Second Stage News

The Astoria Performing Arts Center (APAC), 2011 IT Award Nominee for last season's The Human Comedy, announces their 11th Season featuring Ashlin Halfnight's A Hard Wall at High Speed and the musical The Secret Garden. Reflecting on the past ten years and with an eagerness for the upcoming year, Artistic Director Tom Wojtunik says, 'I am thrilled that in our 11th Season APAC will be producing primarily new work, as we begin to move away from our acclaimed revival productions into an arena of premieres and workshops.'

Classic drama returns to Hartford Stage this season, beginning with Arthur Miller's Tony Award-winning play The Crucible.

The Astoria Performing Arts Center (APAC), 2011 IT Award Nominee for last season?s The Human Comedy, announces their 11th Season featuring Ashlin Halfnight?s A Hard Wall at High Speed and the musical The Secret Garden.

Atlantic Theater Company (Neil Pepe, Artistic Director; Jeffory Lawson, Managing Director) is proud to announce that Betsy Aidem, Quincy Tyler Bernstine, Reed Birney, Christine Lahti, Shane McRae, Cotter Smith, and Katherine Waterston will star in the world premiere of Adam Rapp's DREAMS OF FLYING DREAMS OF FALLING, directed by Neil Pepe.

Off-Broadway's The New Group proudly announces that Lily Rabe will star in the company's world premiere of David Rabe's An Early History of Fire. Directed by Jo Bonney, this production opens in April 2012 at The New Group @ Theatre Row as part of the company's 2011-2012 Season.

Barrington Stage Company, the award-winning theatre in Downtown Pittsfield, MA, under the leadership Artistic Director Julianne Boyd and Managing Director Tristan Wilson, is proud to present the Berkshire County premiere of My Name Is Asher Lev, based on the acclaimed novel by Chaim Potok.

A.R.T. American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) will present The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess, opening the A.R.T.'s 2011-2 season tonight, August 17 at the Loeb Drama Center. The Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, by George Gershwin, DuBose and Dorothy Heyward, and Ira Gershwin, is adapted by Suzan-Lori Parks and Diedre Murray, and directed by A.R.T. Artistic Director Diane Paulus. Check out the first production shots below!

A.R.T. American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) will present The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess, opening the A.R.T.'s 2011-2 season on August 117 at the Loeb Drama Center. The Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, by George Gershwin, DuBose and Dorothy Heyward, and Ira Gershwin, is adapted by Suzan-Lori Parks and Diedre Murray, and directed by A.R.T. Artistic Director Diane Paulus.

Midwest New Musicals kicks off Words and Music, its new concert reading series of original musicals beginning Monday, October 24 at 7:30 PM at the Light Opera Works Second Stage, 1420 Maple (at Lake) in Evanston. Tickets are $15 at the door.

Stage and screen star Rosemarie Dewitt has joined the cast of FOX's 'Neighborhood Watch,' according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Actress Emily Bergl will open the fall season of the Oak Room at the historic Algonquin Hotel with her cabaret, 'Kidding on the Square.'

Second Stage Theatre (Carole Rothman, Artistic Director) announced today the establishment of The Donna Perret Rosen Award, an annual cash prize to be awarded to a promising composer/lyricist. The $10,000 award was established at the off-Broadway company's annual gala to honor Second Stage Theatre trustee Donna Perret Rosen in recognition of her long-standing commitment to young artists and new works. The award will be chosen by Tony Award-winners James Lapine, Susan Stroman, and Jack Viertel. The first 'Donna Award' will be awarded in 2012.

Producers Jeffrey Finn, Jill Furman and Smuggler Films announced today that Tony Award nominee and two-time Drama Desk Award nominee Lily Rabe (The Merchant of Venice, Steel Magnolias, this summer's lauded A Doll's House at Williamstown) and Obie Award winner and Drama Desk nominee Hamish Linklater (The School for Lies, Twelfth Night, 'The New Adventures of Old Christine') have joined two-time Tony Award nominee, Emmy Award and Golden Globe winner Alan Rickman (Private Lives, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, the Harry Potter franchise) in the World Premiere of SEMINAR, a new play by Pulitzer Prize finalist and Peabody Award winner Theresa Rebeck (Mauritius, The Understudy, Omnium Gatherum, The Family of Mann, Spike Heels, NBC's upcoming 'Smash').

Second Stage Theatre continues its Uptown Series with the world premiere of The Talls, written by Anna Kerrigan and directed by Carolyn Cantor. Ms. Kerrigan's film Five Days Gone recently premiered at the Brooklyn Film Festival. The Talls will feature Gerard Canonico (Spring Awakening), Timothee Chalamet (Burning Blue), Shannon Esper (Cherry Orchard), Lauren Holmes, Michael Oberholtzer (Incident at Vichy & Raft of The Medusa), Peter Rini (Proposals) and Christa Scott-Reed (The Pitman Painters). Opening night is Monday, August 15th.

For Maria Baratta, growing up a first-generation American in an Italian household required a delicate balancing act, as she explains in her one-woman show, Vignettes of an I-talian American Girl.

At Play presents the U.S. premiere of HERMAN KLINE'S MIDLIFE CRISIS - a new play by Josh Koenigsberg, whose play 'Al's Business Cards' was called 'a zippy new comedy' when it debuted in 2009 -- with previews starting August 7th prior to its official press opening on August 14th at Theatre Row's Beckett Theatre (410 West 42nd Street) in Manhattan. HERMAN KLINE'S MIDLIFE CRISIS is produced by Kelcie Beene and Anthony Francavilla.

Beyond Theatre Ensemble in partnership with Face Off Unlimited and The Secret Theatre presents The Two Gentlemen of Verona, closing August 13, 2011 at The Secret Theatre, LIC

FLY BY NIGHT closes August 13, 2011 at TheatreWorks at the Lucie Stern Theatre in Palo Alto.

Dallas Theater Center launches its 2011-2012 season with Shakespeare's beloved final play, The Tempest, at the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre at the AT&T Performing Arts Center Sept. 9 - Oct. 9.