Lorraine Hansberry News

Yale Repertory Theatre (James Bundy, Artistic Director; Victoria Nolan, Managing Director) presents the east coast premiere of Lydia by Octavio Solis, directed by Juliette Carrillo at Yale Repertory Theatre (1120 Chapel Street, at York Street) beginning February 6 through February 28. Opening Night is Thursday, February 12. Lydia features music composed by Chris Webb; sets by Andrew Boyce; costumes by Amanda Seymour; lighting by Jesse Belsky; sound design, additional music, and arrangements by David Molina; voice and dialect by Beth McGuire; fight direction by Rick Sordelet; dramaturgy by Matt Cornish; and stage management by Donald E. Claxon.

Oscar & Emmy Award winning screen legend JANE FONDA will return to Broadway in MOISES KAUFMAN's 33 VARIATIONS. Performances begin on Monday, February 9th, 2009 at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre (230 West 49th Street). The official opening will be Monday, March 9th, 2009. The engagement will play through May 24th, 2009. Tickets are now available for sale to the general public.

Lorraine Hansberry Theatre (LHT) presents the Northern California premiere of William A. Parker's uproarious comedy/drama, Waitin? 2 End Hell, running from February 14 through March 1, 2009 (previews Feb. 12& 13) at PG&E Auditorium, 77 Beale Street, San Francisco. Buddy Butler, who has had a long relationship with the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, will direct Waitin? 2 End Hell.

Directed by Brian McEleney, this poignant and timely production overcomes its uneven performances

YALE REPERTORY THEATRE (James Bundy, Artistic Director; Victoria Nolan, Managing Director) presents the east coast premiere of LYDIA by OCTAVIO SOLIS, directed by JULIETTE CARRILLO at Yale Repertory Theatre (1120 Chapel Street, at York Street) beginning February 6 through February 28. Opening Night is Thursday, February 12. LYDIA features music composed by Chris Webb; sets by Andrew Boyce; costumes by Amanda Seymour; lighting by Jesse Belsky; sound design, additional music, and arrangements by David Molina; voice and dialect by Beth McGuire; fight direction by Rick Sordelet; dramaturgy by Matt Cornish; and stage management by Donald E. Claxon. The cast of LYDIA includes Carlo Alb?n, Christian Barillas, Stephanie Beatriz, Armando Dur?n, Catalina Maynard, Onahoua Rodriguez, and Tony Sancho.

Playwrights Horizons, under the leadership of Artistic Director Tim Sanford and Managing Director Leslie Marcus, has announced additional casting and complete details for the World Premiere of INKED BABY, a new play by 2007 Susan Smith Blackburn nominee Christina Anderson in her Off-Broadway playwriting debut. Directed by Kate Whoriskey (Fabulation at Playwrights Horizons, the current Ruined at MTC), the production will begin previews on Thursday, March 5, 2009 with an Opening Night set for Monday, March 23 at 7PM. The limited engagement will run through Sunday, April 5 at Playwrights Horizons' Peter Jay Sharp Theater (416 West 42nd Street).

Signature Theatre Company (James Houghton, Founding Artistic Director; Erika Mallin, Executive Director) is proud to announce casting for a staged reading of DAY OF ABSENCE, written and directed by Douglas Turner Ward. The staged reading, which is by invitation only, is part of Signature's 2008-2009 Season, celebrating the historic works of the Negro Ensemble Company (NEC). DAY OF ABSENCE is the landmark 1965 play that launched the founding of the NEC.

Signature Theatre Company (James Houghton, Founding Artistic Director; Erika Mallin, Executive Director) is proud to announce casting for a staged reading of DAY OF ABSENCE, written and directed by Douglas Turner Ward. The staged reading, which is by invitation only, is part of Signature's 2008-2009 Season, celebrating the historic works of the Negro Ensemble Company (NEC). DAY OF ABSENCE is the landmark 1965 play that launched the founding of the NEC.

On Monday Evening, February 23 at 7:00 PM, six New York theater institutions will participate in a special panel discussion featuring five current and upcoming Off-Broadway shows. Harlem Stage (150 Convent Avenue at West 135th Street) will host producing companies Classical Theatre of Harlem, Manhattan Theatre Club, Playwrights Horizons, The Public Theater and Signature Theatre Company in an evening titled I'VE KNOWN RIVERS: A Conversation with Christina Anderson, Charles Fuller, Lynn Nottage & Liesl Tommy. The event marks a unique collaborative effort between six New York theater institutions: a panel discussion in which five gifted African-American theater artists - all of whom have projects happening almost simultaneously at five of New York's most respected non-profit theaters - will discuss their lives, work, and current projects. Moderated by actress Sabrina LeBeauf (Three Sisters, Classical Theatre of Harlem in partnership with Harlem Stage, February/March), the evening's four panelists will be Christina Anderson (author, Inked Baby, Playwrights Horizons, March/April), Charles Fuller (author, Zooman and the Sign, Signature Theatre Company, March/April), Lynn Nottage (author, Ruined, Manhattan Theater Club, January-March) and Liesl Tommy (director, The Good Negro, The Public Theater, March/April). The event title comes from a poem by Langston Hughes, 'The Negro Speaks of Rivers.'

On Monday Evening, February 23 at 7:00 PM, six New York theater institutions will participate in a special panel discussion featuring five current and upcoming Off-Broadway shows. Harlem Stage (150 Convent Avenue at West 135th Street) will host producing companies Classical Theatre of Harlem, Manhattan Theatre Club, Playwrights Horizons, The Public Theater and Signature Theatre Company in an evening titled I'VE KNOWN RIVERS: A Conversation with Christina Anderson, Charles Fuller, Lynn Nottage & Liesl Tommy.

SIS Productions is excited to present the Northwest premiere of The Theory of Everything by Prince Gomolvilas running February 20-March 15, 2009 playing Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm and Sundays at 4pm. There will also be an additional performance on Thursday, March 12 at 8pm. All performances will be at Richard Hugo House located at 1634 11th Avenue (11th Avenue, off of Pine Street) on Seattle's Capitol Hill. 'A refreshing look at Asian-American issues of race, gender and identity, layered with deeper questions of life and death. Gomolvilas's writing is tight, intelligent and funny. . . likeable characters and sharply written dialogue . . . a play worth seeing for its humor and humanity.' - The Business Times, Singapore

A Raisin in the Sun will be performed in Tucson from January 10-31, 2009 and in Phoenix from February 5 - 22, 2009. In this award-winning drama, the Younger family searches for a way to grab their piece of the dream, even in the face of prejudice and discrimination. Since the play?s premiere exactly 50 years ago, Lorraine Hansberry?s towering masterpiece has moved audiences and broken down barriers wherever it has played. A Raisin in the Sun will be performed in Tucson from January 10 ? 31, 2009 and in Phoenix from February 5 - 22, 2009.

The Guthrie is proud to present Penumbra Theatre's production of Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun, directed by Lou Bellamy. A co-production with Arizona Theatre Company and The Cleveland Play House, this presentation marks the 50th anniversary of the show's groundbreaking Broadway opening, and arrives at the Guthrie on the heels of two highly-lauded regional runs in Ohio and Arizona. A Raisin in the Sun previews March 12, opens March 13 and plays through April 11, 2009 on the McGuire Proscenium Stage. Single tickets are priced from $24 to $60, with opening night prices ranging from $49 to $70. Tickets are now on sale through the Guthrie Box Office at 612.377.2224, toll-free 877.44.STAGE, 612.225.6244 (Group Sales) and online at www.guthrietheater.org. A recent widow, Lena Younger (Franchelle Stewart Dorn) wants to use her husband's insurance money to buy a home for her family, freeing them from the cramped tenement in which she, her two children, daughter-in-law and grandson live. Her son, Walter Lee (David Alan Anderson), is determined to invest the money in a business - an opportunity for him to be his own man and not just the driver for his white boss. Lena refuses; in her eyes a house is a sturdy thing to build a dream on, one that can relieve the strains that poverty has put on the family. But when a white representative of the neighborhood 'welcoming committee' presents the Youngers with an offer to buy them out of their home to prevent integration in their community, the dream of the house quickly becomes a nightmare. The title comes from the opening lines of 'Harlem,' a poem by Langston Hughes ('What happens to a dream deferred? / Does it dry up / like a raisin in the sun?'). Throughout the play, the idea of deferred dreams is a prominent theme, as each member of the Younger family attempts to find his or her place amidst a number of difficult situations. While their future neighbors resist the Youngers' move, Walter Lee for the first time begins to value what money can't buy, and in the process achieves a new level of self respect and pride.

YALE REPERTORY THEATRE (James Bundy, Artistic Director; Victoria Nolan, Managing Director) presents the east coast premiere of LYDIA by OCTAVIO SOLIS, directed by JULIETTE CARRILLO at Yale Repertory Theatre (1120 Chapel Street, at York Street) beginning February 6 through February 28. Opening Night is Thursday, February 12. LYDIA features music composed by Chris Webb; sets by Andrew Boyce; costumes by Amanda Seymour; lighting by Jesse Belsky; sound design, additional music, and arrangements by David Molina; voice and dialect by Beth McGuire; fight direction by Rick Sordelet; dramaturgy by Matt Cornish; and stage management by Donald E. Claxon. The cast of LYDIA includes Carlo Alb?n, Christian Barillas, Stephanie Beatriz, Armando Dur?n, Catalina Maynard, Onahoua Rodriguez, and Tony Sancho.

Emmy Award winner Glynn Turman (The Wire), Tony nominee Rocky Carroll (Navy NCIS) and John Cothran, Jr. (Black Snake Moan) are set to head the cast when L.A. Theatre Works presents Ceremonies in Dark Old Men by Academy Award nominee Lonne Elder, III. Five performances take place January 14-18 at the Skirball Cultural Center, where they will be recorded to air on LATW's nationally syndicated, weekly radio theater series, The Play's The Thing.

The Directors Guild of America announced the Guild's nominees for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Television, Documentaries and Commercials for the year 2008. Kenny Leon, received a nomination for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Movies for Television/Miniseries nomination for the TV version of A Raisin in the Sun.

$20 Tickets will be available in every performance of every show

Oscar & Emmy Award winning screen legend JANE FONDA will return to Broadway in MOISES KAUFMAN's 33 VARIATIONS. Performances begin on Monday, February 9th, 2009 at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre (230 West 49th Street). The official opening will be Monday, March 9th, 2009. The engagement will play through May 24th, 2009. Tickets are now available for sale to the general public.

The 66th Annual Golden Globe Award Nominations were announced today and several of the nominees have graced the Broadway stage many times, a few of them are currently threading the boards right now, Variety spoke to them to get their reactions, here are the latest, we'll update as new statements arrive.

Emmy Award winner Glynn Turman (The Wire), Tony nominee Rocky Carroll (Navy NCIS) and John Cothran, Jr. (Black Snake Moan) are set to head the cast when L.A. Theatre Works presents Ceremonies in Dark Old Men by Academy Award nominee Lonne Elder, III. Five performances take place January 14-18 at the Skirball Cultural Center, where they will be recorded to air on LATW's nationally syndicated, weekly radio theater series, The Play's The Thing.