Rajiv Joseph News

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).

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.

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.

Alley Theatre's world premiere of the new musical Wonderland will close on Sunday, February 14.

The SF Playhouse (Bill English, Artistic Director; Susi Damilano, Producing Director) is thrilled to announce the West Coast Premiere of Rajiv Joseph's Animals Out of Paper will fill their previously unannounced Winter slot.

The Dramatists Guild Fund, the Dramatists Guild of America, and Northwestern University announce the launch of the out-of-town arm of the successful Dramatists Guild Fellows program, linking emerging playwrights and musical theater writers in a close-knit and safe atmosphere for work and critique, as well as encouraging a sense of community with established New York and Chicago theater professionals.

Alley Theatre presents the world premiere of the new musical Wonderland about Alice, a children's book writer in Manhattan who is suffering through a creative block, estranged from her husband and alienated from her daughter. It takes a trip to a strange-yet-familiar Wonderland for her to regain her life's balance and again find the love and everyday magic that reside in us all - if we know how to look. With a book by Alley Theatre Artistic Director Gregory Boyd and Jack Murphy (The Civil War), lyrics by Jack Murphy, music by Frank Wildhorn (Jekyll & Hyde, The Scarlett Pimpernel, The Civil War), and directed by Gregory Boyd, Wonderland begins previews Friday, January 15, opens officially Wednesday, January 20 and runs through Sunday, February 14.

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

Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for not for profit professional theatre, is pleased to announce that in 2009, twenty-seven Edgerton Foundation New American Play Awards were granted to theatres around the country.

Alley Theatre presents the world premiere of the new musical Wonderland about Alice, a children's book writer in Manhattan who is suffering through a creative block, estranged from her husband and alienated from her daughter. It takes a trip to a strange-yet-familiar Wonderland for her to regain her life's balance and again find the love and everyday magic that reside in us all - if we know how to look. With a book by Alley Theatre Artistic Director Gregory Boyd and Jack Murphy (The Civil War), lyrics by Jack Murphy, music by Frank Wildhorn (Jekyll & Hyde, The Scarlett Pimpernel, The Civil War), and directed by Gregory Boyd, Wonderland begins previews Friday, January 15, opens officially Wednesday, January 20 and runs through Sunday, February 14.

The SF Playhouse (Bill English, Artistic Director; Susi Damilano, Producing Director) is thrilled to announce the West Coast Premiere of Rajiv Joseph's Animals Out of Paper will fill their previously unannounced Winter slot.

The SF Playhouse (Bill English, Artistic Director; Susi Damilano, Producing Director) is thrilled to announce the West Coast Premiere of Rajiv Joseph's Animals Out of Paper will fill their previously unannounced Winter slot.

Following the success of the inaugural round, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) has renewed its New Play Development Program (NPDP) for a second round and the application period is now open.

The award-winning playwrights David Henry Hwang, Charles Fuller and Craig Lucas will serve as mentors to three emerging playwrights as part of the Cherry Lane Theatre's 12th annual Mentor Project in 2010, it has been announced by Cherry Lane Theatre's artistic director, Angelina Fiordellisi.

The world premiere of Rajiv Joseph's (Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo) Gruesome Playground Injuries features Selma Blair (Hellboy, Hellboy 2: The Golden Army, Storytelling, Legally Blonde, NBC's Kath & Kim) playing Kayleen and Brad Fleischer (Center Theatre Group's premiere of Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, Broadway's Coram Boy, Off Broadway's Streamers) playing Doug.

The Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation today named ten recipients of the 2009 Whiting Writers' Awards. The awards, which are $50,000 each, totaling $500,000, have been given annually since 1985 to writers of fiction, non fiction and plays exceptional talent and promise in early career. This years recipient of the Whiting Award for playwriting went to Rajiv Joseph. His productions include Animals out of Paper, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo and the forthcoming Gruesome Playground Injuries.

The world premiere of Rajiv Joseph's (Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo) Gruesome Playground Injuries features Selma Blair (Hellboy, Hellboy 2: The Golden Army, Storytelling, Legally Blonde, NBC's Kath & Kim) playing Kayleen and Brad Fleischer (Center Theatre Group's premiere of Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, Broadway's Coram Boy, Off Broadway's Streamers) playing Doug.

The world premiere of Rajiv Joseph's (Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo) Gruesome Playground Injuries features Selma Blair (Hellboy, Hellboy 2: The Golden Army, Storytelling, Legally Blonde, NBC's Kath & Kim) playing Kayleen and Brad Fleischer (Center Theatre Group's premiere of Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, Broadway's Coram Boy, Off Broadway's Streamers) playing Doug.

The world premiere of Rajiv Joseph's (Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo) Gruesome Playground Injuries features Selma Blair (Hellboy, Hellboy 2: The Golden Army, Storytelling, Legally Blonde, NBC's Kath & Kim) playing Kayleen and Brad Fleischer (Center Theatre Group's premiere of Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, Broadway's Coram Boy, Off Broadway's Streamers) playing Doug.