Michael Barker News

Lovers and Other Strangers is an evening of five untitled comedic one-acts adding up to less than eighty minutes of brilliant comedy writing and wonderful relatable people seduced by love, arguing about love, marrying with love, cheating with love and confused by love. The play was turned into a hit movie starring Diane Keaton, Gig Young, Richard Castellano and Bea Arthur.

Single tickets for Westport Country Playhouse’s all-virtual 2021 Season will go on sale, beginning Tuesday, May 4, at noon EDT.  The Playhouse’s 2021 Season, from June 15 through December 19, has been reconceived as a diverse entertainment offering that can excel in a virtual environment.

Alisyn Camerota, journalist, author, anchor of CNN's morning show 'New Day,” and Westport, CT resident, is elected to the board of trustees at Westport Country Playhouse.

Los Angeles Opera's Music Director James Conlon sets the stage for the company's upcoming audio-stream of Richard Wagner's epic, four-part cycle, Der Ring des Nibelungen with a new podcast. Commemorating the ten-year anniversary of the company's first complete presentation of the Ring Cycle, opera fans can watch a marathon, back-to-back audio stream of all four works on Saturday, July 25. LAOpera.org/LAOatHome has more information on the audio-stream.

Today we shine a spotlight on Connecticut's Westport Country Playhouse with Managing Director Michael Barker.

Westport Country Playhouse announces changes in its upcoming 2020 Season, with the official opening now scheduled for July instead of the previously announced April kick-off, due to the Coronavirus Pandemic.

Sundance Institute today announced a first-of-its-kind collaboration with Sony Pictures Classics and Trafalgar Releasing: on January 26, the Utah premiere of The Climb, screening in the Spotlight category of the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, will be simulcast across ten cinemas across the U.S., with the following Q&A simulcast live from The Ray Theatre in Park City, enabling independent film fans in markets nationwide to participate in the buzz of Festival from afar.

Westport Country Playhouse has been awarded a $50,000 Challenge Grant from Newman's Own Foundation, the independent foundation created by the late actor and philanthropist, Paul Newman. In conjunction with the Playhouse's year-end fundraising appeal, Newman's Own Foundation will match all annual fund gifts up to $50,000 through December 31, 2019.

Juicy. Delicious. Salivate your way through The Art of Dining, a hilarious exploration of tantalizing appetites and desires. Then eat with the cast. Gourmet meals at every show (for V.I.P. ticket holders).

Tony Award-winning Broadway star Kelli O'Hara, accompanied on piano by Sirius/XM® radio personality Seth Rudetsky, headlined Westport Country Playhouse's 2019 Gala, “Black & White Ball: A De-Lovely Evening,” on Saturday evening, September 14. The gala performance was a one-of-a-kind event as the pair shared stories and songs from O'Hara's life and career.

Sundance Institute today announced Fellows and Advisors for the five-day 2019 Creative Producing Labs, as well as the three-day Creative Producing Summit which immediately follows; both take place at Utah's Sundance Mountain Resort. The Labs begins July 29, and the Summit August 2. These are the flagship convenings for the Institute's Creative Producing Program, which champions and develops current and rising generations of producers across fiction and nonfiction film.

Westport Country Playhouse welcomes Jacob Santos of Montville, Connecticut, as managing director fellow through the Newman's Own Foundation 2019-2020 Fellowship Program. He will work with Michael Barker, Playhouse managing director, in the administrative areas of the not-for-profit, professional theater, now in its 89th season. 

Roger Ebert's Film Festival, co-founded and hosted by Chaz Ebert and also known as 'Ebertfest,” announced today that the 22nd Annual Roger Ebert's Film Festival will take place April 15-18, 2020 at the Virginia Theatre in Champaign, IL with related talks and panel discussions to be held at the Hyatt Place in Champaign and at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

The 21st Annual Roger Ebert's Film Festival, co-founded and hosted by Chaz Ebert and also known as 'Ebertfest,” announced today the final slate of films for the 2019 event.  

Gretchen T. Wright has joined Westport Country Playhouse as director of development, effective March 4, 2019.  She will be responsible for the professional, non-profit theater's annual sustaining support from public and private constituencies, including corporations, government agencies, foundations, and individual donors.

Austin and Los Angeles - South by Southwest® (SXSW®) Film Festival and CherryPicks,® a digital brand dedicated to the female critical voice, are excited to announce the inaugural 2019 CherryPicks Female First Feature Award.  The CherryPicks Female First Feature Award will award prize money to a first time narrative female director in the SXSW 2019 Film lineup whose team includes at least one female producer. While in Austin, CherryPicks will also host a SXSW Conference panel on March 8: 'What Makes Critics Love, or Hate A Movie.'

Westport Country Playhouse has been awarded a $75,000 Challenge Grant from Newman's Own Foundation, the independent foundation created by the late actor and philanthropist, Paul Newman.  In conjunction with the Playhouse's year-end fundraising appeal, Newman's Own Foundation will match all annual fund gifts up to $75,000 through December 31, 2018.

Katharine L. Mussio has joined Westport Country Playhouse as director of marketing and audience development, leading the historic theater's marketing, public relations, communications, and audience development efforts for its season productions and programs. 

The national issue of gun violence is brought to the Westport Country Playhouse in the world premiere of Matthew Greene's Thousand Pines, directed by Austin Pendleton.