New York State Council on the Arts News

Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) announced today complete details for FAR FROM HEAVEN, a new musical with book by Tony Award winner and two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist Richard Greenberg (Take Me Out, Three Days of Rain, the current Breakfast at Tiffany's and The Assembled Parties both now on Broadway), music by Tony Award nominee Scott Frankel (Grey Gardens at PH and on Broadway, Finding Neverland) and lyrics by Tony Award nominee Michael Korie (Grey Gardens at PH and on Broadway, The Grapes of Wrath, Finding Neverland). The musical is choreographed by Alex Sanchez (Giant, Fiorello!) and directed by three-time Tony Award nominee Michael Greif (Grey Gardens at PH and on Broadway; Rent, Next to Normal, Giant). The musical is based on the Focus Features/Vulcan Productions motion picture Far From Heaven, written and directed by Todd Haynes. FAR FROM HEAVEN will now begin previews Wednesday evening, May 8 at 8PM with an Opening Night set for Sunday, June 2 at 7PM. The limited engagement subscription run will play through Sunday, June 30 at Playwrights Horizons' Mainstage Theater (416 West 42nd Street). Headlining the cast is the previously-announced four-time Tony Award nominee Kelli O'Hara (nominated for her acclaimed performances in The Light in the Piazza, The Pajama Game, South Pacific and the current Nice Work If You Can Get It). One of Broadway's leading musical stars, she returns to Playwrights Horizons for the first time since starring in the World Premiere of the new musical My Life with Albertine in 2003. She will reunite with co-star Steven Pasquale (The Spitfire Grill at PH; reasons to be pretty on Broadway; The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide… at The Public; Drama Desk and Outer Critic Circle nominations for A Man of No Importance at Lincoln Center; The Grapes of Wrath at Carnegie Hall, star of the NBC series 'Do No Harm'). Ms. O'Hara and Mr. Pasquale created their respective roles in FAR FROM HEAVEN for the musical's Preview Production run at Williamstown Theatre Festival last summer. In addition to Ms. O'Hara and Mr. Pasquale, the full cast of FAR FROM HEAVEN will feature J.B. Adams (Parade, Beauty & the Beast, Me & My Girl on Broadway; Annie Warbucks Off-Broadway; the film Far From Heaven), Marinda Anderson (From the Inside, Out at NY Fringe Festival; Freedom Train for TheatreWorks USA), Olivier Award nominee Nancy Anderson (Wonderful Town, A Class Act on Broadway; Kiss Me, Kate in London; Yank! Off-Broadway), Elainey Bass (Radio City Christmas Spectacular), Obie Award winner Quincy Tyler Bernstine (In the Next Room… on Broadway; Ruined at MTC), Justin Scott Brown (Les Miserables, Spring Awakening national tours), Obie Award winner Alma Cuervo (PH's The Heidi Chronicles and Isn't It Romantic?; Titanic, Cabaret, Women on the Verge… on Broadway; Road Show at The Public; Wicked national tour), Korey Jackson (Wild with Happy at The Public; 'Homeland'), Isaiah Johnson (Peter and the Starcatcher; The Merchant of Venice on Broadway), Jake Lucas (Newsies), James Moye (Million Dollar Quartet, Ragtime, White Christmas, on Broadway; Happiness Off-Broadway), Julianna Rigoglioso (Pippi Longstocking Off-Broadway; Mary Poppins national tour, The Smurfs), Sarah Jane Shanks (Wicked, Promises Promises, Shrek, Wonderful Town, The Apple Tree on Broadway), Tess Soltau (The Addams Family on Broadway; Into the Woods for The Public/Shakespeare in the Park), Mary Stout (Cather County at PH; Jane Eyre, Beauty & the Beast, Me & My Girl on Broadway) and Victor Wallace (Mamma Mia! on Broadway, Les Miserables and The Phantom of the Opera national tours). FAR FROM HEAVEN will feature scenic design by Tony Award nominee Allen Moyer, costume design by five-time Tony Award winner Catherine Zuber, lighting design by Tony Award winner Kenneth Posner, sound design by Nevin Steinberg, projection design by Peter Nigrini and orchestrations by Tony Award winner Bruce Coughlin. Musical Director is Lawrence Yurman and Production Stage Manager is Judith Schoenfeld. Cathy Whitaker (Ms. O'Hara) seems to be the picture-perfect wife and mother in 1957 suburban Connecticut. But roiling beneath the surface, secret longings and forbidden desires cause her world to unravel, with incendiary consequences. With a lush score that is both jazz-inflected and hauntingly lyrical, FAR FROM HEAVEN is a powerful story of romance, betrayal and intolerance, as a woman grapples with her identity in a society on the verge of upheaval. FAR FROM HEAVEN was commissioned, developed, and produced through the Playwrights Horizons Musicals in Partnership Initiative, with leadership support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Through this initiative, the musical had a Preview Production run at the Williamstown Theatre Festival last summer, also featuring Ms. O'Hara, Mr. Pasquale, Mr. Adams, Ms. Bernstine and Ms. Stout. The program allows Playwrights Horizons to develop new works of musical theater, each in partnership with a Regional theater - wholly within the not-for-profit system. This seven-year program aims to commission at least four new works of musical theater and develop and produce three or four full-scale productions. Each of the three musicals will be produced at both one specific Regional partner and at Playwrights Horizons. Generous support for FAR FROM HEAVEN was also provided by The Laurents / Hatcher Foundation, Stacey & Eric Mindich Fund for New Musicals at Playwrights Horizons, Daniel & Joanne Smith, Cathy & Stephen Weinroth, National Alliance for Musical Theatre, Tobin Theatre Arts Fund, Thomas & Patricia Barron, Bruce Horten, Rosalee A. & Bruce Lovett, Larry Tatelbaum, Elroy and Terry Krumholz Foundation, and Nancy Roistacher & Wayne P. Merkelson. The original 2002 film, which stars Julianne Moore, Dennis Quaid, Dennis Haysbert and Patricia Clarkson, earned over 100 awards, honors and nominations. It was nominated for 4 Academy Awards including Best Actress (Ms. Moore), Best Original Screenplay (Todd Haynes), Best Cinematography (Edward Lachman) and Best Original Score (Elmer Bernstein), and was named one of the 10 Best Movies of the Decade by Entertainment Weekly. It was also named Best Film of the Year by the New York Film Critics Circle Awards, Chicago Film Critics Association Awards, Independent Spirit Awards and the Village Voice, among many others. Far From Heaven also earned 4 Golden Globe nominations including Best Screenplay, a Writers Guild of America Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay and a bevy of additional awards for leading actress Julianne Moore, including one from the National Board of Review Award and nominations from the Screen Actors Guild and the Golden Globes. With FAR FROM HEAVEN, Playwrights Horizons continues its commitment to developing unique and ground-breaking new musicals, including Grey Gardens, James Joyce's The Dead, Floyd Collins, Assassins, Once on This Island and Sunday in the Park with George. FAR FROM HEAVEN reunites the theater company with Mr. Frankel, Mr. Korie and Mr. Greif, the composer, lyricist and director of Grey Gardens, which was one of Playwrights Horizons' most heralded original musicals. The project also marks the long-awaited return to the theater company of Mr. Greenberg, who was last represented there in 1987 with his play The Maderati. The performance schedule for FAR FROM HEAVEN will be Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 7PM, Thursdays and Fridays at 8PM, Saturdays at 2:30 PM & 8PM and Sundays at 2:30 PM & 7:30 PM. Both the Wednesday, May 8 and Tuesday, May 28 evening performances have 8PM curtains and the Sunday, June 2 matinee has an early 2PM curtain. Beginning the week of April 8, single tickets, starting at $80, may be purchased online via www.TicketCentral.com, by phone at (212) 279-4200 (Noon-8pm daily), via Facebook at www.Facebook.com/PlaywrightsHorizons or in person at the Ticket Central Box Office, 416 West 42nd Street (between Ninth & Tenth Avenues). A ticketing initiative created as part of Playwrights Horizons' Arts Access program, LIVEforFIVE makes available $5 tickets for the first preview performance of each Playwrights Horizons production through a lottery via the company's website. The LIVEforFIVE lottery for FAR FROM HEAVEN will be for tickets to the first preview on Wednesday, May 8 at 8PM. Details for the lottery are as follows: beginning Wednesday, May 1 at 12 Noon, theatergoers can enter the lottery by filling out an entry form at www.PlaywrightsHorizons.org. Entries will be accepted until Monday, May 6 at 12 Noon. Winners of the lottery will be notified via email no later than 3PM on Monday, May 6 with instructions on how to book their $5 tickets. Unclaimed tickets will be offered via email to a limited standby list starting at 12 Noon on Tuesday, May 7 on a first-come, first-served basis. One or two tickets may be purchased for $5 each. A limited number of tickets will be available for Mainstage shows via the lottery. Reflecting Playwrights Horizons' ongoing commitment to making its productions more affordable to younger audiences, the theater company will offer HOTtix, $25 rush tickets, subject to availability, day of performance only, starting one hour before showtime to patrons aged 30 and under. Proof of age required. One ticket per person, per purchase. Cash only. LIVEforFIVE and HOTtix are two of Playwrights Horizons' popular Arts Access initiatives, which allow the institution to reach out to those who may not be able to afford the cost of a full-price theater ticket. This program is supported, in part, by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and The McGraw-Hill Companies. A special open captioned performance of FAR FROM HEAVEN for theatergoers who are deaf and hard of hearing will be held on the Saturday, June 8 matinee at 2:30 PM. Funding for this program is provided, in part, by the Theodore H. Barth Foundation, and TDF and TAP Plus, which is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

The Jewish Museum will present Freedom Art Jam, a new fun-filled family day for Passover on Sunday, March 31 from 12 noon to 4 pm. Activities include a dance party with Baby Loves Disco, a performance by David Grover & Grover's Gang, a huge drop-in art workshop, and Reboot's Beyond Bubbie art project. This event is free with Museum admission.

Geva Theatre Center's Artistic Director Mark Cuddy and Executive Director Tom Parrish are proud to announce the much anticipated 2013-2014 season, the organization's 41st season of producing professional theatre of a national standard for audiences in the Greater Rochester region. The 2013-2014 Wilson Mainstage Season features a high octane, all-American musical; a hilarious homage to a Hitchcock classic film; a new play by the author of Almost, Maine; an Olivier, Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning play about race and real estate; the world premiere of a play ripped from the headlines; and the finale - a beloved and timeless comedy from an American Master. Geva's magical production of A Christmas Carol has become Rochester's holiday tradition and will return for 2013.

New York City Opera Announces 2013-14 Season.

The Jewish Museum is offering Crafting Stories: A Passover Art Workshop on Sunday, March 24 at 1 pm. Kids will be able to create their own Hagaddahs for Passover with author Francine Hermelin Levite. Using pages from Levite's book, My Haggadah: Made It Myself, along with a mix of art materials such as fabric, yarn and buttons, families can explore themes of the holiday through art-making. This program is presented in partnership with Reboot. A Haggadah is the text read at the Passover seder.

The spirit of independent cinema is soaring with the NewFilmmakers LA Film Festival March 23rd 2013 program. The event brings Groundlings alumni, award-winning filmmakers, Oscar nominated actors, first time filmmakers, and more all under one roof.

Erica Mott Productions brings The Victory Project, an interdisciplinary dance, sound and video performance, to the Roulette Composer/Choreographer Series on March 22, 2013 at 8pm.

Based on the book of the same title by Jaap Polak and Ina Soep Polak, STEAL A PENCIL FOR ME, a new opera with music by Gerald Cohen and libretto by Deborah Brevoort, will have its premiere in Scarsdale and New York City, NY in late April, 2013. STEAL A PENCIL FOR ME is a love story set in two concentration camps during World War II. It is based on the true story of Jaap and Ina Polak, whom the composer has known for the last 25 years, and who just celebrated their 100th and 90th birthdays.

The Film Society of Lincoln Center presents the film series Foxy, The Complete Pam Grier (today, March 15-17). Screening at the Walter Reade Theater (165 West 65th Street) and the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center (144 West 65th Street), and highlighted by the attendance of Grier at several screenings, the film series includes such fan favorites and notable classics as THE BIG BIRD CAGE (1972), COFFY (1973), ESCAPE FROM LA (1996), FOXY BROWN (1974), and GREASED LIGHTNING (1977), as well as JACKIE BROWN (1997) featuring her Golden Globe and SAG Award nominated performance in the title role.

The Tribeca Film Institute (TFI) today announced projects selected for the 10th Annual Tribeca All Access (TAA) program. TAA will support each project with an initial $15,000 grant as well as offer year-round support, guidance, and resources for filmmakers to help advance their projects toward completion.

Geva Theatre Center's 2013 Fielding Nextstage Season continues with No Child…, by Nilaja Sun. The production begins performances on April 4 and runs in the Fielding Nextstage through April 21.

This April, the company dubbed "the People's Opera" will return to the venue known as "the People's Theater" for the first time since 1965, when New York City Opera returns to New York City Center, its original home. The residency includes new productions of Gioachino Rossini's Moses in Egypt, conducted by Jayce Ogren and directed by Michael Counts (April 14-20); and Jacques Offenbach's La Perichole, conducted by Emmanuel Plasson and directed by Christopher Alden (April 21-27).

Director, screenwriter, and artist Harmony Korine has developed an aesthetic as unique and bracing as any that launched in the heyday of 1990s American independent film. Korine made his name as the screenwriter of the nihilistic-teen movie Kids, but came into his own as a director with the 1997 feature debut, Gummo. From March 8 through 22, 2013, Museum of the Moving Image will present a retrospective of all of Korine's five feature films to date, including his latest, Spring Breakers-a triumph at both the Toronto and Venice film festivals.

Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) presents Meet the Coaches on Saturday, March 9, 2013 at Ripley Grier Studios, 520 8th Avenue, 10th Floor, NYC from 2pm-5pm. This event is free to all registered participants in the TRU 2013 Combined Audition Event, and $15 for all others. Further information including bios of the coaches can be found at www.truonline.org/CoachesAE13.htm.

Tonight, March 8, 2013, one of Broadway's favorite leading men, Ryan Silverman, will appear with The New York Pops for Come Fly With Me: The Songs of Sammy Cahn. Mr. Silverman has previously appeared in The Phantom of the Opera (Raoul), Cry-Baby (Cry-Baby u/s), Music in the Air (Karl) at New York City Center's Encores!, and The Most Happy Fella (Al) at New York City Opera. Mr. Silverman joins previously announced guest artist Megan Hilty, Broadway singer and star of the television show Smash.

Target Margin Theater (David Herskovits, Artistic Director; John Del Gaudio, Artistic Producer) continues the exploration of Yiddish Theater with the re-imagined classic play, The ( * ) Inn, *empty, vacant, abandoned; usually translated as "Haunted by Peretz Hirschbein. Under the direction of TMT's Artistic Director, David Herskovits, the cast will feature TMT Company Member David Greenspan with Ugo Chukwu, Rachel Claire, Amir Darvish, Susan Hyon, Meg MacCary, Julia Sirna-Frest, J.H. Smith III and Sam T. West.

Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts at Brooklyn College (BCBC) has announced the rescheduling of a concert by Metropolitan Klezmer & Isle of Klezbos on Sunday, April 7, 2013 at 2pm. Originally scheduled for early November 2012 but cancelled due to Superstorm Sandy, the concert now coincides with Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom HaShoah). Tickets are $30 and can be purchased online at www.BrooklynCenterOnline.org or by phone at 718-951-4500 (Tues-Sat, 1pm-6pm).

American Composers Orchestra (ACO) continues its season-long initiative, coLABoratory: Playing It UNsafe, the first and only professional research and development lab to support the creation of cutting-edge new American orchestral music through no-holds-barred experimentation, encouraging composers to do anything but 'play it safe.' Audiences will have the opportunity to see and hear the composers' works-in-progress at free lab workshops today, March 5, 2013 at 10am at Flushing Town Hall (137-35 Northern Blvd., Flushing, NY), and Today, April 2, 2013 at 2pm at The DiMenna Center (450 W. 37th St., NYC). coLABoratory culminates on Friday, April 5, 2013 at 7:30pm with a concert featuring all of the new works at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall, conducted by ACO Music Director George Manahan.

The Paul Taylor Dance Company returns to the David H. Koch Theater for its 2013 New York Season from tonight, March 5th through the 24th following a record-shattering inaugural Season at Lincoln Center in 2012. The Season celebrates Paul Taylor's masterworks spanning seven decades, from the 1950s through today.

Ballet Hispanico, recognized as the nation's leading Latino dance organization since 1970, returns to The Joyce Theater for its 25th annual New York Season from April 16-28, 2013. Tickets range from $10-$59. Tickets are available by phone at 212-242-0800 or online at Joyce.org. The Joyce Theater is located at 175 Eighth Avenue (at 19th Street), NYC. Check out the photos below!