Peter Callender News

The African Diasporic Network has finally announced plans for its first production, Echoes of Us, to be directed by none other than Michele Shay. 

In light of the circumstances presented by the new Covid variant (Omicron), San Jose Stage Company (Randall King, Artistic Director and Cathleen King, Executive Director) is rescheduling the upcoming World Premiere production of STRANGE COURTESIES by L. Peter Callender to take place during the 2022-23 Season. 

This is the last chance to vote for the 2021 BroadwayWorld Tampa Awards! The 2021 Regional Awards honor productions which had their first performance between October 1, 2020 through September 30, 2021.

Time is running out to vote for for the 2021 BroadwayWorld Tampa Awards! The 2021 Regional Awards honor productions which had their first performance between October 1, 2020 through September 30, 2021.

AASC Artistic Director L. Peter Callender takes the reins for the return of the annual holiday classic that reimagines the oft-told tale of a young girl escaping some grim family dynamics through the sheer luck of having the right-sized feet into one where she becomes the heroine through collaboration with a very soulful fairy godmother—and an unusually powerful pair of shoes—and chooses to chart her own course and in the process still lands a prince.

Opera Parallèle's (OP) General and Artistic Director Nicole Paiement, today announced the 2021-22 season repertoire, casting and creative teams for the company's 12th anniversary.

Originally scheduled for the company's 2020 Season, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare: Abridged is a sharp, agile and hilariously take on the works of the Bard, all of which find their way onto the stage at one moment or another. So, yes, 75 characters from 37 plays, performed by 3 actors in approximately 97 minutes.

San Jose Stage Company has announced the titles for its upcoming 39th Season: RESILIENCE.

The African-American Shakespeare company is elated to announce what Artistic Director L Peter Callender is a calling a season of “splendor and renewal” featuring 4 productions, live-and-in-person: The Complete Works of Shakespeare (Abridged); Cinderella; The Glass Menagerie; and Richard II. There will also be a special streaming-only edition of Twelfth Night. 

It is 1950, and on a rainy South African afternoon in the St. George’s Park Tea Room, Hally (Nick Apostolina) is becoming himself. He was a boy – one prone to arrogance and self-pity, certainly but vulnerable, and capable of sweetness and hope. But now he is becoming a man – a brutal man, “MASTER HAROLD”, who embraces the world’s ugliness and claims it as his own. He does this by spitting in the face of Sam (L. Peter Callender), a Black man who had sheltered him to that point from the world’s worst, including his own father. In this primal way Master Harold joins the oppressors as a way of not joining the oppressed.

An exceptional contemporary drama concludes the reimagined 2020/2021 season as Syracuse Stage presents Athol Fugard's award-winning “'Master Harold' . . . and the Boys,” available as video on demand June 16 – July 4.

BIPOC Directors Forum - Take 2! will be presented via Zoom and Facebook Live Thursday, May 20th at 7 pm as the third event of Elm Shakespeare Company's free, online series, Building a Brave New Theater: Holding Space and Giving Voice.

Remote Studios, a pioneering online performance group born near the beginning of the pandemic, announced today that they have entered a partnership with The Marsh, a leading Bay Area theatre with a rich history of developing new performance.

Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe will reinvigorate its WBTT Voices program with a special offering, “Telling Our Stories in the Black Theatre,” on May 4.

Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe will be back onstage – albeit with a limited cast and for the purpose of filming rather than presenting live – for the pandemic-delayed production of Dominique Morisseau’s noted work, “Pipeline.” WBTT is currently rehearsing the show, which it will film, present during one week of outdoor screenings.

San Jose Stage Company, in collaboration with African-American Shakespeare Company, has extended STRANGE COURTESIES. The play will now be available to stream through March 8, 2021.

Friday evening I had the pleasure of experiencing a story loosely based on fact of the wonderful Louis Armstrong celebrated Jazz trumpeter and singer. Understandably hesitant at first with the idea of a “Virtual Performance” I sat in the comfort of my home with an open mind willing and ready to experience what was about to be laid forth. I've seen many performances presented by American Stage so I knew the magic would be there, but there is something about the “physical connection” that sort of “...in the room where it happens” that I missed so greatly here. That is not to diminish the understandably beautiful piece in which the fine folks at American Stage presented, and I completely admire their work here as we are all so much in need of live performances.

San Jose Stage Company has announced the full cast and creative team for the virtual world premiere of the new play STRANGE COURTESIES, written and directed by L. Peter Callender.

Directed by Ted Lange of “The Love Boat” fame, opening February 19 and running through February 28 with 12 pre-recorded performances, “Satchmo at the Waldorf” is set in 1971, Louis’ last public performance, four months before his passing. The show takes place in a dressing room backstage at the Empire Room of New York’s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, where Louis is reminiscing into a tape recorder about his life and relationship with his manager.

Elm Shakespeare Company continues its free, online event series, Building a Brave New Theater: Exploring Shakespeare & Race in 2020 with a BIPOC DIRECTOR'S FORUM on Thursday November 12 at 7pm on Zoom.