Neil LaBute News

The New Group presents the world premiere of An Early History of Fire, a new play by Tony Award-winning playwright David Rabe. Directed by Jo Bonney, this production features Gordon Clapp, Erin Darke, Jonny Orsini, Devin Ratray, Dennis Staroselsky, Theo Stockman and Claire van der Boom. Limited Off-Broadway engagement is slated April 5 - May 26 at The New Group @ Theatre Row (410 West 42nd Street). Official Opening Night is set for Monday, April 30 at 7:00 PM. See the photos below for a first look at the production!

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.'

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 on Sunday, 27 May 2012.

Hennepin Theatre Trust presents the new theatrical event Standing On Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays, running 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 concept of one single principle being utilized so differently by so many different fields was the inspiration for this play about five couples, and the universal complications in their sexual relationships despite the differences in scenario and detail.

Profiles Theatre announces an additional four weeks of performances of the Midwest premiere of Bachelorette by Leslye Headland, directed by Profiles Co-Artistic Director Darrell W. Cox. The full cast, Eric Burgher (A Behanding in Spokane, Kid Sister), Hillary Marren, Linda Augusta Orr, Rakisha Pollard, Amanda Powell and Adam Soule will continue with the production through the extension. The production will run through May 27, 2012, at Profiles Theatre, 4147 N. Broadway in Chicago.

Artists Rep will add a short run of Standing On Ceremony to their 11/12 Season with eight performances of plays. This run is a follow up to a one-night event last November where over 30 theatre companies internationally presented the plays in solidarity to increase public awareness about marriage equality. Enthusiastic audiences from that event encouraged Artists Rep to bring the show back. Performances will be offered April 6 through April 21.

Profiles Theatre announces the American premiere of Neil LaBute's In a Forest, Dark and Deep, to open the company's newest theater space, The Main Stage, 4139 N. Broadway, next door to its current venue.

City Theatre and the Broward Center for the Performing Arts will present the South Florida premiere of Standing on Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays Thursday, June 21 to Sunday, June 24 in the Amaturo Theater at the Broward Center.

Michael Attenborough, Artistic Director of the Almeida Theatre will be presented with the Award for Excellence In International Theatre at a luncheon held today, 17 April 2012, at the Travellers Club, London. Neville Shulman, Director of the British Centre of the International Theatre Institute, will present Attenborough with the Award.

The Drama League has announced Drama League nominee Megan Hilty (9 To 5, "Smash") and Justin Long (Seminar) will co-host the announcement of the The 2012 Drama League Nominees for Distinguished Production of a Play, Distinguished Production of a Musical, Distinguished Revival of a Play, Distinguished Revival of a Musical, and the much coveted Distinguished Performance Award on Tuesday, April 24, 2012 at 11:00 a.m. at Sardi's. As in years past, the nominations ceremony will be broadcast worldwide via live stream right here on BroadwayWorld!

The Geffen Playhouse announces an unprecedented eight plays - five in the Gil Cates Theater and three in the Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater - for its 2012/2013 season. With an ongoing focus on introducing audiences to new plays, reimagined classics and emerging voices, the Geffen's season features three world premieres - including a commission by Pulitzer Prize winner Donald Margulies (Coney Island Christmas), a classic adaptation by Tony Award nominee Neil LaBute (August Strindberg's Miss Julie) and a new work by Michael Golamco (Build); two American premieres - one marking the return of Olivier Award nominee Joanna Murray-Smith (The Gift) and the other a riotous British import by Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn (Yes, Prime Minister); two West Coast premieres - including Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage's new work (By the Way, Meet Vera Stark) and comedienne Judy Gold's acclaimed off-Broadway memoir (The Judy Show); and a brand new production of David Mamet's defining work American Buffalo helmed by Geffen Playhouse Artistic Director Randall Arney.

The Geffen Playhouse announces an unprecedented eight plays - five in the Gil Cates Theater and three in the Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater - for its 2012/2013 season. With an ongoing focus on introducing audiences to new plays, reimagined classics and emerging voices, the Geffen's season features three world premieres - including a commission by Pulitzer Prize winner Donald Margulies (Coney Island Christmas), a classic adaptation by Tony Award nominee Neil LaBute (August Strindberg's Miss Julie) and a new work byMichael Golamco (Build).

Theater Breaking Through Barriers (TBTB), the Off-Broadway company known for its productions that integrate able-bodied actors with artists with disabilities, presents William Shakespeare's THE MERCHANT OF VENICE, at Theatre Row's Clurman Theatre (410 West 42nd Street), with previews set to begin Saturday, April 14, prior to an official press opening April 22. Ike Schambelan, TBTB artistic director and founder, directs.

Will Pomerantz, director of The Blue Flower at Prospect Theater Company and Second Stage and Dai at the Culture Project, will direct Prospect Theater Company's upcoming production of Cole Porter's 1933 musical Nymph Errant. Performances will begin July 7 at the Clurman Theatre at Theatre Row.

Artistic Directors Joe Jahraus and Darrell W. Cox have announced Profiles Theatre's 2012 - 2013 Season. They also announced that acclaimed playwright Neil LaBute and Steppenwolf ensemble member Rick Snyder joined Profiles as Resident Artists. Five productions are planned for the upcoming 24th season, including the Midwest premieres of the award-winning Blood from a Stone in a newly revised version by playwright Tommy Nohilly, After by Chad Beckim, The Dream of the Burning Boy by David West Read and the Midwest premiere of Neil LaBute's controversial 2010 play The Break of Noon revised exclusively for Profiles Theatre. Additionally, one of Chicago theatre's longest running hits, Hellcab by Will Kern, returns for its 20th Anniversary production. These five productions alternate between Profiles' two venues, The Main Stage at 4139 N. Broadway and The Alley Stage at 4147 N. Broadway.

Cape Cod Theatre Project has just announced their 2012 Season, which is set to include a new work by Mike Daisey, directed by Jean-Michele Gregory. Additional productions will include: Chrysalis by Joshua Allen, American Hero by Bess Wohl, and The Money Shot by Neil LaBute.

The 2012 Tribeca Film Festival (TFF) today unveiled the lineup and programming for the Tribeca Online Film Festival, presented by founding partner American Express.

Actor Burt Grinstead may have a short theatrical resume at this stage, but he has been working consistently over the past couple of years essaying plays in New York, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. Since coming back to LA last summer, he has been in the highly successful Esther's Moustache at Sidewalk Studio Theatre this past fall and is currently treading the boards once more in the all new critically acclaimed production of Deathtrap at the Gay and Lesbian Center in Hollywood. In our chat he discusses Deathtrap and the other roles he's played, his focus as an actor, and those actors who have had the most influence on him.

Artists Rep will add a short run of Standing On Ceremony to their 11/12 Season with eight performances of plays. This run is a follow up to a one-night event last November where over 30 theatre companies internationally presented the plays in solidarity to increase public awareness about marriage equality. Enthusiastic audiences from that event encouraged Artists Rep to bring the show back. Performances will be offered April 6 through April 21.