The Open Fist Theatre Company presents their First Ever, FIRST LOOK FESTIVAL OF NEW PLAYS, with new works written by Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig, Steven Haworth, Karen Hartman, Julie Hebert, Neil LaBute, Rick Pagano and directed by Bjorn Johnson, Neil LaBute, Marya Mazor, Charles Otte and Randee Trabitz. The Festival will begin on Thursday, July 23 and run through Sunday, September 13 at The NEW Open Fist Theatre, 6209 Santa Monica Blvd. (former home of The Actor's Gang) in Hollywood.
The Open Fist Theatre Company presents their First Ever, FIRST LOOK FESTIVAL OF NEW PLAYS, with new works written by Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig, Steven Haworth, Karen Hartman, Julie Hebert, Neil LaBute, Rick Pagano and directed by Bjorn Johnson, Neil LaBute, Marya Mazor, Charles Otte and Randee Trabitz. The Festival will begin on Thursday, July 23 and run through Sunday, September 13 at The NEW Open Fist Theatre, 6209 Santa Monica Blvd. (former home of The Actor's Gang) in Hollywood.
Women's Project, the 32-year-old non-profit theater dedicated to producing plays written and directed by women, will increase main stage production next season by 50%. The theater's board of directors authorized Julie Crosby, producing artistic director, to increase main stage productions from two to three at the company's Julia Miles Theater on West 55th Street.
Goodman Theatre is proud to present the Chicago premiere of Dael Orlandersmith's Stoop Stories, September 12 - October 11, 2009 the Goodman's 400-seat flexible Owen Bruner Theatre. Tickets are $10 - $40 and go on sale Friday, August 7 at GoodmanTheatre.org.
Playwrights Horizons, under the leadership of Artistic Director Tim Sanford and Managing Director Leslie Marcus, announces complete casting, as well as dates, for the first two productions of its upcoming 2009/2010 Season. Presented at the theater company's home at 416 West 42nd Street, the previously-announced productions will feature the following casts:
Playwright Lynn Nottage and director Kate Whoriskey whose Pulitzer Prize winning play RUINED recently announced its final extension at Manhattan Theatre Club, was featured last night on 'Charlie Rose.'
Chicago is officially one theater company richer after The Ruckus Theater recently karate-chopped and high-fived its way into the Central Time Zone. Made up of an industrious group of Michigan ex-pats, The Ruckus is composed of actors, directors, playwrights, musicians, casting directors, publicity managers, grant writers, baristas, grad students, poets, computer fixers, appointment-makers and census-takers who aim to create a new kind of company-a casteless theater that blends the lines between playwright and actor, audience and company member.
On Monday, June 29, Goodman Theatre Outgoing Board Chairman Shawn M. Donnelley and Artistic Director Robert Falls were honored with stars bearing their names as part of the Goodman's 'Walkway of Stars.' The stars were presented in appreciation and gratitude for their achievements and service to the theater, and commemorated Donnelley's leadership gift of $1 million to Goodman Theatre's endowment. A ribbon cutting and unveiling of the two stars followed brief remarks by Executive Director Roche Schulfer during an afternoon ceremony on the theater's black granite entryway beneath the 73-foot Goodman marquee at 170 North Dearborn Street. Present were members of the Goodman's Board of Trustees as well as friends of the theater, including: Chairman-Elect Patricia Cox; Goodman Resident Artistic Associate Henry Godinez; Academy Award-nominated playwright José Rivera; Goodman Trustees Sherry Barrat of Northern Trust, Ruth Ann Gillis of Exelon Corporation, Vikki Hood of Kirkland & Ellis; Goodman Scenemakers Council members Shannon Kinsella and Cheryl McPhilimy; Premiere Society Donors Robert Kohl and Clark Pellett; and classics scholar Dr. Christopher Kelly, Donnelley's husband.
Sundance Institute today announced the five projects chosen for the 2009 Sundance Institute Theatre Lab to be held July 7 -22 at the Sundance Resort in Utah. Under the stewardship of Sundance Institute Theatre Program's Artistic Director Philip Himberg, the projects and participants selected for this year's residency are: Diagram of a Paper Airplane (Carlos Murillo); An Iliad (Denis O'Hare and Lisa Peterson); The Lily's Revenge (Taylor Mac); Ngwino Ubeho (Come and Be Alive) (Odile Gakire Gatire); and Palomino (David Cale).
The League of Professional Theatre Women, a non-profit organization committed to promoting visibility and increasing opportunities for women in the professional theatre, is pleased to announce its new slate of officers. These women will serve as leaders of the League for a two-year term, from July 1, 2009 until June 30, 2011.
Manhattan Theatre Club announces the final extension for Lynn Nottage's Pulitzer Prize winning play RUINED. The play, currently in performances at MTC at New York City Center - Stage I (131 West 55th Street), must play its final performance on Sunday, September 6.
RUINED, the Pulitzer Prize winning play by Lynn Nottage currently playing an extended engagement at Manhattan Theatre Club, will observe Congolese Independence Day with a special talkback following the performance on Tuesday, June 30 at MTC at New York City Center - Stage I (131 West 55th Street).
Today Goodman Theatre announced a change in its upcoming 2009/2010 season lineup. Artistic Director Robert Falls has canceled the previously scheduled Joan D'Arc, directed by Aida Karic, and in its place selected Stoop Stories, an explosive solo piece by Dael Orlandersmith. A Chicago premiere, Stoop Stories will run September 11 - October 11 in the Goodman's 400-seat flexible Owen Bruner Theatre.
RUINED, the Pulitzer Prize winning play by Lynn Nottage currently playing an extended engagement at Manhattan Theatre Club, will observe Congolese Independence Day with a special talkback following the performance on Tuesday, June 30 at MTC at New York City Center - Stage I (131 West 55th Street).
For the fifth consecutive summer, Goodman Theatre welcomes young people from the Chicagoland area as participants in its General Theater Studies program (GTS), a free, six week intensive introduction to the theater arts.
Goodman Theatre's Board of Trustees proudly announces Patricia Cox as the new Chairman-Elect. Cox, whose involvement with the Goodman spans two decades, is currently its Vice Chairman. A founding member of Chicago's legendary St. Nicholas Theatre Company (with Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Mamet and actors William H. Macy and Stephen Schachter), Cox was among the city's first performing arts marketing, development and management leaders to emerge under the late, great Lyric Opera impresario Danny Newman. She has since worked with and consulted for a wide range of not-for-profit arts organizations in Chicago and across the country. Cox will assume chairmanship in the fall, as current Chairman Shawn M. Donnelley concludes her two-year tenure.
Intiman Theatre Board President Kim A. Anderson announces that Kate Whoriskey, one of the most admired directors in the American theatre today, will succeed Bartlett Sher as Artistic Director in 2011, following a season in which they will share artistic leadership. The multi-year transition process will begin this month, with Whoriskey and Sher working together on artistic programming and season planning for 2010.
'Hooray for Joey Slotnick!' Director Henry Wishcamper has tapped Chicago native Joey Slotnick for the lead role of the African explorer 'Captain Jeffrey T. Spaulding'-the heightened vaudevillian persona created by Groucho Marx for the 1929 stage and screen original-in Goodman Theatre's season opening musical Animal Crackers, written by George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind, with music and lyrics by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby.
CENTERSTAGE is excited to announce the lineup for its 2009-10 Cabaret Series! The theater welcomes back Associate Artist E. Faye Butler, Broadway legend Judy Kaye, Scottish singer Euan Morton, and Baltimore-native Tracie Thoms as it launches this season-long musical series.
Playwright Lynn Nottage, whose Pulitzer Prize winning play RUINED recently announced a seventh extension at Manhattan Theatre Club, was featured last night on PBS' 'NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.'