Marcus Gardley News

The Foundry Theatre presents a play that exemplifies the company's work: Marcus Gardley's The Box: A Black Comedy. The play, directed by Seth Bockley (writer of February House, director of Philip Dawkins' Failure: A Love Story at Victory Gardens), is a hilarious satire that delivers a punch to the gut of U.S. policing and imprisonment. Written for five actors who perform over a dozen characters spanning generations of captivity and freedom dreams, The Box: A Black Comedy is currently making its world premiere, through May 11 at the Irondale Center (85 South Oxford St., Brooklyn).

As part of New York Live Arts' second annual Live Ideas festival, James Baldwin, This Time!, director Patricia McGregor (Katori Hall's Hurt Village, Marcus Gardley's The House That Will Not Stand) and actor Colman Domingo, of Lee Daniel's The Butler and Stew's Passing Strange,present the world premiere of Nothing Personal. This production, which shares the name of the exceptionally powerful 1964 volume by James Baldwin and renowned photographer Richard Avedon, brings the collaboration to life in a wrenchingly original stage adaptation.

Yale Repertory Theatre, in a co-production with Berkeley Repertory Theatre, presents the world premiere of The House that will not Stand by Marcus Gardley, directed by Patricia McGregor. The House that will not Stand will be performed at Yale Repertory Theatre (1120 Chapel Street) April 18-May 10. Opening Night is Thursday, April 24.

Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for theatre, is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2013 Edgerton Foundation New Play Awards. The awards, totaling $1,108,000, allow 39 productions extra time in the development and rehearsal of new plays with the entire creative team, helping to extend the life of the play after its first run.

Blind actor Robert Smith and former U.S. Marine Ginger Lawrence head the cast of a new musical about a soldier who returns to the U.S. after losing his sight during combat in Afghanistan. Featuring a book by Nick Sivakumaran and Jeremy Aldridge, music by Emmy-nominated Mark P. Leonard and Colin Simson, and lyrics by Greg Shane, Colin Simson and Mark P. Leonard, CRE Outreach presents the world premiere of Beyond Sight at the Stella Adler Theatre in Hollywood for a five-week run opening April 25.

Marin Theatre Company, in association with Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, will stage August Wilson's Fences, the 1950s entry into his Century Cycle (also known as his Pittsburgh Cycle) - a decade-by-decade exploration of the black experience in 20th century America. Directed by Derrick Sanders, the Pulitzer Prize and two-time Tony Award-winning play will feature veteran film and television actor Carl Lumbly as Troy Maxson, Steven Anthony Jones, the artistic director of Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, as Jim Bono and award-winning actor, playwright and director Margo Hall as Rose, as well as Oregon Shakespeare Festival's Eddy Ray Jackson as Cory, Adrian Roberts as Gabriel, Tyee Tilghman as Lyons and two Marin City youths - Jade Sweeney, who attends Willow Creek Academy, and Makaelah Bashir, Bayside Martin Luther King, Jr. Academy - splitting the role of Raynell.

Playwrights Foundation (PF) Cutting Ball Theater and Tides Theatre announced the Des Voix…Found In Translation Biennial 2014, a Festival of New French Plays and Cinema in San Francisco May 1-25, 2014. Des Voix…Found In Translation is an international exchange project that initiates the translation of vanguard French and American playwrights, supporting the presentation of their work to audiences on both sides of the Atlantic. Des Voix…Found In Translation features new play readings-May 8-11 at Tides Theatre and also includes: A Festival of New French Cinema May 4, 11, 18 & 25 featuring some of the most dynamic French screenwriters in this generation, concurrently at Tides Theatre; A rare "Bal Litteraire" A New Play Nightclub on Friday May 9 at 7 PM , Hosted with Nathalie Fillion of La Cooperative d'Ecriture (Cooperative Writing) at The French American International School. Go to www.desvioxfestival.com for the full schedule.

Cutting Ball Theater closes its 15th season with the American Premiere of COMMUNIQUE N°10 by French playwright Samuel Gallet, in a translation by Cutting Ball Artistic director Rob Melrose, who also helms this new work. Featuring Damien Seperi, Ponder Goddard, Maura Halloran, Wiley Naman Strasser, Paris Hunter Paul, Hugo Cabajal, and Aaron Malberg, COMMUNIQUE N°10 plays April 25 through May 25 (Press opening: May 1) at the Cutting Ball Theater in residence at EXIT on Taylor (277 Taylor Street) in San Francisco.

Victory Gardens Biograph Theater presents THE GOSPEL OF LOVINGKINDNESS, written by Marcus Gardley and is directed by Chay Yew. The cast features Cheryl Lynn Bruce, Tosin Morohunfola, Ernest Perry, Jr and Jaqueline Williams. Scroll down to see some exclusive photos from the show!

Artistic Director Chay Yew and Managing Director Chris Mannelli announce Victory Gardens Theater's 40th Anniversary Season, a line-up of 5 plays in the subscription series by VG Resident Playwrights Samuel Hunter and Marcus Gardley; Colm Toibin, Lauren Yee and Ayad Akhtar.

Victory Gardens Theater presents the World Premiere of The Gospel of Lovingkindness by Victory Gardens Ensemble Playwright Marcus Gardley, directed by Artistic Director Chay Yew. The cast includes Cheryl Lynn Bruce, Tosin Morohunfola, Ernest Perry, Jr. and Jacqueline Williams. The Gospel of Lovingkindness runs tonight, February 28 - March 30, 2014, with the press performance on March 7, 2014, at Victory Gardens Theater, 2433 N. Lincoln Avenue.

Today, The Ground Floor: Berkeley Rep's Center for the Creation and Development of New Work announces that it has selected 18 projects from more than 30 innovative artists for its third Summer Residency Lab. This June, as part of an extraordinary laboratory for collaboration, some of the nation's most prominent and promising writers, directors, and composers will unite at the Theatre's campus in West Berkeley for an intense four-week period to live, dine, and create new plays together. Dozens more local and out-of-town actors and directors will join The Ground Floor process, bringing the number of artists involved close to 100.

INTAR today announced the cast for the next production of its 2013-14 season: Adoration of the Old Woman, by Academy Award-nominated and Obie Award winning Jose Rivera and directed by Patricia McGregor will star Raul Castillo (HBO's 'Looking'), Danielle Davenport, Jose Joaquin Perez, Socorro Santiago and Carmen Zilles. This limited Off-Broadway engagement begins March 13th and continues through April 6th only. Opening Night is set for Wednesday March 19th.

Columbia University and Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith are pleased to announce that Dominique Morisseau's Detroit '67 is the 2014 winner of the Edward M. Kennedy Prize for Drama Inspired by American History.

Performances begin tonight for Roundabout Theatre Company's third annual Roundabout Underground Reading Series. The actors involved in the series include: Pico Alexander, Fred Applegate, De'Adre Aziza, David Aaron Baker, Cassie Beck, Michael Chernus, Diane Davis, Dashiell Eaves, Ryan Eggold, Lisa Emery, Sue Jean Kim, Chad Kimball, Jessica Love, Lizbeth Mackay, Annie McNamara, Alex Mickiewicz, Aaron Clifton Moten, Olivia Oguma, Tonya Pinkins, Paul Pontrelli, Conrad Ricamora, Reg Rogers, Debra Jo Rupp, Campbell Scott and Max von Essen.