On Saturday, July 19 @ 7pm, The Staten Island GLBT Center on Victory Boulevard in Staten Island welcomed Walter Newkirk, founder of Walter Newkirk Public Relations LLC and author of memoraBEALEia : A Private Scrapbook about Edie Beale of Grey Gardens Mr. Newkirk's book is endorsed by Broadway veterans Scott Frankel, Michael Korie ,Doug Wright, and Christine Ebersole ; of the Tony award winning Grey Gardens musical , Bryan Batt, star of the AMC TV-series MAD MEN, and Tony nominated actress Sheryl Lee Ralph ( Dreamgirls, Thoroughly Modern Millie).
Tonight, July 19 at 7pm, The Staten Island GLBTQ Center is featuring very special guest Walter Newkirk, founder of Walter Newkirk Public Relations LLC and author of memoraBEALEia : A Private Scrapbook about Edie Beale of Grey Gardens, as he takes you into the world of Grey Gardens. The event is free and open to the public.
On Saturday, July 19 at 7pm, The Staten Island GLBTQ Center is featuring very special guest Walter Newkirk, founder of Walter Newkirk Public Relations LLC and author of memoraBEALEia : A Private Scrapbook about Edie Beale of Grey Gardens, as he takes you into the world of Grey Gardens. The event is free and open to the public.
Playwrights Horizons has announced initial casting for its upcoming 2014/2015 Season. The announcement includes casting for the first two shows of the season: initial casting for BOOTYCANDY, the New York premiere of a new play written and directed by Obie Award winner Robert O'Hara (In the Continuum, Antebellum, Insurrection: Holding History); and initial casting for GRAND CONCOURSE, the World Premiere of a new play by playwright and two-time Obie Award-winning actress Heidi Schreck (There Are No More Big Secrets, Creature), directed by Kip Fagan (The Revisionist, Asuncion).
A little over 50 years ago, on Aug. 31, 1962, an African American sharecropper who had spent most of her life working in Mississippi fields traveled to her district's county seat to register to vote. She was denied the right. So began the public activism of Fannie Lou Hamer, whose struggles for voting and civil rights spanned the next 15 years. This coming fall, excerpts from a new musical inspired by Hamer's life and work, written by playwright/composer Felicia Hunter, will be presented in concert format on one of Carnegie Hall's iconic stages. The one-night-only special event also will serve as a benefit for the Center for Law and Social Justice, Medgar Evers College, CUNY.
In his forthcoming memoir, THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER NEWKIRK, a veteran publicist confronts all aspects of his life including bouts with depression from 1978-2013, 4 hospitalizations between 2004-2012, the paralyzing and overwhelming fear of becoming homeless in 2011, his gay relationships from 1978-present day, in addition to his PR career in the fine and performing arts with backstage stories.
based upon the 1976 documentary of the same name, by Albert and David Maysles, the offbeat and somewhat perplexing musical Grey Gardens acts as a pseudo-documentary of the rise and fall of the reclusive mother/daughter duo of 'Big' Edith Bouvier Beale and 'Little' Edith Bouvier Beale. Aunt and cousin, respectively, of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, the story follows their lives from high society to abject poverty, living in a decomposing mansion overrun with flea-infested cats.
South Portland's Mad Horse Theatre Company ended its season with a poignant and ambitious production of the Tony-award-winning musical, Grey Gardens. A musical is a bit of a departure for the small theatre company and its tiny black box space, but they acquitted themselves with both substance and aplomb.
Premiered in New York in 2006 with music by Scott Frankel, lyrics by Michael Korie, and book by Douglas Wright, the play tells the heartbreaking story of Jacqueline Kennedy's reclusive aunt and cousin, whose eccentric lives descend into disarray and squalor. With a script that is part Long Day's Journey into Night and a score that is part Stephen Sondheim, Grey Gardens is laden with pathos and a bittersweet humor. The lyrics are mordant; the music through composed as an extension of the dialogue, it is a theatre piece which calls for sensitive singing-actors and a director who can plumb its depths. Fortunately, the Mad Horse Theatre has both!
Playwrights Horizons is now accepting entries for its popular LIVEforFIVE online lottery for up to two $5 tickets each to the New York premiere of FLY BY NIGHT: A NEW MUSICAL, conceived by Kim Rosenstock (Tigers Be Still); written by Will Connolly (performer, Once), Michael Mitnick (Sex Lives of Our Parents, the upcoming film The Giver) and Ms. Rosenstock; choreographed by Sam Pinkleton (Mr. Burns at PH; Natasha, Pierre…); and directed by Carolyn Cantor (The Great God Pan and After the Revolution at PH, Pumpgirl, Orange Flower Water).
The National Alliance for Musical Theatre (NAMT) announces nine awards granted from their National Fund for New Musicals, a major funding program to support NAMT member not-for-profit theatres in their collaborations with writers to create, develop and produce new musicals. Now in its sixth year, the Fund will provide grants totaling $35,500 to nine organizations across the country.
Playwrights Horizons is now accepting entries for its popular LIVEforFIVE online lottery for up to two $5 tickets each to the New York premiere of FLY BY NIGHT: A NEW MUSICAL, conceived by Kim Rosenstock (Tigers Be Still); written by Will Connolly (performer, Once), Michael Mitnick (Sex Lives of Our Parents, the upcoming film The Giver) and Ms. Rosenstock; choreographed by Sam Pinkleton (Mr. Burns at PH; Natasha, Pierre…); and directed by Carolyn Cantor (The Great God Pan and After the Revolution at PH, Pumpgirl, Orange Flower Water).
Acclaimed Off-Broadway theater company Playwrights Horizons just held its annual Spring Gala on Monday evening, May 5 at the event space 583 Park Avenue. Titled 'IN THE BEGINNING', the evening honored the theater company's Founding Artistic Director Bob Moss. An artistic director, stage director and teacher for thirty-seven years, Bob founded Playwrights Horizons in 1971 and gave the theater its unique and enduring mission. Three years later, Bob moved the theater to then-derelict West 42nd Street. He founded the 42nd Street Gang, which, with the 42nd Street Development Corporation, envisioned and spearheaded the renovation and creation of 42nd Street's Theatre Row, and gave Playwrights a permanent home. He served as the company's Artistic Director for ten years through 1981. He was also the director of the Playwrights Horizons Theater School, an affiliate of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. He continues to direct and teach at theaters and colleges across the country, and has mentored hundreds of young theater actors, writers and directors.
BAY STREET THEATRE NEW WORKS FESTIVAL will take place this weekend, April 25-27 at the Bay Street Theatre on the Long Wharf in Sag Harbor, NY. The Festival is produced in Association with SPACE on Ryder Farm.
Acclaimed Off-Broadway theater company Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) has announced additional top items for the 2014 edition of its popular, annual online auction. Bidding for the auction, which features an eclectic array of items and unique opportunities continues at www.biddingforgood/playwrightshorizons now through Monday, April 28 at 8PM.
Vintage Theatre presents "Grey Gardens" at 1468 Dayton St., Aurora 80010. Performances, which begin April 18th and end May 25th, are Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m.and Sundays at 2:30 p.m., with additional performances on Thursday, May 22 @ 7:30 and Saturday, May 24 @ 2:30.
BAY STREET THEATRE NEW WORKS FESTIVAL will take place on April 25-27 at the Bay Street Theatre on the Long Wharf in Sag Harbor, NY. The Festival is produced in Association with SPACE on Ryder Farm. The media sponsor for the festival is Dan's Papers Literary Prize Contest.
Looking much like an opening night, numerous boldfaced names were in attendance last week at a workshop for FINDING NEVERLAND, directed by Diane Paulas and starring Matthew Morrison and Laura Michelle Kelly. It'll premiere at begins performances in July 2014 at the Loeb Drama Center at The American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) at Harvard University.
Featuring new songs by Gary Barlow and Eliot Kennedy, NEVERLAND previously held a workshop on August 26th, featuring Kelly, Jason Alexander, Brian d'Arcy James and Kathleen Chalfant. The new musical FINDING NEVERLAND premiered in Leicester on September 22., led by Julian Ovenden and Rosalie Craig.
Adapted from the much-loved Oscar-winning Miramax film, FINDING NEVERLAND, this exquisite new production was brought to the Leicester stage by celebrated Oscar and Tony Award-winner Harvey Weinstein, with direction and choreography by Olivier and Tony Award-winner Rob Ashford (Anna Christie at Donmar Warehouse), a book by Allan Knee (Little Women on Broadway), and music and lyrics by Tony Award nominees Scott Frankel and Michael Korie.
Escape to a wonderful world of enchantment with this musical tale of the life of playwright J.M. Barrie, and the inspiration behind his classic book, The Adventures of Peter Pan. With his last play a failure, James Barrie is crippled by writer's block and success seems like a far-away land. But then a chance encounter with widow Sylvia Llewellyn Davies and her four young sons sends his heart and imagination soaring, and their friendship gives birth to a magical tale that will live forever.
Playwrights Horizons presents the World Premiere production of YOUR MOTHER'S COPY OF THE KAMA SUTRA, a new play by Kirk Lynn (Co-Artistic Director, Austin's Rude Mechanicals), directed by Obie Award winner Anne Kauffman (Detroit, Maple and Vine at PH; Belleville; This Wide Night; The Thugs), which begins previews this weekend.
