Mark Twain News

The 15th anniversary of the Midtown International Theatre Festival continues. Spend this weekend with John Chatterton and his venerable midtown festival series. Saturday & Sunday at Roy Arias Theatres will be the premiere of 20 new short plays as part of the on-going celebrated Short Play Lab series this weekend, April 26 and 27.

The Saint Sebastian Players (SSP) concludes the company's 33rd season with Death Defying Acts, an evening of three one-acts by Woody Allen, David Mamet and Elaine May. Performances are today, April 25-May 18 at St. Bonaventure, 1625 W. Diversey, Chicago.

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts today announced the national awardees of the 46th annual Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (KCACTF), April 14-19, 2014. Dozens of students received scholarships, fellowships, and cash awards in recognition of their outstanding work. From January 7 through March 1, 2014, these student artists from eight regions presented their work and were selected to travel to Washington, D.C. for an expenses-paid trip to participate in National Festival events taking place at the Kennedy Center.

Tony-Nominated Director Randal Myler and multi-talented Music Director Dan Wheetman return to Lone Tree Arts Center (LTAC) to create a new vision for Big River: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn after setting the bar high with Hank Williams: Lost Highway last spring and John Denver Holiday Concert in 2012. Returning to the roots of Mark Twain's classic American folktale, this production of Big River focuses on the talent and voices of the cast as they each become storytellers.

'Pagbabalik: Tracing the Path Home' by Kinding Sindaw (http://kindingsindaw.org), the New York-based southern Philippine performance troupe, entwines a contemporary story of the modern Philipines with a dramatic adaptation of the third chapter of the epic Derangen. The Derangen is a Mindanao epic shared by the Maranao, Maguindanao and Iranun tribes of the southern Philippines which celebrates episodes from regional history and stories of the tribulations of mythical heroes. This splendorous new work of dance theater is conceived and directed by Potri Ranka Manis, the daughter of a Sultan of the Maranao people of Mindanao, a true modern-day princess and tradition-bearer. La MaMa E.T.C. will present the piece today, April 24 to 27 in its Ellen Stewart Theatre, 66 East Fourth Street.

Cleveland

Hale Centre Theatre, Utah's Premiere Family Theatre, is celebrating its 30th anniversary year with a stellar 2015 season announced today, bringing big production names and Hale's 13th regional premiere to the theatre in the round.

Following a sold-out performance in March, iconic funny man Bill Cosby brings his signature comedy back to the Treasure Island Theatre May 23 at 8 p.m.

NBC and Don Mischer Productions announced today that Bill Cosby will be honored with the Johnny Carson Award for Comedic Excellence at the “American Comedy Awards,” which airs May 8 (9-11 p.m. ET/PT) on NBC.

The 15th anniversary of the Midtown International Theatre Festival continues. Spend this weekend with John Chatterton and his venerable midtown festival series. Saturday & Sunday at Roy Arias Theatres will be the premiere of 20 new short plays as part of the on-going celebrated Short Play Lab series on April 26 and 27.

Who Is The Man from Earth? Find out at the ADOBE Theater this spring. What if a man from the Upper Paleolithic era had survived until today? Living almost 14,000 years, who might this man have been, and what would he have become?

David Ives' seductive play of gender politics and power VENUS IN FUR brings Broadway's hottest date night to the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park's Robert S. Marx Theatre today, April 19 through May 17.

Billy Crystal's '700 Sundays,' one of the most-acclaimed and highest-grossing plays in Broadway history, comes to HBO. Taped before a live audience Jan. 3 and 4 at the Imperial Theatre in New York, BILLY CRYSTAL 700 SUNDAYS debuts TONIGHT, APRIL 19 (9:00-11:00 p.m. ET/PT).

A new musical theatre composer -- '21 years old'? No, it's not a typo: in fact there are three of them in the got musical program for May 6 at the Colony Theatre in Burbank, an evening of highlights of this year's season of development at the New Musicals Initiative and the Academy For New Musical Theatre. Actually, they're 21, 22 and 23 years old and they're the winners of the New Voices Project at ANMT, sponsored in part by Walt Disney Imagineering.

When I was quite young, my great-aunt and I walked to our tiny library every week, first stopping at the corner store to buy bananas. After we had picked out our books, we'd sit on the front steps, eat a banana, and consider what we had chosen. (A rosy memory, since weather in western Washington precludes most step-sitting occasions.) Later, a bookmobile came around; I recall the thrill of stepping up into a world of wonders. Later still, our little town got a larger library, attached to the fire station. I raced through the books to the extent that Mrs. Dawes, the librarian, called my mother to ask if I could check out adult books. I wanted then to be a librarian--specifically, a bookmobile librarian--and have never lost my love for libraries.

The Neo-Futurists announce their 2014-15 season to include a TML pre-show event INFILTRATION, curated by Jane Beachy, Joseph R. Varisco and Malic White; Pseudo-Chum written by Sean Benjamin and directed by Carolyn Shoemaker-Benjamin; Redletter, created by Lisa Buscani and directed by Jen Ellison, Trust Us/Screw You, created by Dan Kerr-Hobert and Phil Ridarelli, and another great year of the smash hit, Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind. The Neo-Futurists also welcome the addition of Artistic Director, Kurt Chiang.

The Saint Sebastian Players (SSP) concludes the company's 33rd season with Death Defying Acts, an evening of three one-acts by Woody Allen, David Mamet and Elaine May. Performances are April 25-May 18 at St. Bonaventure, 1625 W. Diversey, Chicago.

THE 2nd ANNUAL NEW YORK HOT JAZZ FESTIVAL is set for The Players Club - 16 Gramercy Park South, Manhattan on Sunday, May 18 - 1:00pm to 1:00am.

Award winning actress Carol Burnett ('The Carol Burnett Show'), one of America's most beloved and respected comediennes, has signed on as a special guest star on the highly-anticipated Season One Finale of 'Signed, Sealed, Delivered.'

Be prepared for Ron Jewell to transport you to another place and time as he brings to life the incomparable Mark Twain. The show is being held at the Ware Center, 42 North Prince Street, Lancaster, PA tonight, April 12 at 7:30 pm. Remaining tickets are limited, so please reserve your tickets now.