Neil LaBute News

The Katselas Theatre Company and Rogue Machine present Rogue Machine's production of SMALL ENGINE REPAIR by John Pollono. Due to overwhelming demand, the critical and commercial smash hit (CRITIC'S CHOICE-LA Times; GO - LA Weekly, CRITIC'S PICK-Backstage, Ovation RECOMMENDED, Roar of the Crowd-- Goldstar) will extend the performance schedule through August 27th at Beverly Hills Playhouse.

David Henry Hwang, one of America's most dynamic and versatile playwrights, is the Honoree of the 31st Annual William Inge Theatre Festival, in Independence, Kansas, on the campus of Independence Community College.

As previously reported, the musical revival of CARRIE, which recently finished up a development lab at MCC on June 7, will get at off-Broadway run at MCC next year. Directed byt Stafford Arima, choreographed by Matt Williams and musical directed by Mary Mitchell-Campell, preview performances will begin at MCC on January 31, 2012. Carrie will be led by the previously announced Tony Award nominee Marin Mazzie (Next to Normal, Kiss Me Kate) as Carrie's evangelical mother, Margaret White, and Molly Ranson (Jerusalem, August: Osage County) as the lonely, vengeful, yet fragile girl at the center of it all.

Throughline Artists (J.J. Kandel and John McCormack, Producing Directors) will present SUMMER SHORTS 5, their fifth annual festival of new American short plays from established and emerging writers, at 59E59 Theaters (59 East 59th Street). Performances will begin Thursday August 4th, and continue through Saturday September 3rd. This season's cast includes Mando Alvarado, Jeff Binder, Christian Campbell, James Chen, Nick Choksi, Erin Darke, Crystal Finn, Arthur French, Meg Gibson, Kathryn Grody, Beth Hoyt, Neal Huff, J.J. Kandel, Megan Ketch, Ted Koch, Jodie Markell, Shirley A. Rumierk, Socorro Santiago, Rebecca Schull, Ryan Cyrus Shams, Victor Slezak, Aidan Sullivan, Louise Sullivan, Maryann Towne, Ryan Tramont, and Lydia Weintraub.

What drives our loyalties? How do we say what we mean? What is it worth to be a pretty girl? Greg, Steph, Kent and Carly are plagued by these questions and their own struggles to find the answers - whether or not they are aware of these dilemmas remains to be seen... The Second Season of Duke City Repertory Theatre opens with this biting, visceral exploration of relationships, scathingly crafted by acclaimed playwright Neil LaBute.

Throughline Artists (J.J. Kandel and John McCormack, Producing Directors) will present SUMMER SHORTS 5, their fifth annual festival of new American short plays from established and emerging writers, at 59E59 Theaters (59 East 59th Street).

According to the Boston Globe, Tony nominee Lily Rabe will star in the New Group premiere of her father, David Rabe's new play- An Early History of Fire. The off-Broadway production will be directed by Jo Bonney and will run in thir 2011-12 season.

Everyone has obsessions, and New Edgecliff Theatre's 2011-2012 season seeks to examine the changes brought about by those obsessions - both in a person's life and the lives of those around them. The five-show season includes the late Lanford Wilson's Burn This and the regional premieres of St. Nicholas by Conor McPherson, and Reasons to be Pretty by Neal LaBute. The annual Sweet Suspense event returns for Halloween. NET breathes new life into its annual holiday offering, pairing The Santaland Diaries with new work from True Theatre.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, stage veterans America Ferrera and Julia Stiles have joined the cast of 'It's a Disaster.' The movie will feature a screenplay by Todd Berger, who will also direct. As described by THR, the film is a 'comedy about four couples who meet for Sunday brunch only to discover they are stuck in a house together as the world may be about to end.'

The Open Fist Theatre Company presents their third FIRST LOOK FESTIVAL OF NEW PLAYS, with new works written by D. Tucker Smith, Shoshana Bean, Eydie Faye, Laura Richardson, Rebecca Sue Haber, Philip William Brock, Richard Manley, Jesse Bernstein, Jim Bontempo.

MCC THEATER today announced that Jonathan Groff (Spring Awakening, 'Glee'), Will Rogers (When the Rain Stops Falling), Eddie Kaye Thomas (American Pie, HBO's 'How to Make It in America'), and Rutina Wesley ('True Blood,' The Vertical Hour) will star in the world premiere production of The Submission, by Jeff Talbott, directed by Tony Award-Winner Walter Bobbie (School for Lies, Chicago). Performances of this funny and furiously intelligent new play begin at the Lucille Lortel Theatre (121 Christopher Street, NYC) on September 8, 2011 and continue through October 22, 2011. An official opening is set for September 26, 2011.

New Georges (Susan Bernfield, Artistic Director; Sarah Cameron Sunde, Associate Director; Jaynie Saunders Tiller, Managing Director), the OBIE Award-winning downtown theater company founded in 1992, will present 'THE GERM PROJECT,' featuring the work of playwrights Kara Lee Corthron (directed by Kara-Lynn Vaeni), Lynn Rosen (directed by Shoshana Gold), Kathryn Walat (directed by Portia Krieger), and Anna Ziegler (directed by Beatrice Terry). The four 'germs' of full-length plays of scope and adventure commissioned by New Georges for this project will be presented together, fully produced, in a cohesive and satisfying ninety-minute intermission-less evening. There will be a connective thread to the pieces that will take place with visuals and storytelling. 'THE GERM PROJECT' will be performed at 3LD Art & Technology Center, 80 Greenwich Street (just south of Rector). Previews will begin on June 11, and the official Opening Night will be Monday, June 20 at 8:00 p.m. Performances will run through July 9.

Throughline Artists (J.J. Kandel and John McCormack, Producing Directors) will present SUMMER SHORTS 5, their fifth annual festival of new American short plays from established and emerging writers, at 59E59 Theaters (59 East 59th Street).

In a quiet ceremony, stage and screen veterans Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz were married on June 22.

Size matters, but that doesn't mean that longer plays are better plays. In the abbreviated form, playwrights are free to explore through character, genre, dialogue, and structure in ways that are frowned upon in longer works from a commercial standpoint.

Following a critically acclaimed season which included the World Premiere of Lynn Nottage's hit comedy, By the Way, Meet Vera Stark, Second Stage Theatre has announced three of the four mainstage productions in the company's upcoming 33rd season.

Duncan Stewart, Director of Casting at National Artists Management Company since 2007, has joined colleague Benton Whitley to form DUNCAN STEWART AND COMPANY, a New York-based legit casting office.

Theater Breaking Through Barriers presents SOME OF OUR PARTS Seven ten-minute plays about disabilities - and the people affected by them. World-premiere short plays by Neil LaBute, Kate Moira Ryan, Samuel D. Hunter, Diana Son, Bekah Brunstetter, Jeff Tabnick and Emily Chadick Weiss.

Film and stage star Jason Patric has signed on to star as 'Christian Walker' in the FX drama series pilot Powers, based on the award-winning comic and graphic novel series by Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming.

Producers Julian Schlossberg and Letty Aronson have announced that Caroline Aaron, Bill Army, Lisa Emery, Ari Graynor, Steve Guttenberg, Danny Hoch, Julie Kavner, Fred Melamed, Grant Shaud and Marlo Thomas will star in the ensemble cast of the world premiere production of RELATIVELY SPEAKING, three one-act comedies by the prolific writing trio of Ethan Coen, Elaine May and Woody Allen, and directed by John Turturro.