Nicodemus News

Embracing innovative changes and a new 'Arts for All Seasons' year-round Festival format, Columbia Festival of the Arts welcomes new Board leadership and staff.

California Shakespeare Theater continues its 2015 season with groundbreaking playwright Charles Ludlam's high-camp homage to the horror genre, The Mystery of Irma Vep. Directed by Jonathan Moscone in his final production as Cal Shakes Artistic Director, and featuring Danny Scheie and Liam Vincent, The Mystery of Irma Vep plays at the Bruns Amphitheater from tonight, August 12 through September 6.

California Shakespeare Theater continues its 2015 season with groundbreaking playwright Charles Ludlam's high-camp homage to the horror genre, The Mystery of Irma Vep. Directed by Jonathan Moscone in his final production as Cal Shakes Artistic Director, and featuring Danny Scheie and Liam Vincent, The Mystery of Irma Vep plays at the Bruns Amphitheater from August 12 through September 6.

USA Today has exclusively shared the first five minutes of KILLING JESUS, a three-hour television event, premiering on Palm Sunday, March 29, at 8 p.m. ET/PT on National Geographic Channel.

Continuing its 2014-15 Script in Hand playreading series featuring women playwrights, Westport Country Playhouse will present Pearl Cleage's humorous and gripping "Flyin' West," on Monday, March 9, at 7 p.m. Director is Anne Keefe, Playhouse associate artist and curator of the playreading series. Tickets are $20 each.

It's a story nearly the whole world knows, with more than 2.2 billion people around the globe following the teachings and principles of Jesus of Nazareth. But the intimate historical details of his life and the political collusions that led to his brutal demise bring intriguing context to the familiar story. This spring, National Geographic Channel's KILLING JESUS, produced by Scott Free Productions and based on the New York Times best-selling book by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard, dives deep inside the historical story of how Jesus' message and preachings led to his persecution and execution by a group of conspirators who saw him as a threat to their power.

Playhouse on Park continues its Main Stage series with The Dining Room, which opens Friday, February 20 at 8:00 p.m. (with preview shows on Wednesday and Thursday, February 18-19 at 7:30 p.m.)

Temple, Texas

At the 65th Berlin International Film Festival, director Marcel Ophüls will be awarded the Berlinale Camera.

National Geographic Channel has shared a behind-the-scenes look at the making of KILLING JESUS, based on based on the best-selling book by O'Reilly and Martin Dugard. Below, get a first look at Kelsey Grammer as King Herod and more!

Bainbridge Island, Wash.

National Geographic Channel (@NatGeoChannel) today announced the cast in the upcoming television event Killing Jesus produced by Scott Free Productions.

Vampires, werewolves, Egyptian mummies, English moors, haunted portraits, a sophisticated Lord and Lady, an Irish maid, a Scottish stable hand, and a euphonium. Mix it all up and you have the ridiculous and hugely entertaining farce that is THE MYSTERY OF IRMA VEP. This 2010 Jungle hit is back again this year with the same director/scenic designer, Joel Sass, and one of its stars, Bradley Greenwald (proving once again there truly is nothing he can't do). The role(s) previously played by Stephen Epp is played by another Stephen, Cartmell, and he brings his own kind of brilliance to the show. Watching these two actors fully commit to the distinct outrageousness of multiple characters is a joy.

The frighteningly funny farce "The Mystery of Irma Vep- A Penny Dreadful" by Charles Ludlam opens July 30 at Peninsula Players Theatre, America's oldest professional resident summer theater and Door County's theatrical icon. The Drama Desk-and Obie Award-winning comedy is a true mix of Victorian gothic romance and Universal monster movies.

King Lear's fate is sealed in Shakespeare's play: to be tragically reunited with the one daughter he loves. But what would be the fate of his faithful Fool? That question lies at the heart of 'The Fool's Lear,' a new play by Randy Neale, which will have its New York premiere May 5 to 25 as a featured production of Phoenix Theatre Ensemble's Tenth Anniversary Spring Rep season at The Wild Project 195 E. 3rd Street (at Ave. B). This new, funny, poignant comedic drama follows the journey of the Fool and his King as they ply a path along side Shakespeare's great tragedy, exploring hilarious and harrowing byways between its scenes. Grant Neale directs and plays The Fool and Craig Smith plays The King in a play which South Carolina critics called a delight and a must-see comic drama.

March brings another round of both nationally-touring authors and local authors to the Bookworks' event calendar. The first half of the month, internationally acclaimed novelists Mohsin Hamid and Jan-Philipp Sendker visit with new novels. Hamid, at Bookworks March 5, will present his latest novel, How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia, just released in paper by Penguin. The book is told in first-person, as a satirical how-to based on the life of a young ambitious business man in Asia who falls in love, falls out of love, and tries to strike it rich as an industrialist. Sendker, a German fiction writer, will read from his new book, A Well-Tempered Heart, the sequel to his much-loved The Art of Hearing Heartbeats, at Bookworks on March 11.

Red Bull Theater will present the 30th Anniversary Revival of Charles Ludlam's The Mystery of Irma Vep, starring Arnie Burton and Robert Sella, directed by Everett Quinton. The Mystery of Irma Vep will have scenic design by John Arnone, costume design by Ramona Ponce, lighting design by Peter West, and sound design by Brandon Wolcott.

Three strong and independent African-American women find independence and freedom as pioneers in the American West in Davidson Community Players' Flyin' West by Pearl Cleage. This is a powerful story about the bond of three sisters and their elderly neighbor who face trials and tribulations in the mid-West as homesteaders. This play takes place in the 1890s in Nicodemus, Kansas and is a glimpse into American history and a reminder of the diversity of Western pioneers. It's a dramatic story told with pathos and humor featuring rich characters..

Four African-American women journey west to the all-black town of Nicodemus, Kansas in search of the freedom promised by the end of the Civil War. Saundra McClain directs Pearl Cleage's powerful historical drama Flyin' West, opening March 14 at International City Theatre in the Long Beach Performing Arts Center. Two low-priced previews take place on March 12 and March 13.

March brings another round of both nationally-touring authors and local authors to the Bookworks' event calendar. The first half of the month, internationally acclaimed novelists Mohsin Hamid and Jan-Philipp Sendker visit with new novels. Hamid, at Bookworks March 5, will present his latest novel, How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia, just released in paper by Penguin. The book is told in first-person, as a satirical how-to based on the life of a young ambitious business man in Asia who falls in love, falls out of love, and tries to strike it rich as an industrialist. Sendker, a German fiction writer, will read from his new book, A Well-Tempered Heart, the sequel to his much-loved The Art of Hearing Heartbeats, at Bookworks on March 11.