MacKenzie Lewis News

Theatre NOVA, Ann Arbor's only resident nonprofit professional theater, is thrilled to announce its 2017-2018 Super Season of Michigan and World Premieres.

Theatre Nova, Ann Arbor's professional playwrights' theater, now finishing up its second year of operations, is proud to announce additions to its leadership team. Founding Artistic Director, Carla Milarch, will be joined by Diane Hill and David Wolber who will both serve as Producing Artistic Directors. These experienced administrators will join the existing Theatre Nova team of Daniel C. Walker, Becky Fox, and Emilio Rodriguez in their quest to establish the group as a major theatre destination. The new, expanded team is excited to help lead the organization forward and is preparing for a number of new and exciting developments including announcing a "Supra-Season," establishing a season subscription program, continuing to improve the facility, and announcing special partnerships in the community. Theatre Nova is making a name for hot-off-the-press new works, with plays such as the new musical "Irrational" by David Wells and R. MacKenzie Lewis, and local playwright Kim Carney's poignant new work, "Katherine," along with "Mr. Joy" by Daniel Beaty, all recent critical and box office hits.

Theatre Nova, an Ann Arbor company that focuses exclusively on new and recent plays, will premiere 'Sugar Plum Panto' by The Theatre Nova Ensemble.

Theatre Nova, an Ann Arbor company that focuses exclusively on new and recent plays, will premiere 'Sugar Plum Panto' by The Theatre Nova Ensemble.

Theatre Nova, Ann Arbor's professional playwrights' theater, announces the release of the long-awaited (and much-requested) cast recording of its hit musical "Irrational" by R. MacKenzie Lewis and David Wells.  Lewis and Wells will join cast members, and the show's director Carla Milarch for a CD release party at the theater's home, The Yellow Barn, on Friday November 18th at 7:30 pm. The party is also the theatre's first ever fundraiser. The show, which premiered at Nova in April 2016, won "Best New Script" in the statewide theatre excellence awards, the Wilde Awards.

After the success of Theatre Nova's inaugural Michigan Playwright's festival in December 2015, they are hosting the second annual Playwright's festival. This year the festival will run from October 18th-October 22nd. They are pleased to announce the selected playwrights and schedule for performances.

Ann Arbor's Penny Seats Theatre Company is set to open its seventh season this year, with four shows, the largest season the company has ever attempted.  Through an operational support grant from the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs and the National Endowment for the Arts, the company has expanded its offerings and will have a year-round presence.  

Theatre Nova, Ann Arbor's professional playwrights' theater, now in its second year of operations, and Ellipsis Theatre, Scott Screws and Joanna Hastings' company (reinstated after a hiatus of almost a decade) have announced that they will share the theatre space at the Yellow Barn, a 2,500 square foot space located at 410 West Huron, in 2017.

After the success of Theatre Nova's inaugural Michigan Playwright's festival in December 2015, they are pleased to announce the second annual Playwright's festival. This year the festival will run from October 18th - October 23rd.

Penny Seats Theatre Company's production of 2007 Broadway musical smash, Xanadu (based on the 1980 cult classic movie of the same name), with a book by Douglas Carter Beane and music and lyrics by Jeff Lynne and John Farrar, runs July 14 through July 30 (Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays) at Ann Arbor's West Park Band Shell.

Penny Seats Theatre Company's production of 2007 Broadway musical smash, Xanadu (based on the 1980 cult classic movie of the same name), with a book by Douglas Carter Beane and music and lyrics by Jeff Lynne and John Farrar, runs July 14 through July 30 (Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays) at Ann Arbor's West Park Band Shell.

On July 14 at Ann Arbor's West Park Band Shell, the Penny Seats Theatre Company launches their production of 2007 Broadway musical smash, Xanadu (based on the 1980 cult classic movie of the same name), with a book by Douglas Carter Beane and music and lyrics by Jeff Lynne and John Farrar.

Theatre Nova, an Ann Arbor company that focuses exclusively on new and recent plays, will premiere an original rock musical by Ann Arbor playwright and Ann Arbor composer David Wells and R. MacKenzie Lewis this April.

Theatre Nova, an Ann Arbor company that focuses exclusively on new and recent plays, will premiere an original rock musical by Ann Arbor playwright and Ann Arbor composer David Wells and R. MacKenzie Lewis this April.

Theatre Nova, Ann Arbor's professional playwrights' theater, is thrilled to announce its 2016 Season of Michigan and World Premieres in The Yellow Barn performance space at 416 West Huron, in downtown Ann Arbor. The season is made up of four World Premieres and three Michigan Premieres, and features another season of fun, funny, thought-provoking, and innovative new plays sourced both from around the country and right here in Michigan.

Ask a Brit what their fondest memory of the holidays is, and they may tell you watching the annual "Panto" or Pantomime - a unique blend of musical comedy, vaudeville, slapstick, audience participation, and spectacle. But here in America, the word "pantomime" mainly conjures up images of people dressed in black, with white faces "trapped in a box." Theatre Nova, Ann Arbor's professional theatre dedicated to new plays and playwrights, is trying to change all that, as it introduces its twist on the art form with "An Almost British Christmas" opening November 27th and running through the holidays to December 20th.

Halloween's all done in, there are still three weeks ahead before we officially give thanks, and Christmas - and all its accompanying frenzy and frivolity - is about seven weeks away! So what's there to do for all the theatrical types jonesing for a trip to make believe? Plenty! Theater companies all over middle Tennessee are showing off their best and brightest, with a number of eagerly anticipated shows opening this weekend and/or continuing from their earlier opening nights and next Tuesday there's a sparkling new Broadway musical swinging through Music City to entertain you…

It's Halloween weekend and every dramatic personage and theatrical type we've ever encountered is caught up in the annual rush to find just the right costume for their holiday revelries (we confess we've never had the knack for coming up with Halloween get-ups - not since we went in drag to a party at the First Baptist Church as the age of 12…tongues were wagging, we are certain, but we lived to tell about it, so it couldn't have been that bad). In the meantime, there are all sorts of onstage happenings this weekend to keep you otherwise engaged should the difficulty of selecting your costume prove to be too much.

2015 First Night Honoree Martha Wilkinson holds the record for the most First Night Awards with nine. A frequent performer on the First Night stage -- including particularly show-stopping numbers such as her rendition of 'You'll Never Walk Alone,' while clad in a white ballgown and backed up by a chorus of Nashville theater's leading men -- she's one of Tennessee's favorites for certain. She was first recognized by the First Night Awards in 1989, when she won the award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Musical for her role in Circle Players' production of Pippin.

More than 150 people gathered at Nashville's venerable Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre Monday night for the announcement of honorees and award winners for the 2015 First Night Honors. Preview Party celebrants were treated to a bountiful buffet of entertainment as cast members from several musicals currently on the boards or upcoming on Middle Tennessee stages performed numbers from their shows