Paula Vogel News

With the official opening night of the critically-acclaimed political drama The Originalist, Artistic Director Molly Smith enters her 20th anniversary season at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater.

Legendary singer Roberta Flack and leading theatrical producer Daryl Roth will receive the Town Hall 2017 Friend of the Arts Award, it was announced today. 

National New Play Network, the country's alliance of nonprofit theaters that champions the development, production, and continued life of new plays, will co-present the 12th annual MFA Playwright's Workshop (MFAPW) in association with the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival and Stanford University's National Center for New Plays.

Rattlestick Playwrights Theater has announced the line-up for NEW SONGS NOW, an unplugged concert series, presented in association with New Neighborhood and Rosalind Productions, Inc. taking place Sunday, July 23 through Thursday, July 27 at 8:30pm at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater (224 Waverly Place New York, NY 10014).

Second Stage Theater has announced that the world premiere of GREG PIERCE's play, CARDINAL, directed by KATE WHORISKEY, has been added to the 2017-18 season. The production will open in Winter 2018 at the Tony Kiser Theater (305 West 43rd Street).

National New Play Network, the country's alliance of nonprofit theaters that champions the development, production, and continued life of new plays, announces its 2017-18 grant recipients, including the 2017 Smith Prize for Political Theatre, seven Producer Residencies, and five Collaboration Fund awards that will support partnerships between multiple Member Theaters, playwrights, and other theater makers in various projects.

FSU/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training's inaugural season of Dog Days Theatre continues with DOUBLE INDEMNITY, David Pichette and R. Hamilton Wright's stage adaptation of James M. Cain's titillating crime novel that inspired the groundbreaking Academy Award-nominated film noir of the same name. Dog Days Theatre is a new theater project offering smart, contemporary works just light enough for the dog days of summer, featuring two plays mounted in the Cook Theatre, located in the FSU Center for the Performing Arts, using professional actors, directors and designers from the community and around the country along with the talents of the Conservatory's graduate students. Directed by FSU/Asolo Conservatory Director Greg Leaming and Jesse Jou,  DOUBLE INDEMNITY previews August 8 and 9, opens August 10 and runs through August 27. 

This week THEATER TALK presents the Season's-End Critics panel - with Peter Marks of The Washington Post, Terry Teachout of THE WALL Street Journal, Elisabeth Vincentelli of The New York Times & The New Yorker, and Linda Winer of Newsday - discussing the notable plays of Spring 2017 on Broadway. Then, Tony winner Joel Grey joins co-hosts Michael Riedel of the New York Post and Susan Haskins to talk about his revealing memoir, 'Master of Ceremonies' (Flatiron Books). The episode also features a surprise Michael Musto Roast featurette.

People's Light is proud to announce Sanjit De Silva, James Ijames, Deepa Purohit, and Laura Schellhardt as the participating playwrights in the second round of the company's groundbreaking New Play Frontiers Residency & Commission program. The playwrights officially begin the program on July 9, 2017, in conjunction with the final performance of Project Dawn by Karen Hartman, the first New Play Frontiers play to premiere at People's Light. This second round of residencies and commissions, along with the production of Project Dawn, are made possible in part by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

'Indecent' playwright Paula Vogel recently talked with the Boston Globe about her feelings toward inequality in the theatre when it comes to women and minorities. In regards to the Tony Awards, she had not expected to win the Best Play honor, in part because of this divide she sees because of her gender.

Fresh off a cross-country tour, John Strand's critically-acclaimed political drama The Originalist, based on the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, returns to Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater under the direction of Artistic Director Molly Smith.

Second Stage Theater has announced that Obie and Drama Desk Award winner LILA NEUGEBAUER will direct the New York Premiere of TRACY LETTS' acclaimed play, MARY PAGE MARLOWE, in June of 2018 at the Tony Kiser Theatre.

Eleanor Reissa -- one of the members of the cast of Paula Vogel's Tony Award-winning play INDECENT, also known as the 'Yiddish diva' - will be joined by Frank London, a founding member of the Grammy Award-winning Klezmatics, for a one-night-only concert of traditional and popular music performed in Yiddish on Monday, July 17 at 7 pm at 54 Below (254 W. 54 St.) in New York City. 

INDECENT, Paula Vogel's award-winning play at the Cort Theatre (138 West 48th Street), celebrated its 100thperformance on Broadway last night. The production, the miracle on 48th Street, originally scheduled to close on June 25, was instead extended for six more weeks, running through August 6, as a result of increased ticket sales and passionate audience response.

After thirteen years and eighteen directing credits for major Off-Broadway companies such as Playwrights Horizons, Vineyard, Lincoln Center Theatre and The New York Theatre Workshop, another accomplished New York stage talent, Anne Kauffman, takes her overdue Broadway bow with Roundabout's revival of Scott McPherson's 1990 darkly comic drama MARVIN'S ROOM.

Rick Dildine, artistic and executive director of Shakespeare Festival St. Louis, will join Alabama Shakespeare Festival as Artistic Director. In his new role, Dildine will oversee an operation that produces 10 productions in two venues set in a 250-acre park with an annual budget of $8.1 million and more than 230 employees. He will assume his new responsibilities Aug. 1. 

The Pulitzer at 100 celebrates the centenary of this revered and seminal national award for literary excellence in journalism and the arts. The totality of the Pulitzers has had an immeasurable impact on the American sensibility and beyond over the past 100 years. The riveting tales of the winning artists give an insider's view of how these pinnacles of achievement are selected in the twenty-one categories and how the award has the power to change lives and communities. The diverse stories explored in the film relate to immigration, race, gender, and above all freedom of speech - all issues that are ever more relevant in America today.  

INDECENT, Paula Vogel's award-winning play now on Broadway at the Cort Theatre (138 West 48th Street), has seen a remarkable jump in box office sales in just one week's time.

Second Stage Theater has announced that Mercedes Ruehl, winner of the Tony Award, Academy Award, and Golden Globe Award, will star opposite the previously announced Michael Urie in the upcoming production of Harvey Fierstein's modern classic, Torch Song, directed by Moises Kaufman.

Good morning, BroadwayWorld! Today's big news: NAPOLI, BROOKLYN officially opens tonight Off-Broadway!