Neal Shapiro News

WNET, parent company of New York's PBS stations THIRTEEN and WLIW21 and operator of NJTV, is pleased to announce the launch of ALL ARTS - an unprecedented streaming platform and broadcast channel that offers access to all forms of creative expression from New York and around the world. Presenting exceptional cultural content, ALL ARTS is a place for creators to learn from one another and for artists from all disciplines to reach audiences across the tri-state area. Select programming is now available on the Web, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. The full network, including the TV channel and streaming apps on iOS and Android smartphones and tablets, Roku, Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV, will launch in January 28, 2019.

The world order in place since the aftermath of World War II is coming apart, and global summits like the G-7 and G-20 no longer have the influence they once did. This is what political scientist Ian Bremmer calls the 'GZERO World.'

Solo performers from six continents will once again unite in the heart of New York's theatre district. Over 130 productions will be presented at this year's United Solo, the largest festival of its kind in the world, now in its 9th year. With up to five performances every day until November 18 at Theatre Row, this year's robust selection of one-person shows will attract thousands of theatregoers. Over 25 performances have sold out in advance, with more expected to follow. The festival will grant additional performance dates to its most popular productions. This year, United Solo also offers Master Classes with world-famous theatre creators and recognized experts, including Oscar-winning actress Olympia Dukakis, who will give her Master Class hosted by Omar Sangare, founder and artistic director of United Solo, on September 16, and Juilliard School professor Janis Brenner, whose Master Class is scheduled for September 17.

The world order in place since the aftermath of World War II is coming apart, and global summits like the G-7 and G-20 no longer have the influence they once did. This is what political scientist Ian Bremmer calls the “GZERO World.”

WNET, parent company of New York's PBS stations THIRTEEN and WLIW21 and operator of NJTV, celebrated its 25th Gala Salute, which took place Monday, June 11 at The Plaza in New York City.

Yesterday, at the PBS Annual Meeting with public television stations, PBS and WNET announced that in collaboration with CNN, the new one-hour late-night public affairs series, Amanpour & Company, will launch in July on PBS (check local listings). The new series will feature wide-ranging, in-depth conversations with global thought leaders and cultural influencers on the issues and trends impacting the world each day, from politics, business and technology to arts, science and sports. Christiane Amanpour leads the conversation on global and domestic news from London with contributions by prominent journalists Walter Isaacson, Michel Martin, Alicia Menendez and Hari Sreenivasan from the Tisch WNET Studios at Lincoln Center in New York City. The new series, an expansion of CNN's flagship program Amanpour, will continue to air on CNN International weekdays.

The world's largest solo theatre festival announced its 2018 selections, which include over 120 productions from all over the world. These productions represent various forms of theatre, dance, and performance art, and will be presented at Theatre Row. The 42nd Street venue has been home for United Solo since 2010. The festival is a resident company at Theatre Row, where it has presented nearly 1,000 productions from six continents over the past eight years.

International Public Television Coming to Brooklyn, NY; First Time Anyplace in New York State. INPUT 2018 will take place in Brooklyn, NY, April 30 to May 4, 2018. Hosted by Forest Creatures Foundation with co-hosts Brooklyn College and WNET, this will be the first time the International Public Television conference will convene anyplace in New York State and the seventh time in its forty two year history that it will be in the United States. This conference of public media professionals takes place at a different location around the world each year. The last time INPUT took place in the United States was May 2005 in San Francisco. Joining Leonard Merrill Kurz, President, Forest Creatures Foundation at the Opening Reception on April 30 at Weylin in the Williamsburg district of Brooklyn will be Neal Shapiro of WNET, a special presentation from Brooklyn Borough President Eric L. Adams' office proclaiming that week International Pubic Television week in Brooklyn, a welcome from Jonathan Barzilay, COO of PBS, a keynote address from Amy Goodman of Democracy Now, music from the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, and Jen Chapin, and more. The primary event of all INPUTs is three screening rooms of public television programming from around the world. INPUT 2018, being in New York City (specifically Brooklyn), will have some special additions. Special events include a Commissioning Editors Luncheon where delegates will have the opportunity to dine in small groups with pubic television production decision makers, a lunch panel with the senior producer of the acclaimed PBS series NOVA, a presentation on diversity in US public television, and more. The primary venue for the screenings will be Williamsburg Cinemas. INPUT 2018 is open to all professionals involved with public media. To register: www.input-tv.org INPUT was founded forty two years ago with a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation on the principle that every culture is valuable and deserves respect and recognition. It stimulates an increased awareness of cultural, societal, and national sensibilities as they relate to public television programming from around the world. It has an impact internationally on the delegates attending the conference and, through dialogue, on their colleagues back home be that here or abroad. This professional development enriches program selection and thereby benefits the delegates' respective public television audiences. INPUT 2018 will take place in Brooklyn, NY, April 30 to May 4, 2018.

PBS and WNET have announcedthat the acclaimed nightly global affairs interview program Amanpour will be presented on an interim basis to PBS stations nationwide. Amanpour on PBS willair on THIRTEEN, New York's PBS station, beginning Monday, December 4

This December, Theater Close-Up will raise the curtain for viewers on Tony Award-winning playwright and director Richard Nelson's compelling three-play cycle, The Gabriels: Election Year in the Life of One Family.

In November 2016, Sam Shepard's Pulitzer-Prize winning play Buried Child debuted on THIRTEEN's Theater Close-Upseries.  In tribute to Shepard, who passed away last week at age 73, THIRTEEN is presenting a special encore presentation ofBuried Child airing in New York Friday, August 4 at 9 p.m. ET on THIRTEEN. Actress Blythe Danner hosts the broadcast.  Director Scott Elliott's acclaimed production by The New Group is available to stream online now for those within the New York metro area. 

WNET, parent company of New York's PBS stations THIRTEEN and WLIW21 and operator of New Jersey's Public Television Network, NJTV, has announced the launch of #DaysofDelays, a new multi-platform transit initiative addressing significant transit delays this summer.

OLD HATSTheater Close-Up - the unique collaboration between THIRTEEN and the large community of New York City area Off-Broadway and regional theaters - presents Tony Award winners Bill Irwin and David Shiner in their award-winning, critically acclaimed production of Old Hats from Signature Theatre, Tuesday, June 13 at 8 p.m. on THIRTEEN, with an encore presentation on early Thursday morning, June 15 at 1:30 a.m. Watch a trailer for the show below!

Twenty-nine men perished on April 5, 2010 in a massive explosion at the Upper Big Branch Mine in West Virginia.

Theater Close-Up -- the unique collaboration between THIRTEEN and the large community of New York City area Off-Broadway and regional theaters - presents Tony Award winners Bill Irwin and David Shiner in their award-winning, critically acclaimed production of OLD HATS from Signature Theatre

The award-winning series MetroFocus premieres new episodes in the New York and tri-state region weeknights at 5 p.m. on WLIW21, 5:30 p.m. on NJTV and 6 p.m. on THIRTEEN. All episodes are available at metrofocus.org following the broadcast.

In partnership with the New York Public Library, Queens Public Library and Nassau Library systems, WNET has announced that up to 20 area libraries throughout the Bronx, Manhattan, Staten Island, Queens and Nassau, will host screenings of the film American Masters - MAYA ANGELOU: AND STILL I RISE.

Theater Close-Up -- the unique collaboration between THIRTEEN and the large community of New York City area Off-Broadway and regional theaters - continues with John Strand's The Originalist, captured live on-stage at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., Monday, March 13 at 9 p.m. on THIRTEEN, with an encore presentation on Sunday, March 19 at 3:40 a.m. The play will also air Sunday, March 26 at 10 p.m. on WLIW21. The play, directed on the stage by Molly Smith, will be available for streaming for two weeks after the broadcast. L to R: Edward Gero as Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and Kerry Warren as Cat in The Originalist at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater. Credit: C. Stanley Photography. Four-time Helen Hayes Award winner Edward Gero (Red) returned to Arena Stage as one of America's most brilliant and polarizing figures: Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. When bright, liberal, Harvard Law School graduate Cat (Kerry Warren) embarks on a nerve-wracking clerkship with Justice Scalia, she discovers him to be both an infuriating sparring partner and an unexpected mentor. How will their relationship affect one of the most incendiary cases ever to reach the nation's highest court? Along the way, Cat's relationship with Scalia is complicated further by Brad (Harlan Work), an adversarial law clerk on Scalia's staff. Gero had last appeared at Arena Stage as Mark Rothko in 'Red.' He is a four-time Helen Hayes winner and 14-time nominee. Regional credits include Mark Rothko in 'Red' at the Goodman Theatre; the title role of 'Sweeney Todd' at Signature Theatre; 'The Chosen' at Theater J; Ebenezer Scrooge in 'A Christmas Carol' and Horace Vandergelder in 'Hello, Dolly!' at Ford's Theatre; 'American Buffalo,' 'Shining City' (Helen Hayes nomination) and 'Skylight' (Helen Hayes Award) at Studio Theatre; and 'The Matchmaker' at Center Stage. In 30 seasons with the Shakespeare Theatre Company, he's played 70 roles, including Helen Hayes-winning turns in 'Henry IV,' 'Richard II' and 'Macbeth.' In New York, he's appeared at South Street Theatre and Classic Stage. Author John Strand is a resident playwright with Arena Stage through the American Voices New Play Institute. His previous work at Arena Stage includes 'The Miser,' an adaptation of the Moliere play set in Reagan-era America; 'Lovers and Executioners,' winner of the Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding New Play; and Tom Walker, also commissioned by Arena Stage. His recent work includes the book and lyrics for 'Hat! A Vaudeville,' a new musical with a score by composer Dennis McCarthy (South Coast Repertory); 'Lincolnesque,' a dark comedy about politics and madness in D.C. (The Old Globe, dir. by Joe Calarco); and 'Lorenzaccio,' his adaptation of Alfred de Musset's 1834 French classic (Shakespeare Theatre Company, dir. by Michael Kahn). Of the Arena Stage production, The New York Times wrote, '... The meat of the play draws a portrait of the private man in accordance with the public record: rigid in his views, deeply moralistic and unafraid to express his florid contempt for those benighted souls who see things from any perspective other than his own. Also: He's funny.' DC Theatre Scene opined, 'Arena and director Molly Smith have given this fine work a good, rigorous production ... Edward Gero is a continuing wonder ...' Theater Close-Up on THIRTEEN has most recently featured Rasheeda Speaking from The New Group, Fashions for Men from Mint Theater, Wiesenthal filmed at the Acorn Theatre at Theatre Row, Repairing a Nation from Crossroads Theatre Company in New Brunswick, New Jersey, Incident at Vichy from Signature Theatre Company, The Woodsman recorded at New World Stages, Buried Child from The New Group, and Buyer & Cellar from Westport Country Playhouse. THIRTEEN is using its unrivaled expertise in producing national PBS arts programming - which began with such classic series as Theater in America, part of the award-winning series Great Performances and special limited series such as Stage on Screen -- to provide New Yorkers with unparalleled access to great Off-Broadway and regional offerings. The Originalist is a production of Stage17, and was directed for television by Diana Basmajian. For Theater Close-Up, Mitch Owgang is producer; Bill O'Donnell is series producer; and David Horn is executive producer. Executive-in-charge for WNET is Neal Shapiro. Major support for this presentation of Theater Close-Up is provided by the Howard Gilman Foundation, and Bernard and Irene Schwartz. # # # About WNET WNET is America's flagship PBS station and parent company of THIRTEEN and WLIW21. WNET also operates NJTV, the statewide public media network in New Jersey. Through its broadcast channels, three cable services (KidsThirteen, Create and World) and online streaming sites, WNET brings quality arts, education and public affairs programming to more than five million viewers each week. WNET produces and presents such acclaimed PBS series as Nature, Great Performances, American Masters, PBS NewsHour Weekend, Charlie Rose and a range of documentaries, children's programs, and local news and cultural offerings. WNET's groundbreaking series for children and young adults include Get the Math, Oh Noah! and Cyberchase as well as Mission US, the award-winning interactive history game. WNET highlights the tri-state's unique culture and diverse communities through NYC-ARTS, Reel 13, NJTV News with Mary Alice Williams and MetroFocus, the daily multi-platform news magazine focusing on the New York region. In addition, WNET produces online-only programming including the award-winning series about gender, First Person, and an intergenerational look at tech and pop culture, The Chatterbox with Kevin and Grandma Lill. In 2015, THIRTEEN launched Passport, an online streaming service which allows members to see new and archival THIRTEEN and PBS programming anytime, anywhere: www.thirteen.org/passport. About Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater Under the leadership of Artistic Director Molly Smith and Executive Director Edgar Dobie, is a national center dedicated to American voices and artists. Arena Stage produces plays of all that is passionate, profound, deep and dangerous in the American spirit, and presents diverse and ground-breaking work from some of the best artists around the country. Arena Stage is committed to commissioning and developing new plays and impacts the lives of over 10,000 students annually through its work in community engagement. Now in its seventh decade, Arena Stage serves a diverse annual audience of more than 300,000. Arenastage.org For media only: Photos and press releases can be accessed here: http://www.thirteen.org/13pressroom/press-release/theater-close-originalist/

WNET, home to tri-state-area PBS Stations THIRTEEN, WLIW21and NJTV, is making the groundbreaking 1963 documentary, Take This Hammer, available via Facebook Live today, February 24 at 8 pm.

WNET, home to tri-state-area PBS Stations THIRTEEN, WLIW21and NJTV, is making the groundbreaking 1963 documentary, Take This Hammer, available via Facebook Live on Friday, February 24 at 8 pm.