Matthew Penn News

Berkshire Playwrights Lab (BPL) will celebrate the kickoff of the summer season with a benefit Gala on Saturday, June 9, 2018 at 6:30 pm at the historic Wyantenuck Country Club, located at 46 West Sheffield Road in Great Barrington. The evening, a celebration of eleven years of original plays, expanded programming and affordable professional theater, includes light dinner fare, a silent auction, and a short surprise performance. Gala tickets are $125 per person and are available directly through BPL at 413.528.2544 or via email or mail (please see BerkshirePlaywrightsLab.com for details). Underwriter tickets are $250 per person and Sponsor tickets are $500 per person, both of which will help support the expanded 2018 season and give the patrons special recognition in the season playbill and at the readings.

The Bonnie and Terry Burman New Play Award, a national new play contest at Barrington Stage Company (BSC), the award-winning theatre in Downtown Pittsfield, MA under the leadership of Artistic Director Julianne Boyd, is accepting submissions through April 30, 2018. The Grand Prize winner will receive $25,000 from Barrington Stage Company.

Berkshire Theatre Group has announced casting for the 90th Anniversary Season. BroadwayWorld has the full list of upcoming productions and their casts below!

Berkshire Theatre Group (BTG) and Kate Maguire (Artistic Director/CEO) are thrilled to announce an additional Unicorn Theatre production, the comedic double feature: Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You and The Actor's Nightmare, featuring Tony Award-winner, Harriet Harris (Thoroughly Modern Millie, Phantom Thread, Frasier; BTG: Arsenic and Old Lace) as Sister Mary Ignatius.This cast also features Jenn Harris (Silence! The Musical, Modern Orthodox; BTG: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Heidi Chronicles), Tom Story (BTG: The Glass Menagerie,Camelot, The Heidi Chronicles) and Matthew Sullivan (The Roads to Home; BTG:Arsenic and Old Lace).

Barrington Stage Company and Artistic Director Julianne Boyd, has announced the 2018 season, which will feature three world premieres, including a major new musical from Tony Awards winners William Finn and Rachel Sheinkin, a new play from Off Broadway Alliance Award winner Lloyd Suh, and the first major production of a work from an exciting young playwright, Rachel Lynett.

On the heels of his smash hit television series, Mike & Molly , and successful productions of his plays New Country, Rantoul and Die, and Parasite Drag, critically acclaimed playwright, actor, producer and director Mark Roberts unleashes his latest razor-sharp comedy Living the Dream for two special staged readings Friday, January 19 at 3:00pm and 7:00pm at The 52nd Street Project's New Angels Theatre, 789 10th Avenue. Plans are underway for a Fall, 2018 off Broadway run.

Audiences in Manchester will be looking on the bright side of life when the brand new production of Spamalot comes to the Palace Theatre in five weeks.

Audiences at Storyhouse will be looking on the bright side of life when the brand new production of Spamalot comes to Chester in four weeks.

Funnier than the black death!  Spamalot is back in a brand-new production from Selladoor Productions and Mercury Theatre Colchester. Spamalot transfers from its critically acclaimed run in Colchester and will open on 11 September 2017 at Blackpool Opera House before embarking on a UK tour for 2017/2018 also visiting Korea in June as part of Selladoor Worldwide's ongoing International strategy.

On the second Sunday of every month from March until June, Interval Productions and The Cockpit, will present an evening of brand new British musical theatre writing supported using public funding by Arts Council England.

The 84th Annual Hollywood Christmas Parade celebrating The Magic of Christmas featuring Marine Toys for Tots Foundation, presented by Associated Television International and The City of Los Angeles, will be led this year by renowned magicians andParade Grand Marshals Penn & Teller.  Today the parade is announcing sponsors, bands, balloons, floats, characters/novelties and equestrian units which will be part of the 2015 parade making its 3.2 mile trek through the streets of Hollywood, CA at 6:00 p.m. on Sunday, November 29, 2015.  The parade will be hosted by Erik Estrada, Laura McKenzie, Dean Cain and Montel Williams, with special guest hosts Elizabeth Stanton and Garrett Clayton.

Imagine:  you're a peasant woman in 15th century France, and your teenage daughter has taken strange.  It seems she's having visions of St. Catherine, who's instructed her to lead the French army to victory over the invading English. In pants. And armor. Yep:  you call her Joanie, but we know her as Joan of Arc.

Last night, Shakespeare & Company presented the world premiere of Mother of the Maid, a powerful and wry drama by Emmy award-winning writer, producer and director Jane Anderson, starring Founding Artistic Director Tina Packer, directed by Matthew Penn, and Broadwayworld's Stephen Sorokoff was on the scene. Check out pics from the evening below!

The Berkshire Playwrights Lab (BPL) will present the next play in the free Staged Reading Series on Wednesday, July 29, 2015, at 7:30 pm at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center. The play follows Great Barrington's Dig+Dine outdoor dining event. 'Match,' by critically-acclaimed playwright Jennifer Maisel, is the story of a much-needed kidney, the donor and her intentions and the lives the decision to give impacts. 'Mother of the Maid,' a play first presented through Berkshire Playwrights Lab's Free Staged Reading Series, is now in full production at Shakespeare & Company in Lenox.

The Berkshire Playwrights Lab (BPL) will present its Eighth Annual Multimedia Gala Celebration tonight, June 5, 2015, at 8:00PM at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center.

The Berkshire Playwrights Lab (BPL) will present its Eighth Annual Multimedia Gala Celebration on Friday, June 5, 2015, at 8:00PM at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center.

Shakespeare & Company has announced its lineup for the 2015 summer season, which includes three Shakespeare plays, Henry V, The Comedy of Errors and Hamlet, plus the Regional Premiere of Red Velvet by Lolita Chakrabarti, and the World Premiere of Jane Anderson's Mother of the Maid, starring Tina Packer. In addition, the summer season includes The Unexpected Man by Yasmina Reza, and opens with the provocative new play by Sarah Treem, The How and the Why.

New Jersey Repertory Company, located at 179 Broadway in Long Branch, has announced the World Premiere of Closure by Richard Dresser for a limited engagement from June 25 through July 19, 2015. 

Shakespeare & Company has finalized casting for its 38th performance season, and released a complete schedule of Opening Night dates. The announcement was made this week by Interim Artistic Directors Ariel Bock and Jonathan Croy, along with a positive report from Interim Managing Director Stephen D. Ball on the Company's box office successes to date. Shakespeare & Company's season opens on May 22 with The How and The Why, by Sarah Treem.