People's Light presents Nina Simone: Four Women, a new music-filled play featuring hits like 'Sinnerman,' 'I Loves You Porgy,' and 'To Be Young, Gifted, and Black' performed by an all-star female cast. The play opens on legendary songstress Nina Simone in the moment she learns of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing, the event that shifted her career from nightclub singer to Civil Rights activist. Nina Simone: Four Women makes its regional premiere on the Leonard C. Haas Stage from February 27 through March 31. Tickets range from $30-$50. To purchase, call 610.644.3500 or visit www.peopleslight.org. People's Light is located at 39 Conestoga Road, Malvern, PA 19355.
Following the success of its world premiere commission at Park Square Theatre in 2016, NINA SIMONE: FOUR WOMEN went on to a second production at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., one of the nation's top regional theatres last year.
Following the success of its world premiere commission at Park Square Theatre in 2016, NINA SIMONE: FOUR WOMEN went on to a second production at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., one of the nation's top regional theatres last year.
Following the success of its world premiere commission at Park Square Theatre in 2016, NINA SIMONE: FOUR WOMEN went on to a second production at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., one of the nation's top regional theatres last year.
Artistic Director Kenny Leon and True Colors Theatre Company are thrilled to present Christina Ham's Nina Simone: Four Women beginning this September. In its Atlanta debut, Nina Simone: Four Women, directed by Michele Shay, brings to life the four women from the play's namesake song, giving voice to "Aunt Sarah", "Sephronia", "Sweet Thing", and "Peaches". The day after the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, these four women find themselves in search of solace in the ruins of the church, where Nina is struggling to compose a song that can capture the pain and protest that resides in her heart. This play with music includes some of Nina Simone's most popular civil rights anthems such as "Mississippi Goddam," "Go Limp," and "Young, Gifted, and Black."
The McKnight Theater Artist Fellowships at the Playwrights' Center recognize Minnesota theater artists other than playwrights whose work demonstrates exceptional artistic merit. The fellowship provides a $25,000 award as well as access to $7,000 in development funds. Selection is based on a commitment to theater arts, evidence of professional achievement and a sustained level of excellence in the applicant's work.
Regina Marie Williams plays 'another maid' in this thought-provoking adaptation of GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER. But Williams has a lot more to say, much like her Tillie, in this 6 Questions & a Plug.
The Guthrie can be counted on to mount beautifully designed and lit shows on its two main stages, peopled by fine actors under crisp direction, and this production of GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER is no exception. Playwright Todd Kreidler, who worked for many years with August Wilson, penned this adaptation of the iconic screenplay from the famous movie from the 1960s.Staged on the thrust space, the production is also surprisingly funny, without demeaning any of the characters. It stands in dialogue with the Guthrie's last production on the proscenium stage: Danai Gurira's FAMILIAR.
Chanhassen Dinner Theatres (CDT) is pleased to announce the return of one of its most highly-acclaimed productions, SISTER ACT The Divine Musical Comedy, for a limited fall-winter run on its Main Stage. SISTER ACT will open to a week of preview performances on November 3, 2017. The official opening night is Friday, November 10th. (cast list below)
The Playwrights' Center is excited to announce the 2017-18 McKnight National Residency and Commission recipient, 2017-18 McKnight Fellows in Playwriting, 2017-18 McKnight Theater Artist Fellows, 2017-2020 Core Writers and 2017-18 Core Apprentices.
Avant Media's Tangets Series, NY No Limits Film Series, The CURRENT SESSIONS, and Spotlight On fest included the East Village venue's April programming.
BARBECUE is a darkly funny new play that turns the traditional family comedy on its head, forcing hilarious and uneasy revelations about the assumptions we make about poverty, race and social class.
BARBECUE is a darkly funny new play that turns the traditional family comedy on its head, forcing hilarious and uneasy revelations about the assumptions we make about poverty, race and social class.
Taking care of yourself is often ranked as the top priority amongst actors. You need to be able to pull off long rehearsal hours standing, singing, and/or dancing. You need to be able to bend and move the way your director envisions you doing, so in that case, taking care of your body is the most important so that you have a good personal support system. However, I might argue that taking care of those around you is equally important. The friends and allies you make within the industry are often the difference between a cannonball and a belly flop.
Mixed Blood Theatre today announced a new season with daring works and world premieres. From wildly irreverent comedies to deeply moving dramas, the company continues its tradition of putting the full spectrum of the ever-changing face of the US on stage, celebrating the breadth of our humanity in content and in form.
I think it's only fair, dear reader, that I tell you a little bit of myself. If you are to continue indulging in this relationship we are forming it would only suffice that you know a bit about me and where I come from. I am a rising junior attending the private prep school MICDS in Saint Louis Missouri. I am an actress, poet, and story teller. I have always known I was an artist. Details often jump up at me and claim my attention. Sometimes they were sights or smells--vivid and demanding to be translated into art. The world has always been a bright and lively place to me. Through the years my mediums have danced about: from singing to dancing, painting to acting, drawing to modeling; however, the stage has always been my true home.
I know next to nothing about jazz singer and Civil Rights activist Nina Simone. But I do know Regina Marie Williams, Aimee K. Bryant, Thomasina Petrus, and Traci Allen Shannon, the four women starring in the new play based on Nina's song 'Four Women.' So I knew I was in for a treat and an education with Park Square Theatre's world premiere of NINA SIMONE: FOUR WOMEN. I was not wrong on either count. Proving once again that everything I know I learned from theater, I now have a greater understanding of the remarkable and talented woman that was Nina Simone, as well as the importance of her music and her voice in the Civil Rights movement. And watching these particular four women, some of the best voices and actors we have here in the Twin Cities, bring full and complicated life to the Peaches, Auntie, Saffronia, and Sweet Thing of Nina's song, is a treat of the highest order.
Back for more! After last year's sold out run in the ACTLab, Seattle Vice ups the ante with more musical acts, a larger cast, a revised script, a bigger band, and more dance numbers. It will now take place in Seattle's best venue for live music, The Triple Door - historical home of the The Embassy, once a XXX burlesque and vaudeville theatre. Winner of the 2014 Gypsy Rose Lee Award for excellence in Local Composing (Seattle Theatre Writers) this hit show 'returns us to the saucy, swinging sixties.' (Seattle Times)
On Monday night I attended my 9th Ivey Awards. Yes, even before I started Cherry and Spoon in 2010 and started getting press tickets to the event in 2013, I was still a theater geek (read all the words I've written about the Iveys here). The Ivey Awards are my favorite theater night of the year, not so much for the awards themselves, but because it's a celebration of another year of amazing local theater that gathers all of my favorite theater artists in one room. Even though I've met many of them, I still get starstruck when I walk through the crowd and every other face I see is someone I've enjoyed watching on stage. I love to watch awards shows on TV so it's a thrill to get all glammed up and actually attend one in person. I even painted my toenails with a glittery green called 'One Short Day' - appropriate because of its musical theater geekiness and and because this event that I look forward to all year goes by in a whirlwind of people and honorees and loud music and conversations. And now it's over for another year, but more great theater is still to come which we will be celebrating next year!
The Ordway Center for the Performing Arts has announced the complete casting for its much anticipated summer production of Damn Yankees. The Ordway-produced musical comedy runs June 16-28 for a total of 16 performances. Tickets are available now and can be purchased online at www.ordway.org, by phone at 651-224-4222 or in-person at the Ordway ticket office.
