Victory Gardens Theater announces the lineup for the 2017 IGNITION Festival of New Plays, including Tuvalu, or The Saddest Song by Antoinette Nwandu; This Land Was Made by Tori Sampson; Spin Moves by Ken Weitzman; Tell Them I'm Still Young by Julia Doolittle; Wolf Play by Hansol Jung; and Suspension by Kristiana Rae Colon.
Dorset Theatre Festival incubates new works for the American stage through its New Play Reading series, which continues with Lauren Yee, playwright of King of the Yees and past Dramatist Guild Fellow.
The Ogunquit Playhouse has created an all new production of the Tony Award-winning musical Ragtime, on stage from August 2 to August 26. This sweeping musical is complete with a cast and creative team of Broadway veterans including Kirsten Scott, Jamie LaVerdiere, Darnell Abraham, Lindsay Roberts, Tony-Award nominee Josh Young, Director Seth Sklar-Heyn and Set and Projection Designer Tim Mackabee. The Ogunquit production will also feature the original Tony-nominated costumes by Santo Loquasto.
The Public Theater will kick off the 2017-18 season in September with a free Public Works musical adaptation of William Shakespeare's As You Like It, adapted by Shaina Taub and Laurie Woolery, with music and lyrics by Shaina Taub, and the company has just been announced!
National New Play Network, the country's alliance of nonprofit theaters that champions the development, production, and continued life of new plays, will co-present the 12th annual MFA Playwright's Workshop (MFAPW) in association with the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival and Stanford University's National Center for New Plays.
Samuel French has assembled a distinguished judging panel including playwrights Jiehae Park, James Hindman, Lauren Yee and Rachel Bonds; Artistic Directors Andrew Leynse (Primary Stages), Jonathan Silverstein (Keen Company), Susan Westfall (City Theatre, Miami), Emily Morse (New Dramatists) and Ciera Iverson (National Alliance of Musical Theatres); and industry professionals John Clinton Eisner (The Lark), Michael Walkup (Page 73), Abigail Katz (Atlantic Theater Company).
Botanicum Seedlings: A Development Series for Playwrights - This summer, Seedlings augments the Theatricum Botanicum summer season with free readings of two new plays. Both Stop-Motion by Liz Kerin (on Sunday, Aug. 20) and The Orange Garden by Joanna Garner (on Sunday, Aug. 27) explore how choices compelled by extraordinary circumstances can lead us into unknown territory. Admission is free.
North Coast Repertory Theatre closes Season 35 with the San Diego premiere of AT THIS EVENING'S PERFORMANCE, an uproarious comedy about a bohemian theatre troupe appearing in an Eastern European police state.
This swashbuckling romp abounds with comedy, danger, and romance. Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival's production of Ken Ludwig's The Three Musketeers previews July 12 and 13, opens July 14, and continues through August 6 in repertory with Shakespeare's As You Like It at the Labuda Center for the Performing Arts on the campus of DeSales University.
Lincoln Center Theater has announced that Ito Aghayere, Phillip James Brannon, Tony Carlin, Caroline Hewitt, Rick Holmes, Ted Koch, Teresa Avia Lim, Danny Mastrogiorgio, Nate Miller, Ethan Phillips, Matthew Rauch, Matthew Saldivar, Michael Siberry, Miriam Silverman, Joey Slotnick, and Henry Stram will join Steven Pasquale to comprise the cast of its upcoming production of Junk, a new play by Ayad Akhtar, directed by Doug Hughes.
Pittsburgh CLO will produce Disney's NEWSIES for the first time, July 18-23 at the Benedum Center. Inspired by the Newsboy Strike of 1899 and based on the cult-hit Disney film, NEWSIES tells a tale of strife and triumph with Tony Award-winning music, daring choreography and a touch of New York City grit.
Cleveland Public Theatre (CPT) is proud to announce that Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for theatre, welcomes Raymond Bobgan, CPT Executive Artistic Director to its prestigious board of directors. Raymond joins five other new members from around the country including Will Davis, artistic director, American Theatre Company, Chicago, IL; Jamie Herlich, director of development, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Seattle, WA; Benita Hofstetter Koman, executive director, The Roy Cockrum Foundation, Reedville, VA; Johamy Morales, education director, Creede Repertory Theatre, Creede, CO; and Randy Reyes, artistic director, Mu Performing Arts, St. Paul, MN.
National New Play Network, the country's alliance of nonprofit theaters that champions the development, production, and continued life of new plays, will co-present the 12th annual MFA Playwright's Workshop (MFAPW) in association with the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival and Stanford University's National Center for New Plays.
Director Robin Lynn Smith and a seasoned company including Seattle theatre veterans Reginald Andre Jacskon (Hamlet), Mary Ewald (Gertrude), Sunam Ellis (Horatio), Shawn Belyea (Claudius) and Peter Dylan O'Connor (Laertes) brings HAMLET to stirring life with live music composted by Kultur Shock member Srdjan "Gino" Yevdjevich and movement by Butoh dancer Vanessa Skantze.
Juilliard Drama, celebrating its 50th anniversary, announces its 2017-18 season of fully staged productions featuring Juilliard's Group 47 acting students in their fourth and final year in the drama program.
Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for theatre, welcomes six new members to its board of directors: Raymond Bobgan, executive artistic director, Cleveland Public Theatre, Cleveland, OH; Will Davis, artistic director, American Theatre Company, Chicago, IL; Jamie Herlich, director of development, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Seattle, WA; Benita Hofstetter Koman, executive director, The Roy Cockrum Foundation, Knoxville, TN; Johamy Morales, education director, Creede Repertory Theatre, Creede, CO; and Randy Reyes, artistic director, Mu Performing Arts, St. Paul, MN.
California Shakespeare Theater continues its 43rd Season with the West Coast premiere of black odyssey, a thrilling and music-infused new play that mashes up Greek mythology and African-American folklore. black odyssey marks the Cal Shakes debut of Oakland native Marcus Gardley (The House That Will Not Stand at Berkeley Rep), and is only the second production ever of the play, which is being re-set in Oakland for Cal Shakes. Directed by Cal Shakes Artistic Director Eric Ting, fresh from directing Berkeley Rep's smash hit An Octoroon, the production will also feature vocal compositions by Linda Tillery and Molly Holm.
Gloucester Stage Company continues its 38th season of professional theater on Cape Ann with N. Richard Nash's moving American classic The Rainmaker from July 14 through August 5 at 267 East Main Street, Gloucester, MA. Set in the time of a paralyzing drought in Depression-era America, The Rainmaker tells the story of a pivotal hot summer day in the life of spinsterish Lizzie Curry, whose father and two brothers are worried as much about her marriage prospects as they are about their dying cattle. Enter Starbuck, the consummate con man, who promises to solve all their problems, for a fee. Directed by Gloucester Stage Artistic Director Robert Walsh, The Rainmaker cast features Brian Homer as Starbuck; Jessica Bates as Lizzie Curry; David DeBeck as H.C. Curry, the patriarch of the Curry family; Joe Short and Sean McCoy as the Curry brothers; Dave Rich as File and longtime Gordon College Professor of Theater Arts Norm Jones as Sheriff Thomas. N. Richard Nash's most celebrated play, The Rainmaker, appeared in all three mediums; on Broadway in 1954, as a motion picture starring Katharine Hepburn in 1956, and as a television production in 1982. A musical version of The Rainmaker, entitled 110 Degrees in the Shade, debuted on Broadway in 1963.