Michael Bobbitt News

Stage and screen stars Darren Criss (Glee, Hedwig and the Angry Inch), Andrew Keenan-Bolger (Newsies, Tuck Everlasting), Ben Platt ("Pitch Perfect", Dear Evan Hansen), Tony-nominated composers Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (Dear Evan Hansen, A Christmas Story, Roald Dahl's James and the Giant Peach), Philip McAdoo (The Lion King and Rent), Brad Simmons ("Camp", Lysistrata Jones), Jacob Brent (Cats); Cory Lingner (On the Town), and writing team Kate Anderson and Elyssa Samsel (Camp-Wish-No-More, My Little Brony) are some of the talent confirmed for the 2016 Junior Theater Festival (#JTF16), it was announced today by Timothy Allen McDonald, founding chairman of iTheatrics and the Junior Theater Group.  

Olney Theatre Center, a Mid-Atlantic destination for extraordinary theater performance and education, continues its 2015-2016 season with the classic American musical GUYS AND DOLLS tonight, November 11 through December 27 on the Mainstage.

Olney Theatre Center, a Mid-Atlantic destination for extraordinary theater performance and education, continues its 2015-2016 season with the classic American musical GUYS AND DOLLS November 11 through December 27 on the Mainstage.

Lilli Vanessi's life is moving up. She is engaged to the rich politician, Harrison Howell, and she is making her comeback to the stage in a production of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew as its leading leading lady, Kate. Just as Lilli thought she would be able to move forward, she is confronted by her past as her ex-husband, Fred Graham, is starring as the leading man, Petruchio, in The Taming of the Shrew.

Books (and talking animals and congressional bills and a tin man and a toy china rabbit) come alive at Children's Theatre of Charlotte in the 2015-16 season, with a lineup that includes adaptations of some of the most popular titles and fairy tales, including three productions making their world premiere.

More than ninety percent of the audience-members who attend NextStop Theatre Company productions in Herndon, Virginia come from within a 5 mile radius of the tucked-away theatre, housed in a "covert" warehouse location next to Washington's Dulles Airport. But the hidden theatre company continues to achieve the unusual: enticing DC's top artists to travel outside the beltway.

Olney Theatre Center, a mid-Atlantic destination for professional theater performance and education, proudly announces two world premieres, two legendary musicals, a classic thriller, and a rotating rep of Gilbert & Sullivan as part of its 10-play 78th season, the company's largest. Headlining the season is Carmen: An Afro-Cuban Jazz Musical, set in the waning days of Batista's regime in Cuba, written and directed by Tony® Award-nominee Moises Kaufman (The Laramie Project Cycle) with music from two-time Grammy Award-winner Arturo O'Farrill. Previously on an annual calendar, the 78thseason standardizes the schedule, running September 2015 through August 2016.

Olney Theatre Center, a Mid-Atlantic destination for extraordinary theater performance and education, announces the addition of four new Board Members, twenty-five Artistic Associates, and the launch of a new-play development program with Ben Kingsland's world premiere adaptation of A Tale of Two Cities.

Another award-winning children's book comes to life at Raleigh Little Theatre with Patricia McKissack's Mirandy and Brother Wind. This production is the area premiere of a musical adapted by Michael Bobbitt and John Cornelius. It tells the story of a little girl who attempts to win a Cake Walk by capturing Brother Wind.

Round House Theatre and the New York based company, The One-Minute Play Festival (#1MPF) have created a dynamic partnership to present The 1st Washington, D.C. One-Minute Play Festival, to be performed July 12 - 14, 2014 at Round House Theatre. Following sold-out performances in more than 20 cities, this festival aims to celebrate local voices and investigate the local zeitgeist through this exciting process. Performances are at 8pm on Saturday, July 12, Sunday, July 13, and Monday, July 14.

As part of Oregon Children's Theatre's 2nd annual Bully Project competition, middle school students (6-8th grade) from Oregon and Washington were invited to write original, 10-minute plays about bullying. Six finalists were selected by a panel of classroom teachers, members of the OCT Young Professionals Company, and OCT staff. Each finalist was mentored by professional playwrights Matthew B. Zrebski or Debbie Lamedman of Playwrights West to refine and revise their scripts. The final scripts will be featured at a public staged reading at the Winningstad Theatre (1111 SW Broadway, Portland) on May 11th at 5pm where members of OCT's Young Professionals program will direct and perform the six plays.

Last year Oregon Children's Theatre's held the first annual 'Bully Project,' an anti-bullying playwriting competition. We are holding the competition for the 2nd year in a row.

Ford's Theatre Society 2013-2014 season continues with the quirky Tony-winning musical comedy 'The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,' directed by Peter Flynn, today, March 14 through May 17, 2014, at Ford's Theatre (511 Tenth Street NW, Washington, D.C.).

Ford's Theatre Society 2013-2014 season continues with the quirky Tony-winning musical comedy 'The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,' directed by Peter Flynn, March 14 through May 17, 2014, at Ford's Theatre (511 Tenth Street NW, Washington, D.C.). The production features a local Washington cast of Helen Hayes Award nominees as six awkward adolescents and their proctors, all working through a daunting and hilarious championship quest.

Tony-nominated composers Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, Andy Jones (Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella), Heidi Blickenstaff (The Little Mermaid), Ashley Brown (the original Mary Poppins), Merle Dandridge (Tarzan, Aida), Josh Strickland (the original Tarzan), Andrew Keenan-Bolger (Newsies), and Alton Fitzgerald White (The Lion King), will join 4,500 students and teachers representing 93 groups from 26 states and the District of Columbia at the 2014 Junior Theater Festival, it was announced today by Timothy Allen McDonald, founding Chairman of iTheatrics and the Junior Theater Group. The Junior Theater Festival is being held January 17, 18 and 19 at the Cobb Galleria in Atlanta.

This twist on a classic holiday song, provides a fun-filled time for children.

Ford's Theatre Director Paul R. Tetreault announced the Theatre's 2013-2014 season will open with a new production of The Laramie Project, 15 years after the killing of Wyoming college student Matthew Shepard. The play is presented as the cornerstone production for the Ford's Theatre Society's Lincoln Legacy Project, a multi-year effort dedicated to sparking dialogue in the nation's capital around issues of social injustice and the ideals of equality for which Abraham Lincoln stood. A series of free special programs and events will be offered in connection with the play in September/October 2013.

First Stage marks its 26th year in the 2012-2013 season, comprising of five Family Series productions to be performed at the Todd Wehr Theater at the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Milwaukee, two First Steps series productions - plays geared towards children ages 3 to 6 - at the Milwaukee Youth Arts Center, and one production performed by First Stage's Young Company - First Stage Theater Academy's advanced actor training program for high school students - at Marquette University's Helfaer Theatre.

Washington D.C.'s Ford's Theatre has just anounced the cast for their upcoming production of 1776. Featuring direction by Peter Flynn and choreography by Michael Bobbitt, the production will run March 9 through May 19. The star studded cast will include Robert Cuccioli as John Dickinson, Brooks Ashmanskas as John Adams, William Diggle as Thomas Jefferson, Gregory Maheu as Edward Rutledge, and Tom Story as Charles Thomson.

The Jefferson Performing Arts Society's Theatre For Young Audiences will bring Mike Artell's PETITE ROUGE: A CAJUN RED RIDING HOOD (Book, Music and Lyrics by Joan Cushing, Based on the book by Mike Artell with Illustrations by Jim Harris) back to the stage and on tour throughout Louisiana after a very successful debut at the Westwego Performing Arts Theatre in September of 2010.