Playwrights Horizons News

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.

Playwright Matthew Freeman and director Kyle Ancowitz (The Theater Accident) return to The Brick with CONFESS YOUR BUBBLE. Their previous appearances include the much-ballyhooed productions of Glee Club and An Interview with the Author and That Old Soft Shoe.

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.

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

Previews begin this Friday, May 18 for the Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) World Premiere of RAPTURE, BLISTER, BURN, a new play by Pulitzer Prize finalist and Obie Award winner Gina Gionfriddo (Becky Shaw). Directed by Peter DuBois (Becky Shaw, Sons of the Prophet, Measure for Pleasure, Jack Goes Boating, Artistic Director of Huntington Theatre Company), the play is the final production of the theater company's 2011/2012 Season. Opening Night is set for Tuesday, June 12 at 7PM and the limited engagement will play through Sunday, June 24 at Playwrights Horizons' Mainstage Theater (416 West 42nd Street).

Producers Scott Landis and Philip Morgaman have announced that EVER AFTER, a new musical based on the 20th Century Fox Film, will open on Broadway in the 2013-2014 season following a pre-Broadway engagement to be announced. The production will be directed and choreographed by three-time Tony Award winner Kathleen Marshall. EVER AFTER features music by Zina Goldrich and book & lyrics by Marcy Heisler, who recently won the 2012 Kleban Prize for Musical Theatre for most promising musical theatre lyricist. The music director is Mary-Mitchell Campbell.

Berkeley Repertory Theatre announced the cast and creative team for its world premiere of Eve Ensler's EMOTIONAL CREATURE. This positive and propulsive new show - from the Tony Award-winning playwright, performer, and activist who created The Vagina Monologues - features a choreographer, a composer, four top designers, and an ensemble of talented young women. Directed by Obie Award-winner Jo Bonney, Emotional Creature plays only 36 performances in the Roda Theatre. The limited engagement at Berkeley Rep begins previews on June 14, opens June 22, and runs through July 15. The lead producers of this premiere are Wayne Jordan and Quinn Delaney, Marjorie Randolph, and Jack and Betty Schafer; the executive producer is the Strauch Kulhanjian Family. The development of this production has been supported in part by The Mosse Artistic Development Fund.

22Q Entertainment LLC and GoAlleyCat Productions presents the West Coast Premiere of the New York hit, IT IS DONE, a thrilling new play in an environmental setting, written by award-winning playwright Alex Goldberg and directed by Ovation award-winner Michael Michetti (The Twentieth Century Way, Carousel, Paradise Lost: Shadows and Wings). IT IS DONE opens tonight, May 15 at 8:30pm and runs through Tuesday, June 12 at the Pig ‘N Whistle Restaurant, 6714 Hollywood Blvd. in Hollywood.

The National Alliance for Musical Theatre (NAMT) announces 15 awards granted from their National Fund for New Musicals, a major funding program to support NAMT member not-for-profit theatres in their collaborations with writers to create, develop and produce new musicals. Now in its fourth year, the Fund will provide grants totaling $48,000 to 14 organizations across the country.

Double Play Connections and Doing Life Productions, Jane Dubin, Executive Producer, and Director Brent Buell, collaborators on Antigua-born poet, author, painter, and playwright Iyaba Ibo Mandingo's unFRAMED: A Man in Progress, are fostering relationships and communication by participating in community driven programming. Dubin, Buell and Mandingo have stepped outside the theater to "continue the conversation we start with this powerful show," says Dubin, a TONY award-winning producer. The three have been seen connecting with many different communities - making African masks with an afterschool class in Newburgh, NY; writing poetry with the women in residence and the high school girls at the YWCA White Plains; to presenting the play to over 200 prisoners and staff inside Sing Sing Correctional Facility.

The Ensemble Studio Theatre honors two of its most distinguished members, the acclaimed actress Lois Smith and two-time Board chair G.H. 'Denny' Denniston, Jr with its 2012 Distinguished Member Award at a "Fun-Raiser" benefit celebration this evening, May 14.

Jim Bredeson announces an invited presentation of excerpts from his new musical EVEN FOR ONE NIGHT. The concert style reading will take place tonight, May 14th at 7:00 PM at Studio 353 (353 West 48th Street). Seating is extremely limited and requests can be made to attend by emailing evenforonenight@gmail.com. More information is available at www.evenforonenight.com.