Scott Wilson News

Eclipsed runs August 31 - September 27, 2009, with Pay-What-You-Can performances on August 31 and September 1 at 8pm. (Note: these performances dates are changed since our original season announcement. No extension possible). Woolly Mammoth is located at 641 D Street, NW (7th & D).

Goodman Theatre is proud to present the Chicago premiere of Dael Orlandersmith's Stoop Stories, September 12 - October 11, 2009 the Goodman's 400-seat flexible Owen Bruner Theatre. Tickets are $10 - $40 and go on sale Friday, August 7 at GoodmanTheatre.org.

Partial Comfort Productions (nami, Battle of the Bards) presents the World Premiere of THE BEREAVED by Thomas Bradshaw, directed by May Adrales. Previews begin September 2nd at The Wild Project where Partial Comfort is in its 1st season as a resident company. Opening night is scheduled for Wednesday, September 9th.

Aurora Theatre Company has selected the directors for the company's fifth Global Age Project festival of new works: Margo Hall - an award winning actor/director/playwright, Hall most recently directed The Story, by Tracy Scott-Wilson, a SF Playhouse/Lorraine Hansberry Co-Production, and Sonny's Blues, a story by James Baldwin, for Word for Word.

On Monday, June 29, Goodman Theatre Outgoing Board Chairman Shawn M. Donnelley and Artistic Director Robert Falls were honored with stars bearing their names as part of the Goodman's 'Walkway of Stars.' The stars were presented in appreciation and gratitude for their achievements and service to the theater, and commemorated Donnelley's leadership gift of $1 million to Goodman Theatre's endowment. A ribbon cutting and unveiling of the two stars followed brief remarks by Executive Director Roche Schulfer during an afternoon ceremony on the theater's black granite entryway beneath the 73-foot Goodman marquee at 170 North Dearborn Street. Present were members of the Goodman's Board of Trustees as well as friends of the theater, including: Chairman-Elect Patricia Cox; Goodman Resident Artistic Associate Henry Godinez; Academy Award-nominated playwright José Rivera; Goodman Trustees Sherry Barrat of Northern Trust, Ruth Ann Gillis of Exelon Corporation, Vikki Hood of Kirkland & Ellis; Goodman Scenemakers Council members Shannon Kinsella and Cheryl McPhilimy; Premiere Society Donors Robert Kohl and Clark Pellett; and classics scholar Dr. Christopher Kelly, Donnelley's husband.

Today Goodman Theatre announced a change in its upcoming 2009/2010 season lineup. Artistic Director Robert Falls has canceled the previously scheduled Joan D'Arc, directed by Aida Karic, and in its place selected Stoop Stories, an explosive solo piece by Dael Orlandersmith. A Chicago premiere, Stoop Stories will run September 11 - October 11 in the Goodman's 400-seat flexible Owen Bruner Theatre.

For the fifth consecutive summer, Goodman Theatre welcomes young people from the Chicagoland area as participants in its General Theater Studies program (GTS), a free, six week intensive introduction to the theater arts.

Goodman Theatre's Board of Trustees proudly announces Patricia Cox as the new Chairman-Elect. Cox, whose involvement with the Goodman spans two decades, is currently its Vice Chairman. A founding member of Chicago's legendary St. Nicholas Theatre Company (with Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Mamet and actors William H. Macy and Stephen Schachter), Cox was among the city's first performing arts marketing, development and management leaders to emerge under the late, great Lyric Opera impresario Danny Newman. She has since worked with and consulted for a wide range of not-for-profit arts organizations in Chicago and across the country. Cox will assume chairmanship in the fall, as current Chairman Shawn M. Donnelley concludes her two-year tenure.

'Hooray for Joey Slotnick!' Director Henry Wishcamper has tapped Chicago native Joey Slotnick for the lead role of the African explorer 'Captain Jeffrey T. Spaulding'-the heightened vaudevillian persona created by Groucho Marx for the 1929 stage and screen original-in Goodman Theatre's season opening musical Animal Crackers, written by George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind, with music and lyrics by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby.

Goodman Theatre is the proud recipient of an unprecedented $275,000 gift from the Shubert Foundation, marking the largest annual general operating support grant in the theater's 84-year history. The grant, which represents a $35,000 increase for the Goodman over last season, is part of a record $17.6 million funding that the Shubert Foundation announced for not-for-profit companies in 2009.

For the fifth consecutive summer, Goodman Theatre welcomes young people from the Chicagoland area as participants in its General Theater Studies program (GTS), a free, six week intensive introduction to the theater arts.

Beginning performances on May 30, is Into the Hazard [Henry 5], a new play adapted and directed by Jessica Bauman. Adapted from William Shakespeare's 'Henry V,' this production will take place Saturday, May 30 through Saturday, June 20. Official opening set for Thursday, June 4 @ 7:00 PM.

Goodman Theatre proudly concludes its 2008/2009 season with José Rivera's newest play, Boleros for the Disenchanted, 'an epic study of wedded life that is simply?and not so simply?marvelous' (Variety). A true love story inspired by Rivera's parents' courtship and eventual migration from Puerto Rico to Alabama, Boleros for the Disenchanted makes its Chicago premiere directed by Henry Godinez?the Goodman's Resident Artistic Associate who was named 2008 Latino of the Year by the Chicago Latino Network. Chicago actors Elizabeth Ledo and Sandra Marquez command the stage in the role of Flora, based on Rivera's mother, at various points in her life. Godinez's cast also includes Liza Fernandez, Joe Minoso, Rene Rivera and Felix Solis. Boleros for the Disenchanted is performed in English in the Albert Theatre June 20 ? July 26, 2009. Tickets are $25 ? $70. A complete performance schedule including dates, times and ticket prices appears at the end of this release. Meet the playwright and director at a free post-performance discussion on Thursday, June 25, moderated by Myrna Salazar of the International Latino Cultural Center. Tickets and information: 312.443.3800 or GoodmanTheatre.org. The Chicago Community Trust is the Major Production Sponsor.

Oregon Shakespeare Festival Artistic Director Bill Rauch has put the finishing touches on the design teams for OSF's 75th anniversary year. The 2010 season was announced in March, but a few directors had not yet been announced.

Beginning performances on May 30, is Into the Hazard [Henry 5], a new play adapted and directed by Jessica Bauman. Adapted from William Shakespeare's 'Henry V,' this production will take place Saturday, May 30 through Saturday, June 20. Official opening set for Thursday, June 4 @ 7:00 PM.

Awards were handed out for 14 categories and 2 special awards are announced by the Off-Broadway League for the Lucille Lortel Awards recognizing Outstanding Achievement Off-Broadway. This year?s ceremony benefits The Actors Fund. A list of nominees follows below.

New Georges (Susan Bernfield, Artistic Director; Sarah Cameron Sunde, Associate Director), the OBIE Award-winning downtown theater company founded in 1992, and Hip-Hop Theater Festival is currently playing OBIE Winning Actress/Pulitzer-nominated playwright Eisa Davis' 'ANGELA'S MIXTAPE,' directed by Liesl Tommy.

In conjunction with its current production of August Wilson's Joe Tuner's Come And Gone, directed by Bartlett Sher at the Belasco Theatre, Lincoln Center Theater will host a free symposium titled 'August Wilson's Century: From the World of Joe Turner to the Age of Obama' at 7:30pm at the Vivian Beaumont Theater (150 West 65 Street). The discussion will feature New York Times op-ed columnist Bob Herbert, the award winning author John Edgar Wideman and the critically acclaimed playwright Tracey Scott Wilson and will be moderated by noted African-American scholar Prof. Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

Due to strong demand, The Public Theater (Artistic Director Oskar Eustis; Executive Director Andrew D. Hamingson) announced today that it would extend Tracey Scott Wilson?s THE GOOD NEGRO an additional two weeks through Sunday, April 19. THE GOOD NEGRO begins previews on Tuesday, March 3 and will now run through Sunday, April 19 with an official press opening on Monday, March 16. Directed by Liesl Tommy and in association with Dallas Theater Center, THE GOOD NEGRO is the first new play to transfer from the Public LAB initiative to a full main stage production at The Public.

In conjunction with its current production of August Wilson's Joe Tuner's Come And Gone, directed by Bartlett Sher at the Belasco Theatre, Lincoln Center Theater will host a free symposium titled 'August Wilson's Century: From the World of Joe Turner to the Age of Obama' at 7:30pm at the Vivian Beaumont Theater (150 West 65 Street).