Mark Bly News

See photos from the 2023 Susan Smith Backburn Prize event.

The College of Fellows of the American Theatre is has announced the investiture of the 2023 class during April at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The College of Fellows originated in 1965 within the American Educational Theatre Association.

Shattered Globe Theatre has announced the appointment of Amber D. Montgomery as the company's first Associate Artistic Director. SGT also welcomes Emma Durbin as its new Marketing and Community Engagement Director and bids farewell to Anna Gelman, who served as the company's Associate Producer.

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts today announced its lineup of spring and summer performances in the lead-up to its highly anticipated 50th Anniversary season. A mix of in-person, digital, and outdoor performances are designed to safely celebrate a return to live performances.

The film adaptation of Herbert Siguenza’s solo show A WEEKEND WITH PABLO PICASSO begins its on-demand viewing March 6, 2021. Presented by CaltechLive! and produced by San Diego Repertory Theatre, Tim Powell and Todd Salovey direct WEEKEND, based on Herbert's sold out nationwide, one-man show. The very busy Herbert managed to carve out a little time to answer a few of my enquiries.

The Australian Theatre Festival NYC presented an ONLINE festival for the 2020 season, which included 5 commissioned short plays, an online cabaret and an industry panel. The program ran December 4th and 5th, 2020, and streamed online for a week following the premiere.

National New Play Network, together with the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival and Stanford University's National Center for New Plays is delighted to announce the playwrights selected for the 2020 MFA Playwrights' Workshop and Undergraduate Playwrights' Workshop.

REPETITION by Doug Devita; directed by William Spinnato featuring Christopher DeSantis, Alex O'Shea, and Ellyn Stein; performing at Secret Theatre, 4402 23rd Street, Long Island City, NY on Saturday, February 1 at 3:00pm; Sunday, February 9 at 3:00pm; Sunday, February 16 at 7:00pm; Thursday, February 27 at 7:00pm. Tickets: $20 ($22 at the door) https://secrettheatre.showare.com/eventperformances.asp?evt=75

On Sunday, August 4, 2019, at the conclusion of the 2019 MFA Playwrights' Workshop at the Kennedy Center, Actor's Express Artistic Director Freddie Ashley was awarded the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival Medallion of Excellence.

Honoring 20 years of award-winning and nationally recognized installation theatre in every corner of DC, Rorschach Theatre will present an electrifying season of things new and reimagined. 

National New Play Network, the country's alliance of nonprofit theaters that collaborate in innovative ways to develop, produce, and extend the life of new plays, in association with the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival and Stanford University's National Center for New Plays, announce the 14th Annual MFA Playwrights' Workshop. The Kennedy Center will host more than 60 theater-makers from July 27-August 4, 2019 as part of the week-long Workshop featuring new works by graduate students or recent MFA graduates from the University of California, San Diego, Iowa Playwrights' Workshop, Boston University, National Theatre School of Canada, and Brown University. 

National New Play Network, the country's alliance of professional theaters that collaborate in innovative ways to develop, produce, and extend the life of new plays, announces its 2019-20 grant recipients, including the 2019 Smith Prize for Political Theatre, seven Producer Residencies, and eight Collaboration Fund awards that will support partnerships between multiple Member Theaters, playwrights, and other theater makers in various projects.

Goodman Theatre announces a line-up of free readings written by members of its Playwrights Unit-a year-long residency for Chicago-based writers to develop their plays-in-progress with the Goodman's artistic team, in partnership with Chicago Dramatists. Members of the 2018/2019 Playwrights Unit include Georgette Kelly, Dianne Nora, Marisela Treviño Orta and Stacey Rose. Free, one-time-only readings take place July 5-7 at Goodman Theatre (170 N. Dearborn); to make a reservation call 312.443.3800 or visit GoodmanTheatre.org/PlaywrightsUnitReadings. Availability is extremely limited. More information about each writer follows; headshots can be found in the Press Room.

Diversionary Theatre, the Nation's 3rd Oldest LGBT Theatre presents The 3rd Annual Spark New Play Festival featuring a program of new plays never before seen in San Diego.

To ensure a separation of powers, the U.S. Federal Government is made up of three branches: legislative, executive, and judicial. When authority runs amok, the ultimate check is the American citizen. 

The June 2019 So-fi festival announces that it will be presenting works at The Clemente's Los Kabayitos and Flamboyan Theaters (107 Suffolk St. between Rivington & Delancey) and Westbeth (463 West Street between Bethune and West 12th St) June 6th-23rd 2019.

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts hosts more than 120 outstanding theater students from colleges and universities across the nation as part of the 50th annual Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (KCACTF), which runs April 16-20, 2019 in multiple locations throughout the Center. The Center also announced the national awardees for the KCACTF. Selected awardees and representatives will be brought to Washington, D.C. for an expense-paid trip to participate in the National Festival. These student artists from across the United States have been recognized for their outstanding work from the eight regional festivals that were held January 8 through February 28, 2019.

59E59 Theaters (Val Day, Artistic Director; Brian Beirne, Managing Director) is thrilled to present the New York premiere of I CARRY YOUR HEART written by Georgette Kelly and directed by Cate Caplin. Produced by Athena Theatre, I CARRY YOUR HEART begins performances on Saturday, March 30 for a limited engagement through Sunday, April 14. Press Opening is Wednesday, April 3 at 7:30 PM. The performance schedule is Tuesday - Friday at 7:30 PM; Saturday at 2:30 PM & 7:30 PM; Sunday at 2:30 PM. Performances are at 59E59 Theaters (59 East 59th Street, between Park and Madison Avenues). Single tickets are $25 ($20 for 59E59 Members). To purchase tickets, call the 59E59 Box Office at 646-892-7999 or visit www.59e59.org. The running time is 80 minutes with no intermission.

Goodman Theatre's commitment to new works and emerging artists continues in its 2018/2019 Season. Today, the Goodman named four Chicago-based writers to its Playwrights Unit-Georgette Kelly, whose play Ballast was featured on The Kilroys List and received the Craig Noel Award for Outstanding New Play; Dianne Nora, a playwright, dramaturg, theater scholar and comedy writer who works in Chicago, Brooklyn and Dublin; Marisela Treviño Orta, semifinalist for the 2018 O'Neill Theater Center National Playwrights Conference and 2019 Kendeda Finalist (Alliance Theatre); and Stacey Rose, whose work has been presented at New York University Tisch School of the Arts, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, National Black Theatre and more. The Playwrights Unit, in partnership with Chicago Dramatists, meets bi-monthly to discuss their commissioned plays-in-progress with the Goodman's artistic team. The residency culminates in a public staged reading of each new play in Summer 2019. 

Playwright Daniel McCoy's new plays, Perfect Teeth and Dick Pix are set to run in rotation at Theaterlab in mid-town Manhattan, July 18 - August 12. Opening night is slated for Sunday July 22.