Monique News

Aesthetics is said to be the science of beautiful in its myriad manifestations--be it sublime, comic, tragic, pathetic, whimsical, or ugly.

The story of the Ibong Adarna has captivated children across the Philippines for generations. Now, Repertory Philippines (REP) is bringing the colorful tale to life with a new English version called 'The Quest for the Adarna.'

The 2019 Theatre Week Kickoff Party celebrates the launch of the 2019-2020 theatre season and the start of Theatre Week in the Washington region. The event will take place on Saturday, September 7, 11am-4pm at Arena Stage Mead Center for American Theater. It is a free event and tickets are available through the TodayTix app and website.

Probing the fusion of eclectic steampunk music elements, flip-top rap, and musical theater (Joed Balsamo, composer; Ejay Yatco, music director), side by side a rather traditional libretto in heavy Tagalog (Nicanor Tiongson, librettist) can be refreshing yet jarring. But Tanghalang Pilipino's original musical 'Mabining Mandirigma' is our story--a period of frustration and struggle that can't be ignored. It tells the Philippines' history (1898-1903), which, sadly, keeps repeating itself until today--unless we embrace change and move forward.

Dora Maar was Pablo Picasso's muse for about nine years across the mid-1930s and 1940s before she was discarded like his other women. She was dragged into the Cubist's radical life, made to fight physically for his attention with his partner and mother to his daughter Marie, and went on to inspire many of his most notable works. Aslant Theatre Company explore what it means to act as inspiration and the sacrifice required by artistic creation in their new play Muse, written and directed by Antonia Georgieva.

Sao Paulo's artistic scene gets a new stage this week. Unimed Theater comes with the promise of becoming a space of excellence for culture in the city. Located in one of the most central points of Sao Paulo, on the corner of Rua Augusta and Alameda Santos, just one block from Paulista Avenue, the architectural project bears the signature of architect Isay Weinfeld. Producers Monique Gardenberg and Jeffrey Neale are responsible for curating the show, which opens August 22 with David Bowie's Lazarus, directed by Felipe Hirsch.

Rave Theater Festival's reading of FIRST BLACK PRESIDENT, a new American play by Ofem Ajah, M.D. announces cast. Obie award-winning actress Yvette Ganier ('Breath, Boom', 'Jitney', 'Gem of the Ocean') will direct. The reading starts at 12:30 Wednesday, August 21st at Teatro SEA, at the Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center, located at 107 Suffolk Street, 1st Floor in Manhattan. The reading is free and open to the public. Please R.S.V.P to ofema753@gmail.com.

Rave Theater Festival's reading of FIRST BLACK PRESIDENT, a new American play by Ofem Ajah, M.D. announces cast. Obie award-winning actress Yvette Ganier ('Breath, Boom', 'Jitney', 'Gem of the Ocean') will direct. The reading starts at 12:30 Wednesday, August 21st at Teatro SEA, at the Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center, located at 107 Suffolk Street, 1st Floor in Manhattan. The reading is free and open to the public. Please R.S.V.P to ofema753@gmail.com.

In an attempt to get back into the movie business, Gavin Miller, a screenwriter-turned-professor, finds himself in an unorthodox collaboration with a student, Jeremiah Collins, possessing a unique past and who has an encyclopedic knowledge and love of classic cinema.

The a?oeFrom Memphis to Las Vegas a?" Elvis Presley Tributea?? show features the duo, James Marais and Monique Cassells. They pay tribute to all three decades of the a?oeKing of Rock 'n Rolla??, Elvis Presley's career, i.e. the 1950's, '60s and '70s. The show is a mini-theatrical experience, featuring the dynamic vocal and visual performances of James and Monique, alternating as a duo and individual performers, who also do multiple costume changes throughout.

New Adventures World Premiere tour of Matthew Bourne's “ROMEO AND JULIET” will have a four-week summer season at Sadler's Wells from Wednesday 7 August to Saturday 31 August 2019. The two casts, 'The Capulets' and 'The Montagues', will perform at different times.

Tony Award winner and American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) Artistic Director Pam MacKinnon announced today the full cast and creative team for Caryl Churchill's Top Girls, opening A.C.T.'s 2019a?"20 season.

Off the heels of producing its festival nationally in the Bronx,  Detroit, and Winston-Salem, Harlem9 presents the Obie Award-Winning a?oe48Hours in... Harlema??.

a?oeWest Side Story,a?? one of the most iconic American musicals of all time, continues Moonlight Stage Productions 39th summer season with performances from August 14 - 31, 2019 at 8:00 p.m.

Cygnet presents the racy political thriller The Virgin Trial, a contemporary re-imagining of the shocking yet widely-forgotten story of Elizabeth I before she became queen. Directed by Rob Lutfy, this U.S. Premiere runs September 11 through October 6, 2019. Opening Night for media is Saturday, September 14 at 8:00PM.

Digital arts journal Stage Raw announces the nominees for its fifth annual Stage Raw Theater Awards, to be held Monday night September 9, 2019, at Los Angeles Theatre Center, 514 S. Spring Street. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. The show starts at 7:30 p.m. Tickets will go on sale Wednesday August 7, 2019. The Stage Raw Theater Awards honor the finest work performed on Los Angeles area stages of 99-seats or fewer, and are selected by a jury of Stage Raw critics. This year's awards celebrate work performed between June 1, 2018 and May 31, 2019.

Flames are licking at The Court Theatre as The Arsonists enter The Forge, presenting a blazing drama featuring live music.

We are now at the midpoint of summer and you are most likely looking for something a little bit different to do with your kids before sending them back to school. What if I told you that the Kennedy Center is currently producing a World Premiere Commission that is both entertaining and educational? I hope you'd say 'Tell me more!' because I have plenty to say about this brand new musical for all ages called Earthrise. The production was created to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 launch.

The musical adaptation of Steven Steven Spielberg's screenplay(2002) of Frank William Abagnale Jr's autobiography (1980, written by Abagnale and Stan Redding) is given the intimate Hayes Theatre treatment for an evening of high energy song and dance as one of the America's most famous fraudsters is bought to life in CATCH ME IF YOU CAN. 

Cameron Mackintosh and Disney Theatrical Productions have announced final adult casting for the new production of Mary Poppins which begins rehearsals in September and returns to its original West End home at the Prince Edward Theatre from 23 October 2019.