Playwrights Horizons News

Reasons to be Pretty by Neil LaBute concludes Philadelphia Theatre Company's 2011-2012 season tonight May 25 through June 24 at PTC's home at the Suzanne Roberts Theatre (Broad and Lombard Streets). Directed byMaria Mileaf, the ensemble cast features Paul Felder, James McMenamin, Genevieve Perrier, and Elizabeth Stanley.

Discovery Communications' HowStuffWorks, the expert in answering questions for curious minds about our world, goes behind the scenes of Broadway for the first time ever with an all-new Stuff You Missed in History Class podcast entitled "A Visit to Clybourne Park," now available on HowStuffWorks.com and for download on iTunes. Hosted by Sarah Dowdey and Deblina Chakraborty, HowStuffWorks' Stuff You Missed in History Class brings historical topics - from Amelia Earhart to Napoleon - to life with careful research and lively discussion.

Playwright Annie Baker and director Sam Gold-whose previous collaborations include The Aliens and Circle Mirror Transformation-have reunited to stage a new version of Chekhov's masterwork, Uncle Vanya. Soho Rep, in association with John Adrian Selzer, will present the world premiere production June 7-July 15. Soho Rep will also offer FEED companion programming throughout the run; see details below.

Theater Breaking Through Barriers (TBTB), the renowned Off-Broadway company known for its productions that integrate able-bodied actors with artists with disabilities, presents MORE OF OUR PARTS - its second annual festival of short plays about disabilities and the people affected by them, featuring world premieres by Neil LaBute, A.R. Gurney, Bekah Brunstetter, Bruce Graham, Samuel D. Hunter, and Jeffrey Sweet - with performances to run June 21 through July 1 at Theatre Row's Clurman Theatre (410 West 42nd Street). TBTB artistic director and founder Ike Schambelan, Tony-nominee Pamela Birch, Christopher Burris, TBTB company member Christina Roussos, and Russell Treyz, and direct.

Off-Broadway theater company Playwrights Horizons has announced participating artists for its annual Spring Gala on Monday evening, June 11 at the event space 583 Park Avenue.

Producer Jordan Roth announced today that the Pulitzer Prize-winning and Tony Award-nominated "Best Play" Clybourne Park, now playing at the Walter Kerr Theatre, has added another 4 weeks to the previously announced 16-week engagement. Tickets are now on sale for all performances through August 12th.

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater's Artistic Director Molly Smith has announced that this July 2012 D.C.-area arts manager and artist David Snider will become the company's Director of Artistic Programming. Snider will be leaving Young Playwrights' Theater (YPT), where he has served since 2005 as producing artistic director and CEO, to bring his multi-faceted, award-winning talents to the artistic team of Arena Stage.

Theatre Communications Group (TCG) has announced the publication of The Vermont Plays, the debut collection of plays by Obie Award-winning playwright Annie Baker (The Aliens, Circle Mirror Transformation). Ms. Baker's works have been developed and produced at Huntington Theatre Company, Magic Theatre, New York Theatre Workshop and Playwrights Horizons, among others. Her adaptation of Chekhov's Uncle Vanya will premiere at New York City's Soho Rep in June, and her newest play, The Flick, will premiere at Playwrights Horizons in the 2012-2013 season.

The second annual 'Night of A Thousand Judys' - the Pride concert to benefit The Ali Forney Center - will take place at Playwrights Horizons on Monday, June 18.

The 57th Annual Obie Awards were given out at a ceremony tonight at Webster Hall in Greenwich Village. The awards were presented by acclaimed stage actors Eric McCormack, Grace Gummer, Hugh Dancy, Jonathan Pryce, Justin Bartha, Leslie Odom Jr., Lily Rabe, Michael McKean, Tonya Pinkins, Topher Grace, and Tracee Chimo.

Lisa D'Amour's play Detroit premiered at Steppenwolf Theatre in 2010, directed by Austin Pendleton, and was scheduled to open on Broadway in the 2011/12 season.

Over at MamaDrama, we've had the honor of working with PLAYTIME, the first-ever childcare service for theatre-going parents. We've been wowed time and again by the incredible new work going on at Playwrights Horizons, Signature Theatre and the Westside Theatre while our kids enjoyed an afternoon or evening of the arts with the incredible "Artisitters" from Sitters Studio…the babysitting service that sends professional artists, actors, musicians, dancers and the like to your home to care for and inspire your child. So when I heard that Sitters Studio founder Kristina Wilson was producing a play for kids, my little guy and I couldn't wait to check it out.

June 11-28, 2012 the international new play festival Zeitgeist: New Playwrights from Austria, Germany and Switzerland brings some of the most sought-after European playwrights and their works to Washington and New York for staged readings with the directors of leading theaters in each city: Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater, the Studio Theatre, and the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, and New York Theatre Workshop, Playwrights Horizons, and Soho Rep in New York City.

Stage and screen stars Brooke Shields and Richard Chamberlain will take on the iconic roles of Chris MacNeil and Father Merrin in playwright John Pielmeier's world premiere of The Exorcist at the Geffen Playhouse. Helmed by acclaimed director John Doyle, who won a Tony Award for his striking reimagining of Sweeney Todd, this stage adaptation of William Peter Blatty's famous 1971 novel transforms the unsettling battles of good versus evil, faith versus fact and ego versus ethos into a uniquely theatrical experience as sophisticated as it is suspenseful.

The Civilians, the award-winning New York-based theater company known for projects investigating real life topics, presents Let Me Ascertain You: Death tonight, May 18, 2012 at 9:30 PM at Joe's Pub at The Public Theater at 425 Lafayette St.

According to an Equity Audition notice, the Steppenwolf's production of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf will begin previews on Broadway on September 27, 2012 in anticipation of its previously announced October 13, 2012 opening at a Shubert Theatre to be announced. Pam Mackinnon will continue to helm the project. Jerry Frankel, Jeffrey Richards Susan Q. Gallin and Mary Lu Roffe will produce.

The Amoralists have announced the World Premiere of The Bad and the Better, written by Derek Ahonen, directed by Obie Award winner Daniel Aukin and featuring The Amoralists acting ensemble. The acclaimed downtown theater company moves uptown for a 6-week Off-Broadway run from June 14 - July 21, 2012 at The Peter Jay Sharp Theater, located at 416 West 42 Street between 9 and 10 Avenues in New York City. Previews begin June 14 for a June 19 opening.

The Meeting* hosted by Justin Sayre, called "a riotously funny and campy variety show" by Next Magazine, and 'a rollicking, wry affair complete with funny political commentary on current events' by Gay City News, will present their newest edition tonight, May 17 at 9:30 PM.