Mr. Wright News

As BroadwayWorld previously reported, Drama Desk winners Vanessa Williams and Matthew Morrison announced the nominations for the 61st Annual Drama Desk Awards last week, April 28. However, the 'Best Book of a Musical' category was not included this year. After being shamed on social media for leaving the category out of the initial nominations, the Drama Desk Awards (without announcement) quietly added the category back this afternoon on their web site.

The 'Best Book of a Musical' category was not included in the Drama Desk nominations this year. In response to this development, Doug Wright, President of the Dramatists Guild of America, wrote a letter to the Drama Desk's president saying he and his team are 'painfully aggrieved' this season's book writers aren't being given the credit they deserve.

Vancouver, BC ~ On June 2, 2016, four of Canada's pre-eminent singers will join the Vancouver Opera Orchestra and Chorus, conducted by Music Director Jonathan Darlington, in “BraVO! A Vancouver Opera Concert” – a celebratory concert of opera excerpts honouring VO's General Director James W. Wright, who is retiring June 30th after 17 years at the head of the company. 

"Our goal as a hospitality organization is to look beyond our bottom line and see how we are improving the lives of our guests, employees, environment and community, which we implement through EarthView - our unique, sustainable hospitality program," says HHM CEO Naveen Kakarla. "Our Autism Awareness partnership is one of our most valuable and impactful causes, which we are proud to build upon every year."

Brownstone Poets presents Michael Graves, Sarah Sarai, Francine Witte on Saturday, May 7, 2016 at 2:30 p.m. at Park Plaza Restaurant in historic Brooklyn Heights. Poetry grows in Brooklyn Heights and there's an open mic as well. Brownstone Poets presents: Michael Graves Sarah Sarai Francine Witte Saturday, May 7, 2016 at 2:30 p.m. Park Plaza Restaurant 220 Cadman Plaza West near Clark St.and Pineapple Walk Brooklyn, NY 11201 - 718 - 596 - 5900 Subways: Take the A or C to High Street, 2 or 3 to Clark Street R to Court Street 4 or to 5 Borough Hall For more directions: Please check the MTA's 'The Weekender' for all transit updates. http://web.mta.info/weekender.html $5 Donation - plus Food/Drink - Open-Mic Curated by Patricia Carragon *FOR FACEBOOK INVITATION: https://www.facebook.com/events/1024953767570553/ pcarragon@gmail.com brownstonepoets.blogspot.com/ patriciacarragon8.wordpress.com/ en-gb.facebook.com/people/Brownstone-Poets/541314712 Bios Michael Graves is the author of Adam and Cain (Black Buzzard, 2006), In Fragility (Black Buzzard, 2011) and two chapbooks, Illegal Border Crosser (Cervana Barva, 2008) and Outside St. Jude's (R. E. M. Press, 1990). His poem 'Apollo to Daphne' appears in an anthology from Oxford University Press, Gods and Mortals (2001) and his 'Poem to Spring in a Time of Global Warming' appears onAboutPoetry.com In two thousand four (2004), he received a grant from the Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation. Thirteen (13) of his poems appear in the James Joyce Quarterly. He has published scholarly-critical work on James Wright and organized a conference on Mr. Wright at Poets House in 2004. Of Sarah Sarai's new collection Debora Lidov wrote: 'The generosity, the word play and re-play, the variations, the real world and its perpetual redemptions, the imagination's power not to transform exactly, but to reveal, which is transforming, make Geographies of Soul and Taffeta (Indolent Books), a rewarding read.' Sarai's poems have been published in Painted Bride Quarterly, Boston Review, Threepenny Review, The Collagist, and many other journals. She has written essays about spirit guides and selling marijuana while in high school, holds an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College, and is thinking of getting a schnauzer. Check out Sarah Sarai at http://www.indolentbooks.com/bookstore/ Francine Witte is the author of the poetry chapbooks Only, Not Only (Finishing Line Press, 2012) andFirst Rain (Pecan Grove Press, 2009), winner of the Pecan Grove Press competition, and the flash fiction chapbooks Cold June (Ropewalk Press), selected by Robert Olen Butler as the winner of the 2010 Thomas A. Wilhelmus Award, and The Wind Twirls Everything (MuscleHead Press). Her poem 'My Dead Florida Mother Meets Gandhi' is the first prize winner of the 2015 Slippery Elm poetry award. She has been nominated seven times for a pushcart prize in poetry and once for fiction. She is an avid iphoneographer. A former English teacher, Francine lives in New York.

Malibu Playhouse continues their 2016 season with another limited-run critically acclaimed production: The Pavilion written by Craig Wright, the creator and executive producer of the dramatic series, Greenleaf, the first original series produced by Oprah Winfrey, which will begin airing in June. The Pavilion is helmed by Jeremy Skidmore, world renowned theater director and current Guest Artistic Director of the Malibu Playhouse.

In one month, Blue Man Group will host a sensory-friendly show, suitable for children with autism spectrum disorders, supporting Autism Speaks on Saturday, Dec. 5 at 6 p.m. at Universal Orlando Resort.

With the help of 100 award-winning celebrity chefs, Autism Speaks raised $1.25 million at its inaugural Autism Speaks to Los Angeles Celebrity Chef Gala, which took place October 8, 2015 at Barker Hangar in Santa Monica. More than 600 guests, including Hollywood's top industry execs and celebrities Conan O'Brien, Al Roker, P!nk and Giada De Laurentiis honored Autism Speaks co-founders Bob and Suzanne Wright and commemorated the organization's ten years of progress.

Tonight, October 8, 2015 from 6:30 p.m. to 10 p.m., Autism Speaks will host its first ever AUTISM SPEAKS TO LOS ANGELES CELEBRITY CHEF GALA, in which 100 award-winning chefs will cook tableside for guests to honor Autism Speaks co-founders Suzanne & Bob Wright and celebrate the organization's 10th anniversary.

On October 8, 2015 from 6:30 p.m. to 10 p.m., Autism Speaks will host its first ever AUTISM SPEAKS TO LOS ANGELES CELEBRITY CHEF GALA, in which 100 award-winning chefs will cook tableside for guests to honor Autism Speaks co-founders Suzanne & Bob Wright and celebrate the organization's 10th anniversary.

Two Turns Theatre Company will present an intimate and freshly interpreted production of Doug Wright's Pulitzer and Tony Award-winning play, I Am My Own Wife, about the infamous German transvestite Charlotte von Mahlsdorf. Directed by Amy Corcoran and starring Drama Desk nominee Vince Gatton, the play will be performed in and among the furniture, art, clothing and taxidermy of RePOP (143 Roebling St., Brooklyn, NY 11211), Williamsburg's noted vintage shop. Performances begin tonight, September 23 and will run through October 4. I Am My Own Wife will perform Todays through Sundays at 7:30 p.m.

Two Turns Theatre Company will present an intimate and freshly interpreted production of Doug Wright's Pulitzer and Tony Award-winning play, I Am My Own Wife, about the infamous German transvestite Charlotte von Mahlsdorf. Directed by Amy Corcoran and starring Drama Desk nominee Vince Gatton, the play will be performed in and among the furniture, art, clothing and taxidermy of RePOP (143 Roebling St., Brooklyn, NY 11211), Williamsburg's noted vintage shop. Performances begin September 23 and will run through October 4. I Am My Own Wife will perform Wednesdays through Sundays at 7:30 p.m.

Pulitzer Prize winning author, screenwriter and journalist Lawrence Wright's latest book, Thirteen Days in September, has been named one of the "Top 10 Books of 2014" by The New York Times, is #5 on Amazon.com's Editors' List of the Best Books of 2014, made NPR's list of "2014's Great Reads," as well as Entertainment Weekly's "10 Best Nonfiction Books of 2014" and Publisher's Weekly "10 Best Books of 2014."

Charles Wright, long-time Drama Desk member, has been elected the new President of the Drama Desk by its membership voting electronically in approval of the projected Officers and Board of Director slate for 2014-2015.] He assumed the Presidency at this evening's annual membership meeting, held from 5:30-7:30 p.m. at the Travel Inn, 515 West 42nd Street. Mr. Wright was introduced as the incoming President by outgoing President Isa Goldberg, who was elected to remain on the Board as a Member-at-Large.

Michael Wright, President and Head of Programming, TNT, TBS and Turner Classic Movies, has been named CEO of DreamWorks Studios effective January 3, 2015

Silhouette Theatre Company presents the Denver Premiere production of Grace September 4 - September 27 with shows at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday; 2:00 p.m. on Saturdays; 6:30 p.m. on Sundays and a special show on Monday, September 22 at 7:30 p.m. at The John Hand Theater, 7653 E. 1st Place in Denver. Ticket are $18; group discounts are available by calling 303-999-9143 or on-line at www.silhouettetheatrecompany.org.

Hands on a Hardbody is a new rock musical about 10 Texans whose new lease on life is so close they can touch it. Under a scorching sun for days on end and armed with nothing but hope and ambition, they'll fight to keep at least one hand on a brand-new truck in order to win it. In this hard-fought contest, only one winner can drive away with the American dream.

Hands on a Hardbody is a new rock musical about 10 Texans whose new lease on life is so close they can touch it. Under a scorching sun for days on end and armed with nothing but hope and ambition, they'll fight to keep at least one hand on a brand-new truck in order to win it. In this hard-fought contest, only one winner can drive away with the American dream.

Admittedly, I am a sucker for new plays, but when they're as ambitious as this one, I get even more excited. This one is one to be excited about.

The Douglas Morrisson Theatre (DMT) has announced the fifth production in the 2013-2014 'Bare Bones' staged reading series: "GRACE" by Craig Wright, a darkly comic play exploring the changing nature of faith, time and space.