Lynn Nottage News

Ensemble Theatre (MET) is opening its 22nd season with the Pulitzer Prize-winning play, a?oeSweat,a?? by Lynn Nottage. In the struggling Rust Belt city of Reading, Pennsylvania, a bar becomes a battleground for race, class, family, and friendship. Cynthia, Tracey, and Jessie are a group of friends with a shared history working together on the factory line. But as economic upheaval and picket lines begin to strike their lives, they find themselves pitted against each other in a desperate fight to protect their livelihood and stay afloat.

The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust today announced that the 12th-Annual a?oeMimia?? Awards will be presented on Monday, January 13, 2020 at Lincoln Center Theater. The a?oeMimia?? Awards are presented annually to honor the outstanding artistry and accomplishments of some of the most gifted American playwrights.

Lincoln Center Theater, under the direction of André Bishop, has announced it will produce a new musical during its 2019-2020 season. FLYING OVER SUNSET, with a book and direction by James Lapine, music by Tom Kitt, and lyrics by Michael Korie, will feature choreography by Michelle Dorrance, and will begin previews March 12, 2020 and open on Thursday, April 16, 2020 at the Vivian Beaumont Theater (150 West 65 Street). Carmen Cusack, Harry Hadden-Paton and Tony Yazbeck will head the cast with additional casting to be announced at a later date.

Day is a busy actor who's in and out of town on her days off from FLOYD'S so this time we get six questions and no plug but I recommend checking this quick interview out, and then call the box office and get over to see her on stage at the Guthrie before Aug. 31.

The Bushwick Starr kicks off its 2019-20 Season with Waterboy and the Mighty World, a new piece created by Justin Hicks, Kenita Miller-Hicks, and Jade Hicks, the husband-wife-sister trio The HawtPlates (690 Wishes at JACK and PS122).

Dezart Performs presents SQUEEZE MY CANS: Cathy Schenkelberg's acclaimed one-woman show chronicling her journey into-and-out-of Scientology for tow performances only, October 7 and 8.. A benefit for Dezart Performs and the Scott Smith Scholarship Fund, the performances will take place in a special one-time partnership at the Desert Rose Playhouse.

There are no adequate words to describe SWEAT. It is paralyzingly good. See for yourself.

Greenway Arts Alliance (Whitney Weston and Pierson Blaetz, Co-Founders and Co-Artistic Directors) announces its 2019-2020 Season, which includes the Los Angeles Premiere of The Chinese Lady, co-produced with Artists at Play; the Tony and Olvier Award-winning a?oeBest Playa??a?' The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and the 4th Annual L.A. Get Down Festival, A Celebration of Hip Hop and Spoken Word. The season productions and festival will be presented at Greenway Court Theatre (544 N. Fairfax Avenue, Los Angeles).

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival today announced six new commissions as part of American Revolutions: the United States History Cycle, OSF's multi-decade program of commissioning and developing 37 new plays about moments of change in United States history. The commissioned artists are Zakiyyah Alexander, Jaclyn Backhaus, E. M. Lewis, Mary Katheryn Nagle, Sara Nović, and Sanaz Toossi.

a??a??a??a??a??a??a??The Lark, a theater company devoted to the support of extraordinary playwrights and the development of new plays, is thrilled to announce that Sam Chanse, J. Julian Christopher, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, C.A. Johnson, and Abe Koogler have been selected as the 2019-20 Rita Goldberg Playwrights' Workshop Fellows. This year marks the 20th iteration of the Workshop, which was established by renowned playwright Arthur Kopit, and brings together emerging and established playwrights in a space where they are free to explore new material, without commercial pressures.

Manhattan Theatre Club's Stargate Theatre 2019 Sharon Sullivan Company will perform an original work, Sweet Water, next Wednesday, August 14 at 7:00PM, Thursday, August 15 at 7:00PM, and Friday, August 16 at 7:00PM at New York City Center Stage II (131 W. 55th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues). Each performance will last approximately one hour and fifteen minutes including a talkback onstage with the artists. Seating is limited.

The new Michael Jackson musical Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough has been making its controversial way towards Broadway, first announcing a Chicago run then cancelling shortly after the documentary Leaving Neverland aired. The production wasn't deterred, announcing a cold open on Broadway in summer of 2020. It appears these plans are still in place as the project is seeking cast members for a creative lab this fall. 

Mosaic Theater Company of DC launches its 5th season this month with the DC premiere of Lynn Nottage's Fabulation, Or The Re-Education of Undine, previewing August 21 (see our August 1 Fabulation press release for opening night information, and our March 29 a?oe#Wokeseason5a?? release for full season line-up), exactly one month after the close of the most successful show in Mosaic's history, the co-production of Kelvin Roston Jr.'s Twisted Melodies, which sold out its last week of performances, playing to record crowds and box office, providing the capstone to a season of transformative artistic and fundraising achievements. 

Juilliard Drama announces fully staged productions showcasing Juilliard's Group 49 acting students in their fourth and final year in the program. Evan Yionoulis, an Obie award-winning director and nationally recognized acting teacher, is entering her second season as Richard Rodgers Director of the Drama Division.

Today's top stories: a film adaptation of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is in the works, Six will sail the seas on Norwegian Cruise Line, A Christmas Carol is returning to Broadway, and more!

Playwright Lynn Nottage matters.  Winner of a MacArthur 'genius' grant, she's also been named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time Magazine in 2019.  She's the only woman to win two Pulitzer Prizes for drama (for RUINED in 2009 and SWEAT in 2017). Nottage calls FLOYD'S her 'side hustle' to SWEAT.  Commissioned by the Guthrie, it had its world premiere there this past weekend.

The Bushwick Starr is thrilled to kick off our 2019-20 Season with Waterboy and the Mighty World, a new piece created by Justin Hicks, Kenita Miller-Hicks, and Jade Hicks, the husband-wife-sister trio The HawtPlates (690 Wishes at JACK and PS122). The group features Justin Hicks, composer/performer from Lynn Nottage's Mlima's Tale (The Public Theater), Empire State Works in Progress (The Whitney Museum), and Shasta Geaux Pop (The Highline) among others.

Mosaic Theater Company of DC announces its season opener, Fabulation Or, The Re-Education of Undine by Lynn Nottage, starring Helen Hayes Award winner (and two time HHA host) Felicia Curry in the title role (see full bio below), with a stellar supporting cast including Roz White (Mosaic's Marie and Rosetta) as Undine's mother, and Aakhu TuahNera Freeman as the Grandmother (Death of a Salesman at Ford's Theatre), directed by Eric Ruffin (director of the multiple Helen Hayes Award winning Black Nativity at Theatre Alliance).