Kathy Baker News

Academy Award-winning actress Emma Thompson will be honored with a handprint-footprint ceremony at the Opening Night Gala of AFI Fest 2013 presented by Audi, featuring Disney's 'Saving Mr. Banks,' in which Thompson stars as 'Mary Poppins' author P.L. Travers, on Thursday, November 7th at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.

On December 20, Disney's new biographical film about the making of Mary Poppins, SAVING MR. BANKS, will hit theatres. Starring Emma Thompson, Tom Hanks, Colin Farrell, Paul Giamatti, Jason Schwartzman, Bradley Whitford, Annie Rose Buckley, Ruth Wilson, B.J. Novak, Rachel Griffiths and Kathy Baker, it opens in limited theaters on December 13. In the video below, Richard Sherman, one half of the songwriting team that scored the 1964 film, chats with CBS about creating the songs and bringing them back to life now.

According to the New York Post's Page Six, cast members from SAVING MR. BANKS will join together the night the film premieres at this year's AFI Fest in LA to lead a 'spirited singalong' of favorite songs from Disney's Mary Poppins.

We sit down with the talented and lively Judith Hawking on her exciting role in the new play THE MOST DESERVING at the Denver Center and her passion for the arts and her craft.

The Hollywood Reporter writes that AUGUST OSAGE: COUNTY, SAVING MR. BANKS, NEBRASKA and MANDELA: LONG WALK TO FREEDOM have all joined the lineup for the Napa Valley Film Festival's 2013 edition, beginning November 17. Also among the selections is ONE CHANCE -- starring Tony-winner James Corden.

Disney announced today that 'Saving Mr. Banks' has been chosen to open AFI FEST 2013, presented by Audi, on Thursday, November 7.

The North American Premiere Gala of Disney's SAVING MR. BANKS will open the festival on Thursday, November 7.

The Ojai Playwrights Conference (OPC), one of the most acclaimed new play developmental programs in the country, announces its 16th season with an extraordinary program of playwrights, new play workshops and special performance events from August 7 through 11, 2013 in Ojai, California. The OPC Summer New Works Festival will feature eleven events over five days with established and up-and-coming playwrights. Participating in this year's conference with new works are Luis Alfaro (winner of the National Hispanic Playwriting Prize), Lucy Alibar, Richard Cabral, Samuel D. Hunter, Sean Lewis, Jiehae Park, Laura Schellhardt and David Wiener. Alice Tuan will be this year's "Writer-In-Residence," and as always, there will be two unforgettable "Intersection Series" events: one featuring a first-ever musical theatre collaboration Walt Disney Imagineering, Creative Entertainment, and the other showcasing the talents of actors, writers, songwriters and storytellers in an evening of profound solo performances.

The Irish Repertory Theatre (132 West 22nd Street) continues its seventh season of the Irish Rep Reading Series, with a free reading of Nate Rufus Edelman's THE BELLE OF BELFAST on Friday, April 26 at 3:00 p.m. at the Irish Repertory Theatre (132 West 22nd Street).

At BroadwayWorld we pride ourselves in showcasing theater content submitted by our regional contributors from all corners of the globe. Get all your theater news at a glance each Friday with 'Around BWW: Regional Highlights of the Week'! Click below for the most-read stories for the week of February 11!

James Van Der Beek, best known for his starring roles on Dawson's Creek and in Varsity Blues and who currently can be seen on ABC's Don't Trust the B-in Apartment 23, appears in the American premiere production of Joanna Murray-Smith's The Gift at the Geffen Playhouse. Check out the videos below!

Many will be vehemently opposed to the theme of Joanna Murray-Smith's The Gift, for it concerns undoing primary parental obligation. It is forgivable when an artist sometimes allows his livelihood to take precedence over his parental duties, but to negate them is nothing short of immoral/criminal. Murray-Smith toys with where an artist's loyalties should lie in an unpredictable comedy/drama that will leave audience discussing the subject matter long after they leave the theatre. Isn't that what good theatre is meant to do? In its US premiere at the Geffen, The Gift cannot, should not be dismissed.

James Van Der Beek, best known for his starring roles on Dawson's Creek and in Varsity Blues and who currently can be seen on ABC's Don't Trust the B-in Apartment 23, appears in the American premiere production of Joanna Murray-Smith's The Gift at the Geffen Playhouse. Joining Van Der Beek is Golden Globe and Emmy award winner Kathy Baker (Picket Fences, Edward Scissorshands, All the King's Men) as well as acclaimed stage and screen actors Chris Mulkey (First Blood, Southland, Twin Peaks) and Jaime Ray Newman (Eastwick, Catch Me If You Can). Helmed by international powerhouse director/actor Maria Aitken, The Gift is currently in previews in the Gil Cates Theater at the Geffen Playhouse, and officially opens on Wednesday, February 6, 2013. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast onstage below!

James Van Der Beek, best known for his starring roles on Dawson's Creek and in Varsity Blues and who currently can be seen on ABC's Don't Trust the B-in Apartment 23, is set to appear in the American premiere production of Joanna Murray-Smith's The Gift at the Geffen Playhouse. Joining Van Der Beek is Golden Globe and Emmy award winner Kathy Baker (Picket Fences, Edward Scissorshands, All the King's Men) as well as acclaimed stage and screen actors Chris Mulkey (First Blood, Southland, Twin Peaks) and Jamie Ray Newman (Eastwick, Catch Me If You Can). Helmed by international powerhouse director/actor Maria Aitken, The Gift begins in previews in the Gil Cates Theater at the Geffen Playhouse on January 29, 2013 and officially opens on Wednesday, February 6, 2013.

Check out the recently released commercial for the show below and meet the cast with videos of them from past productions and roles!

Disney began production today on Saving Mr. Banks, the account of Walt Disney's twenty-year pursuit of the film rights to P.L. Travers' popular novel, Mary Poppins, and the testy partnership the upbeat filmmaker develops with the uptight author during the project's pre-production in 1961.

The Third Annual Summer Playwrights Festival will feature performances by Zachary Quinto, Mo Gaffney, Ann Cusack, Kathy Baker, and Perry King in North Hollywood for one week!

The Third Annual Summer Playwrights Festival will feature performances by Zachary Quinto, Mo Gaffney, Ann Cusack, Kathy Baker, and Perry King in North Hollywood for one week!

Paul Garman, Executive Director/Producer and Steven Glaudini, Artistic Director of Musical Theatre West, have announced that Davis Gaines (LA's Phantom of the Opera) will star in the upcoming MTW production of MONTY PYTHON'S SPAMALOT.

JESSE STONE: BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT, the eighth in the series of television movies starring Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award winner Tom Selleck as Police Chief Jesse Stone, will be broadcast tonight, May 20 (9:00-11:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.