Robert Falls News

Playwright Tracey Scott Wilson rips through the pages of history in The Good Negro, a 'powerfully moving' (The New York Times) and 'thunderous new play' (Variety) about the drive for racial equality-and the clash between private ethics and public good. Goodman Resident Director Chuck Smith, who helmed Wilson's 2005 play The Story at the Goodman, directs this Chicago premiere, featuring a cast of Broadway stars and local favorites. A design team led by Tony Award-nominated Set Designer Riccardo Hernandez brings the production to life using inspiration from the iconic imagery of photojournalist Charles Moore. The Good Negro runs May 1 - June 6, 2010 in the Goodman's Albert Theatre. Tickets start at $25. In conjunction with this Chicago premiere, WBEZ's Richard Steele interviews Wilson and Smith for an Artists Talk discussion about The Good Negro on Wednesday, May 5, 6 - 7pm at Goodman Theatre. The Edith-Marie Appleton Foundation is the Major Production Sponsor for The Good Negro; Allstate Insurance Company is the Major Corporate Sponsor; and Bank of America and Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP are the Corporate Sponsor Partners. The Joyce Foundation provides principal support of Artistic Development and Diversity Initiatives. American Airlines is the Exclusive Airline of Goodman Theatre.

Casting is complete for Goodman Theatre's Chicago-premiere production of Tracey Scott Wilson's The Good Negro, directed by Resident Director Chuck Smith. Wilson and Smith have tapped nine actors to bring this historical drama to the Albert stage, including Karen Aldridge (Goodman's The Cook; Proof); Teagle F. Bougere (Broadway's A Raisin in the Sun; The Tempest); Tory O. Davis (Goodman's Magnolia); John Hoogenakker (Goodman's Rock 'n' Roll; Chicago Shakespeare's Othello); Billy Eugene Jones (Broadway's Passing Strange; Radio Golf); Nambi Kelley (Goodman's Crumbs from the Table of Joy; Victory Gardens' The Lost Boys of Sudan); Demetrios Troy (Northlight's Awake and Sing; Chicago Shakespeare's Richard III); Dan Waller (Goodman's Ghostwritten; Talking Pictures) and Mick Weber (Goodman's Rock 'n' Roll; Chicago Theatre's Shear Madness). The production will run from May 1 - June 6, 2010.

On May 6th, CAP21 (Collaborative Arts Project 21) will transform its block box theater 'The Shop' into Europe during WWI, the backdrop for Fengar Gael's 'The Usher's Ball'. The play will have a month long run in May, as part of CAP21's Spring/Summer season.

New York's OBIE Award-winning Epic Theatre Ensemble (Zak Berkman, Melissa Friedman, Ron Russell, Founding Executive Directors) today announced the cast and creative team for the New York premiere of Sarah Ruhl's Passion Play (In The Next Room… or the vibrator play) and directed by Mark Wing-Davey (The Singing Forest). The cast will include Brendan Averett, Polly Noonan, Daniel Pearce, Alex Podulke, Keith Reddin, Godfrey L. Simmons Jr., T. Ryder Smith, Felix Solis Jr., Kate Turnbull and Nicole Wiesner.

Matt Cavenaugh joins Alec Baldwin and Daniel Davis in the New York Philharmonic Stravinsky's L'Histoire du Soldat (A Soldier's Tale) Sunday, May 2, 2010 as part of The Russian Stravinsky: A Philharmonic Festival conducted by Valery Gergiev, which runs April 21 to May 8th at Avery Fisher Hall. Tickets for the concert are $29-$72. Pre-Concert Talks are $5. All tickets may be purchased online at nyphil.org or by calling (212) 875-5656.

The Royal George Theatre, 1641 N. Halsted, raises the curtain at 7:30p.m. on Monday, May 3rd, 2010 in honor of Michael Cullen, owner of the Mercury Theater and Cullen's Bar and Grill, and a thirty five-year veteran producer and pioneer in the development of Chicagoland theater as it is known today. Recently suffering from a stroke, Mr. Cullen requires extensive therapy treatments.

Royal George, 1641 N. Halsted, opens its doors at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, April 19th, 2010 in honor of Michael Cullen, owner of the Mercury Theater and Cullen's, and a thirty five-year veteran producer and pioneer in the development of Chicagoland theater as it is known today. Recently suffering from a stroke, Mr. Cullen requires extensive therapy treatments. The entertainment line-up is still to be announced for this event.

Was it natural disaster or man-made greed that led to the loss of 2,200 lives in 1889? Playwright Rebecca Gilman teams up with Tony Award-winning Director Robert Falls for the world premiere of A True History of the Johnstown Flood, an epic theatrical event set against the backdrop of the 1889 flood-a disaster more deadly than Hurricane Katrina. The production will end its run April 18th.

Goodman Theatre announces the lineup for its 5th Latino Theatre Festival, a biennial event that has introduced more than 20,000 Chicagoans to prominent Latino theater companies around the globe. Goodman Resident Artistic Associate and Festival Curator Henry Godinez drew inspiration for this summer's lineup from two milestone events-the centennial of the Mexican Revolution and bicentennial of Mexico's independence. In addition, Teatro Buendía, one of Cuba's most celebrated independent theater companies, makes its U.S. debut.

Artistic Director Robert Falls announced today the final production of Goodman Theatre's 2009/2010 season-The Good Negro, Tracey Scott Wilson's 'thunderous...stunning' (Variety) new play, comes to Chicago fresh from its off-Broadway run at The Public Theater. Resident Director Chuck Smith, who previously collaborated with Wilson on the Goodman's 2004/2005 Chicago-premiere production of The Story, will direct The Good Negro in the Albert Theatre in Spring 2010.

The 17th Annual Merritt Award for Excellence in Design and Collaboration program, posthumously honoring and celebrating the work of lighting and set designer Michael Philippi (Desire Under the Elms, Death of a Salesman), 'an esteemed longtime collaborator and friend', will take place on Monday, May 3, at the Goodman Theatre.

Playwright Tracey Scott Wilson rips through the pages of history in The Good Negro, a 'powerfully moving' (The New York Times) and 'thunderous new play' (Variety) about the drive for racial equality-and the clash between private ethics and public good. Goodman Resident Director Chuck Smith, who helmed Wilson's 2005 play The Story at the Goodman, directs this Chicago premiere, featuring a cast of Broadway stars and local favorites. A design team led by Tony Award-nominated Set Designer Riccardo Hernandez brings the production to life using inspiration from the iconic imagery of photojournalist Charles Moore. The Good Negro runs May 1 - June 6, 2010 in the Goodman's Albert Theatre. Tickets start at $25. In conjunction with this Chicago premiere, WBEZ's Richard Steele interviews Wilson and Smith for an Artists Talk discussion about The Good Negro on Wednesday, May 5, 6 - 7pm at Goodman Theatre. The Edith-Marie Appleton Foundation is the Major Production Sponsor for The Good Negro; Allstate Insurance Company is the Major Corporate Sponsor; and Bank of America and Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP are the Corporate Sponsor Partners. The Joyce Foundation provides principal support of Artistic Development and Diversity Initiatives. American Airlines is the Exclusive Airline of Goodman Theatre.

Nathan Lane's next role may be in the classic Eugene O'Neill play, THE ICEMAN COMETH, in Chicago. TheDailyBeast.com is reporting that Lane may be set to play opposite Brian Dennehy in the production directed by Chicago's Robert Falls.

16th Street Theater presents the national hit that started in Chicago for a 4-week run May 6-29, 2010 with a press opening Thursday, May 6 at 7:30 PM at the Berwyn Cultural Center, 6420 16th Street in Berwyn.

The 26th Helen Hayes Awards were presented at the historic Warner Theatre on Monday April 5.

Theatre artists and productions nominated for The 26th Annual Helen Hayes Awards were announced this evening at a press conference hosted by The National Theatre in its Helen Hayes Gallery. The complete list of nominees can be found below.

Signature Theatre, the current recipient of the Tony Award® for Regional Theatre, presents the world premiere musical Sycamore Trees by Ricky Ian Gordon, composer of the acclaimed opera The Grapes of Wrath and the OBIE Award-winning Orpheus and Euridice, as well as the musicals My Life with Albertine and Dream True.

Artistic Director Robert Falls proudly announces the addition of the world premiere of Chinglish by Tony Award winner and Pulitzer Prize finalist David Henry Hwang (M. Butterfly) in Goodman Theatre's upcoming 2010/2011 season; performances will begin in June 2011.

When Showboat first premiered on Broadway, the curtain fell to stunned silence. When I went to see A True History of the Johnstown Flood, the same thing happened. However, I doubt what I saw last night was the next Showboat.

Was it natural disaster or man-made greed that led to the loss of 2,200 lives in 1889? Playwright Rebecca Gilman teams up with Tony Award-winning Director Robert Falls for the world premiere of A True History of the Johnstown Flood, an epic theatrical event set against the backdrop of the 1889 flood-a disaster more deadly than Hurricane Katrina. The Goodman commissioned Gilman, an acclaimed Chicago-based writer whose work 'reaches the heart and head with equal force' (Time) and has the 'ability to shake up a theater audience with the power of her ideas-and words' (Chicago Tribune), for this world premiere about love, money, class struggles and the power of theater to change lives.