Lucie Tiberghien News

Arena Stage's world premiere production offers something a little bit different. Despite some fundamental challenges, the play shows considerable promise.

The world premiere of LOVE IN AFGHANISTAN runs October 11-November 17 at Arena Stage. Check out a sneak peek below!

The world premiere of LOVE IN AFGHANISTAN runs October 11-November 17 at Arena Stage. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the production shots below!

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater announces the full company for Charles Randolph-Wright's world premiere drama Love in Afghanistan. Randolph-Wright, a Resident Playwright through Arena Stage's American Voices New Play Institute and director of Motown the Musical currently on Broadway, joins forces with director Lucie Tiberghien (MCC Theater's Don't Go Gentle) to bring to life the tale of two fantastically different people discovering love in the most unlikely of places: war-torn Afghanistan. One, an emerging hip-hop artist, the other, a high-level Afghan interpreter, both fight to navigate the pitfalls of romance, religious differences and political unrest. Love in Afghanistan runs tonight, October 11-November 17, 2013 in the Arlene and Robert Kogod Cradle.

The Velocity of Autumn, a new two-character play from Cleveland-based playwright Eric Coble, opened last night at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater under the direction of Artistic Director Molly Smith and by special arrangement with HOP Theatricals, LLC. Check out a look back at the opening night festivities and arrivals below!

The world premiere of LOVE IN AFGHANISTAN began rehearsals at Arena Stage on Tuesday, September 10. Get a sneak peek at the cast in action below, along with Resident Playwright Charles Randolph-Wright and director Lucie Tiberghien!

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater announces the full company for Charles Randolph-Wright's world premiere drama Love in Afghanistan. Randolph-Wright, a Resident Playwright through Arena Stage's American Voices New Play Institute and director of Motown the Musical currently on Broadway, joins forces with director Lucie Tiberghien (MCC Theater's Don't Go Gentle) to bring to life the tale of two fantastically different people discovering love in the most unlikely of places: war-torn Afghanistan. One, an emerging hip-hop artist, the other, a high-level Afghan interpreter, both fight to navigate the pitfalls of romance, religious differences and political unrest. Love in Afghanistan runs October 11-November 17, 2013 in the Arlene and Robert Kogod Cradle.

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater announces the full company for Charles Randolph-Wright's world premiere drama Love in Afghanistan. Randolph-Wright, a Resident Playwright through Arena Stage's American Voices New Play Institute and director of Motown the Musical currently on Broadway, joins forces with director Lucie Tiberghien (MCC Theater's Don't Go Gentle) to bring to life the tale of two fantastically different people discovering love in the most unlikely of places: war-torn Afghanistan. One, an emerging hip-hop artist, the other, a high-level Afghan interpreter, both fight to navigate the pitfalls of romance, religious differences and political unrest. Love in Afghanistan runs October 11-November 17, 2013 in the Arlene and Robert Kogod Cradle.

terraNOVA Collective and Producing Artistic Director, Jennifer Conley Darling have announced the 11th Season promoting distinct and powerful voices. The Season will include World Premiere and New York Premiere productions and commences in September, at IRT Theater, with the launch of soloNOVA Arts presenting WILL WORK FOR, Dacyl Acevedo's one-woman tour-de-force which premiered in last season's soloNOVA Festival and SEXLESS IN THE BOROUGHS by Colleen O'Connor, a co-production with The Glass Eye led by Kyle Metzger and Jared Weber. IRT Theater is located in the Archive Building at 154 Christopher St, New York.

PlayPenn, Philadelphia's professional new play development organization, will hold its ninth annual New Play Development Conference from today, July 12-28 at the Adrienne Theater (2030 Sansom Street) in Philadelphia. The Conference will feature two-and-a-half weeks of intensive work on six works-in-progress by Gabriel Jason Dean (Terminus); Lisa Dillman (No Such Thing); Deborah Zoe Laufer (Informed Consent); Peter Gil-Sheridan (Cockfight); James Ijames (A Thousand Kinds of Silence); and Joe Waechter (Profiles).

PlayPenn, Philadelphia's professional new play development organization, will hold its ninth annual New Play Development Conference from July 12-28 at the Adrienne Theater (2030 Sansom Street) in Philadelphia. The Conference will feature two-and-a-half weeks of intensive work on six works-in-progress by Gabriel Jason Dean (Terminus); Lisa Dillman (No Such Thing); Deborah Zoe Laufer (Informed Consent); Peter Gil-Sheridan (Cockfight); James Ijames (A Thousand Kinds of Silence); and Joe Waechter (Profiles).

For the Arden's 26th Season of great stories by great storytellers, the company presents a daring and ambitious musical, dramas that grapple with the complicated notion of the American family, provocative pieces by contemporary playwrights, and a new approach to a classic text. Says Arden's Producing Artistic Director Terrence J. Nolen: "The 2013/14 season will include a remarkable range of stories by master storytellers. We are proud to produce the work of Jason Robert Brown, Lydia Diamond, and Alfred Uhry at the Arden for the first time, and are thrilled to welcome plays by Philadelphia writers Quiara Alegria Hudes and Michael Hollinger to our stages. The coming year also includes a new translation by Curt Columbus of Anton Chekhov's Three Sisters, and adaptations of Louis Sachar's Sideways Stories from Wayside School and Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat. Coming this fall, we will also open the Hamilton Family Arts Center, our new education and production center. We are thrilled by the prospect of creating our 2013/14 productions in this great new space.'

The Exchange's Artistic Director, Ari Edelson, has announced the artists and companies who participating in the 2013 Orchard Project Summer Residencies. An unprecedented twenty-one companies, teams, and individual artists have been selected from hundreds of applicants to develop new work at The Exchange's Orchard Project. The Orchard Project (Ari Edelson, Artistic Director, Dean Strober, Executive Director) runs now through June 29, 2013 in New York's Catskill Mountain Preserve.

Two area favorites E. Faye Butler and Nova Y. Payton will unite to star in Smokey Joe's Cafe - The Songs of Leiber and Stoller in Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater's 2013/14 season.

MCC THEATER (Robert LuPone, Bernard Telsey, William Cantler, Artistic Directors; Blake West, Executive Director) has just announced that Leslie Bibb (Iron Man, ABC's 'GCB') and Jenna Fischer (NBC's 'The Office') will be making their New York City stage debuts opposite Josh Hamilton (The Coast of Utopia) and Fred Weller (MCC's Still Life and In a Dark Dark House) in the world premiere of MCC Playwright-in-Residence Neil LaBute's new play, Reasons to Be Happy, which LaBute will also direct. Reasons to Be Happy is a companion piece to LaBute's critically-acclaimed award-winning play, Reasons to Be Pretty, first produced at MCC Theater in 2008 before moving to Broadway where it was nominated for three 2009 Tony Awards, including Best Play. Performances begin at the Lucille Lortel Theatre (121 Christopher Street, NYC) on May 16, 2013 and continue through June 23, 2013. An official opening is set for June 11, 2013 at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are now on sale.

Philadelphia Theatre Company presents PTC@Play, a two-week festival of new work today, February 18-March 3 at PTC's home at the Suzanne Roberts Theatre (Broad and Lombard Streets). The festival will feature staged readings of four new plays by both established and emerging playwrights, a new play with music in development starring Tony and Barrymore Award winner Forrest McClendon as African American vaudeville legend Bert Williams, and an evening of short plays, FuturePhilly@Play, by seven emerging playwrights. Each playwright will be in-residence at PTC for their reading, and every reading will conclude with a reception where audiences and artists can meet. All events are free with curtain time at 7:30 PM. A highlight of PTC@Play will be the February 18th announcement of the winner of the Terrence McNally New Play Award, a $10,000 cash prize given annually to recognize a new play that celebrates the transformative power of art.

Philadelphia Theatre Company presents PTC@Play, a two-week festival of new work on February 18-March 3 at PTC's home at the Suzanne Roberts Theatre (Broad and Lombard Streets). The festival will feature staged readings of four new plays by both established and emerging playwrights, a new play with music in development starring Tony and Barrymore Award winner Forrest McClendon as African American vaudeville legend Bert Williams, and an evening of short plays, FuturePhilly@Play, by seven emerging playwrights. Each playwright will be in-residence at PTC for their reading, and every reading will conclude with a reception where audiences and artists can meet. All events are free with curtain time at 7:30 PM. A highlight of PTC@Play will be the February 18th announcement of the winner of the Terrence McNally New Play Award, a $10,000 cash prize given annually to recognize a new play that celebrates the transformative power of art.

MCC Theater has announced that MCC Playwright-in-Residence Neil LaBute will direct the world premiere of his new play, Reasons to Be Happy, as part of its 2012-13 Season. Performances of Reasons to Be Happy begin at the Lucille Lortel Theatre (121 Christopher Street, NYC) on May 16, 2013 and continue through June 23, 2013. An official opening is set for June 2, 2012 at 6:30 p.m. Additional information, including complete casting, will be announced shortly.

MCC THEATER presents the world premiere production of Don't Go Gentle by Stephen Belber and directed by Lucie Tiberghien, which opened last night, October 14, at the Rattlestick Theater. Don't Go Gentle features David Wilson Barnes (Broadway's The Lieutenant of Inishmore, Becky Shaw at Second Stage), newcomer Maxx Brawer, Michael Cristofer (NBC's hit series "Smash," Broadway's A View from the Bridge with Liev Schreiber), Angela Lewis (Milk Like Sugar at Playwrights Horizons), and Jennifer Mudge (Roundabout Theatre Company's The Philanthropist). BroadwayWorld brings you photos from the big opening below!

MCC THEATER (Robert LuPone, Bernard Telsey, William Cantler, Artistic Directors; Blake West, Executive Director) begins previews today for the world premiere production of Don't Go Gentle by Stephen Belber and directed by Lucie Tiberghien, who also directed Belber's play Geometry of Fire at the Rattlestick Theater.