Kati Brazda News

Ed Dixon's world premiere production attempts a whole new genre- the intellectual farce.

Pittsburgh Public Theater's 40th anniversary Season of Legends continues with the world premiere of L'Hotel, written by Broadway veteran Ed Dixon and directed by The Public's Producing Artistic Director, Ted Pappas. L'Hotel runs tonight, November 13 - December 14, 2014 at the O'Reilly Theater, Pittsburgh Public Theater's home in the heart of Downtown's Cultural District.

Tuesday, November 4 Started the day REALLY early with packing. They're moving me to housing right next to the theater. The Pennsylvanian is a lovely place but it's a HIKE and the weather is about to turn cold, so I'm really glad to be getting closer to work. After the move we did some trouble areas of the play and tightened the up considerably. Then I did an interview with Bill O'Driscoll from the City Paper. Forgot to mention, I did interviews with Sharon of the Post-Gazette and Alice Carter from the Tribune last week. Both were very enjoyable. We did a run through in the afternoon and it was the first time the first act had come together. The show is an ensemble piece so almost the entire cast is onstage all the time. This means everyone has to be on their toes ALL THE TIME or cues will be missed. This was the first time everyone kept the ball in the air for the entire first act. The second act wasn't as fortunate… one step at a time.

Monday, October 20 Day off. I had been hearing about "The Strip" ever since I arrived so Deanne Lorette aka Sarah Bernhardt and I trundled off to have lunch there. The surprise is that it's not some Vegas area as you might imagine from the name. It's a very down home neighborhood with a lot of local produce and outside markets. One set of stalls looked like something you might have found in Omaha in the 1950's. Surprising.

In my cranky old age, I have become virtually phobic about all means of public transportation, an odd affectation for someone who has spent his entire life zooming from one theater to another across several countries. My dear friend, Nick Noone knows this about me, so when he learned that I was about to start rehearsing my new play, L'HOTEL at the Pittsburgh Public Theatre, he offered to drive me both to and from. He did this in spite of the fact that he lives nowhere near Pittsburgh or New York City. This has prompted me to refer to him as Mother Teresa del Auto Spirito.

Pittsburgh Public Theater's 40th anniversary Season of Legends continues with the world premiere of L'Hotel, written by Broadway veteran Ed Dixon and directed by The Public's Producing Artistic Director, Ted Pappas. L'Hotel runs November 13 - December 14, 2014 at the O'Reilly Theater, Pittsburgh Public Theater's home in the heart of Downtown's Cultural District. For tickets call 412.316.1600 or visit ppt.org.

Our Town opened the 50th season of the Kansas City Repertory Theatre on Friday September 12 at the Spencer Theater located on the campus of the University of Missouri at Kansas City. Thornton Wilder wrote the 1938 classic and winner of the 1938 Pulitzer Prize for Drama that has weathered time to remain one of the most popular plays of all time.

Kansas City Repertory Theatre will open its 50th anniversary celebration with the Kansas City premiere of David Cromer's Our Town, an enduring American story which examines the everyday lives of an average town's citizens in the early twentieth century. Our Town, one of the greatest American plays written by Thornton Wilder, the three-time Pulitzer prize-winning playwright and novelist will be directed by David Cromer, MacArthur Foundation 'genius' grant recipient and director of KC Rep's 2009 production of The Glass Menagerie which received national and local critical acclaim. This co-production with UMKC Theatre will feature redesigned seating at Spencer Theatre in the James C. Olson performing Arts Center on the UMKC campus. The show will run tnight, September 5 through 28th.

Kansas City Repertory Theatre will open its 50th anniversary celebration with the Kansas City premiere of David Cromer's Our Town, an enduring American story which examines the everyday lives of an average town's citizens in the early twentieth century. Our Town, one of the greatest American plays written by Thornton Wilder, the three-time Pulitzer prize-winning playwright and novelist will be directed by David Cromer, MacArthur Foundation 'genius' grant recipient and director of KC Rep's 2009 production of The Glass Menagerie which received national and local critical acclaim. This co-production with UMKC Theatre will feature redesigned seating at Spencer Theatre in the James C. Olson performing Arts Center on the UMKC campus. The show will run September 5 through 28th. High resolution photos can be found here .

A stellar production of Thornton Wilder's 'Our Town' is now being performed at the George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick through May 25th.

BILL W. AND DR. BOB - the critically acclaimed play by Samuel Shem and Janet Surrey that Variety calls 'deeply human, audience embracing, [and] a remarkable story' will conclude its Off-Broadway run at Soho Playhouse (15 Vandam Street) on Sunday, May 4th, it has been announced by Dr. Shem and Dr. Surrey, and General Manager Darren Lee Cole. BILL W. AND DR. BOB is sponsored by Hazelden/Betty Ford Foundation.

On Thursday, March 27th New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio stopped by to see another famous Bill - in the Off-Broadway, hit play BILL W. AND DR. BOB at the Soho Playhouse (15 Vandam Street, Manhattan). Check out photos from his visit below!

BILL W. AND DR. BOB - the critically acclaimed play by Samuel Shem and Janet Surrey that Variety calls 'deeply human, audience embracing, [and] a remarkable story' has extended its Off-Broadway run at the Soho Playhouse (15 Vandam Street) for a staggering fourth time - now through June 1st, it has been announced by Dr. Shem and Dr. Surrey, and General Manager Darren Lee Cole.

BILL W. AND DR. BOB - the critically acclaimed play by Samuel Shem and Janet Surrey that Variety calls 'deeply human, audience embracing, [and] a remarkable story' will have its run extended for a third time Off-Broadway at the Soho Playhouse (15 Vandam Street), now through April 27, 2014, it has been announced by Dr. Shem and Dr. Surrey, and General Manager Darren Lee Cole.

Nearly two dozen characters, spanning race, religion and class, come together on Christmas Eve in 1864 in Paula Vogel's work, "A Civil War Christmas"

This holiday season, Center Stage brings to Baltimore a new holiday classic for the entire family with Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Paula Vogel's A Civil War Christmas. Casting has just been announced for this production, led by director Rebecca Taichman and choreographer Liz Lerman.

TACT/The Actors Company Theatre (Scott Alan Evans, Cynthia Harris and Jenn Thompson, Co-Artistic Directors), the critically-acclaimed and Drama Desk nominated Off-Broadway company "dedicated to presenting neglected or rarely produced plays of literary merit," announces the cast and creative team for Lovers by Brian Friel, the first production of the company's 20th Anniversary Season. Directed by TACT Company Member Drew Barr, performances begin at Theatre Row's Beckett Theatre (410 West 42nd Street - between 9th & 10th Avenues) on Tuesday, September 18th, 2012. Opening night is Thursday, September 27th at 7:30pm. Performances will continue through Saturday, October 20th.

Thornton Wilder's classic Our Town has been a part of my American cultural mindset since high school, practically all my life. And, of course, being a New Englander, it is not very hard to put myself into Grover's Corners, New Hampshire, even though the time period for the play 1901-1913 is about 30 + years before my existence. People are people and daily life was pretty much the same; things - except cars replacing horse and buggy - didn't really start changing until the middle of the 20th century. Now in this spaced out, high tech, faster-than-the-speed-of-light world we live in, it's nice to look back and see how it once was and reflect on what it maybe should be. On the Broad stage through February 12 only, David Cromer's fascinating staging puts his audience smack dab in the middle of the town and makes us believe we have time-traveled back to this simpler but just as psychologically complicated era. How inexpensive things cost, how people trusted one another, and how they amused themselves by reading, attending choir practice or actually conversing with one another instead of being glued to the TV set or sidetracked by other low quality, insignificant perversions! But there were some who just could not cope, like Mr. Stimson, the alcoholic choir director, who ended up committing suicide. We've all known people like him. So, the play is timeless. And somehow contemporary dress for the actors is not a hindrance to our accepting who and where they are, as it makes them like us, as we all fit together into one big macrocosm.

Thornton Wilder's classic Our Town has been a part of my American cultural mindset since high school, practically all my life. And, of course, being a New Englander, it is not very hard to put myself into Grover's Corners, New Hampshire, even though the time period for the play 1901-1913 is about 30 + years before my existence. People are people and daily life was pretty much the same; things - except cars replacing horse and buggy - didn't really start changing until the middle of the 20th century. Now in this spaced out, high tech, faster-than-the-speed-of-light world we live in, it's nice to look back and see how it once was and reflect on what it maybe should be. On the Broad stage through February 12 only, David Cromer's fascinating staging puts his audience smack dab in the middle of the town and makes us believe we have time-traveled back to this simpler but just as psychologically complicated era. How inexpensive things cost, how people trusted one another, and how they amused themselves by reading, attending choir practice or actually conversing with one another instead of being glued to the TV set or sidetracked by other low quality, insignificant perversions! But there were some who just could not cope, like Mr. Stimson, the alcoholic choir director, who ended up committing suicide. We've all known people like him. So, the play is timeless. And somehow contemporary dress for the actors is not a hindrance to our accepting who and where they are, as it makes them like us, as we all fit together into one big macrocosm.

The Carbonell Awards, the arts organization that 'recognizes and awards excellence in South Florida theatre,' today announced the nominations for the 2011 season.