McCarter Theatre News

From Egypt and England to South Africa, backstage, and beyond -The Tony Award-Winning McCarter Theatre Center is about to take audiences around the world as Artistic Director Emily Mann announces the five theatre productions for McCarter's 2014-2015 season.

The Old Globe today announced it will present two Shakespeare-themed events. On Monday, April 28 at 7:00 p.m., Tony Award winner Roger Rees will return to the Globe for a one-night-only engagement of What You Will, his hysterical (and somewhat historical) 90-minute gallop through the world of Shakespeare. On Saturday, May 3 at 11:00 a.m., Old Globe Artistic Director Barry Edelstein will offer an encore of Thinking Shakespeare Live!, his 90-minute exploration of the language of Shakespeare. This fast-paced, funny, and altogether fascinating program based on Edelstein's book, Thinking Shakespeare: A How-To Guide for Student Actors, Directors, and Anyone Else Who Wants to Feel More Comfortable with the Bard, reveals a performer's approach to Shakespearean language so audiences may easily understand the poetry of the Bard.

Magic Theatre will welcome back one of Scotland's leading contemporary playwrights, Linda McLean, with the world premiere of Every Five Minutes, directed by Producing Artistic Director Loretta Greco. Every Five Minutes runs March 26 - April 20. Deemed 'a gritty, fiercely empathetic realist of great skill' (San Francisco Chronicle), McLean's new play celebrates the miraculous power of the human spirit. Every Five Minutes begins with a simple homecoming dinner that takes a fantastical turn as Mo slips into a dreamscape that even those closest to him can't imagine.

The Shakespeare Theatre Company, recipient of the 2012 Regional Theatre Tony Award, presents Shakespeare's Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2 as part of the Clarice Smith Repertory. STC Artistic Director Michael Kahn will direct both parts of this sweeping epic - one of Shakespeare's culminating achievements in the history play genre - over multiple nights. As Kahn says, describing Parts 1 and 2 as his favorite Shakespearean drama: 'It brings to the stage every issue we as human beings experience.' The two productions will run in the Company's Sidney Harman Hall (610 F Street NW) from March 25 - June 8, 2014.

He may not have money, he may not have power...but where there's a wit, there's a way. Figaro is a comic chameleon unmatched across history: clever, insubordinate, restless, lustful, agent of chaos, champion of love, jack of all trades, and man for all seasons. For more than two hundred years, this wily valet has spoken words that have incited revolution and performed deeds that make audiences fall in love with him time and again.

Rehearsals started today for the Alliance Theatre's world premiere of THE TALL GIRLS, a play set in the depression-era Midwest where the success of a girls' basketball team may be the only way to a better life for the team's members. Playwright Meg Miroshnik, winner of the 2012 Alliance/Kendeda National Graduate Playwriting Competition for her play The Fairytale Lives of Russian Girls, has been described by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution as 'a ferocious talent with a promising career in store.'

Into the Woods is coming back- and not just on the big screen! BroadwayWorld has just confirmed that the musical will return to the New York Stage soon. Roundabout Theatre Company will present McCarter Theatre Center and Fiasco Theatre's acclaimed, re-imagined production of the Tony Award-winning musical classic by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine at the Laura Pels Theatre in Winter 2015.

The life of privilege long enjoyed by a venerable Texas family is slipping away and its members refuse to let go of it without a fight in Horton Foote's absorbing and widely praised comedy, Dividing the Estate, which opens at Palm Beach Dramaworks on Friday, March 28 (8pm). Performances at the Don & Ann Brown Theatre (201 Clematis Street) continue through April 27, with specially priced previews on March 26 and 27.

Playwrights Theatre has partnered with the New Jersey State Council on the Arts for two months of Artist Fellowship Showcases in Madison. The first group was presented in October 2013 and the second group will take place todays in March 2014. All readings will begin at 7:30pm in the Chase Room of the Madison Public Library on 39 Keep Street in Madison, NJ. Readings are free with a suggested donation of $10. All tickets will be available at the door on the evening of the readings.

Court Theatre continues its 2013-2014 season with the Chicago premiere of Water by the Spoonful written by Quiara Alegria Hudes, and directed by Henry Godinez. Water by the Spoonful will run tonight, March 6 - April 6, 2014 at Court Theatre, 5535 S. Ellis Avenue. Press Opening is Saturday, March 15, 2014 at 8:00PM.

Director and playwright Robert O'Hara thinks there's something curious about The Music Man, Meredith Willson's famous musical about big brass bands and small-town busybodies.

Off-Broadway's The New Group honors Beth Henley, playwright, author of Crimes of the Heart and The Jacksonian, and Geoff Rich, Executive Director of The New Group 2002-2013, with The 2014 Michael Mendelson Award at the company's Annual Gala, 'Bright Lights Off-Broadway.' The Gala, set to take place Monday, March 10 beginning at 6:00pm at Tribeca Rooftop (2 Desbrosses Street), features appearances by Ed Harris, Holly Hunter, Carol Kane, Amy Madigan, Bill Pullman and Jonathan Marc Sherman and performances by Stephen Bogardus, Lea DeLaria and John Tartaglia, along with cocktails, dinner, and silent and live auctions filled with an array of exciting items and one-of-a-kind experiences.

The Laguna Playhouse Executive and Artistic Directors, Karen Wood and Ann E. Wareham invite you to take 83 books, with three chameleon-like actors in 98 minutes, and mix it all up into one hilarious evening of ridiculous fun! It's the Reduced Shakespeare Company's production of ALL THE GREAT BOOKS (abridged), written and directed by Reed Martin and Austin Tichenor with additional material by Matthew Croke and Michael Faulkner. ALL THE GREAT BOOKS (abridged) will begin previews today, March 4 and will open on Saturday, March 8 at 7:30pm and run through Sunday, March 30, 2014 at the LagunaPlayhouse, 606 Laguna Canyon Road in Laguna Beach.

Last night at Opening Night of Carson Kreitzer's Lasso of Truth, Marin Theatre Company's artistic director Jasson Minadakis and managing director Michael Barker announced the company's 2014-15 season programming today. Featuring six new plays by living contemporary playwrights in MTC's intimate 231-seat mainstage Boyer Theatre, the season includes:

Playwrights Theatre has partnered with the New Jersey State Council on the Arts for two months of Artist Fellowship Showcases in Madison. The first group was presented in October 2013 and the second group will take place on Thursdays in March 2014. All readings will begin at 7:30pm in the Chase Room of the Madison Public Library on 39 Keep Street in Madison, NJ. Readings are free with a suggested donation of $10. All tickets will be available at the door on the evening of the readings.

On March 12, 2014, at 7:30pm, American Repertory Ballet will present Firebird at McCarter Theatre in Princeton, NJ. This program will feature the world premiere of Douglas Martin's Firebird, set to Stravinsky's score; Martin's Rite of Spring, also set to music by Stravinsky; and the company premiere of Kirk Peterson's Afternoon of a Faun, set to Debussy's score. These ballets are inspired by the 20th-century works created for Sergei Diaghilev's revolutionary Ballets Russes: L'Oiseau de feu, Le Sacre du printemps, and L'Apres-midi d'un faune. This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Arena Stage Artistic Director Molly Smith reveals the 2014/15 season lineup for the company's 65th season and fifth year in the Mead Center for American Theater. As a national center focused on showcasing American voices and artists, this season is designed with range through productions that are emotional, uplifting, funny and thought-provoking.