Saviana Stanescu News

Watch out! Richard Schechner returns, armed with another series of shocks and surprises: the world premiere of "Imagining O" at Peak Performances, September 10-13. Transforming the notoriously erotic French novel "Story of O" into a multi-site, immersive production, the 80 year-old director's most recent work promises to reaffirm Peak's commitment to the ultra and outre challenge, and the director's reputation for creating uncomfortable joy in his audiences. The show opens the Kasser Theater's 10th anniversary season.

After a short series of well-received previews, Saviana Stanescu's Useless opens this weekend at IRT Theater in the West Village (154 Christopher St., #3B). The Romanian-born Stanescu, whose past projects include Aliens with Extraordinary Skills at Women's Project, Waxing West at La MaMa Theatre (2007 New York Innovative Theatre Award for Best Play), and Hurt (published in The Best American ShortPlays: 2012-2013), is considered one of the most exciting writers to emerge from Eastern Europe after the fall of the Iron Curtain.

A team of independent producers and a multicultural group of artists have joined forces with Kori Rushton and IRT's Residency Season to bring to life a new play: Useless by Romanian-born playwright Saviana Stanescu. The production is directed by Jose Zayas and features Ana Grosse, Andy Phelan and Steven Rishard.

Theaterspeak will present WRITE OUT FRONT, an installation of over 125 award-winning and up-and-coming playwrights writing new plays in the storefront window of the Drama Book Shop during store hours, today, August 1st - 31st. In each two-hour time slot for WRITE OUT FRONT, a different playwright will write a new play on a laptop, while the screen shot of their computer is projected onto a 42' monitor facing the passersby on the street, making their normally private creative process public.

Theaterspeak will present WRITE OUT FRONT, an installation of over 125 award-winning and up-and-coming playwrights writing new plays in the storefront window of the Drama Book Shop during store hours, August 1st - 31st. In each two-hour time slot for WRITE OUT FRONT, a different playwright will write a new play on a laptop, while the screen shot of their computer is projected onto a 42' monitor facing the passersby on the street, making their normally private creative process public.

Manhattan Theatre Source will present the 15th Annual EstroGenius Festival, a multimedia performance festival showcasing female voices from a variety of disciplines, October 2-November 1 at Stage Left Studios (214 West 30th Street between 7th and 8th Avenue) and the 4th Street Theatre (83 East 4th Street between 2nd Avenue and Bowery). The festival will feature short plays, one-woman shows, dance pieces, a visual art exhibit, and special performances by Girl Be Heard, a teen program that uses theater as a vehicle to empower young women to become brave, confident, socially conscious leaders while exploring their own challenging circumstances. The 2014 EstroGenius artists will be announced in August.

Working Theater, in its 29th season off-Broadway, will continue its current exploration of the face of poverty in America, with James McManus' Princess Grace Award-winning play, CHERRY SMOKE. The play is a brutal love story that details the irrational hope of four destitute young people, all stretching to grasp the American dream. Directed by Tamilla Woodard, the production will run tonight, April 22nd through May 18th at Urban Stages, 259 West 30th Street in Manhattan. The official opening is on Thursday, May 1st.

King Lear's fate is sealed in Shakespeare's play: to be tragically reunited with the one daughter he loves. But what would be the fate of his faithful Fool? That question lies at the heart of 'The Fool's Lear,' a new play by Randy Neale, which will have its New York premiere May 5 to 25 as a featured production of Phoenix Theatre Ensemble's Tenth Anniversary Spring Rep season at The Wild Project 195 E. 3rd Street (at Ave. B). This new, funny, poignant comedic drama follows the journey of the Fool and his King as they ply a path along side Shakespeare's great tragedy, exploring hilarious and harrowing byways between its scenes. Grant Neale directs and plays The Fool and Craig Smith plays The King in a play which South Carolina critics called a delight and a must-see comic drama.

Working Theater, in its 29th season off-Broadway, will continue its current exploration of the face of poverty in America, with James McManus' Princess Grace Award-winning play, CHERRY SMOKE. The play is a brutal love story that details the irrational hope of four destitute young people, all stretching to grasp the American dream. Directed by Tamilla Woodard, the production will run April 22nd through May 18th at Urban Stages, 259 West 30th Street in Manhattan. The official opening is on Thursday, May 1st.

From April 9 to 13 at HERE Arts Center, actor Adam Boncz will perform 'Fatelessness,' the first stage adaptation of the novel of the same name by Imre Kertesz, recipient of the 2002 Nobel Prize in Literature. The book is the story of a Hungarian teenage boy who survives a passage through three WWII concentration camps. The play is a 75-minute rendition of the book, adapted verbatim by Andras Visky from the translation by Tim Wilkinson. Gia Forakis directs.

New Georges' 22nd production year will spotlight on The New Georges Jam ON TOAST at Dixon Place, a new play festival that will feature work by the New Georges Jam, a "performance gym" for early-career playwrights and directors founded at New Georges in 2010 by Lucy Alibar(Beasts of the Southern Wild), Jess Chayes (HOME/SICK) and Portia Krieger (Eager to Lose). The New Georges Jam ON TOAST will feature 19 Jammers past and present - including two playwrights receiving their first New York productions. But first New Georges will kick things off with The 1st George Sand Invitational One-Minute Play Festival, the first all-women edition of the nationwide One-Minute Play Festival, January 13th & 14th at INTAR Theatre, featuring one-minute plays by over 50 female playwrights. The '14 season will also feature a special collaboration between New Georges and Barnard College in March, New Plays at Barnard, which will bring downtown artists and the new-play experience to students at Barnard and Columbia.

The One-Minute Play Festival and New Georges have created a dynamic partnership for The 1st George Sand Invitational One-minute Play Festival with part of the proceeds to benefit New Georges' indispensable workspace for women theater artists: The Room.

At a benefit event held for New Georges on Sunday, September 22, Producing Artistic Director Susan Bernfield and board member Michael Osso announced a new program at New Georges, The Audrey Residencies, and the artists and projects chosen for 2013-14, the program's inaugural year. Sunday's event also featured the premiere showing of a video about New Georges produced by tdf for tdfSTAGES' Meet the Theatre series and directed by Mark Blankenship, tdf's online content editor, to be released in early November.

Nomad Theatrical in association with Variations Theatre Group will present POLANSKI POLANSKI, about the life of controversial film director Roman Polanski. Performances begin tomorrow, September 5 at The Chain Theatre.

World Wide Lab presents 'A DIRECTOR'S FEAST.' Twelve members of the 2010 Lincoln Center Directors Lab who have continued to collaborate with one another these past three years have conceived two separate anthology programs exploring moments in the life of a woman as well as a study of community.

About two dozen plays, hot off their hit runs at the 17th annual New York International Fringe Festival, are ready to be discovered by the rest of the world. Martin Denton, founder and editor of Indie Theater Now, announced the first 12 script titles that will be included in this collection, representing the diversity, vibrancy, invention, energy, and fun of FringeNYC.

World Wide Lab presents 'A DIRECTOR'S FEAST.' Twelve members of the 2010 Lincoln Center Directors Lab who have continued to collaborate with one another these past three years have conceived two separate anthology programs exploring moments in the life of a woman as well as a study of community.

The Shades of Gray will present the world premiere of Rayka Kobiella's Vestiges, tonight, August 1 - August 4 at The Secret Theatre (4402 23rd St, Long Island City).

Nomad Theatrical in association with Variations Theatre Group will present POLANSKI POLANSKI, about the life of controversial film director Roman Polanski. Performances begin September 5 at The Chain Theatre.

The Shades of Gray will present the world premiere of Rayka Kobiella's Vestiges, August 1 - August 4 at The Secret Theatre (4402 23rd St, Long Island City).