Oscar Wilde News

The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde's immortal comedy, opening this Friday, runs for 2 weekends only.

Hennepin Theatre Trust presents the new theatrical event Standing On Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays, running tonight, May 31-June 16, 2012 at the New Century Theatre. Showcasing funny, heartfelt "mini works" that celebrate the courage to be in a relationship-any relationship, Standing On Ceremony's smart and witty vignettes were penned by playwrights whose credits include two Pulitzer Prizes, four Obies, one Emmy and three Tony nominations. Wendy Knox of Frank Theatre will direct a stellar cast of six Twin Cities actors including Laura Adams, Shawn Hamilton Brown, Aimee K. Bryant, Jim Lichtscheidl and Mark Rhein, with one more actor to be announced soon. With this production, the Trust is working in cooperation with Minnesotans United for All Families, the official statewide campaign working to defeat the constitutional amendment that would exclude gays and lesbians from marriage in Minnesota.

Dixon Place will present the world premiere of Rachel Klein's Symphony of Shadows: A Tale from the Land Beyond the Veil from June 7-23 at Dixon Place, New York. This movement-based spectacular tells the story of a woman combating a variety of sleep disorders, phantasmagorical night terrors, hypnotic horrors & other visually stunning conjurings from the subconscious depths of her own disturbed mind. Symphony of Shadows merges striking elements of circus & aerial arts, dance & movement, burlesque & operatic productions to vividly illustrate its storyline in a genre-defying form which "evokes a live-action silent film." Symphony of Shadows was commissioned by Dixon Place as a world premiere as part of the theater's Monde Cane original works series.

Franz Welser-Most conducts The Cleveland Orchestra and an international cast in concert performances of Richard Strauss's SALOME at Severance Hall on Saturday, May 26, at 8 p.m. The opera will also be presented at New York's Carnegie Hall, tonight, May 24, at 8 p.m. These will be the first Cleveland Orchestra performances of SALOME. Principal cast members are soprano Nine Stemme as SALOME, tenor Rudolf Schasching as Herod, mezzo-soprano Jane Henschel as Herodias, bass-baritone Eric Owens as Jochanaan, and tenor Garrett Sorenson as Narraboth. Ms. Stemme and Mr. Schasching make their Cleveland Orchestra debut with these performances. The opera will be performed in German, with projectEd English supertitles for the Severance Hall performances.

Cortland Repertory Theatre's 2011 production of the musical Chicago "razzle dazzled 'em" at the Syracuse Area Live Theatre (SALT) Awards, winning in two out of the three Summer Production categories. The awards were presented on Sunday, May 20 at the Palace Theatre in Syracuse. Hosted by the Syracuse New Times, the SALT Awards recognize professional, summer and community theatres, each in their own categories.

Elements Theatre Company is showcasing A. R. Gurney's Pulitzer-nominated play, The Dining Room, a window into a vanishing class of society from the 1930s to the 1980s. The production runs May 19-27, 2012 at Elements Theatre, Paraclete House, Rock Harbor, Orleans, MA.

Elements Theatre Company is showcasing A. R. Gurney's Pulitzer-nominated play, The Dining Room, a window into a vanishing class of society from the 1930s to the 1980s. The production runs May 19-27, 2012 at Elements Theatre, Paraclete House, Rock Harbor, Orleans, MA.

Cortland Repertory Theatre has received a record-breaking eight nominations for the 2011 Syracuse Area Live Theatre (SALT) Awards, which recognize outstanding achievement in Central New York theatre. Hosted by the Syracuse New Times, the SALT Awards focus primarily on community theatre groups in Syracuse, but also recognizes regional summer theatres in their own categories.

Franz Welser-Most conducts The Cleveland Orchestra and an international cast in concert performances of Richard Strauss's SALOME at Severance Hall tonight, May 19, at 8 p.m. and Saturday, May 26, at 8 p.m.

Stage and screen stars Brooke Shields and Richard Chamberlain will take on the iconic roles of Chris MacNeil and Father Merrin in playwright John Pielmeier's world premiere of The Exorcist at the Geffen Playhouse. Helmed by acclaimed director John Doyle, who won a Tony Award for his striking reimagining of Sweeney Todd, this stage adaptation of William Peter Blatty's famous 1971 novel transforms the unsettling battles of good versus evil, faith versus fact and ego versus ethos into a uniquely theatrical experience as sophisticated as it is suspenseful.

The Meeting* hosted by Justin Sayre, called "a riotously funny and campy variety show" by Next Magazine, and 'a rollicking, wry affair complete with funny political commentary on current events' by Gay City News, will present their newest edition tonight, May 17 at 9:30 PM.

22Q Entertainment LLC and GoAlleyCat Productions presents the West Coast Premiere of the New York hit, IT IS DONE, a thrilling new play in an environmental setting, written by award-winning playwright Alex Goldberg and directed by Ovation award-winner Michael Michetti (The Twentieth Century Way, Carousel, Paradise Lost: Shadows and Wings). IT IS DONE opens tonight, May 15 at 8:30pm and runs through Tuesday, June 12 at the Pig ‘N Whistle Restaurant, 6714 Hollywood Blvd. in Hollywood.

Plays & Players celebrates their 100th Anniversary on May 14 at 7pm with a staged reading of Oscar Wilde's An Ideal Husband featuring local celebrities of stage, screen, politics, and more. An Ideal Husband was first performed on Plays & Players' stage in the Spring of 1912, exactly 100 years ago.

Downton Abbey meets Broadway! BWW can report that Dan Stevens, star of the Golden Globe-winning series "Downton Abbey," will play the role of "Morris Townsend" opposite Academy Award nominee Jessica Chastain (Catherine Sloper) and Academy Award nominee and Emmy Award winner David Strathairn (Dr. Austin Sloper) in the Tony Award-winning play The Heiress. Written by Ruth Goetz & Augustus Goetz, The Heiress will be directed by Tony Award nominated playwright and director Moises Kaufman. Performances will begin October 2012 at a theatre to be announced.

Franz Welser-Most conducts The Cleveland Orchestra and an international cast in concert performances of Richard Strauss's SALOME at Severance Hall on Saturday, May 19, at 8 p.m. and Saturday, May 26, at 8 p.m. The opera will also be presented at New York's Carnegie Hall, on Thursday, May 24, at 8 p.m.

Williamstown Theatre Festival Artistic Director Jenny Gersten has announced additional casting for the 2012 Summer Season. A host of Williamstown Theatre Fesival veterans and talented newcomers including Becky Ann Baker, Marylouise Burke, Tyne Daly, Brandon Victor Dixon, Alison Fraser, Heather Lind, Amy Spanger, Jeremy Strong, Lili Taylor and many more, will take the stage during the Festival's 58th Season.

Two-time Golden Globe® winner, Academy Award® & Tony Award® nominee Kathleen Turner returns to Toronto in the National Tour of Matthew Lombardo's play HIGH, tonight, May 8 through May 13, 2012, at The Royal Alexandra Theatre. Directed by Rob Ruggiero, HIGH also features Evan Jonigkeit as "Cody Randall" and Timothy Altmeyer as "Father Michael Delpapp".