Nancy Bell News

It's hard to ask for a better city in which to perform The Wolves, Sarah DeLappe's acclaimed drama that focuses on the fascinating dynamics of a girls soccer team. With its history of producing fantastic female soccer players and rabid club soccer fanbase, St. Louis is a hotbed for the sport.

Three emerging playwrights - two from St. Louis and one from Chicago - have been selected to participate in a new initiative developed by Shakespeare Festival St. Louis called the Confluence Regional Writers Project. As part of the program, the festival has also selected St. Louisan Carter Lewis, a two-time nominee for the American Theatre Critics Award, as the Festival's 2019 Playwriting Fellow.

It's hard to ask for a better city in which to perform The Wolves, Sarah DeLappe's acclaimed drama that focuses on the fascinating dynamics of a girls soccer team. With its history of producing fantastic female soccer players and rabid club soccer fanbase, St. Louis is a hotbed for the sport.

Ben Nordstrom and Kari Ely will play opposite one another in "Into the Breeches!," the headlining production of Shakespeare Festival St. Louis' new program titled, In the Works, set for Oct. 28 through Nov. 24, at the Grandel Theatre. Written by George Brant and directed by Nancy Bell, the month-long, ticketed production is the culmination of the Festival's 2018 season.

"Into the Breeches," a play written by George Brant and directed by Nancy Bell, will be the main stage production of Shakespeare Festival St. Louis' new fourth pillar of programming, In the Works. The month-long, ticketed event, scheduled for late fall at the Grandel Theatre, will culminate the 2018 season that includes the Education Tour, SHAKE 38, the main stage production of "Romeo & Juliet" (June 1-24) and the Shakespeare in the Streets' production of "Blow, Winds," (June 15-16). 

Missouri students will learn a bit more of the Bard's take on identity and difference, issues people have grappled with no matter the genre, culture or century, and all part of the 2018 Shakespeare Festival St. Louis award-winning Education Tour, now through April 15. The tour includes more than 150 performances and workshops conducted at 50 schools throughout the metro area and rural Missouri.

Shakespeare Festival St. Louis will be adding a fourth pillar - In the Works - to its In the Schools, In the Streets, In the Park programming, enhancing its appeal as a year-round festival, it was announced today. In the Works, a month-long ticketed event, scheduled for late fall at the Grandel Theatre, will culminate the 2018 season that includes the Education Tour (Feb. 5-April 15), SHAKE 38 (April 18-22), the main stage production of "Romeo & Juliet" (June 1-24) and Shakespeare in the Streets' production of "Blow, Winds," (June 15-16).

In the current climate of male dominated businesses and organizations, a power struggle is occurring in the arena of gender politics where women often come in second. But in Sarah Treem's play, The How and the Why, she puts the feminine first with two female evolutionary biologists in a heavily male dominated field. It is a play about science, feminism and generational rivalry. NJT will stage the production from January 24 February 11 in the Wool Studio Theatre.

Local step company, The Gentlemen of Vision, and a 60-person choir whose members represent area churches and high schools, will take to the stage with professional actors, including Joneal Joplin, and St. Louis residents when rehearsals begin this week for the sixth annual Shakespeare in the Streets' production titled, Blow, Winds, a play artfully adapted from William Shakespeare's King Lear. 

Parts of playwright Brian Friel's DANCING AT LUGHNASA are joyous, and some are unsettling, mainly because we come to care so much about the Mundy family that inhabits it. I personally found it fascinating and disturbing at the same time. It's that dichotomy that drives the action, and it provides no easy answers for the viewer. I actually like that aspect. Because life isn't a bed of roses for most of us, instead it's a journey where obstacles pop up, sometimes unexpectedly, forcing us to constantly adapt and change, or risk being steamrolled by circumstance. Mustard Seed Theatre is presenting this engrossing play as they close their tenth season, and it's a production well worth your time and attention. Go see it!

Grammy Award-winning soprano Christine Brewer and St. Louis star Linda Kennedy will perform at the St. Louis Visionary Awards on Mon., April 24, at The Sun Theater in Grand Center (3625 Grandel Square). Brewer and Kennedy's performances will honor six local women who will be recognized for their numerous contributions and achievements to the arts.

A timely retelling of Julius Caesar and an original play for young audiences by playwright Nancy Bell will highlight Shakespeare Festival St. Louis' award-winning Education Tour, Feb. 6 through April 16, at up to 65 schools throughout the metro area and rural Missouri.

Residents from all neighborhoods will be asked to reflect on 'what it means to be a St. Louisan today' as part of the sixth annual 2017 Shakespeare in the Streets: ONE CITY, underwritten by PNC Arts Alive, Sept. 15-17, in downtown St. Louis. The specific location will be announced at a later date. 

Written in approximately 1610, The Winter's Tale is considered to be one of a group of Shakespeare's plays that are vaguely defined by their tragic undertones and simultaneous use of straightforward comic situations. Other plays in this category include Measure for Measure, The Merchant of Venice, Troilus & Cressida, All's Well that Ends Well, and Timon of Athens. While this is the first time the Festival will be featuring this play as its mainstage show in Forest Park, The Winter's Tale was adapted for the 2013 Shakespeare in the Streets production Old Hearts Fresh, written by Festival playwright Nancy Bell and performed in The Grove.

Shakespeare Festival St. Louis announced today that The Winter's Tale will be the 2017 season main stage production at Shakespeare Glen in Forest Park. Both tragic and funny, the production is scheduled June 2-25; preview nights are set for May 31 and June 1.

People in the St. Louis area have two opportunities to see the show. Center of Creative Arts (COCA, 524 Trinity Ave, St. Louis, MO 63130) will be hosting a performance on Saturday, October 15th at 8pm and The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis (130 Edgar Rd, Webster Groves, MO 63119) will be hosting a performance on Monday, October 24th at 8pm. All performances will be free of charge.

 Theatre UCF opens Clybourne Park Thursday, September 22 in UCF's Black Box theatre. The play, written by Bruce Norris, runs through Sunday, Oct. 2.

 Theatre UCF opens Clybourne Park Thursday, September 22 in UCF's Black Box theatre. The play, written by Bruce Norris, runs through Sunday, Oct. 2.

Local beer, donuts, bowling and the Bard will all come together as Shakespeare in the Streets heads to Maplewood this week (Sept. 16-18). This year's production, "Remember Me," will feature a mash-up of "Hamlet," "A Midsummer Night's Dream," and "Macbeth," with a little "Romeo & Juliet" thrown in. All performances will begin at 8 p.m. on Sutton Boulevard, between Hazel and Marietta streets.