Lanford Wilson News

Tickets are now available for Forward Flux's productions of THE WEDDING GIFT by Chisa Hutchinson (West Coast premiere), and THE SUMMER HOUSE by Sarah Bernstein (World premiere), playing September 20th - October 8th at Gay City Arts (517 E Pike St, Seattle, WA 98122). For the second year in a row, Forward Flux will present two new plays in the same theatre, allowing audiences to choose one, or see both in one night with show times at 7pm and 9pm. Each play runs around 75mins with no intermission (as it should be).

Tickets are now available for Forward Flux's productions of THE WEDDING GIFT by Chisa Hutchinson (West Coast premiere), and THE SUMMER HOUSE by Sarah Bernstein (World premiere), playing September 20th - October 8th at Gay City Arts (517 E Pike St, Seattle, WA 98122).  For the second year in a row, Forward Flux will present two new plays in the same theatre, allowing audiences to choose one, or see both in one night with show times at 7pm and 9pm.  Each play runs around 75mins with no intermission (as it should be).

Borderlands Theater presents the rolling world premiere of Nogales: Storytellers in Cartel Country by Richard Montoya (American Night, Water & Power) of the acclaimed Chicano performance troupe Culture Clash (Bowl of Beans, Chavez Ravine.) Nogales: Storytellers in Cartel Country traces in reverse the devastating headlines of a Mexican boy shot by US Border Patrol across the border fence. San Francisco theater artist, Sean San Jose, co-founder ofCampo Santo, directs. Nogales: Storytellers in Cartel Country begins with previews September 7th, Opening gala September 9th, and closes September 25th.

Studio Theatre of Bath presents Lanford Wilson's Pulitzer Prize Winning Play 'Talley's Folly' in the uniquely suited Library Park Gazebo beginning Thursday, August 18th.

La Jolla Playhouse announces the cast and creative team for its production of Tiger Style!, by La Jolla native Mike Lew, directed by Playhouse Associate Artistic Director Jaime Castañeda, running September 6 - October 2 (press opening: Wed, September 14 at 7:00pm) in the Sheila and Hughes Potiker Theatre.

Soon, the leaves will start to turn and many local theatres will be lifting their curtains to welcome a new season. Here's a list of some of the offerings of local theatres through the fall season. SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL THEATRES!

Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival has announced the lineup for its popular new works series, HVSF2.

A complete rundown of when productions are closing and when new ones are coming in.

Wilson's play, originally produced at The Spike, was written three years before the Ramrod leather bar massacre in November 1980, in which a man armed with a machine gun shot eight people, killing two. It is a dark, comic look at the bar's patrons and their attempts to defend it from both physical attacks as well as political attempts to close it.

Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival has announced the lineup for its popular new works series, HVSF2.

Many of Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Lanford Wilson's plays found life at a New York City coffeehouse, Caffe Cino, in the 1960's.  The venue established itself as one of the first Off-Off-Broadway theatres.  These early plays were often one-act ensemble pieces or, later, sharply drawn character studies less concerned with plot as with revelatory behavior.  Wilson liked the format and Cesear's Forum, Cleveland's small professional "minimalist" theatre company, is pleased to present five such works entitled Lanford Wilson: TAKE 5.  The 90 minute evening utilizes eight actors, sometimes together, sometimes individually, to reflect on aspects of American life.  The writing is at once heartfelt and funny.  The characters' struggles are our struggles, their stories told simply but complicated by societal concerns replete with emotional baggage.  Ideals and illusions are sustained tenuously.  The five plays (in order of appearance) are: WANDERING, SEXTET (YES), A BETHROTHAL, BRONTOSAURUS and A POSTER OF THE COSMOS.  The limited engagement production runs late September through October at Kennedy's Down Under, Playhouse Square, Cleveland, Ohio.  

The fourth show of Circle's season is The Taming, Lauren Gunderson's all female "power-play". This raucous political comedy will have both parties laughing in the aisles. Hilarity ensues when two political opposites wake up and discover themselves locked in a hotel room with a beauty queen. Following her past Circle productions of Exit, Pursued By A Bear (2013) and I and You (2015), The Taming brings to the stage the startling humor and rich roles for women that Ms. Gunderson skillfully creates.

This winter, thirty years after it first premiered at Circle Repertory Company, producers Stacey Mindich and Jessica R. Jenen will present the first-ever Broadway revival of Lanford Wilson's acclaimed play, Burn This, directed by Tony Award winner Michael Mayer, and starring Academy Award nominee Jake Gyllenhaal. The play will re-open Ambassador Theatre Group's historic Hudson Theatre (139-141 West 44th St) on Broadway. Performances begin February 2017, with an opening night set for Monday, March 6, 2017.

Today, a casting notice seems to confirm much of this with Mayer confirmed as director and the production set for a limited Broadway run in early 2017. The notice reports that rehearsals will begin in January, previews in February followed by a March opening and a June closing. This would follow the timetable of similar short-run star-driven play projects.  

Second Stage Theatre (Carole Rothman, Artistic Director; Christopher Burney, Uptown Curator and Associate Artistic Director) will present the world premiere of Chisa Hutchinson's SOMEBODY'S DAUGHTER, , as part of the company's fifteenth annual SECOND STAGE THEATRE UPTOWN SERIES next summer. SOMEBODY'S DAUGHTER recently made the 2016 Kilroy List, designated as one of 32 distinguished new plays by female and trans playwrights.

The Cape Playhouse's 90th season continues with Talley's Folly, Lanford Wilson's Pulitzer Prize-winner, starring Emily Kunkel and Ron Menzel. Directed by Skip Greer, it plays June 21 through July 2, with press night set for Tuesday, June 21 at 7:30 pm.

Phoenix Theatre of Indianapolis opens the Regional Premiere of HAND TO GOD today, June 16, 2016 on the Livia and Steve Russell Stage. This production runs through July 17, with Mark Routhier serving as director. Phoenix Theatre will produce the first U.S. production outside New York.

Marshall W. Mason was the recipient of the 2016 Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre - below, check out what he had to say after he accepted the award!

Forward Flux Productions has announced the cast for the West Coast premiere of THE WEDDING GIFT by Chisa Hutchinson, and the world premiere of THE SUMMER HOUSE by Sarah Bernstein.  For the second year in a row, Forward Flux will present two new plays in the same theatre, allowing audiences to choose one, or see both in one night with show times at 7pm and 9pm.  Each play runs around 80mins and has no intermission (as it should be).

Jeff Daniels has done it all. The actor is well known for his performances on TV and the big screen as well as his work as a musician and playwright. This season he has picked up his second Tony nomination (Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play) for his portrayal of Ray in BLACKBIRD, opposite Michelle WIlliams. Below watch as Daniels admits that the news might make playing the brutal role every night a little less difficult.