Second Stage News

Tickets are now on sale for Desert Ensemble Theatre Company's production of Election Day, an off-Broadway hit by Josh Tobiessen. Desert Theatre League Award winner Rosemary Mallett directs this farcical take on contemporary politics, described by The New York Times as An outrageous comedy...at double-espresso speed.

Ars Nova one of the most adventurous Off-Broadway companies (New York Times), piece by piece productions and Z Space present the world premiere of The Lucky Ones, a new musical by The Bengsons and Sarah Gancher (Hundred Days), commissioned and developed by Ars Nova.

Redtwist Theatre presents the National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere** Surely Goodness and Mercy by Chisa Hutchinson, directed by Wardell Julius Clark. The show opens Saturday, February 17, 2018, at 3pm and runs Thu, Fri, Sat at 7:30pm; Sun at 3pm, through Sun, March 18.

Producer Declan Riley Kunkel has announced that Next To Normal, the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning musical, is returning to New Haven, Connecticut in January.

Following an extensive nationwide search,American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) Board of Trustees and Executive Director Peter Pastreich today named Tony, OBIE, and Drama Desk Award winner Pam MacKinnon the new artistic director of San Francisco's premier nonprofit theater organization. MacKinnon succeeds Carey Perloff who will depart from American Conservatory Theater at the end of the 2017-18 season after 25 years at the helm. MacKinnon will begin planning the 2018-19 season alongside Perloff effective immediately. In addition, she will begin partnering with the leaders of A.C.T.'s world-class actor training programs and ever-expanding community programs, ensuring A.C.T. continues its role as the Bay Area's leading theater arts educational organization.

Paper Mill Playhouse (Mark S. Hoebee-Producing Artistic Director, Todd Schmidt-Managing Director), recipient of the 2016 Regional Theatre Tony Award, presents the East Coast premiere of the new play The Outsider by Paul Slade Smith, directed by David Esbjornson (Driving Miss Daisy). Performances begin TOMORROW, Wednesday, January 24, 2018, at 7:30 p.m., for a limited run through Sunday, February 18, 2018, at Paper Mill Playhouse (22 Brookside Drive) in Millburn, NJ. Opening Night is Sunday evening, January 28, 2018, at 7:00 p.m.

Producers Darlene Kaplan, Laura Janik Cronin and Scott J. Newsome, have announced, today, the cast and creative team for the Off-Broadway premiere of The Stone Witch, a play by Shem Bitterman (A Death in Colombia, Influence). Performances begin Monday, March 12, 2018 for an open-ended engagement at The Westside Theatre - Upstairs (407 West 43rd Street between 9th and 10th Avenues). Opening Night is set for Sunday evening, March 25, 2018 at 6:30PM.

The Ad Council has joined with actor and producer David Schwimmer, writer and director Sigal Avin, the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN) and the National Women's Law Center (NWLC) to launch '#ThatsHarassment,' a national campaign to empower victims and bystanders to speak out and provide tools for employers to create a safe work environment.

Theatre for a New Audience (TFANA; Jeffrey Horowitz, Founding Artistic Director) announces a free post-performance discussion moderated by Pulitzer Prize-winning theatre critic and Negroland: A Memoir author Margo Jefferson in connection with TFANA's world premiere production of Adrienne Kennedy's He Brought Her Heart Back in a Box. The talk, which begins at 8.30 PM is open to all and features director Charlotte Braithwaite and playwrights Lydia Diamond and Jackie Sibblies Drury, follows the January 20 performance of Kennedy's first new play in a decade, which begins at 7:30 that evening, at Polonsky Shakespeare Center (262 Ashland Place, Brooklyn, NY 11217). The discussion will also be streamed live on Theatre for a New Audience's Facebook page. He Brought Her Heart Back in a Box runs January 18-February 11. To reserve a seat to this panel, visit www.tfana.org/heartpanel.

Soho Rep. (Sarah Benson, Artistic Director; Cynthia Flowers, Executive Director) today announces the complete cast and creative team for the world premiere of Aleshea Harris's Relentless Award-winning Is God Is, directed by Taibi Magar (Ars Nova's Underground Railroad Game), February 6 - March 11, 2018. The play, with which Soho Rep. reopens its longtime Tribeca theater, dauntlessly cracks jokes as it eviscerates. Alfie Fuller and Dame-Jasmine Hughes play Anaia and Racine, twin sisters who undertake a murderous journey from the Dirty South to the California desert, seeking payback for a horrendous act. Is God Is treats both morality and genre as notions to be exploded, drawing on the ancient, the modern, the tragic, the Spaghetti Western, hip-hop and Afropunk in its subversion of theatrical constructs.

Producer Declan Riley Kunkel has announced that Next To Normal, the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning musical, is returning to New Haven, Connecticut in January.

Lynne Meadow (Artistic Director) and Barry Grove (Executive Producer) have announced a post-performance Beyond the Stage talkback series for Manhattan Theatre Club's New York premiere of the American Repertory Theater production of In the Body of the World, written and performed by Tony Award winner Eve Ensler and directed by Tony Award winner Diane Paulus.

The Marsh San Francisco announces a new solo show by Jill Vice, A Fatal Step. Turning the tables on film noir tropes, Vice's 60-minute dramedy tells its shadowy tale not from the typical point of view of the hardboiled detective, but from that of the femme fatale.

ANNE OF GREEN GABLES opens at Artisan Center Theater today, January 18, 2018 and runs through Saturday, February 3, 2018. The 150 seat Second Stage theater is located at 444 East Pipeline Road in Hurst. Performances are at 7:00pm todays and Fridays and 3:30pm on Saturdays. Reserved seating tickets are $22.00 for adults and $12.00 for children 12 and under. Tickets can be purchased online at ArtisanCT.com, or by calling the box office at 817-284-1200.

The Huntington Theatre Company's 2018 Breaking Ground festival of new plays will be held February 9 11, 2018 at the Huntington's home for new work, the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA. The festival is a vital part of the Huntington's new play development efforts and highlights the work of locally-based Huntington Playwriting Fellows and national writers in partnership with the Huntington. Over the last decade, Breaking Ground plays have gone on to appear at the Huntington as well as theatres in Boston, across the country, and internationally.

Theatre for a New Audience (TFANA; Jeffrey Horowitz, Founding Artistic Director) announces a free post-performance discussion moderated by Pulitzer Prize-winning theatre critic and Negroland: A Memoir author Margo Jefferson in connection with TFANA's world premiere production of Adrienne Kennedy's He Brought Her Heart Back in a Box. The talk, which begins at 8.30 PM is open to all and features director Charlotte Braithwaite and playwrights Lydia Diamond and Jackie Sibblies Drury, follows the January 20 performance of Kennedy's first new play in a decade, which begins at 7:30 that evening, at Polonsky Shakespeare Center (262 Ashland Place, Brooklyn, NY 11217). The discussion will also be streamed live on Theatre for a New Audience's Facebook page. He Brought Her Heart Back in a Box runs January 18-February 11. To reserve a seat to this panel, visit www.tfana.org/heartpanel.

The Theatre Arts Department of the University of Miami, Stephen DI Benedetto, Chairman, and Michael Bush, Artistic Director of the University's Jerry Herman Ring Theatre, announce a developmental reading of the new musical Devotion, book, music and lyrics by Mark Sonnenblick, directed by Maggie Burrows, featuring students from the University's BFA musical theatre program. This reading has been made possible by a grant for the development of new musical works by the Johnny Mercer Foundation. The reading rehearsals start January 20, 2018 with a free public presentation on January 25, 2018.

Classic Stage Company, under the leadership of Artistic Director John Doyle and Executive Producer Jeff Griffin, will present the world premiere of Fire and Air, a new play by Tony Award winner Terrence McNally, directed by John Doyle, beginning performances tonight, January 17 at CSC (136 East 13th Street) for a limited engagement through Sunday, February 25. Opening night is Thursday, February 1.

This February, The Human Race Theatre Company (HRTC) is heating up the Loft Theatre with the hottest play in the country, Sex with Strangers. Failed novelist Olivia meets Ethan, a celebrated (and much younger) writer made famous by his sexcapade tell-all blog, at a snowbound bed and breakfast, and their mutual attraction quickly gets hot and heavy. As a weekend tryst develops into a long-term romance, their personal and professional lives collide. Ethan seeks legitimacy, dismissing his bad boy reputation as nothing more than an invented character. Olivia has her doubts, but craves the literary fame Ethan can offer her. Ambition, identity and trust are in play when online personals clash with real world expectations in this smart, steamy take on modern love.

Aurora Theatre Company presents the West End hit A NUMBER by influential British playwright Caryl Churchill with Barbara Damashek to direct. Set in the near future, the play explores human cloning, personal identity and the age-old debate of nature versus nurture.