Lanford Wilson News

Second Stage Theatre (Carole Rothman, Artistic Director) will launch its 31st season this fall with the New York premiere of Anna Deavere Smith's LET ME DOWN EASY. Conceived, written, and performed by Ms. Smith and directed by Leonard Foglia, LET ME DOWN EASY will begin preview performances on Tuesday, September 15 and will officially open on Wednesday, October 7 at 6:45pm.

Barbara Manocherian, Richard Willis and Anthony Barrile in association with Naked Angels (Geoffrey Nauffts, Artistic Director; John Alexander, Managing Director; Andy Donald, Associate Artistic Director; Brittany O'Neill, Producer) are pleased to announce that the critically acclaimed original cast will return for the Broadway run of NEXT FALL, the new American play by Geoffrey Nauffts and directed by Sheryl Kaller. The production will open on Broadway on Thursday, March 11, 2010 with preview performances beginning Tuesday, February 16, 2010 at the Helen Hayes Theatre (240 West 44th Street).

DelanoCelli Productions presents the World Premiere of Down Range, a raw and touching new play by Jeffrey Skinner exposing how returning soldiers survive the war at home. Performances will be held at Theatre 3, 311 West 43rd Street, 3rd Floor, in New York City through November 14th.

THE ORPHANS' HOME CYCLE, the world premiere of a three part theatrical event by the Pulitzer Prize and Academy Award-winning playwright Horton Foote, begins performances on Thursday, November 5 at Signature Theatre Company at the Peter Norton Space, 555 West 42nd Street, between 10th and 11th Avenues.

I don't take pleasure in anybody's death; not even the death of someone who trampled on the rights of free speech in order to prevent funding for art that he considered to be obscene. I'm sure he felt he was doing the right thing for the country I have no reason to doubt he loved.

That happy gentleman on the left is the legendary American playwright Robert Patrick, and what he has in his hands is a long-time dream of his; a plaque to commemorate the life of Joe Cino.  Fifty years ago Joe Cino opened the doors to his Caffe Cino, now regarded as the birthplace of both the Off-Off Broadway movement and the American Gay Theatre movement, to playwrights willing to mount productions on his tiny 8' x 8' stage.  Among those who walked in were Lanford Wilson, Tom Eyen, Doric Wilson, Sam Shepard, William Hoffman, John Guare, and, of course, Robert Patrick.  Cino didn't even read the scripts.  Most of the time he would ask the playwright his astrological sign and if he liked the answer an opening night was set.  Musical theatre fans know the Cino as the place where Bernadette Peters starred in the original one-act version of Dames At Sea. 

Robert Patrick, that legendary pioneer of Gay Theatre, may spend most of his time on that other coast these days, but his heart always remains at a little storefront on Cornelia Street that once housed the birthplace of Off-Off Broadway, the Caffe Cino.  One of my first assignments for BroadwayWorld was an interview with that remarkably colorful playwright, where he shared vivid memories of that exciting time in American theatre when he and the likes of Sam Shepard, Lanford Wilson and John Guare enjoyed complete artistic freedom in seeing their early efforts staged.  Bernadette Peters starred in the original one-act version of Dames At Sea on the tiny Cino stage.

The Dramatists Guild of America will honor the winners of their annual awards at their annual benefit ceremony on Monday, November 2, 2009 at The Players Club in New York.

The Dramatists Guild of America have announced the winners of their annual awards, which will be distributed at an awards ceremony Monday, November 2, 2009, at The Players Club in New York.

The New School for Drama presents The Rimers of Eldridge, written by Lanford Wilson and directed by Hal Books, on Thursday, October 29 through Saturday, October 31, at The New School Drama Theater.

Theatre students at Mercer County Community College will present Lanford Wilson's 'Rimers of Eldritch' as their fall production. This sobering look at small town life will be performed Thursday, Friday and Saturday, Nov. 12, 13 and 14 at 8 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 14 and 15 at 2 p.m. at the Studio Theatre on the college's West Windsor campus, 1200 Old Trenton Road.

Whatsonstage.com is reporting that the Donmar Warehouse will be celebrating 80 years of Sondheim with a special production of the legend's 1994 Passion in the Spring of 2010.

The New School for Drama presents The Rimers of Eldritch, written by Lanford Wilson and directed by Hal Books, on Thursday, October 29 through Saturday, October 31, at The New School Drama Theater.

DelanoCelli Productions presents the World Premiere of Down Range, a raw and touching new play by Jeffrey Skinner exposing how returning soldiers survive the war at home. Performances will be held at Theatre 3, 311 West 43rd Street, 3rd Floor, in New York City from October 28th-November 14th.

DelanoCelli Productions presents the World Premiere of Down Range, a raw and touching new play by Jeffrey Skinner exposing how returning soldiers survive the war at home. Performances will be held at Theatre 3, 311 West 43rd Street, 3rd Floor, in New York City from October 28th-November 14th.

BroadwayWorld.com presents its newest column, Twitter Watch, which will bring you only the best and most interesting reports straight from the mouths of Broadway stars, shows and more on the hot social networking service - Twitter!

DelanoCelli Productions presents the World Premiere of Down Range, a raw and touching new play by Jeffrey Skinner exposing how returning soldiers survive the war at home. Performances will be held at Theatre 3, 311 West 43rd Street, 3rd Floor, in New York City from October 28th-November 14th.

Lincoln Center Theater (under the direction of Andre Bishop, Artistic Director, and Bernard Gersten, Executive Producer) has announced that Laura Benanti, Quincy Tyler Bernstine, Michael Cerveris, Maria Dizzia, Thomas Jay Ryan, Wendy Rich Stetson, and Chandler Williams will be featured in its upcoming production of IN THE NEXT ROOM or the vibrator play, a new play by Sarah Ruhl, to be directed by Les Waters.

Horton Foote, the Pulitzer Prize and Academy Award-winning author of THE ORPHANS' HOME CYCLE is featured in a Critic at Large essay by John Lahr in The New Yorker, in the issue for the week of October 26, 2009. The piece examines the life and career of Foote, who died on March 4, 2009. The New Yorker is currently available on newsstands.

The New School for Drama presents The Rimers of Eldridge, written by Lanford Wilson and directed by Hal Books, on Thursday, October 29 through Saturday, October 31, at The New School Drama Theater.