Mary Zimmerman News

Bag&Baggage Productions has announced its 2020-21 season, which will shift its typical summer opening to September, as a result of the health crisis.

Lookingglass Theatre Company has announced its complete 2020-2021 season lineup, with three shows created by Lookingglass artists. Audiences will journey alongside the adventurers, misfits and wanderers who will sail the wine-dark seas of the Aegean; explore the narrow rues of Belgium.

The Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle has announced the nominees for theatrical excellence for the year 2019. This year they are forgoing their annual event ceremony and will instead post the award recipients online in the upcoming weeks: 

Bluebird Theatre Company presents Mary Zimmerman's The Secret in the Wings.

The second show of the inaugural season of Forge Repertory Theatre is an ambitious production of Mary Zimmerman's THE SECRET IN THE WINGS. It is hilarious, a generally dark comedy, with moments of violence, masterfully directed by Todd Lanker, but best of all opens Saturday, March 7, at The Black Box in Kansas City.

NEW YORK'S Atlantic Theater Company is home to many high-profile Off-Broadway shows, some of which transfer to Broadway, including the Tony-winning musicals The Band's Visit and Spring Awakening. It is also an acting school that teaches the Practical Aesthetics acting technique.

For playwright Max Posner, sitting down to write The Treasurer must have been a feat of de-centering oneself. The narrative takes a dusky, balmy look back at the relationship between his father and his grandmother, a wealthy, New York socialite who lived with dementia in her old age. While the story is, in a way, indirectly autobiographical, it offers few mentions of the playwright himself, uplifting the perspective of the protagonist, his father. In shouldering the role, Ken Cheeseman seems to push Posner's language further into the periphery. His ambulatory addresses to the audience and stoic musings seem to be conceived of in real time, not memorized from a written source. However, Lyric Stage Company's production of The Treasurer is not the standard a?oeI hate my fathera?? solo performance you are likely to see at any undergraduate institution's annual student festival. In fact, though the text is dominated by Cheeseman's character, the production is upheld just as much by him as it is by Cheryl McMahon in the role of Ida, his mother.

Forge Repertory Theatre has announced the cast and crew for the Kansas City premier of a?oeThe Secret in the Wingsa?? from Tony Award winner Mary Zimmerman.

Today, the Metropolitan Opera announced its 2020-21 season, the first in which Yannick Nézet-Séguin assumes his full breadth of musical duties as the company's Jeanette Lerman-Neubauer Music Director, conducting six productions. His schedule includes the Met premiere of Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking, the first contemporary opera conducted by the maestro on the Met stage, as part of his ongoing commitment to opera of our time at the Met, which will expand in the seasons to come.

Today's top stories: Broadway gathers to remember Jerry Herman tonight, and more!

On February 1, 2020, Los Angeles Opera presented the world premiere of Matthew Aucoin's third opera, Euridice. He composed it together with Sarah Ruhl who wrote the original 2003 play. Aucoin, Ruhl, and this presentation's stage director, Mary Zimmerman, have been the recipients of the MacArthur Fellowships known as 'Genius Grants.' 

The LA Opera and the Metropolitan Opera join forces to co-produce the world premiere of EURYDICE from the creative minds of composer/conductor Matthew Aucoin and librettist Sarah Ruhl; beginning February 1, 2020 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Based on Sarah's 2003 play EURYDICE, this Greek myth unfolds from the heroine's perspective. Mary Zimmerman directs a talented cast that includes: Danielle de Niese, Rod Gilfry, Joshua Hopkins, John Holiday, Barry Banks, Stacey Tappan, Raehann Bryce-Davis and Kevin Ray. Sarah graciously took time out to answer a few of my inquisitive queries.

LA Opera begins the new year with a new opera: the world premiere of Eurydice  by composer Matthew Aucoin and librettist Sarah Ruhl, based on her 2003 play of the same name. Directed by Mary Zimmerman, Eurydice opens on February 1, 2020.

Lookingglass Theatre Company presents the return of Ensemble Member Mary Zimmerman's instant holiday classic The Steadfast Tin Soldier, from the story by Hans Christian Andersen. This holiday show, perfect for the whole family, runs through January 26, 2020 at Lookingglass Theatre Company, located inside Chicago's historic Water Tower Water Works, 821 N. Michigan Ave. at Pearson.

Due to popular demand, Firebrand Theatre has announced a second extension of its hit revival of ALWAYS... PATSY CLINE, now playing through Saturday, January 25, 2020 at The Den Theatre's Janet Bookspan Theatre, 1331 N. Milwaukee Ave. in Chicago.

Cleveland Play House (CPH) Artistic Director Laura Kepley announced today the casting of Cleveland native Mariah Burks in the title role of the timeless Greek tragedy Antigone. Staged in the intimate Outcalt Theatre March 28th through April 19th, 2020, this contemporary translation is freely adapted by playwright Emily Mann from the classic play by Sophocles. Antigone is generously supported by Presenting Sponsor, DLR Group | Westlake Reed Leskosky.

LA Opera begins the new year with a new opera: the world premiere of Eurydice  by composer Matthew Aucoin and librettist Sarah Ruhl, based on her 2003 play of the same name. Directed by Mary Zimmerman, Eurydice opens on February 1, 2020.

Lookingglass Theatre Company welcomes five new Ensemble Members and four new Artistic Associates into the Lookingglass family. Joining the Ensemble are Walter Briggs (Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Moby Dick), Kasey Foster (The Steadfast Tin Soldier, 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas), circus choreographer Sylvia Hernandez-DiStasi (The Steadfast Tin Soldier, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein), Anthony Irons (The Steadfast Tin Soldier, Act(s) of God), and composer and sound designer Andre Pluess (The Steadfast Tin Soldier, Eastland). New Artistic Associates include Cordelia Dewdney (Moby Dick, Hard Times), Wendy Mateo (Big Lake Big City, Beyond Caring), costume designer Sully Ratke (Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas) and Matthew C. Yee (Treasure Island, Moby Dick).

Goodman Theatre, now in its 95th season, announces the a?oeLegacy & Promisea?? Education and Engagement luncheon on Wednesday, February 5 featuring Emmy Award-winning and Tony Award-nominated actor Sean Hayes. Hayes joins the Goodman's Walter Director of Education and Engagement Willa J. Taylor and more for this 5th annual event, which celebrates the theater's programs for youth, schools and lifelong learners. Proceeds from the event support these programs, all of which are offered completely FREE of charge to participants and are 100% funded by individual contributions. Event leadership includes Joan Clifford, Immediate Past Chair and Benefit Events Leadership Chair; Patricia Cox, Education and Engagement Trustee Leadership Chair; Kathleen Cowie, Goodman Theatre Trustee and Education and Engagement Committee Chair; and Teri Brown and Lorrayne Weiss, Women's Board Education and Engagement Co-chairs. The event takes place at The Palmer House (17 E. Monroe) at 12noon (registration opens at 11:30am). Tickets start at $250; call 312.443.3811 ext. 220. Proceeds benefit Education and Engagement at the Goodman. Media interested in attending/covering should call 312.443.5151.

Ballet, opera and musical theater director Daniel Pelzig helms the musical version of Irving Berlin's Holiday Inn, playing at Musical Theatre West. This is Pelzig's fourth production with MTW, after My Fair Lady in 2015, Mary Poppins in 2017 and The Little Mermaid earlier this year.