Ronald Harwood News

Every spring for the last 40 years, something very special has happened in Rockland County: the Penguin Rep, the not-for-profit professional Equity theatre started by artistic director Joe Brancato in 1977, begins its season. This year will be their 41st season! Brancato along with with executive director Andrew M. Horn -- has grown Penguin from a small summer theatre into what the New York Times calls: 'the gutsiest little theater!' - one of the Hudson Valley's most influential nonprofit cultural institutions, and nearly half a million theater-goers have passed through its doors during that time.

What happens to musicians when they are old and grey? Where do famous singers retire when their voices are an echo of what they once were? Ronald Harwood's Quartet follows the antics of four elderly former opera stars as they live out their days in a specialist musician's retirement home in an expansive country residence in Kent.

Coffeetown Press is delighted to announce the release of Thirty Years a Dresser on May 15, 2018 ($17.95, 216 pages, ISBN: 978-1-60381-751-6), a memoir by Dennis Milam Bensie, sharing essays, anecdotes, and backstage antics from his years as a theatrical dresser.

Starz, a Lionsgate company (NYSE: LGF.A, LGF.B), announced today the network has greenlit 'The Spanish Princess,' a new story in the dynastic saga of Tudor England and drawn from the global best sellers The Constant Princess and The King's Curse by Philippa Gregory.

Perhaps you are one of those people who cringe at opera's lengthy runtimes, rambling plot lines, and the need to read English subtitles rather than pay attention to the overall magnificent scenes being paraded before you. Then again, perhaps you are among the select group of aficionados who relish the pomp and splendor created by opera singers whose voices reach to the heavens while performing in the popular operas of Mozart, Beethoven, Rossini, Wagner, and Verdi. Certainly the four characters in Ronald Harwood's play QUARTET count themselves among not only the greatest operatic performers but also as some of the greatest fans of the genre to ever tread the boards in their glory days.

The return of one of opera's brightest stars upsets the equilibrium at a home for retired singers in Quartet, Little Fish Theatre's second show of its 2018 season. Written by Academy Award-winner Ronald Harwood and directed by Little Fish Theatre Company Member Margaret Schugt, Quartet is a funny and poignant play that is sure to strike chords in audiences of all ages.

Little Fish Theatre has announced the eleven productions which will comprise the company's stunning 2018 Season.

Little Fish Theatre has announced the eleven productions which will comprise the company's stunning 2018 Season.

The Dresser unveils the complexity of a co-dependent relationship between a pompous Shakespearian actor, aptly named Sir (Jack Cannon) and his dresser Norman (Judd McCluney). Norman's devotion to Sir is built upon many levels of admiration, even though Sir treats him like a second rate Sancho.

The time: 1946. The place, Berlin, Germany. Esteemed German conductor Wilhelm Furtwangler, who refused to leave his post as head of the Berlin Philharmonic, despite his refusal to acknowledge the vicious Hitler regime, is interrogated by an American de-Nazification officer, who believes Furtwangler was protecting a hidden loyalty to the Third Reich.

Rubicon Theatre Company (RTC) opens the company's 2017-2018 20th Anniversary Season with a provocative and gripping drama based on the story of German conductor and composer Wilhelm Furtw ngler, who remained in Germany after Hitler's rise to power and was later accused of being a Nazi sympathizer.

The New Group has announced additional casting and production dates for David Rabe's Good for Otto, with F. Murray Abraham, Rileigh McDonald, Rosie O'Donnell and Michael Rabe joining, as previously announced, Ed Harris and Amy Madigan in this New York premiere directed by Scott Elliott.

Sonia Friedman, Colin Callender and Harry Potter Theatrical Productions, producers of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, have today confirmed the record-breaking production will open in early 2019 in Melbourne, Australia, exclusively and only at Melbourne's Princess Theatre.

Rubicon Theatre Company (RTC) opens the company's 2017-2018 20th Anniversary Season with a provocative and gripping drama based on the story of German conductor and composer Wilhelm Furtw ngler, who remained in Germany after Hitler's rise to power and was later accused of being a Nazi sympathizer.

Penguin Rep Theatre, the award-winning professional Equity theatre under the leadership of founding artistic director Joe Brancato and executive director Andrew M. Horn, presents the world premiere of Fall River, a new play by Frederick Stroppel, directed by Mr. Brancato, beginning Today, October 13.

Penguin Rep Theatre, the award-winning professional Equity theatre under the leadership of founding artistic director Joe Brancato and executive director Andrew M. Horn, presents the world premiere of Fall River, a new play by Frederick Stroppel, directed by Mr. Brancato, beginning Friday, October 13.

Following the West End revival last year of The Dresser, Mark Goucher is presenting Quartet. This will be the first production that the producer will mount in his new role as CEO of the Cheltenham Everyman Theatre. This Everyman Theatre production will then be presented on a UK tour by Mark Goucher and David Ian.

Penguin Rep Theatre, the award-winning professional Equity theatre under the leadership of founding artistic director Joe Brancato and executive director Andrew M. Horn, presents Robert Wuhl, the award-winning actor, comedian and writer, in his latest work, Shistory Happens!, for one performance only, Saturday, September 23 at SUNY Rockland Community College's 500-seat Cultural Arts Theatre in Suffern, New York.

 Bristol Riverside Theatre spells F-U-N when it opens its Mainstage season with the multiple Tony Award-winner The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee with music and lyrics by William Finn, book by Rachel Sheinkin, and conceived by Rebecca Feldman, running September 19-October 15.  Directed by Amy Kaissar, the ensemble cast features Will Carlyon, Andrew Coleman, Leigha Kato, Kathryn McCreary, Joshua Morgan, Robert Smythe, Phebe Taylor, T.J. Wagner, and Brooke Wetterhahn.

Birmingham Festival Theatre has just announced its 2017-18 season! Below are descriptions for each show. The website is currently under a redesign. Stay tuned for Season Ticket deals!