La Mama E.T.C. News

NOMADS, written by Julia Jarcho and directed by Alice Reagan, will perform May 30-June 15, 2014 at 8pm, Saturday June 6 at 2pm & 8pm; Sunday June 15 at 5pm & 8pm.

In Ionesco's absurdist masterpiece, 'The Chairs,' an elderly couple set out chairs for an audience to listen to a world-changing pronouncement from an orator who turns out to be a deaf-mute. Puppet theater maestro Theodora Skipitares wondered what would happen if the chairs themselves were world-changers. Her newest work, 'The Chairs,' presented by La MaMa E.T.C. May 22 to June 8, is a response to Ionesco, but that's where the similarity ends. Skipitares' chairs are incarnations of people like Malala, Stephen Hawking and Nelson Mandela and their messages are, well, not absurd.

San Francisco in June may be gloomy, but the lineup at Feinstein's at the Nikko will be HOT! Hotel Nikko San Francisco and Michael Feinstein are thrilled to announce the lineup for the month of June, featuring award-winning stars from stage and screen, including two-time Tony Award-winner Judy Kaye, YouTube sensation Christina Bianco, Tony Award-winning singer/songwriter Levi Kreis, cabaret legend Justin Vivian Bond, Broadway star and recording artist Shoshana Bean, and Franc D'Ambrosio & Glory Crampton's tribute to Andrew Lloyd Webber.

August Strindberg's 'To Damascus, Part 1' will be adapted to Harlem, 1962 in the next production of August Strindberg Repertory Theatre (www.strindberg.org). The play will be presented with a multi-racial cast today, April 18 to May 11 at the Gene Frankel Theatre, 24 Bond Street (East Village).

Soho Playhouse presents the award-winning and critically acclaimed JAMAICA FAREWELL, written and performed by Debra Ehrhardt and directed by Joel Zwick ('My Big Fat Greek Wedding'), with performances beginning Sunday, April 27 prior to an official press opening of Sunday, May 4 at Soho Playhouse (15 Vandam Street) in Manhattan.

Sleeping Cutie: A Fractured Fairy Tale Musical with Music by Doug Katsaros and Lyrics / Book by Diane Sampson will have its world premiere in this exclusive Off a Cliff / PlayGround co-production in San Francisco for a limited engagement, running four weeks only.

Having dazzled critics and audiences in the West Coast and Midwest, 'Four Clowns' (www.fourclowns.org), conceived and directed by Jeremy Aluma, makes its too-brief East Coast debut May 23 to June 1 in The Club at La MaMa. In a madcap evening, four foul-mouthed, wonderfully dressed and finely face-painted clowns--a sad one, an angry one, a nervous one and a mischevous one--re-enact iconic life experiences to show how human pain is both unique and universal. The Huffington Post called it 'a drama that focuses on the epic though squalid journey of our four heroes through childhood, adolescence and adulthood. The result is as sobering as the voyage is outlandish….daring and energetic, weird and wonderful.'

Delving into the darkly absurd corners of corporate America and middle-man-purgatory, director Michael Sladek makes his NYC stage debut with a fresh production of Below the Belt by acclaimed playwright, Richard Dresser. Presented by Black Lodge Theater, the work will be staged in the old boiler room of the iconic Westbeth Center for the Arts.

PATTI ISSUES - the hit solo play hailed as 'heartfelt and cleverly constructed' ' by The Boston Globe and called 'spellbinding, one of the best (and now longestrunning) offerings of the year,' by The Village Voice - is set to play Miami Beach on Friday, May 9th at 8 PM (presented by legendary Broadway and concert producer-director Richard Jay-Alexander in association with Edison Farrow and South Beach Cabaret) at The Cabaret South Beach (233 12th Street, Miami Beach, FL 33139), return engagements in San Francisco (Wednesday, May 14th at 7 PM and at 9 PM at Rebel,1760 Market Street, San Francisco, CA 94102), Los Angeles (Thursday, May 15th at 7:30 PM and at 9 PM at the Cavern Club Celebrity Theater at Casita Del Campo,1920 Hyperion Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90027) and Fire Island Pines (Saturday, July 26th at 10 PM at Fire Island Pines Pavilion, Fire Island Pines, NY 11782), as well as two performances as an Official Selection of the Adelaide Cabaret Festival on Saturday, June 21st at 4 PM and 7:30 PM at the Space Theatre, King William Road, Adelaide, SA 5000, Australia. Tickets for all shows at www.PattiIssues.com.

'Pagbabalik: Tracing the Path Home' by Kinding Sindaw (http://kindingsindaw.org), the New York-based southern Philippine performance troupe, entwines a contemporary story of the modern Philipines with a dramatic adaptation of the third chapter of the epic Derangen. The Derangen is a Mindanao epic shared by the Maranao, Maguindanao and Iranun tribes of the southern Philippines which celebrates episodes from regional history and stories of the tribulations of mythical heroes. This splendorous new work of dance theater is conceived and directed by Potri Ranka Manis, the daughter of a Sultan of the Maranao people of Mindanao, a true modern-day princess and tradition-bearer. La MaMa E.T.C. will present the piece April 24 to 27 in its Ellen Stewart Theatre, 66 East Fourth Street.

On Monday, March 24, 2014, The Negro Ensemble Company, Inc. (Charles Weldon, Artistic Director; Karen Brown, Executive Director) and Signature Theatre (James Houghton, Founding Artistic Director; Erika Mallin, Executive Director) will unite in a day-long celebration of the life and works of Tony Award-nominated playwright Leslie Lee. Lee passed away in New York City on January 20, 2014.

August Strindberg's 'To Damascus, Part 1' will be adapted to Harlem, 1962 in the next production of August Strindberg Repertory Theatre (www.strindberg.org). The play will be presented with a multi-racial cast April 18 to May 11 at the Gene Frankel Theatre, 24 Bond Street (East Village). It is the first part of a trilogy (called 'The Road to Damascus' in earlier translations) that has been described as 'Strindberg's most complex plays' and as 'his greatest plays,' due to their synthesis of a wide variety of myths, symbols and ideas with a profound spiritual analysis in a new dramatic form. August Strindberg Rep will present Part 2 in March, 2015 and Part 3 in 2016. It will be the first time the trilogy will have been presented complete in any language in 99 years.

La MaMa ETC presents resident artist Kinding Sindaw's production of Pagbabalik (Tracing the Path Home), a piece that explores the migratory experience of displaced indigenous peoples of the Southern Philippines, on April 24th-27th at La MaMa ETC, Ellen Stewart Theatre, 66 East 4th Street, between 2nd Avenue and Bowery. The performance runs 90 minutes and includes live music, dance, storytelling, and videography.

'CAPT. JOHN SMITH GOES TO UKRAINE' has been extended through Friday, March 14 at 7:30 PM at La MaMa E.T.C. Original run: February 27-March 9, 2014. Thursdays through Saturdays at 7:30 PM, Sundays at 2:30 PM.

Court Theatre continues its 2013-2014 season with the Chicago premiere of Water by the Spoonful written by Quiara Alegria Hudes, and directed by Henry Godinez. Water by the Spoonful will run tonight, March 6 - April 6, 2014 at Court Theatre, 5535 S. Ellis Avenue. Press Opening is Saturday, March 15, 2014 at 8:00PM.

Sleeping Cutie: A Fractured Fairy Tale Musical with Music by Doug Katsaros and Lyrics / Book by Diane Sampson will have its world premiere in this exclusive Off a Cliff / PlayGround co-production in San Francisco for a limited engagement, running four weeks only.

T. Schreiber Studio and Theatre presents BLOOD SKY by award-winning playwright Yasmine Beverly Rana - author of 'The Fallen,' which received a critically-acclaimed production at T. Schreiber in 2013.

Soho Rep. announces casting and performance dates for the world premiere of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins's An Octoroon, directed by Soho Rep. Artistic Director Sarah Benson. The production, April 23-May 18, concludes a banner New York season for the celebrated playwright, whose Appropriate makes its New York premiere February 25-April 6 at Signature Theatre.

Court Theatre continues its 2013-2014 season with the Chicago premiere of Water by the Spoonful written by Quiara Alegria Hudes, and directed by Henry Godinez. Water by the Spoonful will run March 6 - April 6, 2014 at Court Theatre, 5535 S. Ellis Avenue. Press Opening is Saturday, March 15, 2014 at 8:00PM.

La Mama E.T.C. presents WOMANKIND, a solo play with aerial dance and acrobatics starring Karina Casiano with original music by Bryan Wade. Three performances will be staged at The Club at La MaMa, 74 East 4th Street, NYC 10003 from February 28-March 2, 2014.