Kathleen Chalfant News

Royal Family Productions to present a stage reading of Daniel Kwiatkowski's play BED, directed by Chris Henry. Starring Kathleen Chalfant (Angles in America, Wit) and Victor Verhaeghe ("Boardwalk Empire") , the reading will take place on April 15 at 6PM at St. Michael's Recital Hall (225 W 99th Street, 2nd Floor) and is FREE to the public. To RSVP please email katie@royalfamilyproductions.org.

On Monday, April 29th, at New York City's Pierre Hotel, the National Corporate Theatre Fund (NCTF) will honor Vanessa Williams, American Express and five resident theatres celebrating their 50th anniversary - Actors Theatre of Louisville, Guthrie Theater, Hartford Stage, Seattle Repertory Theatre and Trinity Repertory Company - at NCTF's annual Chairman's Awards Gala. Actor George Takei, star of the Broadway-bound musical Allegiance, emcees the event.

George Bartenieff plays an out-sized captain of industry who privatizes and is ultimately undone by state-sponsored torture in 'Another Life,' written and directed by Karen Malpede, a surreal play that is based on real post-9/11 events. The play, written in a fast-paced lyric language, is based on research, interviews, testimonies, the words of torturers and tortured. It has been widely praised by experts in the field of human rights for its inventiveness, power and ability to create empathy. Theater for the New City will present the piece tonight, March 28 to April 21, accompanied by 'A Festival of Conscience,' a series of free post-play dialogues and panels with prominent lawyers, writers and activists, and readings of Malpede's play, 'Extreme Whether,' a story of heroic climate scientists facing censorship.

George Bartenieff plays an out-sized captain of industry who privatizes and is ultimately undone by state-sponsored torture in 'Another Life,' written and directed by Karen Malpede, a surreal play that is based on real post-9/11 events. The play, written in a fast-paced lyric language, is based on research, interviews, testimonies, the words of torturers and tortured. It has been widely praised by experts in the field of human rights for its inventiveness, power and ability to create empathy. Theater for the New City will present the piece March 28 to April 21, accompanied by 'A Festival of Conscience,' a series of free post-play dialogues and panels with prominent lawyers, writers and activists, and readings of Malpede's play, 'Extreme Whether,' a story of heroic climate scientists facing censorship.

What happens when the squares of Seville meet the streets of New York? Find out on April 26 when Carmen's Place (A Fantasy) opens at the Castillo Theatre on 42nd Street, running until June 16. Featuring some of opera's best-loved music as well as six original musical numbers, Carmen's Place (A Fantasy) is helmed by the 2012 AUDELCO Award winner for directing, Gabrielle L. Kurlander, whose production of Sally and Tom (The American Way) was a popular and critical success at Castillo last season.

Hidden secrets are unearthed and family tensions fly high in Pulitzer Prize nominee Jon Robin Baitz's contemporary family drama Other Desert Cities. Helen Hayes Award winner and former Arena Stage Associate Artistic Director Kyle Donnelly returns to direct the D.C.-area premiere of the show with a cast that features Tony Award nominee and two-time Helen Hayes Award winner Helen Carey (Mary Tyrone in Arena Stage's Long Day's Journey into Night, Broadway's Hedda Gabler) as matriarch Polly Wyeth and two-time Tony Award nominee Larry Bryggman (Broadway's Harvey, CBS's As the World Turns) as patriarch Lyman Wyeth. Rounding out the cast are Emily Donahoe (Broadway's 33 Variations) as daughter Brooke Wyeth, Scott Drummond (Cherry Lane Theatre's A Perfect Future) as son Trip Wyeth and Martha Hackett (Pacific Resident Theatre's Nora) as their aunt Silda Grauman. Other Desert Cities runs April 26-May 26, 2013 in the Fichandler Stage.

The Vineyard Theatre has announced the cast for the world-premiere of Jenny Schwartz's SOMEWHERE FUN. Ms. Schwartz returns to The Vineyard following her critically acclaimed play GOD'S EAR in 2008.

The Dramatists Guild Fund presented their Madge Evans and Sidney Kingsley Award to actress Linda Lavin and playwright Lynn Nottage this past Monday evening. The awards were presented by Dramatists Guild Fund Board Member Terrence McNally at an intimate salon with award-winning composer Charles Strouse. BroadwayWorld has a photo of the honorees below!

Tony Award winner Alice Ripley stars in 'Isn't It Delicious,' alongside Keir Dullea, Mia Dillon, Kathleen Chalfant and Malachy McCourt. The film is 'Isn't It Delicious' is described as a black comedy about a loving but dysfunctional Catholic, upper-middle-class family gathering after it learns its controlling matriarch is dying of cancer. Michael Patrick Kelly directs. Check out the trailer below!

The National Black Touring Circuit's 2013 Black History Month Play Festival presents Dr. DuBois and Miss Ovington, a drama about the early years of the NAACP written by Clare Coss and co-starring Peter Jay Fernandez as W.E.B. DuBois and Kathleen Chalfant as Mary White Ovington from February 22 - 24 at the Castillo Theatre, 543 West 42rd Street (between 10th and 11th Avenue).

The Dramatists Guild Fund has announced this year's Madge Evans and Sidney Kingsley Award to actress Linda Lavin and playwright Lynn Nottage. The awards will be presented by Dramatists Guild Fund Board Member Terrence McNally on Monday, February 25, 2013 at an intimate salon with award-winning composer Charles Strouse. The event will also include remarks by Jeffrey Lyons, godson of Sidney Kingsley, and will be held at the home of lyricist and playwright Gretchen Cryer.

The National Black Touring Circuit's 2013 Black History Month Play Festival presents He Who Endures, an anti-slavery abolitionist drama written by Bill Harris starring Ralph McCain as Frederick Douglass and Norman Marshall as John Brown from February 15 - 17 at the National Black Theatre, 2031 Fifth Avenue (at 125th Street).

-The New School for Drama has announced a new Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dramatic Arts, which will launch in fall 2013. Drawing on The New School's tradition of progressive artistic inquiry and civic engagement, the BFA is a pre-professional degree that emphasizes collaborative studio work and hands-on experience with working theater artists in New York City. Led by playwright and Artistic Director Jon Robin Baitz (Other Desert Cities), the BFA is guided by an Advisory Board the includes include Sarah Jessica Parker, director Doug Hughes, playwright John Guare, and 24 Hour Plays creator Tina Fallon. The Advisory Board will provide artistic, professional and fundraising support to the program.

The National Black Touring Circuit kicked off the Black History Month Play Festival 2013 with a special press reception in Harlem on Saturday, February 2 that featured a discussion by acclaimed poet and author Amiri Baraka on "The Meaning of Black History" and a performance by Timothy Simonson portraying Harlem legend Adam Clayton Powell from the play Adam.

The National Black Touring Circuit's Black History Month Play Festival 2013 will examine American history from anti-slavery Abolitionists to the emergence of the NAACP to the height of the civil rights movement through dramas on the lives of African American historic figures Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. DuBois and Adam Clayton Powell. Performances are in New York City theaters from February 8 - 24.

The Metropolitan Playhouse and JAJ Production present the World Premiere of David Koteles' My First Lady, directed by Jason Jacobs as part of the Metropolitan Playhouse Founder's Festival (running tonight, January 14-27) The Playhouse is located at 220 East 4th Street.

The Metropolitan Playhouse and JAJ Production present the World Premiere of David Koteles' My First Lady, directed by Jason Jacobs as part of the Metropolitan Playhouse Founder's Festival (running January 14- 27) The Playhouse is located at 220 East 4th Street.

McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton, New Jersey (under the direction of Emily Mann, Artistic Director, and Timothy J. Shields, Managing Director) has announced that two-time Tony nominee Penny Fuller has replaced the previously announced Mary Beth Hurt in Edward Albee's A Delicate Balance. The production runs January 18 through February 17 (opening night is Friday, January 25). Support for the production is provided by the Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation.

McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton, New Jersey (under the direction of Emily Mann, Artistic Director, and Timothy J. Shields, Manager Director) will present Edward Albee's A Delicate Balance, directed by Emily Mann, January 18 through February 17, 2013. Opening night is Friday, January 25. Support for the production is provided by the Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation.

Members of the Naughton Family - two-time Tony Award winner and Weston, Connecticut resident James Naughton, daughter Keira Naughton, son Greg Naughton, and Greg's wife Tony Award nominee Kelli O'Hara - plus Blythe Danner, Jordan Coughtry, Edward Herrmann, Chad Kinsman, Jake Robards, Mark Shanahan, and Dana Steingold are cast in Westport Country Playhouse's Script in Hand playreading of "The Philadelphia Story," the romantic comedy classic by Philip Barry, set for one-night-only tonight, December 10, 7 p.m. Director is Anne Keefe, Playhouse artistic advisor.