Kate del Castillo News

PlayGround, San Francisco's renowned theatre development lab, is currently in the midst of hosting the nation's largest fully digital new play festival, PlayGround Zoom Fest. Already running and continuing through June 14, 2020, the ambitious five-week online event gathers leading voices in American Theatre including Lauren Yee, Jonathan Spector, Aaron Loeb, Geetha Reddy, Kent Nicholson, acclaimed actors, theatre journalists, designers, and more from across the country, to present and discuss a panoply of new works and celebrate PlayGround's 25th anniversary. BroadwayWorld caught up this week with PlayGround's Artistic Director Jim Kleinmann and the much-in-demand playwright Lauren Yee in separate phone conversations. Yee is just coming off a huge success with the New York run of her newest play, Cambodian Rock Band. She participated in PlayGround's Writers Pool as a young playwright and will be part of the festival's Zoom Town Hall panel on June 8th.

It's been nearly two years since the recording company Audible set up residency in Greenwich Village's Minetta Lane Theatre to produce small-cast plays, usually solo pieces, for short Off-Broadway runs that are recorded for commercially released audios.

Mario Cantone will host this year's Lucille Lortel Awards, which are being presented as a virtual broadcast and benefit for The Actors Fund on Sunday, May 3, at 7pm. The online event will bring together theatre performers, industry veterans, and fans worldwide in a celebration of Off-Broadway.

a??a??a??a??a??a??a??The Drama League has announced the 2020 Drama League Awards Nominees for Outstanding Production of a Play, Outstanding Revival of a Play, Outstanding Production of a Musical, Outstanding Revival of a Musical, and the much- coveted Distinguished Performance Award.

The 65th Annual Drama Desk Awards has partnered with 'Stars in the House' to live stream this year's Nominations. Seth Rudetsky and James Wesley, the hosts of the virtual daily series benefiting the Actors Fund, will announce the nominees.

Nominations for the 35th Annual Lucille Lortel Awards for Outstanding Achievement Off-Broadway were announced today by theatre veterans Jeremy Jordan and Ashley Spencer. The Awards will be presented during a special online event on Sunday, May 3, broadcast on the official website - www.LortelAwards.org - beginning at 7:00pm ET. A virtual 'host' and presenters will be announced at a later date. As always, the Lortel Awards will be a benefit for The Actors Fund and fans are encouraged to make donations at actorsfund.org/Lortel. The Lucille Lortel Awards are produced by the Off-Broadway League and the Lucille Lortel Theatre Foundation. Additional support is provided by TDF.

This morning on NBC's TODAY, NBCUniversal unveiled its new The More You Know PSA campaign starring Kelly Clarkson, Andy Cohen, Ted Danson & Mary Steenburgen, Savannah Guthrie and many more to help educate people around the country about how they can reduce their risk and prevent the spread of COVID-19. The first spots of more than a dozen in total that will be rolling out over the next few weeks are available at www.themoreyouknow.com.

Will Smith and Martin Lawrence are back on the case in the roles that launched the dynamic duo to global superstardom in BAD BOYS FOR LIFE. The action-packed comedy that has earned over $400 million dollars at the worldwide box office and a Certified Fresh rating by Rotten Tomatoes, explodes onto Digital March 31 and 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and DVD April 21 from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. BAD BOYS FOR LIFE was produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, Will Smith and Doug Belgrad, executive produced by Chad Oman, Barry Waldman, Mike Stenson and James Lassiter and directed by Adil & Bilall.

Inexplicably, genuine romantic comedies have nearly vanished from movie studio slates. In 2009, seven of the 50 highest-grossing films in North America were rom coms, but by 2017, zero were released at the studio level. Modern audiences who are tapped into the current app-dating culture are not buying the formulaic romantic comedies where courtship simply leads to marriage. However, modernized and diverse romcoms ARE appearing at the independent film level, where they have found success.

NBCUniversal has announced a robust slate of new show panels, celebrity appearances and interactive activations at Peacock Live!, its first-ever two-day fan festival taking place March 28-29, 2020 on the legendary Universal Studios backlot.

The Half-Life of Marie Curie, an Audible-commissioned world premiere from America's most-produced living playwright Lauren Gunderson, directed by Gaye Taylor Upchurch, and starring Obie Award winner Kate Mulgrew ('Orange is the New Black,' Equus) as Hertha Ayrton and Francesca Faridany (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time) as Marie Curie, begins performances tomorrow - Tuesday, November 12 - at the Minetta Lane Theatre (18 Minetta Lane, between MacDougal & 6th Avenue - one block south of W. 3rd Street), Audible's creative home for live performances in New York.

The Bad Boys Mike Lowrey (Will Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) are back together for one last ride in the highly anticipated Bad Boys for Life.

Over 60 international music and television stars will hit the stage of the 2019 a?oeLatin American Music Awardsa?? (Latin AMA's) to bring the audience 19 exciting musical performances and highlight artists' achievements during the announcements of the coveted awards.

Viva Broadway's a?oeEl Conjunto,a?? the cabaret style concert series hosted by Broadway actress and singer Ana Villafañe, will conclude its run at the W Living Room Times Square (W Hotel, 1567 Broadway) on Sunday, October 13

Audible Inc. has announced the world premiere of The Half-Life of Marie Curie, an Audible-commissioned work from America's most-produced living playwright Lauren Gunderson, directed by Gaye Taylor Upchurch, and starring Obie Award winner Kate Mulgrew (a?oeOrange is the New Black,a?? Equus) and Francesca Faridany (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time).

The Broadway League has just released season two of its video series, My Broadway Story, with Viva Broadway. Check out all of the videos to hear stage favorites including Lin-Manuel Miranda, George Salazar, Ana Villafañe, and more talk all about their Broadway experiences!

The Bad Boys Mike Lowrey (Will Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) are back together for one last ride in the highly anticipated Bad Boys for Life.

the way she spoke, Audible Theater's New York premiere play by Isaac Gomez, directed by Jo Bonney, and starring Kate del Castillo in her English-language stage debut, just opened last night, July 18 at the Minetta Lane Theatre.

Perhaps it would be regarded as exploitative to directly quote the passage here, but the last several minutes of playwright Isaac Gomez's THE WAY SHE SPOKE consists primarily of the names, ages, causes of death and physical states of the corpses of several dozen women who were murdered, in scenarios usually involving rape, in the Mexican border city of Juarez during the horrific rise of femicide that has plagued the city since the 1990s.

the way she spoke, Audible Theater's New York premiere play by Isaac Gomez, directed by Jo Bonney, and starring Kate del Castillo in her English-language stage debut, will open this Thursday, July 18 at the Minetta Lane Theatre.