, and guided hikes.   

On World Refugee Day, public television's WORLD Channel announced the lineup of films for season 3 of Doc World, a series that showcases stories that dive deep into the heart of international issues, giving viewers a chance to understand the lives and concerns of people beyond U.S. borders. The first three films of the season, kicking off Sunday, September 9, entitled: Sky and Ground, Los Comandos, and Towards the North, all follow refugees fleeing their homes in search of asylum.

PEN America has a packed roster of events this September, from the first couple in a series of essential cultural conversations ahead of the 2018 midterms, to celebrations of the winnings works from our Prison Writing Contest, and more. You can find out more about a few of them below, and all our upcoming events here.

Today on World Refugee Day, public television's WORLD Channel announces the lineup of films for season 3 of Doc World, a series that showcases stories that dive deep into the heart of international issues, giving viewers a chance to understand the lives and concerns of people beyond U.S. borders. The first three films of the season entitled: Sky and Ground, Los Comandos, and Towards the North, all follow refugees fleeing their homes in search of asylum.