Lorraine Hansberry News

Cleveland Public Theatre (CPT) Executive Artistic Director Raymond Bobgan presents the National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere of Dontrell, Who Kissed the Sea by Nathan Alan Davis, directed by Megan Sandberg-Zakian. The production stars emerging actor, poet, and hip hop artist Kalim Hill-a longtime participant in CPT's youth education programs-now a sophomore at Cleveland State University.

Chicago Shakespeare Theater (CST) celebrates the transformative power of Shakespeare with GALA 2015 on Monday, June 8 at the Theater's home on Navy Pier.

The Ensemble Studio Theatre Marathon of One-Act Plays, the original festival of its kind, returns for its 35th incarnation, tonight, May 13, at 7:00pm at the Ensemble Studio Theatre, 549 West 52nd Street. 

Second Stage Theatre has announced two New York Premiere productions for its upcoming 37th season.  The season will kick off in fall 2015 with the New York Premiere production of Matt Gould and Griffin Matthews' new musical, INVISIBLE THREAD (previously titled Witness Uganda), in association with American Repertory Theater, directed by Tony Award winner Diane Paulus (Finding Neverland, Pippin).  The season will continue in early 2016 with the New York premiere of Lydia R. Diamond's (Stick Fly) critically acclaimed play, SMART PEOPLE, directed by Tony Award Winner Kenny Leon (Fences, A Raisin in the Sun, Stick Fly). Two additional productions remain to be announced. 

Cleveland Public Theatre (CPT) Executive Artistic Director Raymond Bobgan presents the National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere of Dontrell, Who Kissed the Sea by Nathan Alan Davis, directed by Megan Sandberg-Zakian. The production stars emerging actor, poet, and hip hop artist Kalim Hill-a longtime participant in CPT's youth education programs-now a sophomore at Cleveland State University.

A secret cache of letters brings together a former Black Power leader, his estranged daughter and her drug-dealing boyfriend in a powerful story of family and activism. The West Coast premiere of Dominique Morisseau's explosive, uncensored Sunset Baby opens on April 25 at the Odyssey Theatre. Check out photos from the production below!

Ebony Repertory Theatre (ERT - Founder/Producer Wren T. Brown) announced today that they will present the Pulitzer Prize Finalist and Tony Award-nominated production of THE GOSPEL AT COLONUS starring Tony Award-winner Roger Robinson (Joe Turner's Come and Gone) as Oedpius. The acclaimed production, conceived and adapted by Lee Breuer (Mabou Mines' Trilogy) and music by Bob Telson (Lincoln Center Theater's Chronicle of a Death Foretold), is a soul stirring dramatic-musical which takes place within the framework of a Pentecostal church service set against the tragic Greek background of the story of Oedipus at Colonus, in which the exiled king Oedipus seeks a place where he may be properly buried. ERT's production, directed by Andi Chapman (Actors Co-op's Steel Magnolias - Drama-Logue Award for Outstanding Director), will commemorate the 30th Anniversary of the Los Angeles Premiere. Performances will run June 18 - July 19, 2015 with an official press opening on Saturday, June 20 at the Nate Holden Performing Arts Center (4718 West Washington Boulevard) in Los Angeles.

Kansas City Repertory Theatre continues its 50th anniversary season with Sticky Traps, a powerful new play by KC Rep's Playwright in Residence, Nathan Louis Jackson, Directed by Resident Director, Kyle Hatley. Sticky Traps focuses on a small town not far from Kansas City, where a mother protects her gay son's honor when his funeral is protested by a local church. Her actions have unintended consequences that will test her whole family - and the power of their love -- in the face of hate. The production begins tonight, April 24th and runs through Sunday, May 24th at Copaken Stage in downtown Kansas City.

The Ensemble Studio Theatre Marathon of One-Act Plays, the original festival of its kind, returns for its 35th incarnation Wednesday, May 13, at 7:00pm at the Ensemble Studio Theatre, 549 West 52nd Street. 

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts today announced the national awardees of the 47th annual Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (KCACTF), which was held April 13-18, 2015.

A secret cache of letters brings together a former Black Power leader, his estranged daughter and her drug-dealing boyfriend in a powerful story of family and activism, revolution and estrangement. The West Coast premiere of Dominique Morisseau's explosive, uncensored Sunset Baby opens tonight, April 18 at the Odyssey Theatre.

St. Petersburg City Theatre continues its 90th Mainstage Season, presented by Raymond James, with the Tony Award and Pulitzer-Prize winning CLYBOURNE PARK, written by Bruce Norris. Opening night is tonight, April 17, 2015 and the production runs through May 3, 2015. There is a talk-back planned on April 19 following the performance.

HISTORY MATTERS/BACK TO THE FUTURE, a coalition of theatre professionals, announced the winner of the 1st annual Judith Barlow Prize is Selina Fillinger, a student at Northwestern University, who wrote a one-act play inspired by Sophie Treadwell's play Machinal. Ms. Fillinger will receive $2,500, a trip to New York City and a staged reading of her play on Sunday, May 3rd at 3 pm at Helen Mills Theater, 139 West 26th Street, NYC. Award-winning actress Kathleen Chalfant will direct the reading which is free and open to the public.

St. Petersburg City Theatre continues its 90th Mainstage Season, presented by Raymond James, with the Tony Award and Pulitzer-Prize winning CLYBOURNE PARK, written by Bruce Norris. Opening night is April 17, 2015 and the production runs through May 3, 2015. There is a talk-back planned on April 19 following the performance.

San Jose Stage Company presents the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning American classic, Death of a Salesman, by Arthur Miller.

Rep Stage, the regional theatre in residence at Howard Community College (HCC), ends its 22nd season with Dominique Morisseau's "Sunset Baby," directed by Joseph Ritsch, Rep Stage's co-producing artistic director. When a young woman's father, a former black revolutionary, reappears to obtain a piece of her deceased mother's legacy, he discovers that fatherhood might be the most challenging revolution of all.

Geva Theatre Center presents The Mountaintop - a soul-stirring reimagining of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s last night on earth by playwright Katori Hall, directed by Skip Greer. The Mountaintop begins performances tonight, March 31, opens April 4 (the anniversary of Dr. King's assassination), and runs in the Elaine P. Wilson Mainstage through April 26.

The shows Harvey, Moon over the Brewery, A Raisin in the Sun, Into the Woods and Miracle on 34th Street will be main stage for Possum Point Players for 2016. The Players are looking for directors.

L.A. Theatre Works celebrates its 40th Anniversary and honors Geoffrey Cowan, President of The Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands and University Professor at the University of Southern California and the L.A. Theatre Works Company of Artists.

Kansas City Repertory Theatre continues its 50th anniversary season with Sticky Traps, a powerful new play by KC Rep's Playwright in Residence, Nathan Louis Jackson, Directed by Resident Director, Kyle Hatley. Sticky Traps focuses on a small town not far from Kansas City, where a mother protects her gay son's honor when his funeral is protested by a local church. Her actions have unintended consequences that will test her whole family - and the power of their love -- in the face of hate. The production begins Friday, April 24th and runs through Sunday, May 24th at Copaken Stage in downtown Kansas City.