Neil LaBute News

Central Avenue Breakdown will get its World Premiere at the 2011 New York Musical Theatre Festival.

A new theater initiative entitled THE PIECE PROJECT will kick off with an exclusive Los Angeles reading of Neil LaBute's REASONS TO BE PRETTY on Monday October 10, 2011 at 8pm.

Joan Stein and Richard Frankel (Producers) announced today that the new theatrical event Standing On Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays, which premieres in an open-ended engagement Off Broadway at the Minetta Lane Theatre this fall, will join with Tectonic Theater Project (Moisés Kaufman, Artistic Director; Greg Reiner, Executive Director) for Standing on Ceremony: The National Event, to help take the play's message across the country (and the globe). For one night only, on Monday, November 7, curtains will rise on Standing On Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays across America and beyond as participating theaters everywhere present the play to raise awareness and funds in support of marriage equality. Marriage equality is an issue that transcends borders, and it's vital that the message of Standing On Ceremony reaches far and wide. The event will raise money for local, state and national marriage equality organizations.

MCC THEATER has announced that tickets will go on-sale Monday, October 3 at 10:00 a.m. for the remaining two productions of the company's 2011-2012 season: the world premiere of Wild Animals You Should Know and the newly reworked and fully re-imagined production of Carrie, the musical. Performances for Wild Animals You Should Know begin November 3, 2011. Performances for Carrie begin January 31, 2012. Both will be performed at the Lucille Lortel Theatre (121 Christopher Street, NYC).

Walking Shadow kicks off their 2011-2012 season with Neil LaBute's scathing comedy reasons to be pretty, being presented from September 16 - October 2 at the Guthrie Theater's Dowling Studio.

Casting has been announced for the Fifth Annual New York One-Minute Play Festival, hosted by Primary Stages at 59E59 Theaters. The New York One-Minute Play Festival will take place Sunday, October 16 at 2:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. at Primary Stages at 59E59 Theaters (59 East 59th Street), the Off-Broadway home of Primary Stages. Seating is extremely limited.

TheaterWorks in Downtown Hartford opens its 2011-2012 Season with the United States Regional Theater Premiere of the comic smash, The Motherf----r with the Hat, by Stephen Adly Guirgis.

The new theatrical event Standing On Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays will now begin previews on Monday, November 7, with an official opening night set for Sunday, November 13, 2011 at the Minetta Lane Theatre (18 Minetta Lane, NYC), due to casting opportunities, it was announced today by producers Joan Stein and Richard Frankel.

MCC THEATER has announced that tickets will go on-sale Monday, October 3 at 10:00 a.m. for the remaining two productions of the company's 2011-2012 season: the world premiere of Wild Animals You Should Know and the newly reworked and fully re-imagined production of Carrie, the musical. Performances for Wild Animals You Should Know begin November 3, 2011. Performances for Carrie begin January 31, 2012. Both will be performed at the Lucille Lortel Theatre (121 Christopher Street, NYC).

A biting view of love, betrayal and the search for redemption.

A new theater initiative entitled THE PIECE PROJECT will kick off with an exclusive Los Angeles reading of Neil LaBute's REASONS TO BE PRETTY on Monday October 10, 2011 at 8pm.

On October 12, the Nuyorican Poets Cafe will premiere a new play by writer/director Daniel Gallant. In A FELONY IN BLUE or DEATH BY POKER, five gang bosses play an annual game of Texas Hold 'Em to determine who will control the city's criminal underworld, but one player plans to kill a rival before the game is through.

Shaleeha G'ntamobi's stirring new play about an alcoholic black mother and her card sharp son trying to get out of the projects has just been accepted into the nation's preeminent theater festival. Trouble is, Shaleeha G'ntamobi doesn't exist, except in the imagination of wannabe-playwright Danny Larsen (Jonathan Groff), who created her as a kind of affirmative-action nom-de-plume.

Central Avenue Breakdown will get its World Premiere at the 2011 New York Musical Theatre Festival.

MCC THEATER today announced that John Behlmann (The 39 Steps), MCC Theater founding member Patrick Breen (The Normal Heart), Gideon Glick (Spring Awakening), Jay Armstrong Johnson (Catch Me If You Can), Tony Award-winner Alice Ripley (Next To Normal), and Daniel Stewart Sherman (Desire Under the Elms) will star in the world premiere production of Wild Animals You Should Know, by Thomas Higgins. The production will be directed by Trip Cullman (A Small Fire, Bachelorette). Tickets go on-sale October 3, 2011. Performances begin at the Lucille Lortel Theatre (121 Christopher Street, NYC) on November 3, 2011 and continue through December 11, 2011. An official opening is set for Sunday, November 20, 2011 at 7:00 p.m.

Walking Shadow kicks off their 2011-2012 season with Neil LaBute's scathing comedy reasons to be pretty, being presented from September 16 - October 2 at the Guthrie Theater's Dowling Studio.

Profiles Theatre opens its 2011-2012 Season with the Midwest premiere of A Behanding in Spokane by Martin McDonagh, directed by Steppenwolf ensemble member Rick Snyder. Please note changes with the previously announced dates: Previews are September 9-13, 2011 with the press opening on September 14, 2011. The production runs September 14, 2011 - October 30, 2011 at Profiles Theatre, 4147 N. Broadway in Chicago.

Stephen Poliakoff directs the world premiere of My City, his first new play for 12 years, running at the Almeida Theatre from 8 September - 5 November.

Joan Stein and Richard Frankel (Producers) announced today that they will bring the new theatrical event Standing On Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays to the New York stage this fall, directed by Stuart Ross. Responding to one of the defining issues of our day -- the on-going battle for marriage equality throughout the United States -- some of America's most illustrious and Award-winning playwrights, including Heideman Award winner Jordan Harrison, Edgar Award winner Jeffrey Hatcher, Pulitzer Prize winner and Tony Award nominee Moisés Kaufman, Emmy and WGA Award winner Joe Keenan, Tony Award nominee Neil LaBute, Sundance Jury Prize winner Wendy McLeod, Obie Award winner José Rivera, Obie and Outer Critics Circle Award winner Paul Rudnick, and Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner Doug Wright, have created a heartfelt, funny and altogether illuminating evening that celebrates the courage to be in a relationship - any relationship.

In her smart comedy The Book Club Play, D.C.-area playwright Karen Zacarías examines the intricacies of book clubs, with their unspoken rules, high-spirited debates and strong bonds formed when least expected. With an ensemble cast featuring Fred Arsenault, Ashlie Atkinson, Rachael Holmes, Eric Messner, Kate Eastwood Norris and Tom Story, this is Zacarías' second collaboration with Director Molly Smith at Arena Stage and is the first work of a Resident Playwright to be produced as part of their three-year residencies through the American Voices New Play Institute. The Book Club Play runs October 7-November 6, 2011 in the Arlene and Robert Kogod Cradle.