Michael Brown News

The 50th season of Lincoln Center's Great Performers series, which will run from October 14, 2015 through June 4, 2016, was announced today by Jane Moss, Ehrenkranz Artistic Director.

FOR COLORED BOYZ ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN is a choreopoem that was birthed out of frustration, self-examination, and reflection through the eyes of a black man. Influenced by Ntozake Shange's choreopoem for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow's enuf. This isn't a conventional poetry book, play or novel, but a literary theatrical collection of poems and short narratives from the perspective of six black men.

A series of journal entries may work well as a literary device but as a theatrical endeavor it tends to fall flat. Unfortunately, Village Theatre's current stage interpretation of Jules Verne's famous novel "Around the World in 80 Days" falls into the latter category as the storytelling gets itself mired in such a passive voice that it just wasn't very interesting.

Artistic Director Chay Yew and Managing Director Chris Mannelli announce a change to the 2014-2015 season: The World Premiere of An Issue of Blood by Marcus Gardley, directed by Chay Yew, will replace the previously announced World Premiere of A Wonder In My Soul. An Issue of Blood was penned by Gardley in response to recent events and social injustices. An Issue of Blood runs April 3 - May 3, 2015 with the press performance on Friday, April 10, 2015, at Victory Gardens Theater, 2433 N. Lincoln Avenue.

Artistic Director Chay Yew and Managing Director Chris Mannelli announce a change to the 2014-2015 season: The World Premiere of An Issue of Blood by Marcus Gardley, directed by Chay Yew, will replace the previously announced World Premiere of A Wonder In My Soul. An Issue of Blood was penned by Gardley in response to recent events and social injustices. An Issue of Blood runs April 3 - May 3, 2015 with the press performance on Friday, April 10, 2015, at Victory Gardens Theater, 2433 N. Lincoln Avenue.

Joe's Pub at the Public has announced its nightly performances, running now through February 1, 2015. Details below!

Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) presents the January panel, Bringing Diversity to Theater: More Crucial Now Than Ever, tonight, January 22, 2015 at 7:30pmat The Players Theatre, 115 MacDougal Street, 3rd Floor Loft Theatre, NYC. Doors open at 7pm for networking and refreshments; the event starts at 7:30pm.

The Black Choreographers Festival: Here & Now returns next month with presentations by more than a dozen Bay Area dance makers including Byb Chanel Bibene, Christal Brown, Gregory Dawson, Antoine Hunter, Maurya Kerr, Robert Moses, Brontez Purnell, Carmen Roman, Reginald Ray Savage, Raissa Simpson, Phylicia Stroud, Nafi Watson and Jamie Wright. The Festival takes place over two weekends from Saturday, February 21 to Sunday, March 1 at Dance Mission Theater in San Francisco.

Honeymoon in Vegas, the eagerly anticipated new musical comedy with book by Blazing Saddles and Fletch writer Andrew Bergman and score by three-time Tony Award-winnerJason Robert Brown, opened last night, January 15, 2015 at Broadway's Nederlander Theatre (208 West 41st Street). BroadwayWorld was there for the special night and you can check out photos from the red carpet below!

Black Ensemble Theater Founder and CEO Jackie Taylor presents the World Premiere non-singing musical drama The Trial of Moses Fleetwood Walker, written by Ervin Gardner, produced and directed by Jackie Taylor and featuring live musicians and 22 actors. The Trial of Moses Fleetwood Walker will be presented at the Black Ensemble Theater Cultural Center, 4450 N. Clark Street in Chicago, February 7 - March 15, 2015. The official press opening is scheduled for Sunday, February 15, 2015 at 3:00PM.

Do media depictions of African Americans influence the way they are treated by the police, the criminal justice system, and by society at large? In the wake of the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson and Eric Garner in Staten Island, protests have once again raised questions about the criminalization of the black image on screen. Museum of the Moving Image will present Endangered by the Moving Image: The Criminalization of Black and Brown Bodies, a timely discussion addressing this issue, on Sunday, February 1, from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. at the Museum. Leading African-American cultural commentators including Jelani Cobb, Mia Mask, and Greg Tate will look at the history of how African Americans are represented in film and television, beginning with D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation and continuing through contemporary movies and TV programs.

Rock WILK, playwright and performer, is combing the city for fifty survivors of gun violence who are willing to share their stories with the general public. This search is the root for the campaign, '50ShotIn10Days', coinciding with the performances of his new play, Brooklyn Quartet, which deals with many subjects, including race, privilege, relationships, and the Sean Bell shooting by the NYPD on November 25, 2006.

Joe's Pub at the Public has announced its nightly performances, January 14 - 25, 2015. Details below!

The multi-talented pianist Larry Weng will appear in recital this evening, January 8, 2015 , 7:30 p.m. at SubCulture Arts Underground, 45 Bleecker St., Downstairs, New York, NY as part of the Stecher and Horowitz Foundation's three-concert SubCulture series featuring standout participants of the New York International Piano Competition (NYIPC).

Actors' Shakespeare Project (ASP) begins the New Year with Shakespeare's Measure for Measure where sex, power, and justice collide in a city on the edge. The award-winning itinerant company returns to a familiar home at the Multicultural Arts Center, 41 Second Street, Cambridge tonight, January 7 through February 1, 2015.

The great Scorpion King and a disloyal rival race against time to find a treasure that possesses the power to rule the world in The Scorpion King 4: Quest for Power, debuting on Digital HD today, January 6, 2015

Victory Gardens Theater hosted We Must Breathe: A Response from Chicago Playwrights and Poets, a special event gathering members of Chicago's artistic community to share their views on discrimination, race and inequality and engage Chicagoans in a discussion about these social issues. We Must Breathe featured performances from poets and playwrights directed by Victory Gardens' Associate Artistic Producer Joanie Schultz, and a forum discussion on the performance topics, moderated by Congo Square Theatre's Artistic Director Samuel Roberson. The event was held last night, December 18, 2014 at 7:00pm at Victory Gardens Theater, 2433 N. Lincoln Avenue. Scroll down for photos!

Victory Gardens Theater hosts We Must Breathe: A Response from Chicago Playwrights and Poets, a special event gathering members of Chicago's artistic community to share their views on discrimination, race and inequality and engage Chicagoans in a discussion about these social issues.

Good morning, BroadwayWorld! Because we know all our readers eat, sleep and breathe Broadway, what could be better than waking up to it? Today's big news: Roundabout welcomes INTO THE WOODS tonight, Billy Magnussen and his band rock for charity, and WE MUST BREATHE responds to the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Gardner in Chicago!