Beginning in June 2016, The Negro Ensemble Company, Inc. (NEC) will deepen its commitment to discovery, development and presentation of superior theatre with four consecutive weekends of exciting and innovative productions showcasing up-and-coming Black playwrights. The Emerging Playwrights Competition is NEC's 2016 Pilot Project, marking NEC's return to the solid and impressive development and training format that established the company as an American theatre icon for over three decades. Performances will take place June 9th through July 3rd at LaMaMa ETC in The Downstairs theatre, 66 East 4th St., New York, NY 10003. To purchase tickets visit The Negro Ensemble Company website at www.necinc.org or by phone by calling OvationTix at 866-811-4111 Monday thru Friday 9-9 & Saturday and Sunday 10-8. For further information and group rates call the NEC office at 212-582-5860.
The spirit of jazz legends Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald (with a little Tito Puente) was palpable in the Milton Berle room at New York's Friars Club on April 25 for the second-annual production of Triple Threats. Broadway veterans (including Duke's granddaughter, Mercedes Ellington, who also co-produced the show) joined some of America's most accomplished jazz musicians to celebrate the April birthdays of the music greats and to honor those performers who sing, dance, and act at the highest levels.
One of the first and most time-honored FREE Summer Festivals in NYC each year - the LOWER EAST SIDE FESTIVAL -- will take place this year, the FEST's 21st annual event -- Memorial Day Weekend May 27 to 29 at Theater for the New City (155 First Ave. at 10th St.), it has been announced by Crystal Field, co-founder and Artistic Director of Theater for the New City.
Signature Theatre's Annual Gala celebration -- set for tonight, April 18, 2016 -- will celebrate Signature's 25th Anniversary and honor Founding Artistic Director James Houghton's leadership of the company, on the occasion of his final season as Artistic Director.
The annual Playwrights for a Cause benefit will be Sunday, July 24th at 7:30 pm at the Atlantic Theatre (Linda Gross Theater), 336 West 20th Street, NYC 10011. The special performance will include six original plays. This year the playwrights for the benefit will include: Israel Horovitz, Dominique Morisseau, Antoinette Nwandu, John Patrick Shanley, Regina Taylor as well as an award-winning writer from the Planet Connections community that will be announced later.
During the week of May 4th through 8th, Out of the Box, a Manhattan Equity theater company, will meet the topic of race relations head on with the production of Deep Are the Roots, a play highlighting segregation in the Deep South, post-World War II.
Broadwayworld.com interviewed Ricardo Kahn about his career and the play, 'Fly' that will be performed at Crossroads Theatre from April 7th to April 17th. 'Fly' is the soaring tale of the first African American Army Air Corps known as the Tuskegee Airmen. It is co-written by Ricardo Kahn and Trey Ellis and the Crossroads production is also directed by Kahn.
PlayPenn, Philadelphia's nationally recognized professional new play development organization, will hold its 12th annual New Play Development Conference from July 5 - July 24 in Philadelphia at The Drake, a new home for new plays. The Conference, including three weeks of intensive work on six works-in-progress, will offer staged readings open to the public. The six selected plays and playwrights are:
Signature Theatre's Annual Gala celebration -- set for Monday, April 18, 2016 -- will celebrate Signature's 25th Anniversary and honor Founding Artistic Director James Houghton's leadership of the company, on the occasion of his final season as Artistic Director.
The renowned Negro Ensemble Company, Inc will present a staged-reading at the Signature Theatre of Layon Gray's powerful new play Searching For Willie Lynch.
From tonight, March 12, to April 2, August Strindberg Repertory will present Strindberg's DAMASCUS II, adapted by Edgar Chisholm, directed by Robert Greer.
Steppenwolf Theatre Company announced today the 2016/17 Season, the first to be curated by Artistic Director Anna D. Shapiro and the Steppenwolf artistic team. The new season brings many exciting changes that embrace expanded artistic offerings, flexibility and a diverse selection of experiences, featuring the ensemble in ways both familiar and new. In 2016/17, Steppenwolf will produce an expanded six-play Subscription Season, as opposed to the previous five-play season, in a new format that features four plays in the Downstairs Theatre with the opportunity for subscribers to choose between two productions in the Upstairs Theatre.
Veteran actress /comedian Angela Scott brings her funny friends William Stephenson ("Inside Amy Schumer') and Rhonda 'Passion' Hansome ('Saturday Night Live') to Manhattan's West Village for "Laughing At The Duplex,' a standup showcase at the legendary cabaret-piano bar today, March 3, 2016.
From March 12 to April 2, August Strindberg Repertory will present Strindberg's 'Damascus II,' adapted by Edgar Chisholm, directed by Robert Greer. This is the second installment of the three-part work in which Strindberg first introduced true surrealism to the stage in the theatrical representation of the dream. Strindberg's tale of life in decadent artists' circles of 1890s Sweden will be brought to life in 1960s California and its leading character, an alienated writer, has been re-envisioned as an author modeled on Amiri Baraka.
Theatre enthusiasts packed the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts tonight to hear Founding Artistic Director Robert Kelley and Managing Director Phil Santora of TheatreWorks Silicon Valley unveil the line-up for the company's 47th season.
Veteran actress /comedian Angela Scott brings her funny friends William Stephenson ("Inside Amy Schumer') and Rhonda 'Passion' Hansome ('Saturday Night Live') to Manhattan's West Village for "Laughing At The Duplex,' a standup showcase at the legendary cabaret-piano bar on Thursday, March 3, 2016.
