Scott Zielinski News

2009 California Shakespeare Theater (Cal Shakes) today announced casting and creative teams for the second production of the company's 35th anniversary season, Noël Coward's smart and spiky comedy Private Lives, directed by Cal Shakes Associate Artist Mark Rucker. The production will run July 8-August 2 at the Bruns Memorial Amphitheater.

The American Repertory Theatre (A.R.T.) presents the fifth production of its 2008-09 Season: Samuel Beckett?s iconic masterpiece Endgame, directed by Marcus Stern, at the A.R.T.?s Loeb Drama Center, 64 Brattle Street, Cambridge. The production begins performances on Saturday, February 14 and runs through Sunday, March 15; it will be available for press viewing from Wednesday, February 18 at 7:30pm.

Playwright Charles Mee and director Tina Landau adapt a play by Euripides into an abstract pageant that not-so-subtly questions current American foreign policy, amidst some good laughs, some interesting visuals and some scantily clad boys and girls.

Signature Theatre Company announced today that Kate Mulgrew will replace the previously announced Victoria Clark in Charles Mee's Iphigenia 2.0, directed by Tina Landau

Signature Theatre Company announced today the casting for the first play in the Charles Mee Series, Iphigenia 2.0, starring Victoria Clark

Berkeley Repertory Theatre ends its 2006/07 Season with a dark and delightful new adaptation of Charles Dickens' 'Oliver Twist' staged by one of Britain's most innovative theatre artists, beginning previews in the Roda Theatre on May 11, opens May 16, and closes June 24.

The most difficult aspect of dramatizing a well-known and well-loved work of literature is finding the correct balance between maintaining the integrity of the original work and adding elements to justify the adaptation. The recent Broadway revival of A Chorus Line was criticized for being a carbon copy of the original production, while the short-lived, musicalized version of The Wedding Singer film was criticized for changing key plot points. How, then, can an adaptation to the stage do justice to the original work as well as bring the material to life in a new and innovative way? Neil Bartlett seems to know the secret. In his adaptation of 'Oliver Twist,' the classic novel by Charles Dickens, Bartlett captures the dark, dank world of the young orphan in a way that Lionel Bart's musical Oliver! fails to do. There are no upbeat songs about 'Oom-Pah-Pah!' or considering yourself part of the family; Bartlett's Oliver Twist is no musical comedy.

Tina Landau's New Age-y production features music by GrooveLily

Lea DeLaria will star as Bottom in a new production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, directed by Tina Landau, that will be presented as the first joint production of the McCarter Theatre and the Paper Mill Playhouse

You can love a Chekhov play or hate it, but like a fine wine or a particularly poor 'American Idol' contestant, you just can't tear yourself away. The addictive properties of a Chekhov are such that once you begin, there's no turning back, and for better or for worse, this is clearly the case with the American Repertory Theatre's production of 'Three Sisters'...

The City of Los Angeles and Beverly Hills/Hollywood NAACP announced the nominees for their prestigious 15th Annual Theatre Awards.

The classic musical political satire gets a fast and funny re-mounting