Mike Lew News

The first production in this season will be Pulitzer Prize-winner Suzan-Lori Parks' modern epic IN THE BLOOD (17 April a?" 6 June 2020). Ellen McDougall will direct the first major UK production.

La Jolla Playhouse has announced the final two productions for its 2020/2021 season: the world premieres of to the yellow house, by Kimber Lee (tokyo fish story), directed by former Playhouse Associate Artistic Director Neel Keller (School for Wives, Light Up the Sky), running July 14 - August 9; and Guilty Pleasure, by Paul Rudnick (Jeffrey; screenplays for Sister Act, In & Out), directed by Christopher Ashley (Come From Away, Diana), the Rich Family Artistic Director of La Jolla Playhouse. Produced in association with Diversionary Theatre, Guilty Pleasure will run November 8 - December 6.

Kathy Evans, Founding Executive Director of Rhinebeck Writers Retreat, announced applications are open to musical theatre writers for nine consecutive weeklong residencies in the Hudson Valley between June 28 and August 30.

The Kleban Foundation celebrates the 30th anniversary of the annual Kleban Prize for Musical Theatre with the announcement of the 2020 prize winners.

Mike Lew's Teenage Dick has just opened at the Donmar Warehouse. The original take on Shakespeare's Richard III relocates the action to an American high school. We talked to Alice Hewkin, who plays Clarissa Duke, about everything it takes to move Shakespeare into Mean Girls territory.

It's a case of rather ironic programming that the press night for Mike Lew's Teenage Dick at the Donmar Warehouse was on the 12 December, the day of the General Election in the UK. An adaptation of Shakespeare's Richard III, Lew's new play is a meditation on the nature of power transposed to an American high school. Commissioned by The Apothetae, a theatre company dedicated to plays that discuss disability, and with direction by Michael Longhurst, Lew retells Shakespeare with a needed urgency, providing an arch reminder that the voices of the disabled have often been ignored, terrorised or shouted down from the earliest possibility.

The Donmar Warehouse announces casting for Lyndsey Turner's new production of Caryl Churchill's Far Away. BAFTA-winning actress Jessica Hynes will make her Donmar debut in the role of Harper alongside Aisling Loftus as Joan and Simon Manyonda as Todd. Casting for the role of Young Joan is to be announced at a later date.

Musical theater returns to McCarter Theatre Center with the 2021 arrival of Bhangin' It, a large-scale uplifting new musical that will premiere in June 2021, following a production at La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego.

La Jolla Playhouse announces four of six productions for its 2020/2021 season, including the world premieres of Bhangin' It, book by Mike Lew (Tiger Style!) and Rehana Lew Mirza (DNA New Work Series' Child of Colonialism), music and lyrics by Sam Willmott, directed by Amy Anders Corcoran, co-produced with McCarter Theatre Center; and Mother Russia, by UC San Diego MFA alumna Lauren Yee (Cambodian Rock Band), directed by Tyne Rafaeli (The Coast Starlight); along with What the Constitution Means to Me, the acclaimed work by Pulitzer Prize finalist Heidi Schreck, directed by Oliver Butler; and the previously-announced, Broadway-bound musical Lempicka, book and lyrics by Carson Kreitzer, music by Matt Gould, directed by 2019 Tony Award winner Rachel Chavkin (Broadway's Hadestown).

The Donmar Warehouse announces the full cast for Teenage Dick, Mike Lew's darkly comic take on Shakespeare's Richard III, directed by Donmar Artistic Director Michael Longhurst. Joining previously announced cast Daniel Monks and Susan Wokoma are Callum Adams, Alice Hewkin, Siena Kelly and Ruth Madeley.

Teenage Dick, Mike Lew's devastatingly funny, sharply written new play about perception, disability and the lengths we're willing to go to rise above our station in life, will receive its Chicago premiere at Theater Wit, March 6-April 19, 2020.

The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center is now accepting script submissions for the 2020 National Playwrights Conference. Writers may submit their new plays to the O'Neill's Open Submissions Process through Friday, October 11, 2019.

The Donmar Warehouse and Clean Break today announce full casting for the world premiere of [BLANK] a new play by Alice Birch. Directed by Maria Aberg, full casting includes Ayesha Antoine, Shona Babayemi, Sophia Brown, Jackie Clune, Grace Doherty, Lucy Edkins, Zaris-Angel Hator, Zainab Hasan, Joanna Horton, Thusitha Jayasundera, Petra Letang, Leah Mondesir-Simmonds, Kate O'Flynn, Ashna Rabheru, Jemima Rooper and Taya Tower.

Works & Process, the performing arts series at the Guggenheim, presents MCC Theater: Seared by Theresa Rebeck on Monday, September 9, 2019 at 7:30pm.

a??a??a??a??a??a??a??The Lark, a theater company devoted to the support of extraordinary playwrights and the development of new plays, is thrilled to announce that Sam Chanse, J. Julian Christopher, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, C.A. Johnson, and Abe Koogler have been selected as the 2019-20 Rita Goldberg Playwrights' Workshop Fellows. This year marks the 20th iteration of the Workshop, which was established by renowned playwright Arthur Kopit, and brings together emerging and established playwrights in a space where they are free to explore new material, without commercial pressures.

Broadway and TV actor Frances Jue is currently starring in TheatreWorks' production of Julia Cho's 'The Language Archive.' Mr. Jue recently talked to BroadwayWorld about his lengthy and surprising career path, from his formative experiences with Stephen Sondheim and TheatreWorks to working with Tony winners David Henry Hwang and Jeanine Tesori, and of course his continuing role on the CBS television series 'Madam Secretary.' His fascinating story serves as an inspiring example for anyone who doesn't see a clear path to success or struggles to find a place to fit in.

Let me admit when I saw MATILDA on Broadway in 2013 (winner of 5 Tony Awards), I did not enjoy it. I just could not understand the character of the buffoon Miss Trunchbell, the Olympian hammer throwing athletic principal of Matilda's school. He was the villain of all villains.

Since its founding in 1989, Ma-Yi Theater Company has distinguished itself as one of the country's leading incubators of new work shaping the national discourse about what it means to be Asian American today.

Since its founding in 1989, Ma-Yi Theater Company has distinguished itself as one of the country's leading incubators of new work shaping the national discourse about what it means to be Asian American today. Building on the recent success of the Lortel Award-winner KPOP and Mike Lew's Teenage Dick, Ma-Yi is pleased to announce programming for its 30th anniversary season.

Mara Isaacs, Director of Project Springboard: Developing Dance Musicals, today announced the recipients of the third annual residency awards: A Nation Grooves: A People's History of Hip-Hop, led by Kambi Gathesha (creator, director, choreographer), and Sinan Zafar (sound design, sonic dramaturgy); and The Quiet World, led by Charles Sutton (director, choreographer), Will Van Dyke (composer), and Matthew Greene (book). Both projects will be in residence June 10-28, 2019 in New York City.