Rajiv Joseph News

Atlantic Theater Company (Neil Pepe, Artistic Director, Jeffory Lawson, Managing Director) is proud to announce three of its 2009-2010 season productions. The main stage season at the Linda Gross Theater will mark premieres from Atlantic co-founder David Mamet and Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Sam Shepard, while Bekah Brunstetter makes her Off Broadway debut at Stage 2 with the world premiere of a new comedy.

Second Stage Theatre (Carole Rothman, Artistic Director, Ellen Richard, Executive Director) continues this summer's Second Stage Theatre Uptown Series with the world premiere of Lila Rose Kaplan's Wildflower. Directed by Giovanna Sardelli, Wildflower features Nadia Bowers, Ron Cephas Jones, Quincy Dunn-Baker, Jake O'Connor and Renée Felice Smith. Previews begin Monday, July 13 and opening night is Monday, July 27 at 7:00pm.

Second Stage Theatre (Carole Rothman, Artistic Director; Ellen Richard, Executive Director) will kick off this summer's Second Stage Theatre Uptown Series with the world premiere of Zakiyyah Alexander's 10 Things To Do Before I Die. Directed by Jackson Gay, 10 Things To Do Before I Die will feature Francois Battiste, Natalie Venetia Belcon, Kyle Beltran, Dion Graham, and Tracie Thoms. Opening night is Thursday, May 28 at 7:00pm.

Artistic Director Gregory Boyd announced that the Alley Theatre subscription season - the Theatre's 63rd - will combine three world premieres, including Frank Wildhorn's new musical Wonderland, Rajiv Joseph's bold and theatrical Gruesome Playground Injuries and Kenneth Lin's gripping Intelligence-Slave, along with re-imagined productions of the great American classic Our Town by Thornton Wilder and the sublime fantasy Harvey by Mary Chase.

TheatreWorks, the nationally-acclaimed theatre of Silicon Valley, celebrates its 40th Anniversary season and commitment to the creation and development of new works with its New Works Festival ?09, sponsored by Microsoft. The eighth annual Festival commences July 15 with the world premiere production of Tinyard Hill, a rousing new musical by Tommy Newman and 2009 Jonathan Larsen Award-winning composer Mark Allen. This season?s festival, held in Palo Alto at the Lucie Stern Theatre, will feature workshops of new works by artists including Chris Smith, Raquel Bitton, Darrah Cloud , Kim D. Sherman, Joe DiPietro, Brendan Milburn, Valerie Vigoda, Laura Schellhardt, Rajiv Joseph, Kait Kerrigan, and Brian Lowdermilk, in addition to stunning concerts by Grammy-winning vocalist Maureen McGovern, and the nationally acclaimed singer and composer, Vienna Teng. Tickets go on sale May 29 at 650-463-1960 or theatreworks.org.

'Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo' by Rajiv Joseph, directed by Mois?s Kaufman makes its World Premiere. A lyrical, haunting new play set against the backdrop of the war in Iraq, in which the lives and, in some cases, the afterlives of two American soldiers, an Iraqi translator, the ghosts of Saddam Hussein's sons Uday and Ousay, and a Bengal tiger all intersect in a surreal, darkly humorous and gently balanced view of war and its aftermath.

The world premiere of Rajiv Joseph's 'Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo,' presented by Center Theatre Group at the Kirk Douglas Theatre, opens May 17, 2009, and continues through June 7. Previews began May 10.

Following a critically acclaimed season which included the Pulitzer Prize finalist Becky Shaw and the Broadway transfer of its musical hit Next to Normal, Second Stage Theatre (Carole Rothman, Artistic Director; Ellen Richard, Executive Director) has announced three of the four plays scheduled for its upcoming 31st Season.

Second Stage Theatre (Carole Rothman, Artistic Director; Ellen Richard, Executive Director) will kick off this summer's Second Stage Theatre Uptown Series with the world premiere of Zakiyyah Alexander's 10 Things To Do Before I Die. Directed by Jackson Gay, 10 Things To Do Before I Die will feature Francois Battiste, Natalie Venetia Belcon, Kyle Beltran, Dion Graham, and Tracie Thoms. Opening night is Thursday, May 28 at 7:00pm.

Awards were handed out for 14 categories and 2 special awards are announced by the Off-Broadway League for the Lucille Lortel Awards recognizing Outstanding Achievement Off-Broadway. This year?s ceremony benefits The Actors Fund. A list of nominees follows below.

The Dramatists Guild of America announces the deadline to select the next group of young writers to participate in the Dramatists Guild Fellowship Program. The deadline for submissions to the 2009-1010 Fellowship program is Friday, May 9, 2009. Application requirements can be found on the Dramatists Guild website, www.dramatistsguild.com.

Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, on the verge of turning the big 3-0, is excited to announce the lineup of plays for the 30th Season (2009-10). Featured are a World Premiere by Danai Gurira (In the Continuum), exciting new works from Mike Daisey (If You See Something Say Something), Rajiv Joseph (Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo), and Bruce Norris (The Unmentionables), and a large-scale work by Charles L. Mee (Big Love). In addition, Woolly Mammoth?s favorite out-of-town troupe, The Neo-Futurists, returns to DC for an unprecedented fourth engagement of their hit show, Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind in December.

'Heddatron,' originally scheduled for July 5 through August 2 as the final production of the Center Theatre Group/Kirk Douglas Theatre 2008-2009 season, will be postponed indefinitely, it was announced today by CTG Artistic Director Michael Ritchie.

A young girl asks her father, where do plastic surgeons come from? What follows is a fantastical romp through pre-civilized Europe, via the medieval art and science of nosemaking. Our hero is Gavin, a young orphan rescued from a dismal existence in the Ivanhoe Workhouse for Criminally Impoverished Boys when he is apprenticed with the local Nosemaker, eventually to become one of the finest surgeons in Vienna, cradle of quack medicine.

?Heddatron,? originally scheduled for July 5 through August 2 as the final production of the Center Theatre Group/Kirk Douglas Theatre 2008-2009 season, will be postponed indefinitely, it was announced today by CTG Artistic Director Michael Ritchie.

the stageFARM has announced that Evan Cabnet has replaced Alex Kilgore as director of The Gingerbread House by Mark Schultz, in its world premiere. A visiting production at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater (224 Waverly Place), The Gingerbread House opens officially on Saturday evening, April 18th at 8 p.m.

the stageFARM has announced that Evan Cabnet has replaced Alex Kilgore as director of The Gingerbread House by Mark Schultz, in its world premiere. A visiting production at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater (224 Waverly Place), The Gingerbread House opens officially on Saturday evening, April 18th at 8 p.m.

On Thursday, April 2, The Cherry Lane Theatre (located at 38 Commerce Street) celebrated its acclaimed Mentor Project with MENTOR PROJECT: THE NEXT DECADE, a cultivation event featuring guest-speaker Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright EDWARD ALBEE.

Nominations in 14 categories and 2 special awards are nnounced by the Off-Broadway League for the Lucille Lortel Awards recognizing Outstanding Achievement Off-Broadway. This year's ceremony will benefit The Actors Fund.

The Fire Dept Artistic Directors Erica Gould and Audrey Rosenberg presented The Minotaur, the first installment of the company's 2009 Salon Series, the cast for the performance included Mario Cantone, Jill Clayburgh, Phoebe Neidhardt, Ethan Peck, Campbell Scott, and Jeremy Webb. The Minotaur, written by Anna Ziegler; directed by Erica Gould; and produced by Audrey Rosenberg, took place Friday, March 27 at 7:30pm at the historic Players Club, 16 Gramercy Park South at 20th Street.