The Public Theater (Artistic Director, Oskar Eustis; Executive Director, Patrick Willingham) has announced the Spring 2018 PUBLIC SHAKESPEARE INITIATIVE line-up of special evenings exploring the ideas and themes of some of Shakespeare's most challenging and essential works. Highlights of this programming include a look at the outsiders within Othelloand The Merchant of Venice with Stephen Greenblatt and Kwame Anthony Appiah; sneak peeks of Robert O'Hara's Mobile Unit production of Henry V and the Shakespeare Works artist development program; a discussion about the production history of Othello and putting it on stage for today's contemporary audience with James Shapiro and Ayanna Thompson; and special invited performances of As You Like It by the Hunts Point Children's Shakespeare Ensemble.
Following an extensive nationwide search,American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) Board of Trustees and Executive Director Peter Pastreich today named Tony, OBIE, and Drama Desk Award winner Pam MacKinnon the new artistic director of San Francisco's premier nonprofit theater organization. MacKinnon succeeds Carey Perloff who will depart from American Conservatory Theater at the end of the 2017-18 season after 25 years at the helm. MacKinnon will begin planning the 2018-19 season alongside Perloff effective immediately. In addition, she will begin partnering with the leaders of A.C.T.'s world-class actor training programs and ever-expanding community programs, ensuring A.C.T. continues its role as the Bay Area's leading theater arts educational organization.
Theatre for a New Audience (TFANA; Jeffrey Horowitz, Founding Artistic Director) announces a free post-performance discussion moderated by Pulitzer Prize-winning theatre critic and Negroland: A Memoir author Margo Jefferson in connection with TFANA's world premiere production of Adrienne Kennedy's He Brought Her Heart Back in a Box. The talk, which begins at 8.30 PM is open to all and features director Charlotte Braithwaite and playwrights Lydia Diamond and Jackie Sibblies Drury, follows the January 20 performance of Kennedy's first new play in a decade, which begins at 7:30 that evening, at Polonsky Shakespeare Center (262 Ashland Place, Brooklyn, NY 11217). The discussion will also be streamed live on Theatre for a New Audience's Facebook page. He Brought Her Heart Back in a Box runs January 18-February 11. To reserve a seat to this panel, visit www.tfana.org/heartpanel.
Ruthie Ann Miles will reprise her Tony Award winning and critically acclaimed Broadway role of Lady Thiang in the West End production of THE KING AND I, which opens at the London Palladium on 21 June (Press Night 3 July). She will join fellow Tony Award winner Kelli O'Hara (Anna) and Tony and Oscar nominee Ken Watanabe (The King) in the Broadway transfer of the multi award-winning production of Rodgers & Hammerstein's classic musical.
Soho Rep. (Sarah Benson, Artistic Director; Cynthia Flowers, Executive Director) today announces the complete cast and creative team for the world premiere of Aleshea Harris's Relentless Award-winning Is God Is, directed by Taibi Magar (Ars Nova's Underground Railroad Game), February 6 - March 11, 2018. The play, with which Soho Rep. reopens its longtime Tribeca theater, dauntlessly cracks jokes as it eviscerates. Alfie Fuller and Dame-Jasmine Hughes play Anaia and Racine, twin sisters who undertake a murderous journey from the Dirty South to the California desert, seeking payback for a horrendous act. Is God Is treats both morality and genre as notions to be exploded, drawing on the ancient, the modern, the tragic, the Spaghetti Western, hip-hop and Afropunk in its subversion of theatrical constructs.
Looks like the West End will be getting to know Kelli O'Hara and Ken Watanabe. According to a report by the Daily Mail, Lincoln Center Theater's production of THE KING AND I 'has its eye on the London Palladium for a limited season next year.'
Two-time Tony and GRAMMY Award winner Patti LuPone returns to the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts (The Wallis), as part of the acclaimed Broadway @ The Wallis series, for a one-night-only Valentine's Day event featuring two intimate concerts at 7:30pm and 9:30pm on Wednesday, February 14, 2018. The Broadway legend will be joined on stage by Broadway @ The Wallis series host and music director Seth Rudetsky who wrote and starred in the Broadway musical Disaster! in a not-to-be-missed night of singing and conversation produced by Mark Cortale. The Broadway @ The Wallis concert is made possible by generous support from Ken and Wendy Ruby.
Theatre for a New Audience (TFANA; Jeffrey Horowitz, Founding Artistic Director) announces a free post-performance discussion moderated by Pulitzer Prize-winning theatre critic and Negroland: A Memoir author Margo Jefferson in connection with TFANA's world premiere production of Adrienne Kennedy's He Brought Her Heart Back in a Box. The talk, which begins at 8.30 PM is open to all and features director Charlotte Braithwaite and playwrights Lydia Diamond and Jackie Sibblies Drury, follows the January 20 performance of Kennedy's first new play in a decade, which begins at 7:30 that evening, at Polonsky Shakespeare Center (262 Ashland Place, Brooklyn, NY 11217). The discussion will also be streamed live on Theatre for a New Audience's Facebook page. He Brought Her Heart Back in a Box runs January 18-February 11. To reserve a seat to this panel, visit www.tfana.org/heartpanel.
Mint Theater presents a rare revival - the first in 95 years - of Stanley Houghton's Hindle Wakes. Performances continue through February 17th at the Clurman Theater at Theatre Row (410 West 42nd Street). Opening Night is tonight, January 18th.
Ron Legler, President of the France-Merrick Performing Arts Center, home of the Hippodrome Theatre, has announced the lineup of shows for the new 2018/19 Hippodrome Broadway Series. With seven shows direct from Broadway and two Season Options, the season is anchored by the Baltimore premiere of HAMILTON, in addition to new musicals, Blockbuster Tony Award-winners and returning audience favorites.
Game on! The Chicago premiere of Sarah DeLappe's The Wolves, a 'smart, hilarious, delightful meditation on society, sex and soccer' (The Village Voice), directed by Vanessa Stalling, launches Goodman Theatre's 2018 Owen Theatre season. A 2017 Pulitzer Prize finalist, The Wolves follows a suburban girls soccer team as they navigate life's big questions and wage their own tiny battles-with all the 'bark and bite' (Vulture.com) of a pack of adolescent warriors. Hailed as 'one of the year's best plays' (The New York Times), The Wolves is DeLappe's break-out play that recently concluded an off-Broadway run at Lincoln Center Theater. Stalling directs the Chicago premiere with an all-Chicago company.
If you really love Greek mythology, the old Divas of WWE or trashing other womxn then this is probably not the play for you. But if you love the Kardashians, candid CNN interviews, gold (everywhere), spelling womxn with an x and smashing the patriarchy one rape-culture-drenched mythological origin story at a time then this might just be your cup of tea. Drawing from the Greek mythologies of Persephone, Medusa and other not so well-known characters, Nasty Womxn is a collection of sketches about contemporary womxn just trying to get from day to day.
The entirely youth run Eternal Theatre Collective presents the Canadian Premiere of SEVEN MINUTES IN HEAVEN by Steven Levenson (Dear Evan Hansen), at Studio 16 from March 7 - 10, 2018.
Virtuosity and imagination combine in one utterly unique event, as Tony and Emmy Award winner John Lithgow creates a singularly intimate evening. With equal measures of humor and heart, he evokes memories of family, explores and expands the limits of the actor's craft, and masterfully conjures a cast of indelible characters from classic short stories by Ring Lardner and P. G. Wodehouse. Lithgow elevates the magic of storytelling to masterful new heights.
Virtuosity and imagination combine in one utterly unique event, as Tony and Emmy Award winner John Lithgow creates a singularly intimate evening. With equal measures of humor and heart, he evokes memories of family, explores and expands the limits of the actor's craft, and masterfully conjures a cast of indelible characters from classic short stories by Ring Lardner and P. G. Wodehouse. Lithgow elevates the magic of storytelling to masterful new heights. Check out photos of the opening night arrivals below!
Virtuosity and imagination combine in one utterly unique event, as Tony and Emmy Award winner John Lithgow creates a singularly intimate evening. With equal measures of humor and heart, he evokes memories of family, explores and expands the limits of the actor's craft, and masterfully conjures a cast of indelible characters from classic short stories by Ring Lardner and P. G. Wodehouse. Lithgow elevates the magic of storytelling to masterful new heights. Check out photos from opening night below!
Rehearsals are currently underway for Lincoln Center Theater's production of ADMISSIONS, a new play by Joshua Harmon, directed by Daniel Aukin. ADMISSIONS will begin previews Thursday, February 15 and open on Monday, March 12 at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater (150 West 65 Street).
The Old Globe today announced it will present the fifth annual Powers New Voices Festival, a weekend of readings of new American plays by professional playwrights, playing January 12 14, 2018. The festival will kick off today, January 12 at 7:30 p.m. with Voices of the Community: Celebrating Local Playwrights, an evening of work created by San Diego residents through the Globe's arts engagement initiatives Community Voices and coLAB, and will continue with four readings by some of the most exciting voices writing for the American theatre today. The new American play readings commence on Saturday, January 13 at 4:00 p.m. with Laurel Ollstein's They Promised Her the Moon, directed by Giovanna Sardelli (Somewhere, The Whipping Man at the Globe), followed at 7:30 p.m. by Too Heavy for Your Pocket by Jir h Breon Holder, directed by Patricia McGregor (Globe for All's Measure for Measure).The Festival continues on Sunday, January 14 at 3:00 p.m. with The Tale of Despereaux, with book, music, and lyrics by PigPen Theatre Co. (The Old Man and The Old Moon at the Globe), based on the novel by Kate DiCamillo and the Universal Pictures animated motion picture. The Festival will wrap up that evening at 7:30 p.m. with The Great Leap by Lauren Yee, directed by Delicia Turner Sonnenberg (Globe's Skeleton Crew).
