Royal Shakespeare Company News

The date is Thursday, November 7, and the evening begins at 5:30p.m. with hors d'oeuvres and a cash bar. At 6:00p.m. is a special tastings of Aleathea's specialties, like last year, and at 7:00p.m., the competition begins! The MCs for the evening are Mark Lang and James Rana.

Quintessence Theatre Group launches its fourth season of progressive classic theatre with Shakespeare's HAMLET presented in rotating repertory with Goldmsmith's SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER, directed by Alexander Burns. Quintessence's celebrated full throttle actor and text driven approach to the classics will be further enhanced by an Elizabethan Courtyard style staging, complete with groundlings, and a fast and furious two hour abridgement of HAMLET. HAMLET began previews on Wednesday, October 9 at 7pm and opened on Saturday, October 12. SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER will begin previews on Thursday, October 17 at 7pm and open on Saturday, October 26 at 8pm. BroadwayWorld has a first look at HAMLET below!

A general rush policy has been announced for on-stage and box seating for the critically acclaimed Shakespeare's Globe productions of TWELFTH NIGHT and Richard III. For two weeks only, from today, October 15 through October 27, all remaining on-stage and box seats will be sold for $25, available for purchase when the box office opens, for day of performance. Preview performances begin tonight, October 15 at the Belasco Theatre (111 West 44th Street). Theatergoers who choose the on-stage seating will have an up close and personal experience with the productions, including close proximity to the exciting pre-show ritual of actors getting dressed on stage.

Signature Theatre has announced the pairing of one of the theatre's most celebrated friends with the upcoming 2013/14 season's newest play. Shakespeare Theatre Company Artistic Director Michael Kahn returns to Signature this fall for the first time in nearly twenty years to direct the world premiere of Pride in the Falls of Autrey Mill, the new play by Paul Downs Colaizzo.

Julie Taymor, the Oscar and Tony Award-winning director of film, theatre and opera comes to 92Y on Sunday, November 17 to talk about her work in a conversation moderated by actor Harry Lennix, who received a Golden Satellite Award in Taymor's Titus. The event -From Stage to Screen and Back Again - will be illustrated with clips from her productions. Taymor is acclaimed for infusing her work with a uniquely theatrical vision - from the internationally acclaimed stage musical The Lion King, to the Beatles-inspired screen musical, Across the Universe, the timeless magic of Shakespeare on screen in Titus and The Tempest, to Shakespeare on stage, with her highly-anticipated upcoming production of A Midsummer Night's Dream for Theatre for a New Audience.

The Guardian reports that Shakespeare might have penned parts of three Elizabethan plays previously believed to have been written by other authors. This news comes as the result of new computer analysis and linguistic 'fingerprinting' tests. The plays are Arden of Faversham, The Spanish Tragedy and Mucedorus, and will be included in a new collection of Shakespeare's work.

The Telegraph writes that Tony-winning stage, television and film star Paul Rogers has passed away. He was 96.

A general rush policy has been announced for on-stage and box seating for the critically acclaimed Shakespeare's Globe productions ofTWELFTH NIGHT and Richard III. For two weeks only, from October 15 through October 27, all remaining on-stage and box seats will be sold for $25, available for purchase when the box office opens, for day of performance. Preview performances begin this Tuesday, October 15 at the Belasco Theatre (111 West 44th Street). Theatergoers who choose the on-stage seating will have an up close and personal experience with the productions, including close proximity to the exciting pre-show ritual of actors getting dressed on stage.

Below, BroadwayWorld brings you an exclusive first listen of the show's Act 2 anthem- 'Revolting Children.'

The cast for URINETOWN The Musical includes Katie Bernstein (Little Becky Two Shoes/Mrs Millennium), Cory English (Old Man Strong/Hot Blades Harry), Richard Fleeshman (Bobby Strong), Madeleine Harland (Soupy Sue/Cladwell's Secretary), Rosanna Hyland (Hope Cladwell), Julie Jupp (Old Woman/Josephine Strong), Mark Meadows (Senator Fipp), Joel Montague (Male Swing 1), Jo Napthine (Female Swing 2), Jenna Russell (Penelope Pennywise), Matthew Seadon-Young (Robbie The Stockfish/UGC Executive 1) and Jonathan Slinger (Officer Lockstock).

The cast has been announced for the winner of the Papatango New Writing Prize 2013, in partnership with the Finborough Theatre. The world premiere of UNSCORCHED by Luke Owen will be directed by Justin Audibert. Featuring designs by Georgia Lowe, lighting by Joshua Carr, and sound by Richard Hammarton.

Unscorched will star Ronan Raftery (Juno and the Paycock, National Theatre; The Shawshank Redemption, West End; Fresh Meat) and John Hodgkinson (A Walk On Part, National Tour; The Seagull, National Theatre; Skyfall; Peep Show).

Acclaimed actor, writer and theatre director Simon Callow, CBE, will receive The Stage Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Theatre at the ceremony for the 2013 UK Theatre Awards on Sunday 20 October at London's historic Guildhall.

BAM presents the US premiere of Water, an intimate yet boldly inventive theatrical exploration of climate change and the human experience, Nov 13-17, 2013.

Following a sell-out run at the National Theatre and a record-breaking National Theatre Live cinema broadcast, the acclaimed comedy stars Sian Phillips as Lady Dorothy Stacpoole. Set in her decaying stately home, she has to decide what to do with the property: should she hand it over to the National Trust, as her overbearing sister wishes, or find a more creative way of making it pay? But people spoil things and Lady Stacpoole does not want them traipsing through her house.

Olivier-award nominee Matthew Dunster directs Kathryn Prescott (Channel 4's Skins) in her stage debut with Cian Barry (Our Boys, The Member of the Wedding), Daniel Stewart (Written on the Heart) and Rocky Marshall (Headlong's Faustus, Mean Machine) alongside 16-strong cast in the first major revival in over 30 years of The Love Girl and the Innocent at Southwark Playhous in October.

Perhaps the defining characteristic of Soho Rep, under the artistic direction of Sarah Benson, is the institution's commitment to artists creating surprisingly big theatrical events in its very small space on Walker Street. Soho Rep's 2013-14 season, announced today, provides ample evidence of that commitment, comprising two shows that are among the biggest the organization has ever produced: the New York premiere of David Adjmi's Marie Antoinette, directed by Rebecca Taichman and featuring Marin Ireland (Blasted); and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' An Octoroon, directed by Benson.

Multi award-winning recording artist Beverley Knight leads the cast of Thea Sharrock's hit West End production of The Bodyguard in the role of Oscar-nominated superstar Rachel Marron. Starring opposite Knight, and playing the iconic title role of Rachel's bodyguard Frank Farmer, is Tristan Gemmill.

The RSC announces today that it will publish music and speeches from its forthcoming production of Richard II on a new CD and for download from iTunes. The recording will be the first in a series capturing some of the live and specially commissioned music composed for RSC productions of all Shakespeare's plays, as the Company works its way through the canon on stage over the next six years.

Simon Wegrzyn will take on the villainous role of Fleshcreep and he is guaranteed to whip the crowd up into a frenzy when he takes to the stage as the Giant's Henchman. This will be the first time Simon has played a villain in panto, having previously played Sarah The Cook in Dick Whittington and The Lion in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and the first time he has performed alongside Swindon pantomime veteran Keith Chegwin.