Royal Shakespeare Company News

Good morning, BroadwayWorld! Because we know all our readers eat, sleep and breathe Broadway, what could be better than waking up to it? Today's big news: XXXX

The RSC is releasing a selection of music and speeches from Gregory Doran's productions of Henry IV parts I and II on a new CD and for download from iTunes. The recording is the second in the ongoing series which continues the ambition to capture the specially commissioned music composed for RSC productions of all Shakespeare's plays, as the Company works its way through the canon over the next six years.

Berkeley Repertory Theatre continues the second half of its season with Tribes, a sophisticated and moving family drama by celebrated British playwright Nina Raine. Her profound and powerful new play became an award-winning hit in London and New York. Now renowned director Jonathan Moscone brings it to Berkeley Rep this April for its Bay Area premiere. Tribes follows Billy, a young man who was born deaf into a loquacious and highly opinionated academic family who raised him to lip-read and integrate into the hearing world. When he meets Sylvia - raised by Deaf parents and going deaf herself - Billy decides it's time to speak on his own terms and to be heard. Playing out in words, sign language, and sometimes mesmerizing silence, this penetrating drama examines familial love, notions of belonging, and the intersections of communication. Tribes began previews Friday, April 11, opens tonight, April 16, and closes on Sunday, May 11, 2014.

Initial casting for Arthur Miller's The Crucible is announced. Richard Armitage, Anna Madeley and Samantha Colley are to play John Proctor, Elizabeth Proctor and Abigail Williams in Ya?l Farber's new production at The Old Vic, with previews from Tuesday 24 June. The cast also includes Sarah Niles, Rebecca Saire and Zara White, with further cast to be announced.

The Royal Shakespeare Company announced today that Rebecca Preston has been appointed as the Company's new Director of Development.

Today, we're featuring F. Murray Abraham circa 1982. Abraham has focused on stage work throughout his career, giving notable performances as Pozzo in Mike Nichols's production of Waiting for Godot, Malvolio in Twelfth Night for the New York Shakespeare Festival, and Shylock in The Merchant of Venice for the Off Broadway Theatre for a New Audience (TFANA) in March 2007, which was performed at the Duke Theatre in New York and also at The Swan Theatre, part of the Royal Shakespeare Company. He reprised this role in February 2011, when he replaced Al Pacino in the Public Theater's production. In the 1997/98 Broadway season he starred in the new chamber musical Triumph of Love opposite Betty Buckley, based on Marivaux's classic comedy.

Maryland Ensemble Theatre (MET) will present Martin McDonagh's award winning play 'The Lieutenant of Inishmore'. The dark Irish comedy will be directed by MET's founding Artistic Director, Tad Janes. 'The Lieutenant of Inishmore' will run every Thursday through Sunday(except Easter Sunday) at Maryland Ensemble Theatre from April 10 through May 4. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast onstage below!

The WEST END THEATRE SERIES is delighted to announce its third title; Richard Eyre's five-star, multi award-winning revival production of Ibsen's Ghosts. The Almeida Theatre production will be screened in over 200 cinemas across the UK and Ireland for one night only, Thursday 26 June '14 (www.westendtheatreseries.com).

Northlight Theatre, under the direction of Artistic Director BJ Jones and Executive Director Timothy J. Evans, presents Lost in Yonkers by Neil Simon, directed by Devon de Mayo. The production will run at Northlight Theatre, 9501 Skokie Blvd in Skokie, from May 2 - June 8, 2014. The Press Opening is Friday, May 9, at 7:30 pm.

David Suchet will star as Lady Bracknell in Oscar Wilde's much loved and exhilarating masterpiece The Importance of Being Earnest. Directed by Adrian Noble, the new production will open in the West End on 1 July 2015, with previews from 24 June 2015.

Guthrie Director Joe Dowling today announced ten mainstage productions in his final season at the helm of the world renowned theater, culminating 20 years of remarkable leadership. The 2014-2015 lineup includes first-time Guthrie productions of plays by A.R. Gurney, Anne Washburn and Sarah Ruhl, three productions directed by Dowling, including a beloved Shakespeare comedy and iconic masterpieces by Arthur Miller and Sean O'Casey, the Guthrie debut of visionary writer and director Mary Zimmerman, as well as an all-American musical slated for summer.

Berkeley Repertory Theatre continues the second half of its season with Tribes, a sophisticated and moving family drama by celebrated British playwright Nina Raine. Her profound and powerful new play became an award-winning hit in London and New York. Now renowned director Jonathan Moscone brings it to Berkeley Rep this April for its Bay Area premiere. Tribes follows Billy, a young man who was born deaf into a loquacious and highly opinionated academic family who raised him to lip-read and integrate into the hearing world. When he meets Sylvia - raised by Deaf parents and going deaf herself - Billy decides it's time to speak on his own terms and to be heard. Playing out in words, sign language, and sometimes mesmerizing silence, this penetrating drama examines familial love, notions of belonging, and the intersections of communication. Tribes start previews tonight, April 11, opens on April 16, and closes on Sunday, May 11, 2014.

Philip McGinley (Game of Thrones, E4's Drifters, Herding Cats; Hampstead) and Jenny Rainsford (Headlong's The Seagull, No Quarter; Royal Court) reunite after starring alongside each other in Straight (Sheffield/Bush) for the world premiere of Matt Hartley's new play which opens for a three-week run on 9 May with previews from 7 May.

The Theatre Group at SBCC presents a touching new play, GROUND by Lisa Dillman, as the final offering in the 2013-2014 SeasonFor its final offering in the 2013/2014 season, The Theatre Group at SBCC will present the West Coast Premiere of the new play GROUND by Lisa Dillman, directed by R. Michael Gros, in the Jurkowitz Theatre, April 23-May 10, 2014.

The world's largest solo theatre festival based in New York will present its second European showcase May 27 - 31, 2014 at Teatr Syrena in Warsaw, Poland. Recipient of the Order of the British Empire and two-time Laurence Olivier Award winner Fiona Shaw will open this year's United Solo Europe with her remarks on solo theatre. The performers participating in the European showcase come from Finland, Sweden, Poland, USA, and Italy. The program includes a show by five-time Grammy nominee LynnMarie Rink and one directed by Austin Pendleton, as well as a solo version of "Hamlet" and a magic piece about the discovery of an Alfred Hitchcock film. The full lineup can be found below.

Tonight, April 10, TheatreSquared will launch its first mainstage Shakespeare production with the playwright's signature drama, Hamlet, starring Grant Goodman. The production is helmed by director Sean Patrick Reilly and features a professional cast including T2 associate artistic director Amy Herzberg.

The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) will mark Shakespeare's 450th Birthday with a free fireworks display outside the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Shakespeare's hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon on the evening of Wednesday 23 April.

The Last Confession, the acclaimed mystery thriller by Roger Crane set in the Vatican, begins its world tour in Toronto on April 19, 2014 at the Royal Alexandra Theatre, before touring to Los Angeles, Perth, Brisbane, Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney, Australia.

Shrunken Shakespeare Company (SSC), in association with Joe Paradise, announced today that Nigerian-born Royal Shakespeare Company associate artist Chukwudi Iwuji (The Public/RSC: Anthony and Cleopatra; London Old Vic/BAM: Richard III with Kevin Spacey) has joined the cast of Paul Sorvino's world premiere adaption of Lear as part of their 2014 Fundraiser Gala, including Broadway, Off-Broadway and TV veterans. The Gala will be held on Monday, April 21st at 7:30pm, at TBG Theatre located at 312 W 36th Street, 3rd Floor in NYC.

More than a hundred years since it alarmed censors, appalled critics and thrilled audiences Henrik Ibsen's Ghosts remains as sensational and electric as ever. Opening Thursday 22 May 2014 at Southbank Theatre, The Sumner, internationally renowned Australian director Gale Edwards returns to MTC to direct this unflinching critique of marriage and social convention.