New York Shakespeare Festival News

London's Union Theatre will host an exciting first between September 29 and October 17, when Take Note Theatre will present the UK and European professional premiere of Michael John LaChiusa's award winning off-Broadway musical, First Lady Suite.

Westport Country Playhouse will present a Sunday Symposium titled, '?That Championship Season': Rediscovering an American Classic,' following the Sunday, August 30, 3 p.m. matinee performance of 'That Championship Season.' Guest speaker will be Bernard Gersten, executive producer of Lincoln Center Theater and former associate producer of The Public Theater in New York (1960 - 1978), in which capacity he was the associate producer of the original production of 'That Championship Season.'

Intiman Theatre, under the leadership of Artistic Director Bartlett Sher and Managing Director Brian Colburn, continues its 2009 Season with three productions that carry forward Intiman's mission to produce provocative theatre and programs that encourage audiences to talk, think, laugh, argue and stay connected.

TheatreWorks, the nationally acclaimed theatre of Silicon Valley, presents the ferociously funny, utterly unreliable memoir, Yellow Face, from the Tony Award-winning author of M. Butterfly, David Henry Hwang. Part fact, part fiction, this revealing backstage comedy chronicles the playwright?s struggle to define racial identity in the mixed-up melting pot of contemporary America. Broadway and Off-Broadway star Francis Jue will reprise his Obie-Award winning role as the playwright?s father alongside New York-based actor Pun Bandhu and Bay Area theatre veterans Robert Ernst, Amy Resnick, and Howard Swain. Thomas Azar and Tina Chilip make their TheatreWorks debuts. Founding Artistic Director Robert Kelley will direct. Yellow Face plays August 26 through September 20 (press opening August 29), at TheatreWorks at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts. For tickets and information, the public may call 650-463-1960, or visit www.theatreworks.org.

Rep Stage, the professional Equity theatre in residence at Howard Community College (HCC), begins its 17th season with David Davalos' comedy 'Wittenberg,' directed by Tony Tsendeas, opening August 26 and running through September 13, 2009 in the Smith Theatre of HCC's Horowitz Visual and Performing Arts Center (HVPA).

Great Lakes Theater Festival opens the season with Rupert Holmes' Tony Award-winning THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD and Shakespeare's enchanting TWELFTH NIGHT.

The Tony Award® nominated hit musical IRVING BERLIN'S WHITE CHRISTMAS, the new stage reinvention of the beloved classic film, returns to Broadway at the Marquis Theatre this holiday season for 61 performances only - guaranteeing New York a white Christmas!

Yale Repertory Theatre (James Bundy, Artistic Director; Victoria Nolan, Managing Director) opens its 2009-2010 season with THE MASTER BUILDER by Henrik Ibsen, translated by Paul Walsh, directed by Evan Yionoulis at the University Theatre (222 York Street), September 18-October 10. Opening night is Thursday, September 24.

Westport Country Playhouse will present a Sunday Symposium titled, '?That Championship Season': Rediscovering an American Classic,' following the Sunday, August 30, 3 p.m. matinee performance of 'That Championship Season.' Guest speaker will be Bernard Gersten, executive producer of Lincoln Center Theater and former associate producer of The Public Theater in New York (1960 - 1978), in which capacity he was the associate producer of the original production of 'That Championship Season.'

Arena Stage presents The Quality of Life, written by playwright and Emmy Award-winner Jane Anderson and directed by Lisa Peterson (Arena's The Rainmaker). In this 'magnetic work of theater' (San Francisco Chronicle) filled with compassion, honesty and humor, we find two couples dealing very differently with devastation.

Atlantic Theater Company (Neil Pepe, Artistic Director; Jeffory Lawson, Managing Director) is proud to announce casting for the New York and world premieres of a double bill of one-act plays from Atlantic's founder. TWO UNRELATED PLAYS BY DAVID MAMET: KEEP YOUR PANTHEON AND SCHOOL, directed by Neil Pepe, will feature the ensemble cast of Jeffrey Addiss, Michael Cassidy, Steven Hawley, J.J. Johnston, Jordan Lage, Brian Murray, Rod McLachlan, John Pankow, Jonathan Rossetti, Jack Wallace and Todd Weeks.

Old Globe Executive Producer Lou Spisto today announced the complete cast and creative team for the world premiere of Sammy, a new musical based on the life of Sammy Davis, Jr. with book, music and lyrics by Leslie Bricusse, and additional songs by Bricusse and Anthony Newley. Directed by Keith Glover with choreography by Keith Young and music supervision by Ian Fraser, Sammy will run in the Old Globe Theatre Sept. 19 - Nov. 8. Previews run from Sept. 19 - Oct. 1. Opening night is Oct. 2 at 8:00 p.m.

AfroSolo Arts Festival presents Jewelle Gomez's (With Harry Waters Jr.) Waiting for Giovanni, A Staged Reading. Directed by Brian Freeman featuring Thandiwe Thomas De Shazor, Norman Gee, Rob Hatzenbeller, David Skillman & Liam Vincent

Chautauqua Theater Company Artistic Directors Vivienne Benesch and Ethan McSweeny are proud to announce the final production of the 2009 season: William Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale.

Tony Award-winning actor James Earl Jones will guest star on Fox TV's HOUSE, according to Entertainment Weekly. Jones will star in this season's fourth episode, and will appear as President Antipas Dibala, a dictator from an African country who becomes a patient at Princeton Plainsboro.

New York Theatre Workshop (NYTW) Artistic Director James C. Nicola and Managing Director William Russo have announced that I Got Sick Then I Got Better, written and performed by Jenny Allen, and directed by James Lapine and Darren Katz, will play performances on four consecutive Mondays beginning Monday, September 14, at 8pm, at NYTW, 79 East 4th Street, between Second Avenue and Bowery. The play will run through Monday, October 5.

AfroSolo Arts Festival presents Jewelle Gomez's (With Harry Waters Jr.) Waiting for Giovanni, A Staged Reading. Directed by Brian Freeman featuring Thandiwe Thomas De Shazor, Norman Gee, Rob Hatzenbeller, David Skillman & Liam Vincent

The Civilians' Artistic Director Steve Cosson ('This Beautiful City'), composer Michael Friedman ('This Beautiful City,' 'Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson') and book writer Bess Wohl ('Cats Talk Back,' 'In') have begun investigations in Los Angeles for an untitled porn musical. The new project from the award-winning investigative theatre company is commissioned by Center Theatre Group, which presented The Civilians' 'This Beautiful City' at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in 2008.

Rubicon Theatre Company has announced the cast and creative team for the World Premiere of THE BEST IS YET TO COME: THE MUSIC OF CY COLEMAN, which began previews July 9 at Rubicon's intimate 200-seat home at 1006 E. Main Street in Ventura's Downtown Cultural District. The show continues Wednesdays through Sundays through August 2, 2009.

This summer, Theater for the New City's Street Theater tour will be 'Tally Ho!, or Navigating the Future' 2009 summer production will tour streets, parks and playgrounds August 1 to September 13.