Lynn Nottage News

South Coast Repertory Artistic Director David Ivers and Managing Director Paula Tomei today announced the lineup for the 2019 Pacific Playwrights Festival (PPF). The annual showcase of new works kicks off on April 26 with a concert reading of a new musical adaptation of Prelude to a Kiss, directed by Ivers in his directorial debut as SCR's artistic director.

The nationally and internationally admired Contemporary American Theater Festival (CATF) at Shepherd University celebrates the publication of Plays by Women of the Contemporary American Theater Festival. Four Seasons Books in Shepherdstown, a CATF partner, will host a release party on Thursday, February 28th from 7-9pm. Guests are able to reserve their copy of the anthology by contacting Four Seasons. This event is free and open to the public.

Lynne Meadow (Artistic Director) and Barry Grove (Executive Producer) have just announced three productions slated for Manhattan Theatre Club's upcoming 2019-2020 season.

Theatre Communications Group just presented its 2019 Gala, directed by Tony Award-winner Michael Mayer and featuring performances from Oklahoma!'s Ali Stroker, Hadestown's Patrick Page and Eva Noblezada, and Angels in America's Beth Malone.

By The Way, Meet Vera Stark began performance on January 29 and opens on Tuesday, February 19 on the Irene Diamond Stage at the Pershing Square Signature Center. The production is a limited engagement through March 10, 2019. Get a first look at the production below!

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, has been extended one week to now play through March 10, 2019. The production began performances on January 29 with a February 19 opening night on The Irene Diamond Stage at The Pershing Square Signature Center (480 West 42nd Street between 9thand 10th Avenues).

This summer, take a break from the hustle and bustle and journey to the lakes region of Central Maine to celebrate Theater at Monmouth's 50 years of producing classic theatre in Maine. TAM's What Dreams May Come Season is bursting with plays to make audiences laugh, cry, gasp, and experience a sense of wonder. Through Shakespearean thrillers, contemporary romances, and classic comedies, TAM's Golden Anniversary with sparkle and shimmer all season long.

Theatre Communications Group has announced that its 2019 Gala will be directed by Tony Award-winner Michael Mayer and feature performances from Oklahoma!'s Ali Stroker, Hadestown's Patrick Page and Eva Noblezada, and Angels in America's Beth Malone.

Garry Marshall Theatre presents the West End and Broadway play The Mountaintop by Katori Hall.  The Mountaintop is directed by Gregg T. Daniel, who recently staged A Raisin in the Sun at A Noise Within (Ovation Award nomination for Best Director) and Her Portmanteau at Boston Court.

American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) announced today that Words on Plays-the institution's in-depth performance guide series-is celebrating its 25th anniversary. Created in 1994 in response to audience members requesting the program before seeing the show, this entertaining and informative publication offers revealing artist interviews, original articles, and additional background information about the historical and cultural context of the plays included in A.C.T.'s subscription season.

The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize has announced 10 Finalists for its prestigious playwriting Award, the oldest and largest prize awarded to women playwrights.

SWEAT is a 2015 play by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage. It won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the 2017 Obie Award for Playwrighting. The play premiered at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in 2015 and subsequently was produced Off-Broadway in 2016 and on Broadway in 2017. The play is centered on the working class of Reading, Pennsylvania. Nottage began working on the play in 2011 by interviewing residents of the town, which at the time was, according to the United States Census Bureau, officially one of the poorest cities in America, with a poverty rate of over 40%.

Today, influencer and talent manager ChiChi Anyanwu of the NYC Black Theater Network, Marcia Pendelton, President of Walk Tall Girl Productions/Black Theater Online, and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture (Kevin Young, Director, Schomburg Center) announced BLACK PLAYWRIGHTS: THEY SPEAK. WHO LISTENS? A Black Theater Winter Preview: Broadway and Off-Broadway Edition. The event is scheduled at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture (515 Malcolm X Blvd) on Monday, January 28, 2019 at 6:30 p.m. Four-time Tony Award-winning producer Ron Simons of SimonSays Entertainment (A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, Porgy & Bess, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, Jitney) will host the program whose purpose is to bring attention to the unprecedented number of plays by black playwrights being produced on Broadway and Off-Broadway this season.

The previously confirmed stage musical inspired by the life of 'The King of Pop' (currently in development) has its title, and premiere dates have been set.

Theatre Philadelphia proudly announces the return of Philly Theatre Week with 81 organizations, 100 events and 315+ performances between February 7 to 17, 2019. This new 10-day celebration will showcase the vibrant and diverse theatre scene in the tri-state region, and help make theatre even more accessible to the community. Participating organizations range from professional regional theatres, to local community theaters, to self-producing artists, and everything in between. Events will include full performances, workshops, panels and more in Philadelphia and suburbs, plus in New Jersey and Delaware. All tickets for participating shows are free, $15 or $30. Philly Theatre Week tickets are officially on sale now at www.phillytheatreweek.org and through the TodayTix app. This year's Philly Theatre Week is supported by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Announced today, Playing on Air's Winter/Spring 2019 season will include work by playwrights Gracie Gardner and Chiara Atik. The season will also include the April release of the highly-anticipated live recording of David Auburn's AN UPSET, starring David Harbour (Netflix's "Stranger Things," Hellboy) and Steven Boyer (Hand To God, NBC's "Trial & Error") and the re-release of Lynn Nottage's POOF! with Audra McDonald, Tonya Pinkins, and Keith Randolph Smith.  

Sundance Institute will gather 20 celebrated and revered expert voices across film, art, culture and science to award feature-length and short films shown at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival with 12 prizes, announced at a ceremony February 2 that will be livestreamed at sundance.org and on YouTube. Short Film Awards will be announced at a separate ceremony on January 29 and will also be livestreamed. The Festival takes place January 24 through February 3 in Park City, Salt Lake City and Sundance, Utah.

The Donmar Warehouse today announces the extension, due to exceptional demand, for Lynette Linton's acclaimed production of Sweat by Lynn Nottage. The production will now be booking for performances until Saturday 2 February 2019.

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 its first Oral History Project of 2019 with Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage on Monday, February 4 starting at 6pm in the Bruno Walter Auditorium at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts (111 Amsterdam Avenue at 65th Street).

Make a joyful noise! Last night, January 8, Manhattan Theatre Club's Broadway premiere of Choir Boy, written by Academy Award winner Tarell Alvin McCraney(Moonlight, The Brother/Sister Plays) and directed by Drama Desk Award nominee Trip Cullman, officially opened at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre (261 West 47th Street).