Seattle Repertory Theatre News

The Road Theatre Company and Taylor Gilbert, Founder/Artistic Director, together with Sam Anderson, Artistic Director, present the second show of its 2017-2018 season, the west coast premiere of A DELICATE SHIP, written by acclaimed playwright Anna Ziegler (Actually) and directed by Andre Barron (Edward Albee's The Play About the Baby).

Teatro ZinZanni today announced that prolific, award-winning actor Ron Campbell will make a brazen return to the velvet-laden spiegeltent to join the cast of Love, Chaos, and Dinner beginning January 21, 2018. Ron - aka Cecil B. DeGrille - replaces director and performer Joe De Paul - aka Ricky - whose planned departure from this production ends in a final performance on January 20. Tickets are available for purchase at ZinZanni.com/Seattle or by calling the box office at (206) 802-0015.

The Seattle Rep, fortunately for all of us, has long held a special relationship with the works of August Wilson. They're one of the few theaters in the country to have done his entire Century Cycle sometimes premiering those plays as was the case with 'Two Trains Running' which they produced back in 1991 and have brought back to us this season. And as always, Wilson's plays still resonate and the Rep, this time in conjunction with Arena Stage, continues to present them with tons of honesty and heart.

Seattle's critics announce the Nominees of Excellence in Seattle theatrical productions. Spanning dozens of theater companies and productions, from large and prominent to small and humble, the Gypsy Rose Lee Awards honor the excellence found in as much professional theater as we reviewers can attend in a year. Named in honor of the famed theater entrepreneur and Seattle native, Gypsy Rose Lee, and in a nod to the vast numbers or theater practitioners forced to travel the country to earn their living, the Gypsys seek to acknowledge the excellence of the Seattle theater community.

Seattle Repertory Theatre today announced the full ensemble cast of its world premiere production of playwright David Grimm's clever comedy, Ibsen in Chicago. Under the direction of Artistic Director Braden Abraham, Ibsen In Chicago follows an unlikely ensemble of Scandinavian immigrants as they work to rehearse a controversial new play written by their fellow countryman Henrik Ibsen.

Seattle Repertory Theatre today announced the full ensemble cast of Two Trains Running, August Wilson's slice-of-life portrait of a defining moment in American history.

With great excitement, Seattle Repertory Theatre kicks off 2018 with its production of August Wilson's poetic masterpiece, Two Trains Running. A cast of seven-Eugene Lee (Memphis Lee), Nicole Lewis (Risa), William Hall Jr. (West), Carlton Byrd (Sterling), Reginald Andre Jackson (Wolf), David Emerson Toney (Holloway), and Frank Riley III (Hambone)-portray the denizens of a Pittsburgh diner who are all reckoning with a revolutionary time in history - the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.

Ordway Center for the Performing Arts will present a special one-night-only performance of Spectrum Dance Theater's A Rap on Race today, January 13 at 7:30pm in the Ordway Music Theater.

The Denver Center for the Performing Arts (DCPA) and Seattle Repertory Theatre are proud to announce full casting and creative team for the World Premiere production of The Great Leap, directed by Eric Ting.

The Old Globe today announced it will present the fifth annual Powers New Voices Festival, a weekend of readings of new American plays by professional playwrights, playing January 12 14, 2018. The festival will kick off today, January 12 at 7:30 p.m. with Voices of the Community: Celebrating Local Playwrights, an evening of work created by San Diego residents through the Globe's arts engagement initiatives Community Voices and coLAB, and will continue with four readings by some of the most exciting voices writing for the American theatre today. The new American play readings commence on Saturday, January 13 at 4:00 p.m. with Laurel Ollstein's They Promised Her the Moon, directed by Giovanna Sardelli (Somewhere, The Whipping Man at the Globe), followed at 7:30 p.m. by Too Heavy for Your Pocket by Jir h Breon Holder, directed by Patricia McGregor (Globe for All's Measure for Measure).The Festival continues on Sunday, January 14 at 3:00 p.m. with The Tale of Despereaux, with book, music, and lyrics by PigPen Theatre Co. (The Old Man and The Old Moon at the Globe), based on the novel by Kate DiCamillo and the Universal Pictures animated motion picture. The Festival will wrap up that evening at 7:30 p.m. with The Great Leap by Lauren Yee, directed by Delicia Turner Sonnenberg (Globe's Skeleton Crew).

Roundabout Theatre Company, in association with Staci Levine, has announced the Broadway return of beloved stage and screen star John Lithgow in John Lithgow: Stories by Heart, directed by Daniel Sullivan.

With great excitement, Seattle Repertory Theatre kicks off 2018 with its production of August Wilson's poetic masterpiece, Two Trains Running. A cast of seven-Eugene Lee (Memphis Lee), Nicole Lewis (Risa), William Hall Jr. (West), Carlton Byrd (Sterling),Reginald Andre Jackson (Wolf), David Emerson Toney (Holloway), and Frank Riley III(Hambone)-portray the denizens of a Pittsburgh diner who are all reckoning with a revolutionary time in history - the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s

Folger Theatre continues its 2017/18 season with The Way of the World, a new comedy freely adapted from the classic play by William Congreve. Written and directed by renowned author Theresa Rebeck (Mauritus and Seminar and Broadway; creator and head writer of TV's Smash), the production will star Tony Award nominee Kristine Nielsen (Present Laughter, You Can't Take It With You, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike on Broadway).

The New Group has announced full casting for the Off-Broadway premiere Jerry Springer The Opera with Jennifer Allen, Florrie Bagel, Brandon Contreras, Sean Patrick Doyle, Bradley Greer, Luke Grooms, Nathaniel Hackmann, Billy Hepfinger, Justin Keyes, Beth Kirkpatrick, Elizabeth Loyacano, Tiffany Mann, Jill Paice, Kim Steele and Nichole Turner joining, as previously announced, Terrence Mann and Will Swenson.

Snappy dialogue and quick wit crackle in this Pulitzer Prize-winning play that was called the closest thing the theatre offers to a duel at 10 paces by The New York Times. A collaboration between local Seattle theatre legends Jeff Steitzer (director), Kurt Beattie (Weller), andMarianne Owen (Fonsia), the story follows two strangers who enter into a seemingly harmless game of Gin Rummy. When one goes on an instant winning streak, tensions build within their friendship and the conversation starts to get personal.

Rehearsals begin today for The 5th Avenue Theatre's new production of Mamma Mia!, the celebrated musical that features the music of global pop sensation ABBA. The 5th Avenue Theatre is the first producing theater company in the Pacific Northwest to be granted the rights to create its own refreshed version of the show, which toured the world for nearly 20 years.

Berkeley Repertory Theatre today announced the full cast and creative team for Tony Kushner's Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes, Part One: Millennium Approaches and Part Two: Perestroika.

Dear Readers, it's been quite a year and, hopefully, we've come through it unscathed. God knows we've needed some shows to help us escape and others to make us think. But through it all we've had several shows that have proven to shine as some of the best of the year. Out of all the shows I was fortunate enough to see this year, I've selected a few that stood out. Here are those stand outs, a few honorable mentions and a few special mentions about which I just couldn't help myself but to mention in their own special way.

In the spring of 1996, director Tina Landau developed a new play by her longtime collaborator Charles L. Mee with students at the UW School of Drama. The play was Trojan Women: A Love Story, and it premiered in New York that same summer.

Village Theatre kicks off the second Season of the Beta Series with How to Break, a new musical with book & lyrics by Aaron Jafferis, song & lyrics by Rebecca Hart, and a beatbox score by Yako 440. How to Break will run at Village Theatre's First Stage Theatre in Issaquah from January 5-14, 2018.