Playwrights Horizons News

Japan Society presents a staged reading of Getting Lost by Japanese playwright Shiro Maeda, directed by New York-based theater artist Dan Safer. As part of Japan Society's 60th Anniversary Performing Arts Season, Getting Lost marks the 10th installment of the Society's annual Play Reading Series of contemporary Japanese plays in English translation. The Play Reading Series reflects a continued commitment to introduce the wide range of contemporary Japanese plays to American audiences, seeding possibilities for development of American productions of Japanese plays. This event takes place Monday, March 31 at 7:30 PM at Japan Society (333 East 47th Street).

The Public Theater announced complete casting today for the New York premiere of The Civilian's THE GREAT IMMENSITY. Written and directed by Steven Cosson with songs by Michael Friedman, THE GREAT IMMENSITY is a highly theatrical look into one of the most vital questions of our time: how can we change ourselves and our society in time to solve the enormous environmental challenges that confront us? Previews begin on Friday, April 11 and the show will run through Thursday, May 1 in the Martinson Theater, with an official press opening on Thursday, April 24.

What happens when an elderly patient with dementia goes missing in a northern Idaho blizzard, leaving his wife and others behind to face the unknown? The story is Rest, a heartbreakingly funny and tender play commissioned by South Coast Repertory from Samuel D. Hunter. SCR Founding Artistic Director Martin Benson directs the world premiere of Rest, March 28-April 27, on the Segerstrom Stage. The show is a cornerstone production of SCR's Pacific Playwrights Festival. Tickets are available online: www.scr.org.

Acclaimed playwright/director Young Jean Lee returns to the Wexner Center for the Arts, April 10-13 for the world premiere of STRAIGHT WHITE MEN, a provocative new work presented with an all-star cast (Austin Pendleton, Scott Shepherd, Pete Simpson, and James Stanley) and finalized through the support of the Wexner Center Residency Award program.

After a sold out presentation at Ars Nova's ANT Fest last June, DEBUTANTE. returns to New York City for its world premiere production. Written by Ryann Weir, created & directed by Annie Tippe and produced by Robb Nanus (Andrew Lippa's I Am Harvey Milk), the production will be staged at the Bernie Wohl Center (647 Columbus Avenue).

The Old Globe today announced it will present two Shakespeare-themed events. On Monday, April 28 at 7:00 p.m., Tony Award winner Roger Rees will return to the Globe for a one-night-only engagement of What You Will, his hysterical (and somewhat historical) 90-minute gallop through the world of Shakespeare. On Saturday, May 3 at 11:00 a.m., Old Globe Artistic Director Barry Edelstein will offer an encore of Thinking Shakespeare Live!, his 90-minute exploration of the language of Shakespeare. This fast-paced, funny, and altogether fascinating program based on Edelstein's book, Thinking Shakespeare: A How-To Guide for Student Actors, Directors, and Anyone Else Who Wants to Feel More Comfortable with the Bard, reveals a performer's approach to Shakespearean language so audiences may easily understand the poetry of the Bard.

Barrington Stage Company (BSC), the award-winning theatre in Downtown Pittsfield, MA, under the leadership of Artistic Director Julianne Boyd and Managing Director Tristan Wilson, has announced the creative team for the company's 20th Anniversary Season opener - Kiss Me, Kate, to be presented June 11 through July 12 on the Boyd-Quinson Mainstage (30 Union Street).

Rattlestick Playwrights Theater's Artistic Director David Van Asselt and Managing Director Brian Long have announced that following strong reviews, the world premiere of Ode to Joy, written and directed by Craig Lucas, will extend three weeks through Saturday, April 19 at the Cherry Lane Theatre, 38 Commerce Street.

Screen Actors Guild Foundation and Broadway World have partnered for an inaugural filmed Conversations Q&A series to recognize and celebrate the vibrant theatre community in New York City and the union actors who aspire to have a career on the stage and screen. An upcoming installment will feature Kelli O'Hara and Steven Pasquale - currently starring on Broadway in The Bridges of Madison County - and moderated by Broadway World's Richard Ridge of 'Backstage with Richard Ridge!' on March 20 (3:15PM). The event will take place at The John L. Tishman Auditorium at the University Center 63 Fifth Avenue (between 13th & 14th Street).

Theatrical singer, songwriter, actor, writer, model, dancer and DJ, Kenyon Phillips announced today that writer/blogger Michael Musto, writer/performer David Cale, and actor/singer and drag performer Flotilla DeBarge (HBO's Angels in America) will join the cast of the world premiere performance of The Life + Death of Kenyon Phillips. Musto will play the role of Kenyon's therapist, Cale a reporter, and Flotilla will portray Kenyon's ex-girlfriend, Gina. The three join previously announced Daphne Rubin-Vega (Rent, Anna in the Tropics).

The cast and creative team of the hit Off-Broadway musical Murder For Two are teaming up with some of New York's brightest up and coming composers and BroadwayWorld.com every Monday night for their spring concert series, Murderous Musical Mondays. Composer Ryan Scott Oliver will launch the series on Monday, March 24th, 2014, immediately following the 7pm performance of Murder For Two at New World Stages (Stage 5 - 340 West 50th Street).

Currently celebrating its 35th Anniversary Season, Second Stage Theatre has announced complete casting and new performance dates for its upcoming production of JON ROBIN BAITZ's drama, THE SUBSTANCE OF FIRE. The company will feature HALLEY FEIFFER (2ST's suburbia, The House of Blue Leaves), DANIEL ERIC GOLD (2ST's subUrbia, Ugly Betty) CARTER HUDSON (The Whipping Man), JOHN NOBLE (TV's Fringe and Sleepy Hollow), and CHARLAYNE WOODARD (2ST's Sorrows and Rejoicings, Ain't Misbehavin').

Alley Theatre Artistic Director Gregory Boyd announces the cast and creative team for Alan Ayckbourn's science fiction comedy Communicating Doors. Eleven plays penned by Alan Ayckbourn have been produced by the Alley, including the American premiere of Henceforward, directed by Ayckbourn, in 1987 and House & Garden in 2002. Alan Ayckbourn has been inducted into the American Theatre's Hall of Fame, received the 2010 Critics' Circle Award for Services to the Arts, became the first British playwright to receive both Olivier and Tony Special Lifetime Achievement Awards and was knighted in 1997 for services to the theatre.

Kicking off Horizon's 30th Anniversary season, blue collar collides with blue blood in the haves and have-nots comedy Elemeno Pea (pronounced L-M-N-O-P) by Molly Smith Metzler. A siblings' weekend on Martha's Vineyard goes awry when the younger sister's boss crashes the party. This three-ring circus send-up of the rich and their wannabe "help" finds both flying without a net.

Previews begin tomorrow night, Saturday, March 8, for the return to Broadway of Tony Award-winner and two-time Academy Award-winner Denzel Washington, starring as Walter Lee Younger in Lorraine Hansberry's A RAISIN IN THE SUN. This new production begins previews nearly 55 years to the day that A RAISIN IN THE SUN had its Broadway premiere (March 11, 1959) at the same theatre, the Ethel Barrymore Theatre (243 West 47th Street). Scroll down to learn more about the cast!

Written in 1978, Deathtrap still holds the record for longest-running comedy thriller on Broadway. Sidney Bruhl is a playwright desperately in need of a hit. Just in time, a former student sends him the manuscript of his first play, a murder mystery called Deathtrap. Sidney smells a hit, but he's never been that fond of sharing credit. TIME Magazine said, 'If you care to assassinate yourself with laughter, try Deathtrap.'

With 'SECONDS', a Festival of Play Readings, Mixed Blood Artistic Director Jack Reuler has curated a 'can't miss' opportunity to catch a glimpse of what's hot in American theatre!

From today, March 7 through April 5, 2014, SpeakEasy Stage Company will present the New England premiere of the acclaimed Off-Broadway drama THE WHALE by Samuel D. Hunter.

The Jungle Theater presents the regional premiere of DETROIT, playwright Lisa D'Amour's award-winning dissection of what it means to be middle class in this era of economic uncertainty. Detroit takes place in a first-ring suburb outside a mid-sized American city where Ben (John Middleton) and Mary (Angie Timberman) fire up the grill to welcome the couple (Anna Sundberg and Tyson Forbes) who've moved into the long-empty house next door. The fledgling friendship soon veers out of control shattering the fragile hold that newly unemployed Ben and burgeoning alcoholic Mary have on their way of life - with unexpected comic consequences. The play opens April 11 and runs through May 25 at the Jungle Theater, 2951 Lyndale Av. S. in Minneapolis.

Broadway stars might boast the biggest fan-bases, but without their directors, the vehicle driving their talents could easily swerve off the tracks. Keeping the runaway train at bay are season's bold Broadway 'conductors'. Scroll down to learn more about this season's intrepid and imaginative leaders!