Neil LaBute News

Profiles Theatre announces the Midwest premiere of Sweet and Sad by Richard Nelson will open the company's 2012-2013 season. Sweet and Sad, directed by Joe Jahraus and featuring Co-Artistic Director Darrell W. Cox, runs August 17, 2012 - October 7, 2012, with the press opening on Friday, August 24 at 8:00 pm. Performances are held at Profiles newest venue, The Main Stage, 4139 N. Broadway. The previously announced production of Blood From a Stone by Tommy Nohilly has been canceled.

MCC Theater is currently presenting a special reading of Neil LaBute's The Heart of The Matter for four performances only that began on June 13 and closes tomorrow, June 16. The reading stars Eddie Kaye Thomas (American Pie, MCC's The Submission), Tammy Blanchard (Gypsy, How to Succeed…), and Michael Chernus (In The Wake, The Aliens) alongside Emmanuelle Chriqui ("Entourage," "The Borgias"), Cheyenne Jackson ("30 Rock," Xanadu) and Krysten Ritter ("Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23," "Breaking Bad"). All performances are being held at the Lucille Lortel Theatre and are directed by Carolyn Cantor (Regrets at Manhattan Theatre Club, MCC's production of LaBute's In a Dark Dark House). Proceeds will support MCC Theater's Playwrights' Coalition program, free PlayLab reading series and literary development activities. BroadwayWorld was on hand for the celebratory party and brings you photo coverage below!

Closing Aurora's 20th season is the World Premiere of SALOMANIA, Aurora Theatre Company Artistic Director Tom Ross's first new play commission for the company, written and directed by award-winning Bay Area auteur Mark Jackson (Metamorphosis, Salome, Miss Julie). Workshopped and developed at Aurora in 2010, SALOMANIA features Madeline H.D. Brown (Metamorphosis), Mark Anderson Phillips (Small Tragedy), Alex Moggridge (Betrayed), Liam Vincent (California Shakespeare Theater), Anthony Nemirovsky (Awake and Sing!), Marilee Talkington (Crowded Fire), and Kevin Clarke (Shotgun Players). SALOMANIA plays tonight, June 15 through July 22 at the Aurora Theatre in Berkeley.

reasons to be pretty, the third installment in Neil LaBute's trilogy concerning the contemporary fixation on appearances, delves into how what you say, what you mean and how it's perceived by others don't always fall in line. Conversations, however insignificant or unintentional, come back to haunt Greg (Daniel Abeles) when his comment about his girlfriend's ordinary looks is overheard and repeated back to her. This event spirals into a portrait of four young, working class friends who struggle with the mediocrity of life and the societal obsession with image.

Berkeley Repertory Theatre announced the cast and creative team for its world premiere of Eve Ensler's EMOTIONAL CREATURE. This positive and propulsive new show - from the Tony Award-winning playwright, performer, and activist who created The Vagina Monologues - features a choreographer, a composer, four top designers, and an ensemble of talented young women. Directed by Obie Award-winner Jo Bonney, Emotional Creature plays only 36 performances in the Roda Theatre. The limited engagement at Berkeley Rep begins previews tonight, June 14, opens June 22, and runs through July 15. The lead producers of this premiere are Wayne Jordan and Quinn Delaney, Marjorie Randolph, and Jack and Betty Schafer; the executive producer is the Strauch Kulhanjian Family. The development of this production has been supported in part by The Mosse Artistic Development Fund.

Adapted by Robert Ross Parker of New York's Obie Award-winning Vampire Cowboys Theatre, with the literal translation by Marina Raydun, Goodbye Cruel World 'crackles with comedy, costume changes and terrible tuba playing. In the vein of Strange Trees 2010 Jeff Award-winning Shakespeare's King Phycus, the ensemble is made up of six fearless actors portraying 22 distinctly different parts.'

MCC Theater presents Playwright-in-Residence Neil LaBute's 'shorts' series, The Heart of the Matter, for four special benefit performances that will take place tonight, June 13 and June 14, 15 and 16, 2012 at 7:00 p.m. at the Lucille Lortel Theatre (121 Christopher Street, NYC). The staged reading will feature actor Krysten Ritter (ABC's "Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23," AMC's "Breaking Bad"). Carolyn Cantor, who recently directed Regrets at Manhattan Theatre Club and MCC's production of LaBute's In a Dark Dark House, will direct. Proceeds will support MCC Theater's Playwrights' Coalition program, free PlayLab reading series and literary development activities.

McCormack took a few minutes before his curtain call to chat about what first drew him to the role on his exciting new TNT series PERCEPTION and whether he would consider returning to the stage in a Broadway musical.

MCC Theater announced today that Eddie Kaye Thomas (American Pie, MCC's The Submission), Tammy Blanchard (Gypsy, How to Succeed…), and Michael Chernus (In The Wake, The Aliens) have joined the cast of Playwright-in-Residence Neil LaBute's The Heart of the Matter, which the company will present for four nights only this week.

Shana Uzali lives in a state of constant turmoil and instability, but she refuses to move. In a fantastical world she has created, Shana is visited by a number of characters, each one attempting to budge her from a place of indecision and fear. As these characters appear and reappear, questions of good and evil, hope and despair, faith and disbelief circle around Shana's mind. Will Shana find the answers she desperately needs? Will she be persuaded to action?

The 2012 CMT MUSIC AWARDS just got a little rowdier and funnier as country music superstar Toby Keith and actress Kristen Bell have been tapped to host this year's show. Now in its 11th year, the 2012 CMT MUSIC AWARDS will air live from Nashville's Bridgestone Arena tonight, June 6 at 8:00 p.m., ET/PT on CMT and CMT.com.

Paul Taylor-Mills presents BASH, a new production of Neil LaBute's collection of three darkly brilliant one-act plays, at Barons?Court Theatre through Sunday 17 June. James Le Feuvre and Faye Winter, who both appeared in Michael Grandage's production of Hamlet with Jude Law both in the West End and on Broadway, star under director Olivia Rowe. Opening night is tonight, 6 June at 7.45pm.

MCC THEATER today announced two exciting productions as part of their 2012-13 three-play mainstage season, which marks the company's 27th consecutive year producing and developing new work by today's most provocative and vibrant artists.

MCC Theater (Robert LuPone, Bernard Telsey, William Cantler, Artistic Directors; Blake West, Executive Director) announced today that Emmanuelle Chriqui ("Entourage," "The Borgias") and Cheyenne Jackson ("30 Rock," Xanadu) have joined the cast of Playwright-in-Residence Neil LaBute's The Heart of the Matter, which the company will present for four nights only next week. The company will also feature actor Krysten Ritter ("Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23," "Breaking Bad"), with additional cast members to be announced. The special benefit performances will take place June 13, 14, 15 and 16, 2012 at 7:00 p.m. at the Lucille Lortel Theatre (121 Christopher Street, NYC). Directed by Carolyn Cantor (Regrets at Manhattan Theatre Club, MCC's production of LaBute's In a Dark Dark House), proceeds will support MCC Theater's Playwrights' Coalition program, free PlayLab reading series and literary development activities.

Theater Breaking Through Barriers (TBTB), the renowned Off-Broadway company known for its productions that integrate able-bodied actors with artists with disabilities, invites you and a guest to MORE OF OUR PARTS - its second annual festival of short plays - featuring world premieres by Neil LaBute (FAT PIG), A.R. Gurney (LOVE LETTERS), Bekah Brunstetter (A GOOD LITTLE WIDOW), Bruce Graham (ANY GIVEN MONDAY), Samuel D. Hunter (A BRIGHT NEW BOISE), and Jeffrey Sweet (THE ACTION AGAINST SOL SCHUMANN) at Theatre Row's Clurman Theatre (410 West 42nd Street).

The Traverse has announced its 2012 Festival programme. Over four weeks, the Traverse will host nineteen shows and events, with eight world premieres and two Scottish premieres, including a double bill of David Greig's THE LETTER OF LAST RESORT and David Harrower's GOOD WITH PEOPLE.

Hennepin Theatre Trust presents the new theatrical event Standing On Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays, running tonight, May 31-June 16, 2012 at the New Century Theatre. Showcasing funny, heartfelt "mini works" that celebrate the courage to be in a relationship-any relationship, Standing On Ceremony's smart and witty vignettes were penned by playwrights whose credits include two Pulitzer Prizes, four Obies, one Emmy and three Tony nominations. Wendy Knox of Frank Theatre will direct a stellar cast of six Twin Cities actors including Laura Adams, Shawn Hamilton Brown, Aimee K. Bryant, Jim Lichtscheidl and Mark Rhein, with one more actor to be announced soon. With this production, the Trust is working in cooperation with Minnesotans United for All Families, the official statewide campaign working to defeat the constitutional amendment that would exclude gays and lesbians from marriage in Minnesota.

The Summer Season at the Finborough Theatre continues with rediscoveries of EVENTS WHILE GUARDING THE BOFORS GUN and MERRIE ENGLAND. Commemorating the tenth anniversary of the death of playwright John McGrath, and unseen in a professional production in London since 1966, John McGrath's Events While Guarding The Bofors Gun opens at the multi-award-winning Finborough Theatre for a limited four-week season from Tuesday, 22 May 2012 directed by Robert Hastie. Merrie England plays at the Finborough Theatre for a limited run of nine Sunday and Monday evening performances and Tuesday matinees, opening tonight, 27 May 2012.

Reasons to be Pretty by Neil LaBute concludes Philadelphia Theatre Company's 2011-2012 season tonight May 25 through June 24 at PTC's home at the Suzanne Roberts Theatre (Broad and Lombard Streets). Directed byMaria Mileaf, the ensemble cast features Paul Felder, James McMenamin, Genevieve Perrier, and Elizabeth Stanley.

Theater Breaking Through Barriers (TBTB), the renowned Off-Broadway company known for its productions that integrate able-bodied actors with artists with disabilities, presents MORE OF OUR PARTS - its second annual festival of short plays about disabilities and the people affected by them, featuring world premieres by Neil LaBute, A.R. Gurney, Bekah Brunstetter, Bruce Graham, Samuel D. Hunter, and Jeffrey Sweet - with performances to run June 21 through July 1 at Theatre Row's Clurman Theatre (410 West 42nd Street). TBTB artistic director and founder Ike Schambelan, Tony-nominee Pamela Birch, Christopher Burris, TBTB company member Christina Roussos, and Russell Treyz, and direct.