Lynn Nottage News

Rehearsals are already underway for freeFall's next production of Pulitzer Prize Winning playwright Lynn Nottage's Crumbs from the Table of Joy. This Tampa Bay professional theatre premiere opens March 23 and runs through April 14. Crumbs from the Table of Joy stars Alicia Thomas (Ernestine), Rae Davis (Ermina) and Michael Kinsey (Godfrey) as the Crumb family. This break out play by Lynn Nottage is the coming of age story of a young African American girl whose family is finding its way through 1950's Brooklyn, as she teeters between filtering her life experiences through the fantasy of movies and learning the real poetry and pain of the world. Crumbs from the Table of Joy also stars freeFall favorites Trenell Mooring (freeFall's Our Town & The Little Prince) and Emilee Dupre (Broadway's Chaplin, freeFall's smash hit Cabaret).

The New Group and Vineyard Theatre just celebrated opening night of Jeremy O. Harris' 'Daddy,' with Alan Cumming, Tommy Dorfman, Fran Jaye, Kahyun Kim, Hari Nef, Ronald Peet and Charlayne Woodard, in a world premiere production directed by Danya Taymor. 

San Diego Repertory Theatre (San Diego REP) announced today the cast and creative team for Lynn Nottage's Sweat, winner of the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Best Play. Directed by REP artistic director Sam Woodhouse, Sweat will be the final show in The REP's 43rd season. Sweat will run April 18 - May 12, 2019, at San Diego REP's Lyceum Stage Theatre, with previews April 18 - 23, and press opening on Wednesday, April 24 at 7:00 p.m.

Just last night, Atlantic presented their Annual Gala at The Plaza (768 Fifth Avenue). Divas' Choice celebrated powerhouse women of Atlantic on and off the stage with a fabulous evening of performances honoring Vicki Reiss (Executive Director, The Shubert Foundation), Emily Tow Jackson (Executive Director & President, The Tow Foundation), and Carol Auerbach (Atlantic Board Member, Auerbach Family Foundation) for their extraordinary leadership in arts philanthropy.

Trinity Repertory Company announced the company's 56th season today. The season kicks off with the world premiere of The Prince of Providence, an adaptation by George Brant of the New York Times best-selling book by Mike Stanton about Providence's legendary mayor Vincent A. Buddy Cianci.

Some two years after its presence in the theater community was made know during One Night of Empathy, which brought together 14 separate theater companies, Nashville-based Humanity Theatre Project debuts its first full production March 8-16 with Lynn Nottage's Sweat at Darkhorse Theater.

The Guthrie Theater (Joseph Haj, artistic director) today announced the nine productions of its 2019 2020 subscription season: Tennessee Williams' classic family drama The Glass Menagerie; Shakespeare's rollicking comedy Twelfth Night; an adaptation of Emma based on the Jane Austen novel; and Kander and Ebb's musical Cabaret will grace the Guthrie's signature Wurtele Thrust Stage while the McGuire Proscenium Stage's lineup will include Robert Harling's female-driven comedy Steel Magnolias; the regional premiere of Noura, Heather Raffo's complex tale of identity; Anne Bogart's acclaimed production of Euripides' The Bacchae; Karen Zacar as' comedic telenovela Destiny of Desire; and Lynn Nottage's Pulitzer Prize-winning Sweat.

Atlantic will present their Annual Gala on Monday, March 4, 2019 at The Plaza (768 Fifth Avenue).

Actress Judith Light and playwright Tony Kushner are set to receive DGF Madge Evans & Sidney Kingsley Awards. Former DGF Fellow, Oliver Houser, also announced as recipient of the DGF Stephen Schwartz Award.

The League of Professional Theatre Women (Kelli Lynn Harrison & Catherine Porter, Co-Presidents), an organization which has been leading the gender parity conversation and championing women in the professional theatre for over 35 years, will present an Oral History Project event with six-time Emmy and Tony nominee Tovah Feldshuh on Monday, May 6 starting at 6pm in the Bruno Walter Auditorium at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts (111 Amsterdam Avenue at 65th Street). Admission to the event is FREE and seats are available on a first-come-first-seated basis. Doors will open at 5:30pm.

Weston Playhouse Theatre Company Executive Artistic Director Susanna Gellert announced casting for the 13th Annual Weston-Ghostlight New Musical Award Winner, ALICE BLISS, a musical based on Laura Harrington's acclaimed novel. It follows Alice, a young teenager whose father is deployed to Iraq, as she navigates the challenges of growing up in a family touched by the effects of war.

Northlight Theatre, under the direction of Artistic Director BJ Jones and Executive Director Timothy J. Evans, announces its 45th season, opening with Mother of the Maid by Jane Anderson, directed by BJ Jones and featuring Kate Fry. The season continues with the World Premiere of The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberley, a companion piece to Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley by Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon, directed by Jessica Thebus; followed by the World Premiere of How A Boy Falls, by Steven Dietz, directed by BJ Jones; and Lynn Nottage's Intimate Apparel. Closing out the season is Songs for Nobodies by Joanna Murray-Smith, directed by Rob Lindley, featuring Bethany Thomas.

Playing on Air today announced the return of the James Stevenson Prize for Comedic Short Plays. Founded last year, the Stevenson Prize honors bold, original comedies that embody the spirit and wit of the late New Yorker cartoonist James Stevenson. The competition, sponsored by Stevenson's wife Josie Merck, offers one of the nation's largest prizes specifically for short plays: first prize of $7,500 and a full audio production, second prize of $2,000, and third prize of $1,000.

TimeLine Theatre Company announces the cast and creative team for the Chicago premiere of Too Heavy for Your Pocket, which doubles as the Chicago debut of rising young playwright and TV writer Jir h Breon Holder, recently named one of Tomorrow's Marquee Names, Now in the Making by The New York Times.

Two time Pulitzer-prize winning playwright Lynn Nottage, best known for Ruined and Tony-winning play Sweat, and actor Jessica Frances Dukes, who stars in Nottage's By the Way, Meet Vera Stark, joined AM to DM by BuzzFeed News this morning. The duo discussed their new play "By the Way, Meet Vera Stark," how things have and haven't changed for black actors since the early days of Hollywood, their inspiration for the story and character and more.

The Signature Theatre production of By the Way, Meet Vera Stark, by two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner and Residency 1 playwright Lynn Nottage and directed by Obie Award-winner Kamilah Forbes, recently celebrated opening night on The Irene Diamond Stage at The Pershing Square Signature Center. Check out photos from the evening below!

It was only eight years ago when two-time Pulitzer winner Lynn Nottage's terrific show-biz social satire, By the Way, Meet Vera Stark was first seen Off-Broadway, but director Kamilah Forbes' crackling good new mounting for Signature Theatre is a welcome return.

Manhattan Theatre Club announces the lineup for the 2019 Ted Snowdon Reading Series.

The new musical Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough will now have its world premiere on Broadway when it opens in summer of next year.

The ALASKA ONE-MINUTE PLAY FESTIVAL (#1MPF) returns to for its sixth year, in partnership with Perseverance Theatre at the Alaska Center For The Performing Arts. The 6th Annual Alaska 1MPF runs two performances only; Sunday, March 17 & Monday, March 18 at 8pm.