Lee Grant News

'The Wizard of Oz,' presented by Harlem Repertory Theater (HRT) and Yip Harburg Foundation, will not close December 16. It has been extended through January 13, 2018 due to continuing and steady audience interest. The production has played since October 8, 2016 at Tato Laviera Theatre, 240 East 123rd Street (near 2nd Ave.), Manhattan, and has previously been extended three times.

'The Wizard of Oz,' presented by Harlem Repertory Theater (HRT) and Yip Harburg Foundation, will not close December 16. It has been extended through January 13, 2018 due to continuing and steady audience interest.

HB Studio, one of New York's iconic institutions for theater training and practice located in Greenwich Village, will present the 2018 BENEFIT SERIES this year in the HB Playwrights Theatre, featuring works by Jos Rivera, Leonard Bernstein and Anne Meara. HB Studio's 2018 Benefit Series kicks off on December 1, 2017.

CHRISTINE DUNFORD made her directorial debut with last year's production of Good People at the Hudson Guild. She trained as an actor at Juilliard, making her debut in Joe Papp's Two Gentlemen of Verona. Broadway: Serious Money. Off-Broadway: Love's Labors Lost (Public Theater);Serious Money (Public Theater);Tamara; Infidelities (Primary Stages.) LA: I Carry Your Heart (BootlegTheater);The Cryptogram; Old Neighborhood (Geffen Playhouse);7Blow Jobs; Erotic Curtsies (Bottom's Dream Theater Company); Vanya & Sonia & Masha & Spike (Edgemar Theater.) Film: Ulee's Gold Love & Basketball American Dream Bandit Hound Hello Herman August Creek and award-winning shorts Dos Corazones and Lost People of Mountain Village. Ms. Dunford has appeared in over 100 episodes of television. Series Regular: Good Sports Bob Hudson Street Something So Right and Secret Lives of Men . Guest Star: The Gifted, Longmire, The Mentalist, Bones: & many others. Solo Performance: HBO Aspen Comedy Festival. She is currently directing a production of Donald Margulies' Collected Stories to open at the Dorie Theater at the Complex Friday October 13.

Award-winning and sector-leading London based theater company Frantic Assembly (Movement Direction, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time) visits NYC's HB Studio this Fall to teach a Physical Theater Masterclass. Frantic Assembly's widely studied method of devising theater from a physical starting point has been impacting theatrical practice for up to 24 years. The workshop, now enrolling, is scheduled for October 22, 2017.

'The Wizard of Oz,' presented by Harlem Repertory Theater (HRT) and Yip Harburg Foundation, will not close August 20. It has been extended through December 16, 2017 due to continuing and steady audience interest.

Today, THIRTEEN's American Masters series launched Season 2 of the American Masters Podcast with new guest host Anna Drezen, Emmy-nominated Saturday Night Live (SNL) writer, comedian and author (How to Win at Feminism, How May We Hate You?, Reductress) on the American Masters website, iTunes, Soundcloud and Stitcher.

Today, THIRTEEN's American Masters series launched Season 2 of the American Masters Podcast with new guest host Anna Drezen, Emmy-nominated Saturday Night Live (SNL) writer, comedian and author (How to Win at Feminism, How May We Hate You?,

Coming this fall, The School of Doing is a comprehensive guide to the craft and teachings of internationally renowned stage director and educator Gerald Freedman, including lessons on acting, directing, text analysis, comedy technique, camera technique, Shakespeare, musical theater, design, pedagogy, and show business.

Tonight, July 12th, 6-7pm, International Goodwill Cultural Ambassador/performing artist Ronald Rand will be joined by legendary film star Brian Cox, stage and screen actress Nicole Ansari, one of America's greatest sculptors Carolyn D. Palmer, singer extraordinaire Julie Budd, Encompass New Opera Theatre artistic director Nancy Rhodes, Broadway and film director Michael Pressman, historian Louise Hirschfeld, and legendary portrait painter Everett Raymond Kinstler for an exciting panel discussion about creativity in film, theater, music and art at Barnes & Noble-Union Square, 33 East 17th Street, NYC.

The Harlem Repertory Theatre, under the direction of its Founding Artistic Director Keith Lee Grant, has announced that it will present JAMAICA, Yip Harburg and Fred Saidy,'s powerful story about a Jamaican woman's dream of moving to New York City, July 29th - March 24th at The Tato Laviera Theatre (240 East 123rd Street).

'The Wizard of Oz,' presented by Harlem Repertory Theater and Yip Harburg Foundation, will now close August 20, 2017 after 26 performances.  A previously scheduled September 9 performance has been canceled. The production has played since October 8, 2016 at Tato Laviera Theatre, 240 East 123rd Street (near 2nd Ave.), Manhattan, and has been extended twice.

On July 12th, 6-7pm - International Goodwill Cultural Ambassador/performing artist Ronald Rand will be joined by legendary film star Brian Cox, stage and screen actress Nicole Ansari, one of America's greatest sculptors Carolyn D. Palmer, singer extraordinaire Julie Budd, Encompass New Opera Theatre artistic director Nancy Rhodes, Broadway and film director Michael Pressman, historian Louise Hirschfeld, and legendary portrait painter Everett Raymond Kinstler for an exciting panel discussion about creativity in film, theater, music and art at Barnes & Noble-Union Square, 33 East 17th Street, NYC.

On Friday, June 9th, 2017, 5-7pm — a Special Book Event for “CREATE! How Extraordinary People Live To Create and Create To Live” — a new book by best-selling author, Ronald Rand — will be held at The Drama Book Shop, 250 West 40 Street in New York City. 

To share a very popular show with wider audiences, Harlem Repertory Theatre and the Yip Harburg Foundation will extend their co-production of 'The Wizard of Oz' through September 9, 2017 at Tato Laviera Theatre, 240 East 123rd Street (near 2nd Ave.), Manhattan.

To celebrate the 121st birthday of lyricist E.Y. 'Yip' Harburg, Richard Skipper has assembled a brunch time cabaret tribute to the legendary lyricist, to be staged at the Laurie Beechman Theatre on April 8, with cabaret stars Karen Oberlin, Leslie Orofino, Maureen Kelley Stewart and a special appearance by Anita Gilette.

Roundabout Theatre Company (Todd Haimes, Artistic Director/CEO) announces the stars of the Broadway premiere of Marvin's Room, by Scott McPherson, directed by Obie Award-winning director, Anne Kauffman (Detroit) making her Broadway debut.

Emmy winning actress-turned-director Cady McClain's Seeing is Believing: Women Direct will make its World Premiere and is an Official Selection of the 2017 Newport Beach Film Festival. The first episode in the series will screen as part of the program 'Short Femme Factor' on April 25 at 1:30 p.m. at Island Cinema 6 in Newport Beach. Seeing is Believing: Women Direct is a documentary series, directed, executive produced, written and edited by Cady McClain, about women directors who are on the front lines of the field: from major award winners and those in the vanguard of television and feature films, to graduated students and frustrated auteurs.

Joining in the opening night festivities for The Last Days of Judas Iscariot at The Ellen Stewart Theatre at La MaMa (66 East 4th Street): Ellen Burstyn, Co-President of the Actors Studio; Carla Hoke-Miller, Director of Theatrical Partnerships for the Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment; Ruben Blades; Lee Grant; Michael Aranov (OSLO); Valda Setterfield; Patricia Bosworth; Margaret Colin; and many others. This limited Off-Broadway engagement continues through March 26th.   The Last Days of Judas Iscariot is enjoying an extended run at La Mama after being developed at the Actors Studio as part of the Theater & Social Justice program, using Actors Studio members.     

The Little Theatre of Mechanicsburg sits plainly on the side of a small road in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, unassuming to all those who pass by. It does not flaunt itself on flashing advertisements or a grandiose outward facade, and this in fact adds to the effortless charm that meets a theatre-goer as soon as they step through the door. But while the stage itself may be lacking in size, the performances presented there compensate for space with an abundance of talent. While the reviewer has only been privilege to one show at this establishment thus far, she is glad that she was treated to the vastly entertaining humor of PLAZA SUITE by Neil Simon.