Regina Taylor News

RENAISSANCE THEATERWORKS' PROVOCATIVE PRODUCTION OF ‘BLACKBIRD' EXAMINES THE QUESTION 'WHEN IS IT SEXUAL ASSAULT?' By David Harrower

Second Stage Theatre will host a post performance discussion with Anna Deavere Smith and three of her interview subjects from Let Me Down Easy following the Friday, November 20 performance.

At the annual meeting of Goodman Theatre's Board of Trustees, under new Chairman Patricia Cox, the boards, artists and staff celebrated the success of its 2008/2009 immediate past season, one of unsurpassed artistic quality and diversity on its stages, and outreach into the Chicago community.

Second Stage Theatre (Carole Rothman, Artistic Director) will launch its 31st season this fall with the New York premiere of Anna Deavere Smith's LET ME DOWN EASY. Conceived, written, and performed by Ms. Smith and directed by Leonard Foglia, LET ME DOWN EASY will begin preview performances on Tuesday, September 15 and will officially open on Wednesday, October 7 at 6:45pm.

The Huntington Theatre Company continues its 28th season - a season of American Stories - with A Civil War Christmas: An American Musical Celebration, a new uplifting holiday event by Pulitzer Prize winner Paula Vogel (How I Learned to Drive, The Mineola Twins, The Baltimore Waltz). Steppenwolf Associate Artist Jessica Thebus (Intimate Apparel, Dead Man's Cell Phone, Sonia Flew) directs. Andrew Resnick (A Civil War Christmas at Long Wharf Theatre) provides musical direction of beloved holiday music supervised, arranged, and orchestrated by Daryl Waters (Tony and Grammy Award nominee for Bring in 'da Noise, Bring in 'da Funk). The Huntington's production will be enhanced by local choirs caroling from the stage before each performance.

The gladness of your heart is the greatest gift of all. The Huntington Theatre Company continues its 28th season - a season of American Stories - with A Civil War Christmas: An American Musical Celebration, a new uplifting holiday event by Pulitzer Prize winner Paula Vogel (How I Learned to Drive, The Mineola Twins, The Baltimore Waltz).

Regina Taylor -- best known to television audiences for her starring role in the critically acclaimed series 'I'll Fly Away' and the first African-American woman to play Juliet in 'Romeo and Juliet' on Broadway -- will discuss her work in TV, theatre and film Wednesday, Nov. 18, at Northwestern University.

Second Stage Theatre (Carole Rothman, Artistic Director) will launch its 31st season this fall with the New York premiere of Anna Deavere Smith's LET ME DOWN EASY. Conceived, written, and performed by Ms. Smith and directed by Leonard Foglia, LET ME DOWN EASY will begin preview performances on Tuesday, September 15 and will officially open on Wednesday, October 7 at 6:45pm.

American Theater Company (ATC) celebrates its 25th Anniversary with The Silver Project, a year-long festival of 30 world premiere short plays penned by some of the country's leading playwrights. The Silver Project will run over ten evenings between February 8, 2010 and June 20, 2010 at American Theater Company, 1909 W Byron St, Chicago.

Chicago's American Theater Company has announced that it will feature 30 short plays in its 25th Anniversary Season for its Silver Project. The plays will be written by some of the United States' most acclaimed playwrights, including Tony Award winners Greg Kotis and David Henry Hwang, Joel Drake Johnson, Neil LaBute, and Pulitzer Prize nominee Craig Lucas.

Formidable jazz artist Eric Reed brings his group to Miller Theatre Friday, December 11, at 8:00 pm.

The American Theatre Wing has announced an online essay contest in conjunction with the release of its original book, The American Theatre Wing presents The Play That Changed My Life: America's Foremost Playwrights on the Plays that Influenced Them, available December 1.

Native Chicago playwright Alan Gross teams up with director Steven Robman to bring his newest work, High Holidays, to Goodman Theatre. At the center of this four-character drama-inspired by Gross' own life and family experience-is young Billy Roman (Max Zuppa) and the anxiety-riddled preparations for his Bar Mitzvah in 1963 north suburban Chicago.

Goodman Artistic Director Robert Falls, acclaimed Canadian director Jennifer Tarver and celebrated star Brian Dennehy team up again for a Broadway-bound double bill, Hughie/Krapp's Last Tape; January 16- February 21, 2010 in the Goodman's Albert Ivar Theatre. Tickets are $25 – $83 and go on sale Friday, November 13 at GoodmanTheatre.org.

According to a report in the New York Times this morning, members of advocacy groups such the Alliance for Inclusion in the Arts - an advocacy group for blind and deaf actors - are none to pleased with the casting of Abigail Breslin as Hellen Keller in the upcoming Broadway revival of The Miracle Worker.

Producer David Richenthal has announced the very first revival of William Gibson's THE MIRACLE WORKER as the Tony Award® winning play celebrates its 50th Anniversary of opening on Broadway.

The gladness of your heart is the greatest gift of all. The Huntington Theatre Company continues its 28th season - a season of American Stories - with A Civil War Christmas: An American Musical Celebration, a new uplifting holiday event by Pulitzer Prize winner Paula Vogel (How I Learned to Drive, The Mineola Twins, The Baltimore Waltz).

Animal Crackers runs through October 25, 2009 in the Goodman's Albert Theatre. Tickets are currently available by season subscription - www.ExploreTheGoodman.org or call 312.443.3800. Individual tickets ($25 - $83) are on sale now.

Goodman Theatre launches its new 2009/2010 Season with tap dancing, acrobatics, tumbling, guitar- and ukulele-playing in an original take on the rarely-produced Marx Brothers classic musical Animal Crackers, written by George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind, with music and lyrics by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby

CROWNS, a theatrical experience of music, dance, spirituality, and fashion, is currently playing at the Houston Family Arts Center through October 18th. CROWNS, by Regina Taylor and directed by Ron Jones and Lisa Garza, is adapted from a book of photography of the same name by Michael Cunningham and Craig Marberry.