Melia Bensussen News

The Huntington Theatre Company's annual Summer Workshop began rehearsals July 9 and will conclude in public readings of four new plays on July 20 and 21, 2019. The workshop allows selected members of the Huntington Playwriting Fellows program two weeks to focus on developing new plays. The workshop and public readings will take place in the South End at the Huntington's Stanford Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts, 527 Tremont Street, Boston. 

YERMA, a play with music, adapted and translated by Melinda Lopez from Spanish poet/playwright Federico Garcia Lorca's 1934 work, is receiving its world premiere by the Huntington Theatre Company at the Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts. On press night, in the age-old tradition of the show must go on, Lopez was pressed into service to perform in place of the ailing Jacqui Parker, one of the five women who surround the title character as her emotional support community, even as their multiple children are a stinging reminder of her infertility. It is a tragic tale, but one fueled by hope and infused with beautiful flamenco-inspired music and Spanish culture.

David R. Jimenez, President of the Board of Directors of Hartford Stage, and incoming Artistic DirectorMelia Bensussen have announced the appointment of Cynthia Rideras Managing Director of the Tony Award-winning theatre. Rider, who previously served as Executive Director of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, will assume the role in July. She takes over the position from Michael Stotts, who departed from the theatre in January.

he Huntington Theatre Company premieres a timely and essential adaptation of Federico Garcia Lorca's 1934 play Yerma, a tragic tale of one woman's desperate yearning to start a family. Adapted and translated by the winner of the 2019 Elliot Norton Award for Sustained Excellence, Melinda Lopez transforms this classic work to resonate with modern audiences.

Hartford Stage announced today the last two plays of the 56th season. Incoming Hartford Stage Artistic Director Melia Bensussenwill stage the Eugene O'Neill coming-of-age comedy Ah, Wilderness! It will be Bensussen's first production as Artistic Director at Hartford Stage. Former Hartford Stage Artistic Director Michael Wilson will return to direct the original play that inspired the Oscar-winning film The King's Speech, written by its Oscar-winning screenwriter David Seidler.

Huntington Theatre Company Artistic Director Peter DuBois and Managing Director Michael Maso announce the lineup of their 2019-2020 season, featuring three world premieres, a Pulitzer Prize-winning play, a classic Tony Award-winning comedy by one of the world's most celebrated playwrights, and two adaptations of powerful literary works. 

Hartford Stage announced today three plays for the upcoming 2019/2020 season, including Quixote Nuevo by Octavio Solis, Cry it Out by Molly Smith Metzler and Jane Eyre, adapted and directed by Hartford Stage Associate Artistic Director Elizabeth Williamson. Three additional mainstage productions will be announced in the coming weeks.

David R. Jimenez, President of the Board of Directors of Hartford Stage, announces that OBIE Award-winning director Melia Bensussen has been named the next Artistic Director of the Tony Award-winning theatre. She will assume the role in June.

Shakespeare & Company host its annual Fourth of July Community Celebration "We Hold These Truths" on their property at 70 Kemble Street, Lenox MA. This yearly event is an all-American Independence Day celebration with music, food, children's crafts and activities, and a public reading of one of the most stirring, and influential documents in our country's history, The Declaration of Independence.

The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center announces casting and creative teams for the summer season of new musicals and plays selected for development at the National Music Theater Conference and National Playwrights Conference.

Shakespeare & Company presents William Shakespeare's Macbeth, directed by Obie Award-winning director Melia Bensussen. Company veterans Jonathan Croy and Tod Randolph take the helm as Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, two of Shakespeare's most notorious anti-heroes. Shakespeare's stunning classic of blind ambition and corrosive power runs from July 3 - August 5 in the Tina Packer Playhouse.

Shakespeare & Company announces its 2018 season casting. Under the direction of Artistic Director Allyn Burrows the Company's Summer Season includes a roster of audience beloved artists, critically acclaimed actors, and a host of newcomers joining the Company. The season opens Memorial Day Weekend with Carey Crim's New England Premiere of Morning After Grace, a comedic romance about second chances.

Huntington Theatre Company, Boston's leading independent theatre, announces its 2018-2019 season, featuring two of the most highly acclaimed Broadway plays of the last year, Shakespeare's enduring love story, a theatrical caper with Sherlock Holmes, and three of the most compelling new plays in the country, all with rich and relevant stories that speak to the times we live in.

Complete casting has been announced for Charles Busch's return to Theater for the New City (Crystal Field, Executive Artistic Director) in his uproarious new comedy The Confession of Lily Dare, directed by Busch's longtime collaborator Carl Andress (The Tribute Artist, Judith of Bethulia, The Divine Sister).

Shakespeare & Company announces its 2018 summer season. Exploring themes of Delight, Deceit, and Desire, the season includes three Shakespeare plays: Macbeth, As You Like It, and Love's Labor's Lost; plus the New England Premiere of Morning After Grace by Carey Crim; Creditors by August Strindberg adapted by David Greig; Heisenberg by Laurence Olivier Award winner Simon Stephens; Mothers and Sons by Tony Award-winning playwright Terrence McNally; and HIR by Pulitzer Prize finalist Taylor Mac.

The Huntington Theatre Company's 2018 Breaking Ground festival of new plays will be held February 9 11, 2018 at the Huntington's home for new work, the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA. The festival is a vital part of the Huntington's new play development efforts and highlights the work of locally-based Huntington Playwriting Fellows and national writers in partnership with the Huntington. Over the last decade, Breaking Ground plays have gone on to appear at the Huntington as well as theatres in Boston, across the country, and internationally.

Shakespeare & Company has announced its Shakespeare lineup for the 2018 summer season. Under the direction of Artistic Director Allyn Burrows and Managing Director Adam Davis, the season will include three Shakespeare plays: Macbeth directed by Melia Bensussen, As You Like It directed by Allyn Burrows, and Love's Labor's Lost directed by Kelly Galvin. Season FLEXPasses go on sale this afternoon.

OBERON, the American Repertory Theater's (A.R.T.) second stage and club theater venue on the fringe of Harvard Square, announces events to be presented at OBERON during October and November.

Desert Rose Playhouse has opened its 2017-18 season its sixth with a brilliant production of Christopher Durang's simultaneously literary and loony 2012 comedy, VANYA & SONYA & MASHA & SPIKE (VSMS), which Durang has likened to taking Chekhov scenes and characters and whirling them around in a blender.

San Francisco Playhouse (Bill English, Artistic Director; Susi Damilano, Producing Director) concludes its 2016-2017 Sandbox Series for new works with the World Premiere of Zenith, written by Kirsten Greenidge. Lauren English directs. Performances will be held at A.C.T.'s Costume Shop.