Peter DuBois News

Seventy-four high school students from across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts will participate in four regional semi-final competitions this weekend, March 1 and 2 as part of the ninth annual Poetry Out Loud. Semi-final competitions will be held in Boston, Framingham, Springfield, and on Cape Cod. All upcoming competitions are free and open to the public.

Huntington Theatre Company has received 29 IRNE Award nominations from the Independent Reviewers of New England for its 2013 productions. The Committee recognized the Huntington with the following nominations:

The Public Theater announced complete casting today for THE LIBRARY, a new play written by award-winning writer Scott Z. Burns and directed by Academy Award winner Steven Soderbergh. THE LIBRARY will begin previews on Tuesday, March 25 in The Public's Newman Theater and run through Sunday, April 27, with an official press opening on Tuesday, April 15.

Seventy-four high school students from across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts will participate in four regional semi-final competitions March 1 and 2 as part of the ninth annual Poetry Out Loud. Semi-final competitions will be held in Boston, Framingham, Springfield, and on Cape Cod. All upcoming competitions are free and open to the public.

Best-selling author, investment manager, and Huntington Theatre Company Trustee John D. Spooner and Mary Zimmerman, the visionary and acclaimed director of the Huntington's recent productions of The Jungle Book and Candide, will be honored with the Wimberly Award at the 2013 Regional Theatre Tony Award recipient's 2014 Spotlight Spectacular on Monday, April 28, 2014.

Real-life mother and son Tony and Emmy Award nominee Kate Burton (The Corn is Green, The Cherry Orchard, Hedda Gabler at the Huntington) and Morgan Ritchie (The Corn is Green) will play mother and son onstage together for the first time when they return to the Huntington Theatre Company for a lush new production of Anton Chekhov's passionate classic The Seagull. Huntington favorite Maria Aitken (The Cocktail Hour, Betrayal) will direct the Paul Schmidt translation of the classic of world drama about love, missed connections, and what it means to be an artist. Performances of The Seagull begin at the Avenue of the Arts / BU Theatre on March 7, 2014.

Winter usually isn't the busiest time of year for incoming Broadway shows, but that doesn't mean that there is any lack of fresh talent making their debuts! The Broadway Winter has arrived, and while a solid number of new faces are treading the boards, dozens more are on their way in the coming months. Meet all of Broadway's newest stars below!

The Huntington Theatre Company announces that the 2014 Breaking Ground festival of new plays will be held today, January 30 - February 2 at the Huntington's home for new work, the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA.

Huntington Theatre Company favorite and frequent director Maria Aitken (The Cocktail Hour, Betrayal, Private Lives, Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps) will return to the Huntington this spring to direct Tony Award nominee and television star Kate Burton in Anton Chekhov's passionate classic, The Seagull. Aitken replaces Nicholas Martin who was previously slated to direct the production but has withdrawn for personal reasons.

The Huntington Theatre Company announces that the 2014 Breaking Ground festival of new plays will be held January 30 - February 2 at the Huntington's home for new work, the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA.

Huntington Theatre Company kicks off 2014 with David Ives' sexy Broadway smash hit Venus in Fur, deemed '90 minutes of good, kinky fun,' by The New York Times. Daniel Goldstein (God of Carnage) returns to the Huntington to the direct the 2012 Tony Award nominee for Best Play. Performances will begin tonight, January 3 at the Avenue of the Arts / BU Theatre.

National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Acting Chairman Joan Shigekawa announced last week that the Huntington Theatre Company is one of 895 nonprofit organizations nationwide to receive an NEA Art Works grant. The Huntington is slated to be awarded $25,000 to support the development and production of Huntington Playwriting Fellow Lydia R. Diamond's Smart People, now extended to play May 23 - June 29, 2014.

Due to extraordinary early demand for the final two productions of its 2013-2014 Season, Huntington Theatre Company announces one-week extensions to the runs of Melinda Lopez's Becoming Cuba and Lydia R. Diamond's Smart People. The Huntington's previous productions by these acclaimed Boston playwrights - Sonia Flew by Melinda Lopez and Stick Fly by Lydia R. Diamond - hold the records as the two highest grossing productions ever staged in the Wimberly Theatre of the Huntington's second home, the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA.

Polly Adams, Emma Fielding, Adam James and Shannon Tarbet join Emilia Fox in Rapture, Blister, Burn, Gina Gionfriddo's witty dissection of gender politics.

Huntington Theatre Company kicks off 2014 with David Ives' sexy Broadway smash hit Venus in Fur, deemed '90 minutes of good, kinky fun,' by The New York Times. Daniel Goldstein (God of Carnage) returns to the Huntington to the direct the 2012 Tony Award nominee for Best Play. Performances will begin on January 3 at the Avenue of the Arts / BU Theatre. The most produced play in America this season, Venus in Fur is 'deadly serious, madly funny ... you won't see a funnier play this season, or a smarter one,' says The Wall Street Journal.

The Huntington Theatre Company presents a concert version of Jason Robert Brown's powerful contemporary musical The Last Five Years for three performances only this weekend, November 23 and 24.

A host of favorite Huntington Theatre Company artists return for a new stagging of A.R. Gurney's American comedy of manners The Cocktail Hour. Maria Aitken (Betrayal, Private Lives, and Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps at the Huntington) directs the company that features James Waterston (Private Lives and Ah, Wilderness!) as John, the young playwright that reveals to his familuy members that they are the subject of his newest play. Richard Poe (The Taming of the Shrew) plays his father Bradley, Tony Award nominee and renowned Gurney interpreter Maureen Anderman (Becky Shaw and Third) plays John's mother, Ann; and Pamela J. Gray (Present Laughter and Butley) plays Nina, John's sister. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

Hampstead Theatre has announced its New Year programme of two UK Premieres: Rapture, Blister, Burn by Gina Gionfriddo, starring Emilia Fox and Good People by David Lindsay-Abaire, starring Imelda Staunton.

In Stephen Belber's new play 'The Power of Duff' a lonely newsman seeks redemption by inadvertently turning his anchor desk into a pulpit, working miracles for strangers while still failing to communicate at home.

David Wilson Barnes plays Charlie Duff, a burnt-out local newscaster who transforms first his community and then himself when he begins praying on-air in the Huntington Theatre Company's new production of Stephen Belber's moving new drama The Power of Duff. Amy Pietz ("The Office," "Caroline in the City") plays Duff's ex-wife Lisa, and Jennifer Westfeldt (Kissing Jessica Stein, Friends with Kids) plays Sue, Charlie's co-anchor, in the production helmed by Huntington Artistic Director Peter DuBois. Performances began on October 11 at the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA. The Power of Duff is produced in association with New York Stage and Film and Vassar's Powerhouse Theater. BroadwayWorld has photos from the opening night celebrations on October 23rd below -- including Westfeldt's boyfriend Jon Hamm!