Marcus Gardley News

The Playwrights Foundation's now legendary Indie New Play Festival begins the 35th Annual Bay Area Playwrights Festival (BAPF) tonight, July 20 -July 29 2012 at the Thick House Theater in San Francisco.

Denise Burse (Peace Love and Understanding, Brother to Brother, "House of Payne"), Harriett D. Foy (Mamma Mia!, The American Plan, Once On This Island), Lynda Gravatt (Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, Doubt), Nikiya Mathis (Milk Like Sugar), Dennis Parlato (Salome, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Chess), Saycon Sengbloh (Fela!, Hair), and Tracie Thoms (Rent, Stick Fly) join Vassar & New York Stage and Film's 28th Powerhouse Theater season in the workshop of award-winning playwright Marcus Gardley's The House That Will Not Stand, directed by Marion McClinton (July 20-22). Check out photos of the cast in rehearsal below!

13P, the innovative collective of 13 playwrights, is about to culminate the mission it set forth upon its founding in 2003: to produce one play by each of its members. Pulitzer Finalist, TONY Award nominee and MacArthur "Genius" Fellowship recipient Sarah Ruhl (P#13) is creating a new, chamber version of her Melancholy Play (2001) with the composer Todd Almond and Davis McCallum, who directed a version of the work in 2002.

Penumbra Theatre Company announced today the final staged reading of Word(s)PLAY! 2012, a forum designed to develop new plays by African American playwrights. Word(s)PLAY! will present Holly Down in Heaven by Kara Lee Corthron, directed by Ching Valdes-Aran, Saturday, July 28, 2012 at 7:30 PM.

The Playwrights Foundation's now legendary Indie New Play Festival begins the 35th Annual Bay Area Playwrights Festival (BAPF) on July 20 -29 2012 at the Thick House Theater in San Francisco.

This July, 40 of the nation's most prominent and promising writers, directors, and composers will be in residence at Berkeley Repertory Theatre in a new laboratory for collaboration. Today, the renowned nonprofit announced 13 selections for the inaugural summer lab at The Ground Floor, Berkeley Rep's Center for the Creation and Development of New Work. During an intense four-week period, dozens of artists will live, dine, create, and collaborate at the Theatre's new campus in West Berkeley.

Victory Gardens Theater Artistic Director Chay Yew and Executive Director Jan Kallish announce the new plays selected for the company's 2012 IGNITION Festival. The selected plays are: Seven Spots on the Sun by Martin Zimmerman; The Shotgun Message by A. Rey Pamatmat; Samsara by Lauren Yee; Appropriate by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins and The Curious Walk of the Salamander by Kirsten Greenidge. VG Playwrights Ensemble Member Marcus Gardley will join the selected group as a Playwright-in-Residence. Gardley will spend his time researching and drafting his upcoming play Chicago is Burning.

The Playwrights Foundation today announced the 35th Annual Bay Area Playwrights Festival (BAPF) will take place July 20 -29 2012 at the Thick House Theater in San Francisco.

Underground Railway Theater and Suffolk University present the World Premiere of Car Talk: The Musical!!! with books, lyrics, and direction by Wesley Savick, and original music by Michael Wartofsky. The production opened last night, June 14, and runs through August 12, 2012. Check out photos of the cast on stage below!

13P, the innovative collective of 13 playwrights, is about to culminate the mission it set forth upon its founding in 2003: to produce one play by each of its members. Pulitzer Finalist, TONY Award nominee and MacArthur "Genius" Fellowship recipient Sarah Ruhl (P#13) is creating a new, chamber version of her Melancholy Play (2001) with the composer Todd Almond and Davis McCallum, who directed a version of the work in 2002.

TAKARAZUKA!!! is a new play with song and dance about the real-life all-female Japanese theatre troupe of the same name -- being presented as part of the Obie Award-winning Clubbed Thumb theatre company's 17th annual SUMMERWORKS series of new plays by emerging writers, now through June 4. Check out photos of Jennifer Ikeda, Paul Juhn, Brooke Ishibashi, Jennifer Ikeda and Angela Lin below!

McCarter Theatre Center has announced that the 2012 Sallie B. Goodman Artists' Retreat will take place from June 7through June 16.

Beginning June 14, Underground Railway Theater and Suffolk University present the World Premiere of Car Talk: The Musical!!! with books, lyrics, and direction by Wesley Savick, and original music by Michael Wartofsky. The production runs from June 14 through August 12, 2012. The press performance for Car Talk: The Musical!!! is Monday, June 18 at 7:30PM.

Playwrights Foundation and Cultural Services of the Consulate General of France/SF is spear-heading a major new international exchange project, Des Voix...Found In Translation, that supports the translation of vanguard French and American Playwrights and promotes their work to audiences on both sides of the Atlantic. The San Francisco festival features translations of new plays by three emerging playwrights working in France today. Plays by Marion Aubert (pink picture), Nathalie Fillion (blue picture), and Samuel Gallet (yellow picture) will be performed in English during a Festival, scheduled from today, May 25 through May 27, 2012, in a producing partnership with Z Space, a theater located in San Francisco's vibrant, cutting-edge Mission District and Deborah Taylor/FireMused Productions, LLC.

Berkeley's acclaimed Aurora Theatre Company has announced a call for submissions for its eighth season of the Global Age Project (GAP) festival of new works. The company will choose four new plays to be presented as staged readings with professional directors and actors during the GAP festival in February of 2013; the festival will coincide with the company's fully-staged World Premiere of Anthony Clarvoe's OUR PRACTICAL HEAVEN, directed by Allen McKelvey, the third Aurora main stage production to develop from the GAP. Each of the four finalists will receive a $1,000 award and their work will be considered for further development and production during Aurora Theatre Company's regular season; out of town artists will receive travel and accommodation expenses. The submission period opens today, May 22; deadline for play submission is July 31, 2012. Finalists will be announced in early December 2012.

Berkeley's acclaimed Aurora Theatre Company has announced a call for submissions for its eighth season of the Global Age Project (GAP) festival of new works. The company will choose four new plays to be presented as staged readings with professional directors and actors during the GAP festival in February of 2013; the festival will coincide with the company's fully-staged World Premiere of Anthony Clarvoe's OUR PRACTICAL HEAVEN, directed by Allen McKelvey, the third Aurora main stage production to develop from the GAP. Each of the four finalists will receive a $1,000 award and their work will be considered for further development and production during Aurora Theatre Company's regular season; out of town artists will receive travel and accommodation expenses. The submission period opens May 22; deadline for play submission is July 31, 2012. Finalists will be announced in early December 2012.

The annual season of new plays at Summer Works is presented the Obie Award-winning theater company Clubbed Thumb -- has announced complete casting for its 17th season running May 26 to June 30 at the HERE Arts Center (145 Sixth Ave. at Dominick Street) in Manhattan.