Martin E. Segal News

Theatr Clwyd today announces its Writers in Residence and Companies in Residence for 2020, as part of the TYFU|GROW Creative Development Programme. Writers' residencies have been awarded to Hannah Daniel, Katie Elin-Salt, Jennifer Lunn, Wyn Mason, Lisa Parry, and Kristian Phillips. Companies' residencies have been awarded to Archipelago, Francesca Goodridge and Dan Lloyd, PRIDD, and Signdance Collective.

The International Committee of The League of Professional Theatre Women (Shellen Lubin and Catherine Porter, Co-Presidents), an organization which has been championing women in the professional theatre for over three decades, is pleased to announce that Hanane Hajj Ali of Lebanon has been chosen to receive the 2020 Gilder/Coigney International Theatre Award.

The Consortium of Asian American Theatres and Artists (CAATA) is pleased to announce the appointment of Soriya K. Chum as its first-ever executive director. Mr. Chum will oversee operations of the nationwide arts service organization. He assumes his new post in January 2020.

As part of the culminating season of his decade-long focus on the music of Beethoven, pianist Jonathan Biss performs the composer's Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major (“Emperor”) with the Curtis Symphony Orchestra, led by Osmo Vänskä, on its first U.S. tour, from January 30 to February 8.

In addition to highlighting Beethoven's 32 piano sonatas in performance cycles and a recently completed, nine-volume recording collection, pianist Jonathan Biss has engaged more than 150,000 students worldwide with these works via his free online course Exploring Beethoven's Piano Sonatas, which was launched via online learning platform Coursera in 2013 and finishes its survey of this repertoire on Monday, January 6, when registration opens for the sixth and final installment of lectures. He devotes one lecture to four of Beethoven's shorter sonatas-Nos. 9 and 10 in E and G major, Op. 14, and Nos. 19 and 20 in G minor and major, Op. 49-while the remaining three lectures focus on No. 18 in E-flat major, Op. 31, No. 3 ('The Hunt'); No. 22 in F major, Op. 54; and Beethoven's final piano sonata, No. 32 in C minor, Op. 111, respectively.

Congratulations are in order! 'Hamilton' director Thomas Kail and 'Fosse/Verdon' star Michelle Williams have announced they are engaged to be married - and they are expecting their first child!

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts announced today the 2020 class of Emerging Artists, recognizing diverse and exceptional talents from across all disciplines represented on its campus. Each recipient was nominated by the artistic leadership of one of Lincoln Center's eleven resident organizations.

In May 2019, Taiwan became the first Asian country to legalize same-sex marriage. Join us for an evening with Taiwanese playwrights Chao Chi-Yun (e??a??e??), Lin Meng-Huan (ae?-a??a??), and Liu Chien-Kuo (a??a??a?-) who have created new works embracing the achievements and struggles of this historic moment. This evening will feature three staged readings performed by a stellar cast of New York-based actors and directed by Michael Leibenluft of Gung Ho Projects. The readings will be followed by a discussion with the playwrights, curators, director, and translator Jeremy Tiang, moderated by Linnea Valdivia, Literary Manager for the National Queer Theater.

The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center presents its annual PRELUDE FESTIVAL on October 3, 4, and 5 at The Graduate Center, CUNY, The City University of New York, curated by David Bruin & Sanaz Ghajar in collaboration with Frank Hentschker, produced by Sami Pyne.

A key thread in pianist Jonathan Biss's decade-long, multi-project Beethoven immersion has been his journey to record all 32 of the composer's piano sonatas, which he began in 2011 and completes with the release of the cycle's ninth and final volume by Orchid Classics on Friday, November 1. Comprising Sonata No. 7 in D major, Op. 10/3; Sonata No. 18 in E-flat major, Op. 31/3 (“The Hunt”); and Sonata No. 32 in C minor, Op. 111, the new album is one of many highlights of Mr. Biss's season—coinciding with worldwide celebrations of Beethoven's 250th birthday—devoted not only to the composer, but the sonatas themselves.

Planet Connections Announces Its Directors Repertory for 'DARK PLANET: Not Your Mother's Valentine's Day' presented by Planet Connections Theatre Festivity; performing Thursdays and Fridays, February 6 - 21 at the Theater at the 14th Street Y, 344 E 14th St, New York City.

Having attracted more than 150,000 students from nearly every country in the world since its launch in 2013, pianist Jonathan Biss's free online course Exploring Beethoven's Piano Sonatas continues its six-part survey of these 32 landmark works via online learning platform Coursera, with the next set of lectures—Part 5—scheduled to appear on Monday, September 30. Two lectures are devoted to the monumental “Hammerklavier” Sonata—No. 29 in B-flat major, Op. 106—while another two focus on Piano Sonatas No. 13 in E-flat major, Op. 27, No. 1 (“Quasi una fantasia”) and No. 16 in G major, Op. 31, No. 1, respectively. With the sixth and final course module to be released on January 6, Mr. Biss will have completed his journey through the complete Beethoven piano sonatas.

UnsungMusicalsCo. (Ben West, Artistic Director) presents the new documentary musical 45 Minutes from Coontown, created, written and performed by Ben West, the founder of UMC and a 2017 recipient of Lincoln Center's Martin E. Segal Award, with musical continuity and arrangements by Fran Minarik, and direction and musical staging by Parker Esse. 45 Minutes from Coontown is a celebration of black musical theatre, tracing its history from the late-1800s through 1999, and featuring more than 30 songs almost exclusively by black writers. Developed over more than four years, with more than 20 archives in more than 10 states, 45 Minutes from Coontown documents the story of an art form that grew amidst a nation's racial prejudice, and the many African-American authors who not only furthered the form itself but were also instrumental in the development of the American popular song.

UnsungMusicalsCo. (Ben West, Artistic Director) presents the new documentary musical 45 Minutes from Coontown, created, written and performed by Ben West, the founder of UMC and a 2017 recipient of Lincoln Center's Martin E. Segal Award, with musical continuity and arrangements by Fran Minarik, and direction and musical staging by Parker Esse.

The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center presents its annual PRELUDE FESTIVAL on October 3, 4, and 5 at The Graduate Center, CUNY, The City University of New York, curated by David Bruin & Sanaz Ghajar in collaboration with Frank Hentschker, produced by Sami Pyne.

UnsungMusicalsCo. presents the new documentary musical 45 Minutes from Coontown, created, written and performed by Ben West, the founder of UMC and a 2017 recipient of Lincoln Center's Martin E. Segal Award, with musical continuity and arrangements by Fran Minarik, and direction and musical staging by Parker Esse. 

UnsungMusicalsCo. (Ben West, Artistic Director) presents the new documentary musical 45 Minutes from Coontown, created, written and performed by Ben West, the founder of UMC and a 2017 recipient of Lincoln Center's Martin E. Segal Award, with musical continuity and arrangements by Fran Minarik, direction and musical staging by Parker Esse, and music direction by Dionne McClain-Freeney. 

The iconoclastic composer and multi-instrumentalist Anthony Braxton is one of the most important musicians, educators, and creative thinkers of our time.

UnsungMusicalsCo. (Ben West, Artistic Director) has announced, today, its Fall 2019 Calendar of Events scheduled at various mid-Atlantic locations. First up is the new documentary musical 45 Minutes from Coontown, which traces the history of black musical theatre and is the second installment in The Show Time! Trilogy; the season continues with Sex, Satire, and Song, an exhibit curated for Yale University; Diversity and the Birth of Broadway, a two-part lecture series for the Library of Congress; and concludes with the new musical revue *The Passing Show of 2019. UMC's 2019 season launched in March with the UMC Writers Lab*.

Netflix has acquired worldwide rights (excluding China, Benelux, Switzerland, Russia, France) to Mati Diop's award winning Atlantics and the worldwide rights (excluding China, Benelux, Turkey, France) to I Lost My Body (J'ai perdu mon corps), a film by Jérémy Clapin, produced by Marc du Pontavice, which made its world premiere in the Critics Week section at the Cannes Film Festival to rave reviews.