Marie Wright News

Artistic Director Sean Hagerty has announced the inaugural season of Shakespeare@, launching with a production of HAMLET, with performances beginning Thursday, March 28th. Opening is set for Sunday, March 31st at The Theater at Grace Church Van Vorst (39 Erie Street, Jersey City - a five-minute walk from the Path Train). Directed by Sean Hagerty, HAMLET is set against the stunning architecture of Grace Church Van Vorst, offering a suspenseful reverence, aided by the masterful storytelling of a cast of veteran and rising stars of stage, television and film. Tickets, priced at $25, are available at shakespeare-at.org.

The Miracle of Valley Youth Theatre Comes From Within. "The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane" is beautifully helmed by Carolyn Marie Wright. Congratulation to VYT, Dwayne Hartford and Bobb Cooper for continuing to be progressive leaders in youth theatre and for refusing to shy away from difficult or mature topics. The magic of Valley Youth Theatre comes from its brave staff and the irrefutable love and respect they have for their audience.

Valley Youth Theatre (VYT) opens the only play of their 30th anniversary season, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, this Friday, February 8, at 7:00 pm, at Valley Youth Theatre.  In addition to opening night, public performances include Saturdays and Sundays, February 9, 10, 16, 17, 23 and 24 at 12:00 pm and 3:00 pm.

Pegasus Theatre Chicago is proud to announce the first production in its 2017 2018 season, Legacies, Shakin' the Mess Outta Misery, written by Shay Youngblood and directed by Pegasus Theatre Chicago's Producing Artistic Director Ilesa Duncan, with music direction by Shawn Wallace and choreography by Nicole Clarke-Springer, November 8 December 10, at Chicago Dramatists, 773 N. Aberdeen, where Pegasus is a resident artist. Previews are Wednesday, Nov. 8 Saturday, Nov. 11 at 7:30 p.m.

Linda Shelton, Executive Director of The Joyce Theater, will welcome back onto its stage Twyla Tharp Dance, under the artistic direction of legendary award-winning choreographer Twyla Tharp, for a special three-week engagement, from September 19 - October 8.

Linda Shelton, Executive Director of The Joyce Theater, will welcome back onto its stage Twyla Tharp Dance, under the artistic direction of legendary award-winning choreographer Twyla Tharp, for a special three-week engagement, from September 19 - October 8.

BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center, the longest operating performance venue in lower Manhattan, presents the final event in the 2015-2016 Family Series Season: Charlotte's Web, on Sunday, June 5 at 1:30PM. Charlotte's Web is the final show in BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center's 2015-2016 Family Theater Season, which has featured plays, musicals, puppetry, concerts and dance for all ages.  

Theatreworks USA will continue its 2016 weekend family performance series this Saturday, February 27th, with Charlotte's Web, a play by Joseph Robinette based on the Newbery Medal-winning book by E.B. White (Stuart Little, Trumpet of the Swan) with an incidental music score by Jeffrey Lunden (winner of the Lortel Award, Rodgers Award, and Jonathan Larson Award, and composer of Theatreworks USA productions of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Little Prince, and The Great Railroad Race). This 60-minute play is recommended for audiences age 5 and up.

Theatrical surprises and sneak previews of upcoming productions of veteran director Tim Larson's Sister Act, from Nashville's Circle Players - Middle Tennessee's oldest community theater organization - and Center for the Arts' Dreamgirls, directed by 2012 Most Promising Actor Matthew Hayes Hunter, will highlight Sunday's Midwinter's First Night.

Sometimes it seems there is so much theater happening that it's difficult to keep track of it all. From personal experience, despite all the datebooks, smart phones, tablets, desktop computers and laptops...it's hard to keep everything straight in this wacky business of the show.

Sometimes it seems there is so much theater happening that it's difficult to keep track of it all. From personal experience, despite all the datebooks, smart phones, tablets, desktop computers and laptops...it's hard to keep everything straight in this wacky business of the show.

You can be certain that during this time of year, I'm making my way to various and sundry theaters to witness the latest Christmaslike offerings from companies large and small, but after last season's A Country Christmas, Carol - playwright/actress Lydia Bushfield's uniquely fun take on the Charles Dickens classic about the coldly restrained Ebenezer Scrooge and that whiny little cuss Tiny Tim - her newest show, now onstage at Nashville's Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre, seemed mighty promising to kick off my season with raucous laughter and bemused sentiment.

Everyone at Nashville's Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre is immersed in the trappings of the season, with the opening of Lydia Bushfield's newest Christmas-themed opus, the appropriately entitled Yule, Y'all! The show opened yesterday (nowadays, openings are two-show days at ye ol' Barn, with a matinee that's sure to pack in the audiences, followed by the official opening night just a few hours later) and continues through December 26.

Sometimes it seems there is so much theater happening that it's difficult to keep track of it all. From personal experience, despite all the datebooks, smart phones, tablets, desktop computers and laptops...it's hard to keep everything straight in this wacky business of the show.

Turkeys are on-sale at your local supermarket, so there's no better way to know Thanksgiving is just around the corner - yep, less than two weeks away! - which means that local theater companies will be unleashing their holiday season productions with enough productions of A Christmas Story (both the musical and the play), It's A Wonderful Life and Ebenezer Scrooge-led shows that you could shake a stick at!

Thus, we are happy to present the return of one our most popular features: The Nashville Theater Calendar, a comprehensive - maybe even exhaustive (lord knows we're exhausted from putting it together, gathering all the info from all over the interwebs!) - listing of theatrical openings for the 2015/16 season. We'll update the calendar every Monday, clearing out the shows that have closed and adding additional information on the shows still to come. Something's missing? That's an easy fix: just send us a message here, on Facebook, or by email at jeffreyellis37215@att.com.

Sometimes it seems there is so much theater happening that it's difficult to keep track of it all. From personal experience, despite all the datebooks, smart phones, tablets, desktop computers and laptops...it's hard to keep everything straight in this wacky business of the show.

Romance, intrigue and crackling verbal wit. Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum continues its celebration of the Bard's 450th birthday when Much Ado About Nothing joins the All-Shakespeare Summer Repertory Season tonight, July 12.

Romance, intrigue and crackling verbal wit. Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum continues its celebration of the Bard's 450th birthday when Much Ado About Nothing joins the All-Shakespeare Summer Repertory Season on July 12.

In this week's edition, we caught up with Nick Choksi, who is starring as 'Dolokhov' in Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812- currently playing at Kazino (259 West 45th Street).