Rajiv Joseph News

Arena Stage Artistic Director Molly Smith announces the D.C.-based pioneering theater company's 60th season filled with award-winning artists and projects to celebrate the grand opening of Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater. The 2010/11 inaugural season includes eight full productions, seven presentations from the National Endowment for the Arts New Play Development Program and public readings from all 30 of Edward Albee's works, totaling at least 45 projects produced and presented by Arena Stage in the inaugural year at the Mead Center. With the opening next fall, Arena Stage will fully become a national center for production, presentation, development and study of American theater.

TheatreWorks, the nationally-acclaimed theatre of Silicon Valley, has announced the line-up for its 2010-2011 season. Founding Artistic Director Robert Kelley and Managing Director Phil Santora announced a 41st season that will include three world premieres (bringing the company's total to 56); three regional premieres including the newest play by the author of AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY, Broadway's quirky hit musical about writers writing a quirky hit musical and a spell-binding mystery about a Japanese-American veteran charged with murder; and two Broadway favorites. The company will once again lead off with an extensive New Works Festival.

Five-time Emmy Award-winner John Larroquette will make a stage appearance this spring, joining Johanna Day, Monica Raymund, and Michael Zegen in the cast of Elizabeth Meriwether's new play OLIVER PARKER!, in its world-premiere by the Off-Broadway theatre company the stageFARM, with previews starting May 9 prior to its official opening night May 17 at the Cherry Lane Theatre (38 Commerce St.) in Manhattan.

Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company continues its 30 th Season (2009/10) with a four-week run of Gruesome Playground Injuries, created by the 2010 Pulitzer Prize-nominated Rajiv Joseph (playwright of Animals Out of Paper and Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo ) and directed by John Vreeke. Gruesome Playground Injuries stars Gabriela Fernandez-Coffey and Tim Getman.

The Playwrights Realm - currently in its 3rd season - presents the World Premiere of DREAMS OF THE WASHER KING - a new play by Christopher Wall and directed by Giovanna Sardelli. Previews begin June 4th prior to an official press opening of June 10th Off-Broadway at The Cherry Lane Studio Theatre (38 Commerce Street) in Manhattan.

'Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo,' which had its world premiere at the Center Theatre Group/Kirk Douglas Theatre in 2009 and was named a 2010 Pulitzer Prize finalist earlier this month, opens at the CTG/Mark Taper Forum at the Los Angeles Music Center on Sunday, April 25. Previews are underway and performances continue through May 30, 2010.

Old Globe Executive Producer Lou Spisto today announced the cast and creative team for the West Coast Premiere of Matthew Lopez's The Whipping Man. The Civil War drama is directed by Giovanna Sardelli and will run in the Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre May 8 - June 13.

Pulitzer Prize-nominee Rajiv Joseph's latest work, The Medusa Body, will be produced by the Alley Thetare as part of its 2010-2011 season.

The Vineyard Theatre will present its 3rd annual Paula Vogel Playwriting Award to emerging playwright Kara Lee Corthron - whose plays include HOLLY DOWN IN HEAVEN, which received a workshop production at the Vineyard, and the forthcoming ETCHED IN SKIN ON A SUNLESS NIGHT -- it has been announced by Vineyard Theater's Artistic Director Douglas Aibel and Associate Artistic Director Sarah Stern.

'Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo' by Rajiv Joseph and Directed by Moisés Kaufman

It was announced today that Rajiv Joseph's darkly comic 'Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo' has been named as a finalist for the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Other finalists include 'The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity' by Kristoffer Diaz, and 'In the Next Room or the vibrator play' by Sarah Ruhl.

Just in - NEXT TO NORMAL has one the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama! As per the official Pulitzer's web site: For a distinguished play by an American author, preferably original in its source and dealing with American life, Ten thousand dollars ($10,000).

Cherry Lane Theatre (38 Commerce St. in Greenwich Village) will present Nate Rufus Edelman's play THE BELLE OF BELFAST - the second of three plays staged this spring as part of Cherry Lane's award-winning 12th annual MENTOR PROJECT playwriting series - with performances starting April 27.

Second Stage Theatre (Carole Rothman, Artistic Director) has announced the two plays which will be presented as part of the company's eighth annual Second Stage Theatre Uptown Series this summer: the New York premiere of Michael Golamco's Year Zero, directed by Will Frears, and the world premiere of Leslye Headland's Bachelorette, directed by Trip Cullman.

Performance schedules for the three world-premiere Mentor Project plays have been announced by the Cherry Lane Theatre (38 Commerce St.), where the new plays STRAY by Ruth McKee, THE BELLE OF BELFAST by Nate Rufus Edelman and PATERNITY by Winter Miller will be performed this spring from March 16 to May 29.

Performance dates, directors, initial casting and design team are set for the Cherry Lane Theatre's 12th annual Mentor Project - which includes the world-premiere of three plays by emerging writers: Ruth McKee's STRAY, directed by Giovanna Sardelli (BENGAL TIGER AT THE BAGHDAD ZOO) and mentored by David Henry Hwang, performing March 16th through March 27th; Nate Rufus Edelman's THE BELLE OF BELFAST, directed by Eric Tucker (CLOSER) and mentored by Charles Fuller, performing April 27th through May 8th; and Winter Miller's PATERNITY, mentored and directed by celebrated playwright Craig Lucas, performing May 18th through May 29th, all at the Cherry Lane Theatre Studio Theatre (38 Commerce Street).

Variety reports that theatrical agents Joyce Ketay and Seth Glewen have replaced John Buzzetti as co-heads of the Gersh Agency's theatrical division. As BroadwayWorld previously reported, Buzzetti recently left the Gersh Agency to head the theatrical division of the William Morris Agency.

Performance dates, directors, initial casting and design team are set for the Cherry Lane Theatre's 12th annual Mentor Project - which includes the world-premiere of three plays by emerging writers: Ruth McKee's STRAY, directed by Giovanna Sardelli (BENGAL TIGER AT THE BAGHDAD ZOO) and mentored by David Henry Hwang, performing March 16th through March 27th; Nate Rufus Edelman's THE BELLE OF BELFAST, directed by Eric Tucker (CLOSER) and mentored by Charles Fuller, performing April 27th through May 8th; and Winter Miller's PATERNITY, mentored and directed by celebrated playwright Craig Lucas, performing May 18th through May 29th, all at the Cherry Lane Theatre Studio Theatre (38 Commerce Street).

Last Month, Arena Stage announced six productions and two major festivals that will inaugurate the company's new venue the Mead Center for American Theater next year. In addition to those exciting projects, Artistic Director Molly Smith is pleased to complete the 2010/11, 60th anniversary season lineup with the inclusion of the pre-Broadway world premiere of A Time to Kill-an adaptation by Rupert Holmes of the acclaimed John Grisham novel presented by special arrangement with Daryl Roth-and Let Me Down Easy, conceived, written and performed by Anna Deavere Smith. Both productions will be staged in the Mead Center's restored and remarkably intimate Kreeger Theater.

The entire cast and creative team from the world premiere of Rajiv Joseph's 'Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo' at the Center Theatre Group's Kirk Douglas Theatre in 2009 will return for the presentation at the CTG / Mark Taper Forum. Directed by Moisés Kaufman, 'Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo' begins previews April 14, opens April 25 and continues through May 30, 2010.