Playwrights Horizons News

Good morning, BroadwayWorld! Today's big news: Broadway's best gather tonight for the 12th Annual BROADWAY BACKWARDS!

?Led by Founding Artistic Director Katherine Kovner and Producing Director Roberta Pereira, and following the success of Sarah DeLappe's critically acclaimed The Wolves, The Playwrights Realm continues their female-centric 10th Anniversary season with the New York Premiere of Jen Silverman'sThe Moors (February 27 - March 25) at The Duke on 42nd Street, a New 42nd Street project. Directed by Mike Donahue and riffing on the lives and works of certain 19th-century novel-writing sisters, The Moors is a dark comic examination of the ways in which women fight for visibility.

Marin Theatre Company stirs the stage this season with the West Coast Premiere of peerless by Jiehae Park, a new dark comedy riff on Shakespeare's classic cursed tale Macbeth. Twin sisters 'M' and 'L' resort to desperate measures when their academic dreams of success are dashed most unexpectedly. With unwavering loyalty to each other-and themselves-they craft a plan to manipulate their destiny by any means necessary. Fresh off a critically acclaimed World Premiere production at Yale Repertory in 2015, MTC is excited to bring this sinister, sisterly twist on the Scottish Play to the West Coast under the direction of Margot Bordelon, who also directed the play's World Premiere.

Mosaic Theater Company of DC presents South Africa: Then & Now, a dynamic spring repertory that takes audience members back to the depths of Apartheid, before moving forward to the ongoing search for truth and reconciliation in a wounded country. The repertory launches with Athol Fugard's seminal masterpiece, BLOOD KNOT (March 29-April 30, 2017)-an intimate parable about a brotherhood devastated by the constraints of Apartheid-under the direction of Studio Theatre Founding Artistic Director Joy Zinoman, making her Mosaic Theater Company debut.

The Latino Theater Company kicks off its 2017 season exploring themes of identity and its relationship to history with a new socio-political comedy set on board a luxury ocean liner. The world premiere of The Cruise by Jonathan Ceniceroz opens March 16 at The Los Angeles Theatre Center. Low-priced previews begin March 10.

The Huntington Theatre Company presents the explosive Pulitzer Prize winner Topdog/Underdog by Suzan-Lori Parks and directed by Tony, Grammy, and Drama Desk Award winner Billy Porter (The Colored Museum at the Huntington and Lola in Kinky Boots on Broadway). Performances run March 10 - April 9, 2017 at the Avenue of the Arts / BU Theatre.

The Drama League (Executive Artistic Director Gabriel Stelian-Shanks) will honor two outstanding stage luminaries at this year's 83RD Annual Drama League Awards, set for Friday afternoon, May 19, 2017 at the Marriott Marquis Times Square (1535 Broadway). 

Charles Busch and Penny Fuller, who appeared together as bosom buddies Mame and Vera in Auntie Mame at the Bay Street Theatre, will lend their voices to Monahan & Oyen's DIVA: Live From Hell. Busch (The Divine Sister, The Tale of the Allergist's Wife) will voice the manager of the dingy cabaret venue in Hell, where Desmond Channing (played by Monahan) is doomed to perform his torturous act for eternity. Fuller (Sunday in the Park with George, The Elephant Man), who was nominated for a Tony Award for her portrayal of Eve Harrington in the musical Applause, will voice the grandmother of Desmond Channing (loosely inspired by the character of Eve Harrington's nemesis, Margo Channing).

SPACE on Ryder Farm, a non-profit artist residency program located on Ryder Farm, an idyllic 221 year-old working organic farm in Brewster, NY, announces its lineup for the 2017 Working Farm Reading Series to be held at Playwrights Horizons in New York City April 3-7, 2017. All readings are free, and farm-fresh bites inspired by the plays and prepared by SPACE chefs will be served at each reading.

After a night of debauchery, Duke Orlando awakens in the morning as a Duchess. During her/his/their frolic through 17th century Constantinople, Victorian and 20th century England - and places and selves in between - Orlando strives to unlock the mystery of identity: 'Who then am I?'

Abingdon Theatre Company, under the artistic direction of Tony Speciale, presents the world premiere of CHESS MATCH NO. 5, conceived and directed by Anne Bogart, with text arranged by Jocelyn Clarke from the words of John Cage.

The Red Fern Theatre Company will present the World Premiere of RARE BIRDS by Adam Szymkowicz (Clown Bar, Hearts Like Fists, Pretty Theft, Nerve). Directed by Scott Ebersold, (The View UpStairs, Nerve) performances begin March 23 at The Theater at the 14th Street Y in the East Village.

LCT's production of How to Transcend a Happy Marriage begins performances on February 23rd at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater (150 West 65th Street). At a dinner party in the wilds of New Jersey, two married couples discuss a younger acquaintance - a polyamorous woman who also hunts her own meat. Fascinated, they invite this mysterious woman and her two live-in boyfriends to a New Year's Eve party, which alters the course of their lives. How to Transcend a Happy Marriage asks: how much love can a twosome contain? What are the limits of friendship, and what happens when parents who have forgotten their own wildness have a wild rumpus all their own?

Lincoln Center Theater Platform Series, a forum for public discussion between Lincoln Center Theater artists and theatergoers, continues today, March 8, with HOW TO TRANSCEND A HAPPY MARRIAGE author Sarah Ruhl and director Rebecca Taichman.

The Public Theater will begin previews for the world premiere musical THE OUTER SPACE on Thursday, February 23 in Joe's Pub at The Public. With book and lyrics by Ethan Lipton and directed by Leigh Silverman, the show has been extended one week through Sunday, April 9, with an official press opening today, March 8. THE OUTER SPACE features music composed and performed by Ethan Lipton, Vito Dieterle, Eben Levy, and Ian Riggs.

Ensemble Studio Theatre (EST), in association with The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, has announced SPILL, written and directed by Leigh Fondakowski (The Laramie Project, The People's Temple).

The 2017 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize has been awarded to U.S. playwright Clare Barron for her play Dance Nation.  On March 6, New York's Playwrights Horizons hosted a ceremony honoring the winner and finalists of the prize and celebrating the 39th anniversary of the international prize, which is based in Houston.

The 2017 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize has been awarded to U.S. playwright Clare Barron for her play Dance Nation. On March 6, New York's Playwrights Horizons hosted a ceremony honoring the winner and finalists of the prize and celebrating the 39th anniversary of the international prize.

Playwrights Horizons is now accepting entries today, Monday, March 6, for the LIVEforFIVE online lottery for $5 tickets to their world premiere production of The Profane, a new play by Zayd Dohrn (Outside People, Reborning).

Broadway and West End star Tam Mutu will star as Archibald Craven in The 5th Avenue Theatre's enchanting Broadway-bound revival of The Secret Garden. Mutu joins a phenomenal cast including Tony Award winner Daisy Eagan, Tony Award nominee Josh Young, Lizzie Klemperer, Charlie Franklin and Sean G. Griffin.