Lorraine Hansberry News

Virginia Repertory Theatre celebrates the 60th anniversary of the founding of Barksdale Theatre at Hanover Tavern with a production of Steel Magnolias featuring an all-star cast. The show opens tonight, July 12, 2013 at Hanover Tavern, 13181 Hanover Courthouse Road, and runs through August 25, coinciding with the official anniversary on August 1. Sixty years ago in 1953, six actors, two children, a dog and two pigs moved into a historic ruin called Hanover Tavern. The transplanted New Yorkers founded Central Virginia's first professional theatre and named the company in memory of a deceased college friend, Barbara Barksdale.

Celebrating its 50th Anniversary, and its first full season under the combined leadership of Artistic Director Kwame Kwei-Armah and Managing Director Stephen Richard, CENTERSTAGE drew national attention and local acclaim for its groundbreaking stage work, including two World Premieres; special artistic initiatives; and innovative community programs-raising the bar for the Theater's next 50 years.

BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center, the longest operating performance venue in lower Manhattan, in partnership with Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC), presents blessing the boats: the remix, a re-imagining of an original play written and performed by Sekou Sundiata, performing today, June 27-29 at 8pm and June 30 at 3pm at TPAC, Theater 2 (199 Chambers Street). This performance has been co-commissioned by LMCC and BMCC, presented as part ofBlink Your Eyes: Sekou Sundiata Revisited, a citywide retrospective produced by MAPP International Productions, and as part of the River To River Festival 2013.Tickets are FREE, but first come, first served - box office opens 45 min. prior to curtain.

Premiere Stages is proud to present the New Jersey Premiere of Clybourne Park by Bruce Norris from July 11th through July 29th in the Zella Fry Theatre at Kean University. Directed by Wes Grantom, this Tony Award-winning play is an exceptionally witty and deliciously dry satire that explores the reactions of Clybourne Park's 1950s all-white community when a couple unknowingly sells their house to a black family. The tables of gentrification turn when - fifty years later - the now all-black community greets the news of an impending sale to a white family with the same level of apprehension.

Premiere Stages will open its ninth season as the professional theatre company in residence at Kean University with a free staged reading of Darren Canady's powerful new play Ontario Was Here. Selected from over 400 submissions, Ontario Was Here is the first of two scripts scheduled for expanded development as part of the 2013 Premiere Stages Play Festival. The Festival is an annual competition for unproduced scripts by playwrights with ties to the greater metropolitan area (New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut), and perfectly embodies the theatre's passionate and longstanding commitment to supporting emerging artists through the development and production of new plays.

Virginia Repertory Theatre celebrates the 60th anniversary of the founding of Barksdale Theatre at Hanover Tavern with a production of Steel Magnolias featuring an all-star cast. The show opens on Friday, July 12, 2013 at Hanover Tavern, 13181 Hanover Courthouse Road, and runs through August 25, coinciding with the official anniversary on August 1. Sixty years ago in 1953, six actors, two children, a dog and two pigs moved into a historic ruin called Hanover Tavern. The transplanted New Yorkers founded Central Virginia's first professional theatre and named the company in memory of a deceased college friend, Barbara Barksdale.

The Guthrie Theater presents its production of 2011 Pulitzer Prize and 2012 Tony Award winner Clybourne Park by Bruce Norris, the biting, powerhouse contemporary satire about race and gentrification during the past half century in America. Written in response to Lorraine Hansberry's classic A Raisin in the Sun, Clybourne Park has sparked conversation and dialogue across America wherever it has played. Lisa Peterson (Guthrie: Major Barbara, Oedipus) returns to direct another great, biting American story at the Guthrie after last year's lauded production of Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the production photos below.

The Ensemble Theatre is one of 30 African American theatres to participate in a national benefit staged play reading of A Soldier's Play by Charles Fuller, tonight, June 17, 2013, 6:30PM at 3535 Main Street, Houston, TX.

Closing Aurora Theatre Company's 21st season is the Bay Area Premiere of Neil LaBute's dark, edgy comic drama THIS IS HOW IT GOES, directed by Aurora Theatre Company Artistic Director Tom Ross (A Delicate Balance). Ross helmed LaBute's The Shape of Things, the first LaBute play produced in the Bay Area, in 2003. Featuring Aldo Billingslea (Collapse), Gabriel Marin (Collapse, Jack Goes Boating), and Carrie Paff (A Delicate Balance, Collapse, Betrayal), THIS IS HOW IT GOES presents a one-two punch after LaBute's Fat Pig (staged at Aurora in 2009).

Akad?meia Theatre presents Miss Nowhere Diner, a play about the power of faith, the lure of deceit by Kathleen Potts. Lydia Fort directs a cast of six including Branden Baskin, Lex Daemon, Salina Duplessis, Jennifer Roberts, Miriam Tabb, and Corey Wright*. Six performances for Miss Nowhere Diner will be held at the Robert Moss Theatre, 440 Lafayette Street, NYC from tonight, June 13-23 as part of The Planet Connections Theatre Festivity. The Festivity will take place May 29th through June 23rd at Gene Frankel and Robert Moss Theatres in New York City. *Member, Actors' Equity Association. AEA Showcase.

The Oldest Established, Permanent Floating Monologue Night in New York is returning to the place where it all began-the Arthur Seelen Theatre at the Drama Bookshop--and you're invited to celebrate youth theatre and young actors, as they perform monologues from the new Applause Theatre and Cinema Book release: ONE ON ONE: PLAYING WITH A PURPOSE, MONOLOGUES FOR KIDS 7-15.

Premiere Stages will open its ninth season as the professional theatre company in residence at Kean University with a free staged reading of Darren Canady's powerful new play Ontario Was Here. Selected from over 400 submissions, Ontario Was Here is the first of two scripts scheduled for expanded development as part of the 2013 Premiere Stages Play Festival. The Festival is an annual competition for unproduced scripts by playwrights with ties to the greater metropolitan area (New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut), and perfectly embodies the theatre's passionate and longstanding commitment to supporting emerging artists through the development and production of new plays.

BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center, the longest operating performance venue in lower Manhattan, in partnership with Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC), presents blessing the boats: the remix, a re-imagining of an original play written and performed by Sekou Sundiata, performing on June 27-29 at 8pm and June 30 at 3pm at TPAC, Theater 2 (199 Chambers Street).

Berkeley Playhouse closes its fifth season with the Tony Award-winning musical THE WIZ. Kimberly Dooley(Lucky Duck, Seussical, The Musical, Once On This Island) directs and choreographs this soulful re-imagining of L. Frank Baum's family classicThe Wonderful Wizard of Oz, featuring a cast of 46. THE WIZ plays July 13 through August 25 (Press opening: July 13) at the Julia Morgan Theater in Berkeley. For tickets ($17-60) and more information, the public may visit berkeleyplayhouse.org or call 510-845-8542x351.

Philadelphia Young Playwrights has kicked off its 25th anniversary celebration by announcing the launch of the Paula Vogel Mentors Project, a living award honoring the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and teacher and extending her mentorship legacy. The three-year pilot program will bring together five acclaimed professional playwrights as mentors for five promising young playwright fellows, who will embark on yearlong playwriting journeys.

The Ensemble Theatre is one of 30 African American theatres to participate in a national benefit staged play reading of A Soldier's Play by Charles Fuller, Monday, June 17, 2013, 6:30PM at 3535 Main Street, Houston, TX.

Theatre Rhinoceros presents... Drunk Enough To Say I Love You? by Caryl Churchill, directed by John Fisher and featuring Sam Cohen, Rudy Guerrero* and Kim Stephenson, tonight, May 30 - June 16, 2013.

The 39th season of the Hangar Theatre includes a thrilling line-up of plays and musicals including a favorite farce, a Tony-winning musical, and two regional premieres and features an array of exciting Broadway talent. The season takes off with Neil Simon's Last of the Red Hot Lovers (June 13-29) followed by the premiere of a strikingly innovative concept of the Tony-winning best musical Gypsy (July 4-20). The regional premiere of Amy Herzog's critically acclaimed play 4000 Miles (July 25-August 3) is next, followed by the regional premiere of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play Clybourne Park by Bruce Norris (August 8-17).

Theatre Rhinoceros presents... Drunk Enough To Say I Love You? by Caryl Churchill, directed by John Fisher and featuring Sam Cohen, Rudy Guerrero* and Kim Stephenson, May 30 - June 16, 2013.

The Oldest Established, Permanent Floating Monologue Night in New York is returning to the place where it all began-the Arthur Seelen Theatre at the Drama Bookshop--and you're invited to celebrate youth theatre and young actors, as they perform monologues from the new Applause Theatre and Cinema Book release: ONE ON ONE: PLAYING WITH A PURPOSE, MONOLOGUES FOR KIDS 7-15.