Michael Gene Sullivan News

The Williamston Theater, mid-Michigan's award winning professional theatre company located at 122 S. Putnam in downtown Williamston, celebrates its 11th Season with a mix of comedies, dramas, murders, World Premiers and Michigan Premiers.

Education. It's like the weather: everyone has an opinion but nobody does anything about it. That's how Lavinia Jones feels about her son Thomas' new school, Eleanor Roosevelt High. Decades of funding cuts have resulted in old textbooks, crumbling classrooms, and underpaid teachers, making Roosevelt exactly the sort of public school that has failed students time and time again. Isn't it time for something... efficient? And efficient is exactly what Fredersen Babbit, from Learning Academy for Virtual Achievement (LAVA Corp.), promises to bring to the district. New Technology, remote learning, computer-generated teachers -LAVA promises to put the 'virtual' in achievement! But with kids learning from home, do we need all these empty schools? And with privatization on the line, a Wall Street heavy hitter on one side and a feisty octogenarian teacher Ethel Orocuru on the other, suddenly the next School Board election is more about a hidden agenda than the open curriculum. Are schools the last chance for democracy, or is education the next frontier for profit? Can we trust a politician's public/private plan to replace an out-of-date system, or is there something even more sinister than privatization going on behind the doors of LAVA? And wait - when did the hall monitors start wearing brown shirts and arm bands? When it comes to the real plan for the future of education - and of our democracy - are we all about to get... Schooled?

Education. It's like the weather: everyone has an opinion but nobody does anything about it. That's how Lavinia Jones feels about her son Thomas' new school, Eleanor Roosevelt High. Decades of funding cuts have resulted in old textbooks, crumbling classrooms, and underpaid teachers, making Roosevelt exactly the sort of public school that has failed students time and time again. Isn't it time for something... efficient? And efficient is exactly what Fredersen Babbit, from Learning Academy for Virtual Achievement (LAVA Corp.), promises to bring to the district. New Technology, remote learning, computer-generated teachers -LAVA promises to put the 'virtual' in achievement! But with kids learning from home, do we need all these empty schools? And with privatization on the line, a Wall Street heavy hitter on one side and a feisty octogenarian teacher Ethel Orocuru on the other, suddenly the next School Board election is more about a hidden agenda than the open curriculum. Are schools the last chance for democracy, or is education the next frontier for profit? Can we trust a politician's public/private plan to replace an out-of-date system, or is there something even more sinister than privatization going on behind the doors of LAVA? And wait - when did the hall monitors start wearing brown shirts and arm bands? When it comes to the real plan for the future of education - and of our democracy - are we all about to get... Schooled?

TheatreWorks Silicon Valley continues its 2015/2016 season with the Regional Premiere of the dazzling romance, CYRANO, a new sprightly adaptation by Michael Hollinger (Opus) and Aaron Posner (My Name is Asher Lev, The Chosen) of Edmond Rostand's classic Cyrano de Bergerac.

Tim Robbins truly relishes the value and reach of theatre; and he persistently works to disseminate it throughout the world. We got a chance to talk with Tim, co-founder of The Actors' Gang and its current Artistic Director, the day after his latest directorial project ORWELL'S 1984 opened. See any of the productions Tim has directed and be challenged only not to be entertained, but thinking about what the play is saying.

The Actors' Gang's Artistic Director Tim Robbins deftly directs his extremely talented cast as they fluidly impart the Orwellian tale of total Big Brother domination in ORWELL'S 1984. Originally viewed as sci-fi when written back in 1949, ORWELL'S 1984 complements as a fitting addition to The Actors' Gang's current Season of Justice. Michael Gene Sullivan has ever so smartly adapted George Orwell's novel into the present 21st century.

TheatreWorks Silicon Valley continues its 2015/2016 season with the Regional Premiere of the dazzling romance, CYRANO, a new sprightly adaptation by Michael Hollinger (Opus) and Aaron Posner (My Name is Asher Lev, The Chosen) of Edmond Rostand's classic Cyrano de Bergerac.

Playwrights Foundation has announced its annual winter event featuring micro plays by the Bay Area's finest playwrights!

San Francisco Playhouse (Bill English, Artistic Director; Susi Damilano, Producing Director) continues its thirteenth Mainstage season with the Bay Area premiere of Sarah Ruhl's valentine to the theatre, Stage Kiss, directed by Susi Damilano. The show will feature Allen Darby,Millie DeBenedet, Taylor Jones, Gabriel Marin*, Carrie Paff*, Mark Anderson Phillips*, and Michael Gene Sullivan*.

Barter Theatre unveils the 2016 production schedule with a behind-the-scenes preview of what the next season has in store. Producing Artistic Director Richard Rose announces an exciting season filled with comedy, drama and many world-famous shows patrons will recognize from their silver-screen adaptations.

Playwrights Foundation delivers lightning in a bottle with FlashPlays a lively new format of 30 second to 2 minute plays on December 6 & 7, 2015. Over 40 playwrights will create roughly 80 short plays to drive this whirlwind event at the historic Brava Theater in San Francisco. These short works come together forming an artistic mosaic of the here and now, a depiction the world around us in a fun and dynamic format.

San Francisco Playhouse opens its thirteenth Mainstage season with the San Francisco premiere of the musical Dogfight, directed by Bill English. The show will feature Jeffrey Brian Adams* (Promises, Promises), Jordan Bridges, Caitlin Brooke, Nikita Burshteyn, Brandon Dahlquist*, Sally Dana*, Kathryn Hart, Andrew Humann, Amy Lizardo*, AeJay Mitchell, and Michael Gene Sullivan*.

San Francisco Playhouse opens its thirteenth Mainstage season with the San Francisco premiere of the musical Dogfight, directed by Bill English. The show will feature Jeffrey Brian Adams* (Promises, Promises), Jordan Bridges, Caitlin Brooke, Nikita Burshteyn, Brandon Dahlquist*, Sally Dana*, Kathryn Hart, Andrew Humann, Amy Lizardo*, AeJay Mitchell, and Michael Gene Sullivan*.

Peter and the Starcatcher may not match your idea of the perfect Christmas show, but it's certainly best friends with the holidays. An emotional and inspirational experience awaits at Theatreworks' production of the Pan prequel. And there's always the company's faux snow after each performance.

Playwrights Foundation (PF) and the New York-based company The One-Minute Play Festival are thrilled to announce the final casting for the 5th Annual SF One-Minute Play Festival (#1MPF), December 15th and 16th, 2014 - an evening of 86 brand- new one-minute plays by a highly vaunted group of 50 Bay Area playwrights, all written within the past month specially for the event.

Central Works 25th Anniversary Season celebrates the company's ongoing commitment to new works. Since 1991, the company has developed and produced 45 world premieres (many through its eponymous Central Works Method) bringing to the stage new works by local writers such as William Bivins, Christopher Chen, Anne Galjour, Gary Graves, Aaron Loeb, Patricia Milton, Geetha Reddy, Michael Gene Sullivan, and Brian Thorstenson, among others. As noted in Theater Bay Area Magazine, 'Berkeley's Central Works is probably host to more world premieres by local writers than any other company in the Bay Area.' The 2015 Season concludes with the company's 49th world premiere, a new play by Lauren Gunderson. Overall, the season showcases Central Works favorite sources of inspiration: current political events, history and literature.

Playwrights Foundation (PF) and The New York based company, The One-Minute Play Festival are thrilled to announce the 5th Annual SF One-Minute Play Festival (#1MPF), December 15th and 16th, 2014 - an evening of more than 80 brand new one minute plays by 53 Bay Area playwrights -- a highly vaunted group, all written within the past month specifically for the event.

Central Works concludes the 2014 season with 'Recipe,' a funny new work by Michael Gene Sullivan, opening with a press night tonight, October 18 at 8 pm and running through November 23 at the historic Berkeley City Club.

Tonight, October 17th Theatre Pro Rata will open its 2014-15 season with an adaptation of George Orwell's classic novel 1984 at Intermedia Arts in Minneapolis, MN. The dystopian tale of an authoritarian government that controls every aspect of its citizens' lives has been adapted for the stage by Michael Gene Sullivan.