Playwrights Horizons News

Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev go head-to-head in Blind Date, a new play by Rogelio Martinez directed by Goodman Theatre Artistic Director Robert Falls. Today, Falls announced his cast for the world-premiere production, which features as characters some of the figures who shaped the political landscapes of the 1980s and beyond.

Tony and Drama Desk nominee and multi-Audelco Award and Outer Critics Circle Award winner Andr De Shields will be honored at the 33rd Annual Bistro Awards on Monday, March 12, where he will be receiving the Bob Harrington Lifetime Achievement Award, the Bistro Awards' highest honor, for his five decades of stage and nightclub accomplishments.

Soho Rep. (Sarah Benson, Artistic Director; Cynthia Flowers, Executive Director) today announces the complete cast and creative team for the world premiere of Aleshea Harris's Relentless Award-winning Is God Is, directed by Taibi Magar (Ars Nova's Underground Railroad Game), February 6 - March 11, 2018. The play, with which Soho Rep. reopens its longtime Tribeca theater, dauntlessly cracks jokes as it eviscerates. Alfie Fuller and Dame-Jasmine Hughes play Anaia and Racine, twin sisters who 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.

Victory Gardens Theater continues its 43rd season with BREACH: a manifesto on race in america through the eyes of a black girl recovering from self-hate, written by Antoinette Nwandu and directed by Lisa Portes. BREACH runs February 9 March 11, 2018, with the press performance on Friday, February 16, 2018 at 7:30pm at Victory Gardens Theater, 2433 N. Lincoln Avenue.

The Public Theater (Artistic Director, Oskar Eustis; Executive Director, Patrick Willingham) will begin previews on Tuesday, January 30 for the World premiere of KINGS, written by Sarah Burgess and directed by Thomas Kail, part of The Public's Astor Anniversary Season at their landmark downtown home on Lafayette Street, celebrating 50 years of new work at 425 Lafayette Street and the 50th Anniversary of HAIR. KINGS will run through Sunday, March 25 with an official press opening on Tuesday, February 20. Continuing The Public's mission to make great theater accessible to all, The Public's First Performance Free for All continues this fall; free tickets to the first preview on Tuesday, January 30 will be available beginning January 23, via TodayTix mobile lottery.

The Huntington Theatre Company's 2018 Breaking Ground festival of new plays will be held February 9 11, 2018 at the Huntington's home for new work, the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA. The festival is a vital part of the Huntington's new play development efforts and highlights the work of locally-based Huntington Playwriting Fellows and national writers in partnership with the Huntington. Over the last decade, Breaking Ground plays have gone on to appear at the Huntington as well as theatres in Boston, across the country, and internationally.

Prospect Theater Company, under the leadership of Producing Artistic Director Cara Reichel and Managing Director Melissa Huber, will present MONUMENT, a collection of new mini-musicals in concert, the culmination of Prospect's 2018 Musical Theater Lab. MONUMENT, the company's 12th lab performance, will be presented on February 3, 2018 at 8pm at The TimesCenter (242 West 41st, NYC).

Atlantic Theater Company's Hangmen begins previews tonight, January 18th and will open Monday, February 5th for a limited engagement through Sunday, March 4th, 2018 Off-Broadway at Atlantic Theater Company's Linda Gross Theater (336 West 20th Street).

The Theatre Arts Department of the University of Miami, Stephen DI Benedetto, Chairman, and Michael Bush, Artistic Director of the University's Jerry Herman Ring Theatre, announce a developmental reading of the new musical Devotion, book, music and lyrics by Mark Sonnenblick, directed by Maggie Burrows, featuring students from the University's BFA musical theatre program. This reading has been made possible by a grant for the development of new musical works by the Johnny Mercer Foundation. The reading rehearsals start January 20, 2018 with a free public presentation on January 25, 2018.

59E59 Theaters will present of THE UNDERTAKING, written and directed by Steve Cosson with creative collaboration and psychopomp guidance by Jessica Mitrani. Produced by The Civilians, THE UNDERTAKING begins performances on Thursday, January 11 for a limited engagement through Sunday, February 4. Press Opening is Today, January 17 at 7:15 PM.

Raven Theatre is pleased to announce its 2018-19 Season, kicking off this fall with the sharp and boisterous play CRUMBS FROM THE TABLE OF JOY by two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner Lynn Nottage (Sweat, Ruined). Tyrone Phillips directs this drama about family, faith and revolution.

The Bushwick Starr presnts the world premiere of Cute Activist, a new play by Milo Cramer, directed by Morgan Green, and produced in collaboration with their exciting young company, New Saloon (Minor Character), in association with Clubbed Thumb. Highly anticipated after New Saloon's popular production of Minor Character, Cute Activist is a playfully fabulist, wildly satirical, anti-romantic comedy, that asks questions about the way activism fits - or doesn't fit - into our daily lives. In a spoOoOoky town in mythical Connecticut where inequality reigns, a shadowy ring of part-time activists battle a baroque, tyrannical Landlorde. Only True Love's Kiss can save the local economy. Cute Activist is a pastel fable full of earnest questions about how to engage politically, at an everyday level, as a normal-feeling civilian.

Sinking Ship Productions is thrilled to return to NYC with their production A HUNGER ARTIST, adapted from the story by Franz Kafka. Created collaboratively by performer Jonathan Levin, writer Josh Luxenberg, and director Joshua William Gelb, A HUNGER ARTIST begins performances on Wednesday, January 10th for a 7-performance limited engagement through January 16th. Performances are at the Connelly Theater (220 East 4th Street, between Avenues A & B). Tickets are $25 - $35. For more information, to view a trailer, and to purchase tickets, visit www.sinkingshipproductions.com.

The Shakespeare Theatre Company (STC) announces the cast and creative team for Hamlet, directed by STC Artistic Director Michael Kahn and featuring acclaimed actor Michael Urie as the tortured Danish prince. Shakespeare's most celebrated tragedy will run January 16-February 25, 2018 at Sidney Harman Hall.

The Asian American Performers Action Coalition (AAPAC) released its annual report, 'Ethnic Representation on New York City Stages' today for the 2015-16 theatre season. The report detaild the ethnic breakdown of actors on Broadway and at the 16 largest non-profit theatre companies in New York City. The report also tallies numbers for disabled actors. This year's report amasses 10 years of data, tracking hiring practices from the 2006-07 to 2015-16 seasons. It is the only publicly available report of its kind.

The Barrow Group Theatre Company, recipient of a Drama Desk and Lucille Lortel Award, continues their 2017-2018 season with the World Premiere of The Thing with Feathers, a play by Scott Organ.

Set the table and pull up a chair! Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati presents the regional premiere of the 2016 Tony Award Winner for Best Play, The Humans by Pulitzer Prize finalist Stephen Karam. This evocative drama brings a family face to face with their most familiar fears, and provides a poignant reminder of why we gather together. Featuring an all-star cast and an incredible two-story set, The Humans serves up trials, traditions, and turkey. Playing January 23 February 17, 2018. Directed by Michael Evan Haney. Production Sponsor is The Carol Ann and Ralph V. Haile, Jr./U.S. Bank Foundation.

Rehearsals are currently underway for Lincoln Center Theater's production of ADMISSIONS, a new play by Joshua Harmon, directed by Daniel Aukin. ADMISSIONS will begin previews Thursday, February 15 and open on Monday, March 12 at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater (150 West 65 Street).

Linda Shelton, Executive Director of The Joyce Theater Foundation, Inc., announced today that Aaron Mattocks will take over as Director of Programming, effective February 1, 2018. Mattocks replaces Martin Wechsler, who stepped down at the end of 2017 after 32 years at The Joyce, 22 of those as Director of Programming, helping to transform the organization into the world's leading presenter of dance.

McCarter Theatre Center is starting 2018 with a strong shot of Irish humor as it presents Marie Jones' Stones in His Pockets, January 12 February 11 in the Berlind Theatre.