Playwrights Horizons News

The 19th season of Lincoln Center's acclaimed American Songbook series is underway, and coming up on February 17 (8:30 pm) is The Songs of Scott Frankel & Michael Korie.

Barrington Stage Company (BSC), under the leadership of Artistic Director Julianne Boyd, announces the 2018 Associate Artists - director Joe Calarco, costume designer Jennifer Caprio, music director Vadim Feichtner, and actress Elizabeth Stanley.

Talking Band will present the world premiere of Fusiform Gyrus - A Septet for Two Scientists and Five Horns, written and composed by OBIE Award winner Ellen Maddow, and directed by Ellie Heyman, running from February 7 - 25, 2018 in a limited engagement at HERE, located at 145 6th Avenue (Enter on Dominick, 1 block south of Spring) in New York City. Previews begin tonight, February 7, for a February 13 opening.

National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Jane Chu has approved more than $25 million in grants as part of the NEA's first major funding announcement for fiscal year 2018.  Included in this announcement is an Art Works grant of $10,000 to Rhinebeck Writers Retreat for their musical theatre writer residencies and Triple R program - 2 readings and a residency. The Art Works category is the NEA's largest funding category and supports projects that focus on the creation of art that meets the highest standards of excellence, public engagement with diverse and excellent art, lifelong learning in the arts, and/or the strengthening of communities through the arts.

City Theatre's season of bold new work progresses with the world premiere of Citizens Market by Cori Thomas, which explores the lives and complications of a group of immigrants as they find their footing in America. Thomas's work was last seen at City Theatre with the world premiere of When January Feels Like Summer, winner of the 2011 Osborne New Play Award. Directed byArtistic Producer Reginald L. Douglas, Citizens Market runs on the Main Stage March 3 - 25, 2018. Tickets are on sale now.

PAGE 73 PRODUCTIONS (Page 73) (Michael Walkup, Producing Artistic Director; Jenny Lagundino, Managing Director; Liz Jones and Asher Richelli, Founding Directors) has named C.A. Johnson the 2018 P73 Playwriting Fellow. Selected from over 400 applicants, Johnson will receive a $10,000 award and additional $10,000 budgeted for developing several new plays over the course of the year.

Reacting to Wendy Davis' 2013 anti-abortion in the Texas Legislature, playwright C. Denby Swanson, author of 'The Norwegians,' resolved to write a play about a woman's right to choose and the effect of this wedge issue on female friendship or 'sisterhood.' The result was a darkly comedic drama, 'Gabriel: A Polemic,' in which four tightly-bonded women, confounded by issues of abortion and free will, are divided unexpectedly by a crisis of faith at their weekly dinner. The Drilling Company, which developed the play in a series of readings and workshops since 2014, will mount its world premiere March 9 to 26 at North of History, a new performance/gallery space founded by Gene Kaufman that is located at 445 Columbus Ave. (between 81st and 82nd Streets). Hamilton Clancy directs.

Ten explorers. Four boats. One Grand Canyon. Race down the rapids in this wildly, wonderful gender-bending escapade. Based (broadly) on the true adventures of the one-armed pioneering explorer John Wesley Powell and his intrepid crew, this gleefully subversive play capsizes the white male conquest narrative and discovers the beautifully fluid depth and courage of a wholly different landscape.

The Comrades are pleased to present the second show of their 2017/18 season, the Chicago premiere of ROW AFTER ROW by Jessica Dickey, which will be directed by Ann Kreitman. The show will play the Apollo Studio Theater (2540 N Lincoln Ave, Chicago) from February 5 through 27, 2018. 

A North American Tour is announced today for the Lincoln Center Theater Broadway Production of FALSETTOS, William Finn and James Lapine's groundbreaking, Tony Award-winning musical. This production was nominated for five Tony Awards including Best Musical Revival when it returned to Broadway in Fall 2016, and this production will tour North America in the coming season.

Main Street Theater continues its 42nd Season with MEN ON BOATS by Jaclyn Backhaus - and it's played by all women.  MEN ON BOATS tells the story of Major John Wesley Powell's actual expedition of the Grand Canyon in 1869.  The play depicts the amazing journey of these 10 explorers with all its humor and wonder and danger and excitement.  It's an extraordinary adventure.

GOLDSTEIN, a new musical about family with music and lyrics by Michael Roberts and a book by Charlie Schulman will open Thursday, April 5th at 7PM at the Actors' Temple Theatre (339 West 47 St -between 8th and 9th Avenues). Previews begin Monday, March 26th.  GOLDSTEIN is directed by Brad Rouse, with musical staging by Sarah O'Gelby.  Tickets are $79 and are available by visiting www.goldsteinmusical.com or by calling (212) 239-6200.   The full cast is soon-to-be-announced.

In response to popular demand, Soho Rep. (Sarah Benson, Artistic Director; Cynthia Flowers, Executive Director) extends the world premiere of Aleshea Harris's Relentless Award-winning Is God Is, directed by Taibi Magar by two weeks, through March 25. In this play, which dauntlessly cracks jokes as it eviscerates, twin sisters Anaia (Alfie Fuller) and Racine (Dame-Jasmine Hughes) undertake a murderous journey from the Dirty South to the California desert, seeking payback for a horrendous act. Is God Is treats both morality and genre as notions to be exploded, drawing on the ancient, the modern, the tragic, the Spaghetti Western, hip-hop and Afropunk in its subversion of theatrical constructs.

Back by popular demand, Ammunition Theatre Company is proud to be reviving its wildly successful production by playwright D.G. Watson, THE TRAGEDY: A COMEDY. Acclaimed director Ahmed Best will be at the helm. The unique comic play returns March 8th, at THE PICO - 10508 W Pico Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90064. The show will play monthly (2nd or 3rd Thursday of each month).

Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) has announced casting for THIS FLAT EARTH, the world premiere of a new play by Lindsey Ferrentino(Ugly Lies the Bone, the current Amy and the Orphans). Directed by Tony Award winner Rebecca Taichman (Familiar, Stage Kiss, Milk Like Sugar at Playwrights, Indecent), the play will be the fourth production of the theater company's 2017/2018 Season.

Refuge Theatre Project, the three-year-old company that staged HIGH FIDELITY: THE MUSICAL twice in makeshift record stores, BARE: A POP OPERA in a church sanctuary and LYSISTRATA JONES in a gymnasium; will continue its practice of performing in found spaces with THE SPITFIRE GRILL, opening on March 25.

Olathe Civic Theatre Association (OCTA) begins 2018 with the award-winning musical Violet, an inspiring story of a girl with a disfiguring scar who sets out on a journey to seek healing and finds her true beauty along the way. With book and lyrics by Brian Crawley, music by Jeanine Tesori, and a story based on 'The Ugliest Pilgrim' by Doris Betts, this production is helmed by local theatre veterans Julie Ewing (director) and Kevin Bogan (music director). Violet runs three weekends February 9-25, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm and Sundays at 2 pm.

Cherry Lane Theatre has announced casting for the first production of the Obie award-winning MENTOR PROJECT now in its 20th season. Kate Cortesi's A PATRON OF THE ARTS, is being presented at Cherry Lane (38 Commerce St.) from March 1- 10, 2018, it has been announced by Seri Lawrence and Janio Marrero, Cherry Lane's Co-Artistic Directors.  Angelina Fiordellisi is Cherry Lane's Founding Artistic Director. Ms. Cortesi is mentored by Guggenheim, a Whiting, an Alpert, PEN/Laura Pels award winner Anne Washburn.

Refuge Theatre Project, the three-year-old company that staged HIGH FIDELITY: THE MUSICAL twice in makeshift record stores, BARE: A POP OPERA in a church sanctuary and LYSISTRATA JONES in a gymnasium; will continue its practice of performing in found spaces with THE SPITFIRE GRILL, opening on March 25.

Pittsburgh CLO presents the world premiere of UP AND AWAY, January 25 - April 15, 2018 at the CLO Cabaret. As part of its Next Generation Capital Campaign efforts, Pittsburgh CLO debuted a staged reading of this new musical comedy this past spring during New Musicals Weekend at the Benedum Center. Tickets are now available online at CLOCabaret.com, by phone at 412-456-6666 or in person at the Theater Square Box Office. UP AND AWAY is also available as part of a CLO Cabaret Series subscription package.