Lucille Lortel News

MCC THEATER (Robert LuPone, Bernard Telsey, Artistic Directors; William Cantler, Associate Artistic Director; Blake West, Executive Director) is pleased to announce another all-star line-up for the company's annual gala, to be held Monday, March 9, 2009 at The Hammerstein Ballroom (311 West 34th Street between 8th and 9th Avenues).

Young Audiences New York (YANY) will recognize four preeminent honorees for their contributions to the arts and advocacy of children's arts education at its 8th annual Children's Arts Award Benefit, to be held Monday, March 9 at Cipriani - Wall Street. The 2009 Children's Arts Awards will be presented to: Artist Honoree Julianna Margulies, Emmy-award winning actor; Media Honoree Rino Scanzoni, chief investment officer, GroupM North America & chairman - Mediaedge:cia North America; and Humanitarian Honorees Kathy Eldon (CEO and co-founder) and Amy Eldon Turteltaub, (executive vice president and co-founder) of Creative Visions Foundation.

New York's OBIE Award-winning Epic Theatre Ensemble (Zak Berkman, Melissa Friedman, Ron Russell, Executive Directors) will honor Award-winning playwright John Guare and Golden Globe winner Stanley Tucci at their 8th Annual Winter Gala to be held at Twenty Four Fifth (24 Fifth Avenue) on Monday, March 9, 2009.

MCC THEATER (Robert LuPone, Bernard Telsey, Artistic Directors; William Cantler, Associate Artistic Director; Blake West, Executive Director) is pleased to announce another all-star line-up for the company's annual gala, to be held Monday, March 9, 2009 at The Hammerstein Ballroom (311 West 34th Street between 8th and 9th Avenues).

THIRD STORY will offer a special performance to benefit the Actors Fund on March 8th, 2009. Charles Busch's THIRD STORY co-stars the playwright and Kathleen Turner. A mother and son screenwriting team hunker down in Omaha after fleeing Commie-obsessed 1940's Hollywood. A romantically-inclined but socially-inept princess makes a deal with an ancient witch. And tommy guns meet test tubes as a way-too-well-dressed first lady of the mob forms a desperate alliance with a cloning scientist whose experiments have had, um, less-than-consistent results. Gangster flicks, fairy tales, and B-movie sci-fi collide in this epic comic fable from the imagination of Charles Busch.

Due to overwhelming popular demand, Berkeley's Aurora Theatre Company announces that it has extended its critically acclaimed West Coast Premiere of BETRAYED, winner of the 2008 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Play. Filled with dignity, humor, and outrage, this provocative theatrical adaptation of journalist George Packer's eye-opening 2007 essay in The New Yorker follows three Iraqi translators who risk their lives to aid the American war effort. Robin Stanton (Permanent Collection, The Busy World is Hushed) helms this thought-provoking production, featuring Bobak Cyrus Bakhtiari, Keith Burkland, Denmo Ibrahim, Alex Moggridge, Amir Sharafeh, Khalid Shayota, and James Wagner. BETRAYED plays now through March 8, with added performances March 4-8, at the Aurora Theatre in Berkeley. For tickets ($40-42) and information the public can call (510) 843-4822 or visit auroratheatre.org.

Due to very strong ticket sales, Classic Stage Company's new production of Anton Chekhov's UNCLE VANYA, starring Tony Award winner Denis O'Hare as Vanya, Maggie Gyllenhaal as Yelena and Peter Sarsgaard as Astrov, has extended its limited engagement through Sunday, March 8, it was announced today by CSC Artistic Director Brian Kulick and Executive Director Jessica R. Jenen. Directed by Austin Pendleton, UNCLE VANYA will begin previews on this Saturday, January 17 at Classic Stage Company at 136 East 13th Street, with an official opening set for Thursday, February 12. The cast of UNCLE VANYA also features Mamie Gummer (Sonya), Louis Zorich (Waffles), George Morfogen (Srebryakov), Delphi Harrington (Maria) and Cyrilla Baer (Marina). UNCLE VANYA will feature scenic design by Tony Award winner Santo Loquasto, who received wide acclaim last season at CSC for his design of The Seagull and who has designed numerous Chekhovian productions in his esteemed career including the famed Lincoln Center production of The Cherry Orchard in 1977. Costume design is by Suzy Benzinger, who also designed last season's The Seagull, and lighting design is by Jason Lyons. The play is translated by Carol Rocamora. O'Hare, who last performed at CSC in Yasmina Reza's A Spanish Play, stars as Vanya, the quintessential superfluous man, who wakes up one morning to discover he has wasted his life in the service of others, in Chekhov's tragicomic masterpiece of dashed dreams, thwarted love and eternal longing. The play was first performed at the legendary Moscow Art Theater in 1899, directed by Constantine Stanislavsky.

Due to overwhelming popular demand, Berkeley?s Aurora Theatre Company announces that it has added two additional performances to the previously announced extension week of the company's critically acclaimed West Coast Premiere of BETRAYED, winner of the 2008 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Play.

Crowns is back in town, and with direction and choreography by Kenneth Lee Roberson (Broadway's Avenue Q, Arena's Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill) and musical direction by Grammy nominee e'Marcus Harper, this soulful musical will be bigger than ever in the Lincoln Theatre. Arena favorites Marva Hicks (The Women of Brewster Place) and E. Faye Butler (Dinah Was, Ain't Misbehavin') are joined by NaTasha Yvette Williams (Broadway's The Color Purple), Mary Millben, Kara Tameika Watkins, Phillip Boykin and Zurin Villanueva. Howard University student Villanueva was discovered in Arena's January 'Finding Yolanda' one-day casting search, and this production marks her debut professional performance.

MCC THEATER (Robert LuPone, Bernard Telsey, Artistic Directors; William Cantler, Associate Artistic Director; Blake West, Executive Director) is pleased to announce another all-star line-up for the company's annual gala, to be held Monday, March 9, 2009 at The Hammerstein Ballroom (311 West 34th Street between 8th and 9th Avenues).

Page 73 Productions (Executive Directors, Liz Jones and Asher Richelli) has announced that it is currently accepting applications for the company's 2010 P73 Playwriting Fellowship. Applications, which are due May 1, 2009, may be found at www.p73.org/programs/p73-playwriting-fellowship.

On Friday, March 6, directly following the 8pm performance of BETRAYED at the Aurora Theatre, Upwardly Global will host a panel discussion that will feature two Iraqi refugees. On Saturday, March 7, directly following the 8pm performance of BETRAYED at the Aurora Theatre, The List Project will host a panel discussion featuring The List Project founder and director Kirk Johnson (the real-life 'Prescott' in BETRAYED).

MCC THEATER (Robert LuPone, Bernard Telsey, Artistic Directors; William Cantler, Associate Artistic Director; Blake West, Executive Director) have announced that, in order to accommodate ticket demand, they will extend the New York Premiere of Charles Busch's The Third Story. Directed by Carl Andress. the six-character play will now continue through Sunday, March 6th (an additional week) at the Lucille Lortel Theatre (121 Christopher Street, NYC).

THE QUIET MAN TALES, a riveting new play presented by Smock Alley Theater Co., in conjunction with Mavin Productions II and Pullinsi & D'Angelo Productions, will make its world premiere at The Chicago Theatre Downstairs, 175 N. State Street, previewing March 6 and opening Sunday, March 22 at 2:30 p.m. and running through May 24. Susan Felder will direct.

Preview performances begin Friday, March 13, 2009 at the Lyceum Theatre (149 West 45th Street) with an official opening night scheduled for Thursday, April 2, 2009.

BWW's conversations with 'women who run the show' commence with Angelina Fiordellisi, artistic director of the Cherry Lane Theatre.

To remember the acclaimed Mr. Foote, BWW Photographer Walter McBride has assembled a collection of his favorite photos that he was honored to be able to take of the stage legend.

Young Audiences New York (YANY) will recognize four preeminent honorees for their contributions to the arts and advocacy of children's arts education at its 8th annual Children's Arts Award Benefit, to be held Monday, March 9 at Cipriani - Wall Street. The 2009 Children's Arts Awards will be presented to: Artist Honoree Julianna Margulies, Emmy-award winning actor; Media Honoree Rino Scanzoni, chief investment officer, GroupM North America & chairman - Mediaedge:cia North America; and Humanitarian Honorees Kathy Eldon (CEO and co-founder) and Amy Eldon Turteltaub, (executive vice president and co-founder) of Creative Visions Foundation.

The New York Times reports the sad news that Horton Foote, who chronicled America's many voices and many lives and who will leave a dramatic and literary legacy as one of the country's greatest storytellers, has passed away today in Hartford, Connecticut. He was 92, said his daughter Hallie Foote.

It was announced today that MEMPHIS, a new musical about the birth of rock 'n' roll in the turbulent 50s which recently played a critically acclaimed and sold-out engagement at Seattle?s 5th Avenue Theatre, is aiming to open on Broadway in the fall of 2009. Based on a concept by George W. George (producer of the Tony nominated Bedroom Farce & film: My Dinner With Andre), MEMPHIS features a book & lyrics by Joe DiPietro (I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change), and music & lyrics by Bon Jovi founding member David Bryan, in his Broadway debut. The new musical is directed by Tony nominee Christopher Ashley (Xanadu) and choreographed by Sergio Trujillo (Jersey Boys).