Marissa Wolf News

This summer, the 21st Annual JAW: A Playwrights Festival brings three new plays to The Armory for two weeks of script workshopping that will culminate in the JAW Big Weekend, where public staged readings of the scripts will be presented along with performances from local artists and classes. This year's plays are What Are You Worth? by Kara Lee Korthron, an adaptation of Howards End by Caroline Hewitt, and Otto Frank by Roger Guenveur Smith.

Kansas City Repertory Theatre celebrated the end of its 2018/2019 run and the new works theater community with the OriginKC: NEW WORKS FESTIVAL, running April 19 through May 19, 2019. The focal point of the Festival is the three-day intensive Festival Launch Weekend, May 3, 4 and 5, that features staged readings, panel discussions, two premiere opening nights, and post-show conversations.

If you think you're going to The Kansas City Repertory Theatre's current production of PRIDE PREJUDICE to see the classic written by Jane Austen you may be greatly disappointed. The adaption was written by Kate Hamill and is a farce on the romantic novel which has become one of the most popular selling over 20 million copies.

Kansas City Repertory Theatre wraps up its 2018/19 season with the fourth annual OriginKC: NEW WORKS FESTIVAL, April 19 through May 19, 2019. The OriginKC: NEW WORKS FESTIVAL positions Kansas City as a major player and national center for the cultivation and production of new works, while offering theatre artists from across the country the financial, creative, and artistic resources required to develop vital, diverse works of theatre.  

Portland Center Stage at The Armory announced their 2019-2020 season, the first that new Artistic Director Marissa Wolf has planned for the company.

Kansas City Repertory Theatre artistic staff announced today that they will extend the run of Kate Hamill's PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, the multiple award-winning production, directed by KCRep's recently-departed Associate Artistic Director, Marissa Wolf.  Based on the novel by Jane Austen, Hamill's hilarious, gender-bending reimagining of arguably Austen's most beloved book, begins previews on March 22 and extends its run through April 20 at Spencer Theatre on the UMKC campus.

The Brown/Trinity Rep MFA Program presents its spring thesis show, The Good Person of Szechwan by Bertolt Brecht, directed by Addie Gorlin, a third year student in the Brown/Trinity Rep MFA Directing program. One of Brecht's most well-known plays, The Good Person of Szechwan is a parable about balancing moral goodness and monetary success. Performances run February 28 through March 10 at the Pell Chafee Performance Center, 87 Empire St., Providence. General admission is $15 with a discounted price of $10 for seniors and $7 for students. Tickets are on sale now at Trinity Rep's box office, by phone (401) 351-4242, or online at www.TrinityRep.com /The-Good-Person-of-Szechwan.

Next up in Kansas City Repertory Theatre's 2018/2019 season is the multiple award-winning and much-heralded production, PRIDE AND PREJUDICE written by Kate Hamill, directed by KCRep's recently-departed Associate Artistic Director, Marissa Wolf, and based on the novel by Jane Austen. Hamill's hilarious, gender-bending reimagining of arguably Austen's most beloved book, runs March 22 - April 14, 2019, at Spencer Theatre on the UMKC campus.

Next up in Kansas City Repertory Theatre's 2018/2019 season is the multiple award-winning Off-Broadway hit SCHOOL GIRLS; OR, THE AFRICAN MEAN GIRLS PLAY, written by Jocelyn Bioh and directed by KCRep's Artistic Associate/Resident Director, Chip Miller. Bioh's hilarious reimagining of Tina Fey's Mean Girls story is a once joyful and heartbreaking, bitingly funny, and poignant. SCHOOL GIRLS, running February 22 through March 17, 2019, at Copaken Stage, is a loving exploration of the real lives of young African women trying to negotiate the confusion around Western ideas of beauty.

The Brown/Trinity Rep MFA Program presents its spring thesis show, The Good Person of Szechwan by Bertolt Brecht, directed by Addie Gorlin, a third year student in the Brown/Trinity Rep MFA Directing program. One of Brecht's most well-known plays, The Good Person of Szechwan is a parable about balancing moral goodness and monetary success. Performances run February 28 through March 10 at the Pell Chafee Performance Center, 87 Empire St., Providence. General admission is $15 with a discounted price of $10 for seniors and $7 for students. Tickets are on sale now at Trinity Rep's box office, by phone (401) 351-4242, or online at www.TrinityRep.com /The-Good-Person-of-Szechwan.

Next up in Kansas City Repertory Theatre's 2018/2019 season is the multiple award-winning Off-Broadway hit SCHOOL GIRLS; OR, THE AFRICAN MEAN GIRLS PLAY, written by Jocelyn Bioh and directed by KCRep's Artistic Associate/Resident Director, Chip Miller. Bioh's hilarious reimagining of Tina Fey's Mean Girls story is a once joyful and heartbreaking, bitingly funny, and poignant. SCHOOL GIRLS, running February 22 through March 17, 2019, at Copaken Stage, is a loving exploration of the real lives of young African women trying to negotiate the confusion around Western ideas of beauty.

Kansas City Repertory Theatre presents its Girl Power Campaign for the last half of the 2018-2019 season, celebrating strong, powerful women everywhere. The remaining five plays are all written by women and about women and demonstrate the strength, intelligence, and bravery of women around the world.

To the delight of her fans, the 10th anniversary special engagement of Storm Large's autobiographical, one-woman rock musical Crazy Enough goes on sale to the public on Jan. 4. Crazy Enough broke records at The Armory in 2009 with a sold-out, 21-week run. Beginning with stories of a childhood complicated by her mother's schizophrenia, Large takes us through the ups and downs of the years that follow - sex, drugs, running away to California, and the saving grace of rock 'n' roll.  Crazy Enoughfeatures original songs by Large and James Beaton, including the hilarious and incredibly catchy "My Vagina is Eight Miles Wide." It will be directed by Daniel Stern with original music director Beaton on the U.S. Bank Main Stage. Crazy Enough will open on Large's 50th birthday.

Kansas City Repertory Theatre honors strong women everywhere, be they community leaders, artists, CEOs, entrepreneurs, students or stay-at-home moms, as they announce the second half of their 2018/19 season with FIVE plays by FIVE female playwrights, all of which celebrate the strength, intelligence, and bravery of women everywhere.

Now in its 38th season, Kansas City Repertory Theatre's "A Christmas Carol" is as much an iconic Kansas City holiday tradition as is the annual Plaza lighting ceremony every Thanksgiving evening.  Charles Dickens (Mark Robbins) once again spins his immortal 1843 ghost story of redemption as he himself performed it (solo) on stage for the last twenty-seven years of his life.

Kansas City Repertory Theatre continues its 2018/19 season with a 38-year holiday tradition, Charles Dickens' A CHRISTMAS CAROL, running November 16 through December 30 at Spencer Theatre on the UMKC campus.

Marissa Wolf, Associate Artistic Director and Director of New Works at Kansas City Repertory Theatre (KCRep), today announced the full schedule for the organization's popular 2018/2019 Monday Night Playwright Series. The series features a line-up of new and returning playwrights including Christina Anderson, Bennett Fisher, Greta Oglesby, Andrew Rosendorf, Bianca Leigh and Mellon Foundation Playwright in Residence Nathan Louis Jackson, in addition to the Playwright Slam, hosted by Nathan Louis Jackson. These free public events take place on the UMKC campus at the Spencer Theatre Donor Lounge. 

Ted Austin, Chair of the Board of Directors at Portland Center Stage at The Armory in Portland, Oregon, announced today that Marissa Wolf has been selected as the next Artistic Director at Portland Center Stage at The Armory, after an eight-month, nationwide search. Wolf, who is currently the Associate Artistic Director/Director of New Works at Kansas City Repertory Theatre, previously served as the Artistic Director at San Francisco's innovative Crowded Fire Theater. Wolf will join Managing Director Cynthia Fuhrman as co-leader of Portland Center Stage and begins her role full-time on September 15, 2018.

Ted Austin, Chair of the Board of Directors at Portland Center Stage at The Armory, announced today that Marissa Wolf has been selected as the next Artistic Director at Portland Center Stage at The Armory, after an eight-month, nationwide search. Wolf, most recently the Associate Artistic Director at Kansas City Repertory Theatre, previously served as the Artistic Director at San Francisco's innovative Crowded Fire Theater. Wolf joins Managing Director Cynthia Fuhrman as co-leader of the city's leading professional theater and begins her role full-time on September 15, 2018.

The Public is currently tackling the dynamic and poignantly funny new play Fire in Dreamland, featuring Kyle Beltran (Lance), Enver Gjokaj (Jaap Hooft), and Rebecca Naomi Jones (Kate).