Kathy Perkins News

Goodman Theatre is proud to support Chicago's off-Loop theater companies Teatro Vista, Definition Theatre Company and Collaboraction as a producing partner on several high-profile productions this summer - two of which open this week.

Definition Theatre Company, under the leadership of Artistic Director Tyrone Phillips and Managing Director Neel McNeill, announces casting for the first play of its 2017-2018 season, the Chicago premiere of An Octoroon by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (Gloria, Appropriate), produced in association with Goodman Theatre.

Alexander Street, a ProQuest company, is enabling researchers to go behind the scenes of the world's greatest theatre, dance, and opera performances through Performance Design Archive Online, the only international multimedia collection to cover all aspects of theatre production design.

Definition Theatre Company, under the leadership of Artistic Director Tyrone Phillips and Managing Director Neel McNeill, announces casting for the first play of its 2017-2018 season, the Chicago premiere of An Octoroon by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (Gloria, Appropriate), produced in association with Goodman Theatre.

Definition Theatre Company, under the leadership of Artistic Director Tyrone Phillips and Managing Director Neel McNeill, announces the first play of its 2017-2018 season, the Chicago premiere of An Octoroon by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (Gloria, Appropriate), produced in association with Goodman Theatre. An Octoroon is directed by Goodman Theatre Resident Director Chuck Smith and runs July 21 - August 20, 2017 in the Richard Christiansen Theater at Victory Gardens Theater as part of Definition's tenure in the Victory Gardens Resident Theater Program.

Midtown Direct Rep (MDR) continues its 2016-17 staged reading series, Theater at The Woodland, with a presentation of TORN ASUNDER, written by Obie Award-winner Nikkole Salter and directed by Janeece Freeman Clark

Midtown Direct Rep (MDR) continues its 2016-17 staged reading series, Theater at The Woodland, with a presentation of TORN ASUNDER, written by Obie Award-winner Nikkole Salter and directed by Janeece Freeman Clark. This staged reading will be performed for one night only on Sunday, December 11, 2016 at 7pm at The Woodland (60 Woodland Rd. Maplewood, NJ), where MDR is the resident theater company. The reading is $15 (advance purchase), $20 (if purchased at the door) and open to the public. Student/Senior discounts are also available. Tickets can be purchased online through Brown Paper Tickets (http://tornasunder.bpt.me) by clicking the direct link HERE OR by calling 1-800-838-3006.

Definition Theatre Company has announced the second show of its 2014/15 season, an adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House. Directed by Writers Theatre Artistic Director Michael Halberstam, A Doll's House runs April 3 - May 3, 2015; the press performance is on Thursday, April 9 at 7:30pm. Performances are scheduled Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30pm and Sundays at 4:00pm at the Chopin Theatre (1543W Division Street). Tickets, $25, are on sale now at definitiontheatre.org.

'The Uncanny Valley' invites audiences to take a trip down the technological rabbit hole. Created and directed by University of North Carolina Chapel Hill professor Francesca Talenti, this new play makes for an unsettling evening at the theater - yet its overly moralistic tone prevents it from probing as deeply as it could. The play provides a twist on the concept of the uncanny valley - the idea that that which possesses human features and moves almost like a human being, but is slightly off, will have an effect of repulsion on the human viewer.

Trail-blazing lighting designer Shirley Prendergast accepted the 2014 Distinguished Achievement Award in Lighting Design at USITT's 54th Annual Conference & Stage Expo on Thursday.

Playwright Janet Langhart Cohen has crafted an intriguing work with ANNE & EMMETT, which brings together two seemingly disparate people from history, and then proceeds to show how similar their lives were. The Black Rep's current production is nicely conceived and executed, and features four fine performances. The message conveyed about racism, and its different guises, is an important one, and one not soon forgotten.

Artistic Director Dennis Za?ek and Executive Director Jan Kallish announce the Chicago Premiere of The Gospel According to James by Charles Smith, directed by Chuck Smith.

RUINED is one of those plays that lingers in your mind long after it's over. There's a reason that playwright Lynn Nottage won the Pulitzer Prize for drama with this powerful story, and once you've seen it yourself, it may well haunt you too. Because, even though this tale about the plight of civilians caught in a civil war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo may seem far removed from your own sense of reality, the kinds of atrocities that are being related here are still happening all around the world, and with far-reaching consequences. The Black Rep's current production of this disturbing and harrowing work is buoyed by fine performances and insightful direction.

When August Wilson died in 2005, America lost one of its most influential playwrights. Wilson's legacy - a cycle of ten plays encompassing the 20th Century, continues to captivate audiences around the world for its poeticism and beauty. Geva Theatre Center, as part of its five-year commitment to presenting all ten plays in 'August Wilson's American Century,' will produce the seventh play of the cycle, Two Trains Running, opening March 30 and running through April 25.

It seems only appropriate that Rochester's Geva Theatre Center would transition from Arthur Miller's The Price to August Wilson's Two Trains Running; comparatively speaking, however, Wilson has given Miller a run for his money. Ron OJ Parson's exhilarating production of Two Trains Running, the fourth fully mounted play of Geva's celebration of Wilson and the seventh in his famed Pittsburgh Cycle, gives its audience what The Price never could: an entertaining, well-paced, and (dare I say) priceless night of theater.

When August Wilson died in 2005, America lost one of its most influential playwrights. Wilson's legacy - a cycle of ten plays encompassing the 20th Century, continues to captivate audiences around the world for its poeticism and beauty. Geva Theatre Center, as part of its five-year commitment to presenting all ten plays in 'August Wilson's American Century,' will produce the seventh play of the cycle, Two Trains Running, opening March 30 and running through April 25.

When August Wilson died in 2005, America lost one of its most influential playwrights. Wilson's legacy - a cycle of ten plays encompassing the 20th Century, continues to captivate audiences around the world for its poeticism and beauty. Geva Theatre Center, as part of its five-year commitment to presenting all ten plays in 'August Wilson's American Century,' will produce the seventh play of the cycle, Two Trains Running, opening March 30 and running through April 25.

BLUES IN THE NIGHT is a delightful compilation of material that celebrates the many styles associated with the music known as the blues. As conceived by Sheldon Epps, this musical follows three women and a saloon singer as they recall memories from their past in song form. The Black Rep's current production showcases four superb vocalists who bring their own unique talents to the work, creating a marvelous and uplifting experience, filled with enough genuine warmth and good humor, that it may well redefine how you feel about the blues.

American Conservatory Theater core acting company members Steven Anthony Jones and Jack Willis star as South African brothers divided by skin-tone and joined together by blood in Athol Fugard's Blood Knot, directed by Charles Randolph-Wright. February 8 through March 9, with press night February 13.