Second Stage News

Lynn Nottage's world premiere comedy, BY THE WAY, MEET VERA STARK, already extended one week through May 29 at Second Stage Theatre, opens tonight, May 9. Directed by Jo Bonney, BY THE WAY, MEET VERA STARK is Ms. Nottage's first play to be produced in New York since she won the Pulitzer Prize for Ruined in 2009. For ticket information, please call the Second Stage Box Office at 212-246-4422 or visit the company's website, www.2ST.com.

Screen and stage actor, writer, and director Zach Braff will host the Huntington Theatre Company's 2011 Spotlight Spectacular! gala benefit on Monday, May 9, 2011 at the Westin Boston Waterfront Hotel. The event will honor Boston playwright Lydia R. Diamond and Trustee Bill McQuillan with The Wimberly Award, the Huntington's highest honor. The evening's entertainment will be announced shortly.

Megabytes and microbes collide in Itamar Moses' Completeness, a romantic comedy about the budding relationship between a pair of science geeks that will have its world premiere on the Argyros Stage April 17 through May 8.

Second Stage Theatre (Carole Rothman, Artistic Director) kicks off this summer's Second Stage Theatre Uptown Series with the world premiere of Sex Lives of Our Parents, written by Michael Mitnick. Directed by Davis McCallum, Sex Lives of Our Parents will feature Teddy Bergman (Peter and the Starcatcher), Lisa Emery (Far East), Daniel Jenkins (Mary Poppins), Virginia Kull (Dividing the Estate), Ben Rappaport (NBC's 'Outsourced') and Mark Zeisler (Second Stage Theatre's Eurydice). Previews begin on June 7th and opening night is Wednesday, June 22.

Second Stage Theatre (Carole Rothman, Artistic Director) kicks off this summer's Second Stage Theatre Uptown Series with the world premiere of Sex Lives of Our Parents, written by Michael Mitnick. Directed by Davis McCallum, Sex Lives of Our Parents will feature Teddy Bergmann (Peter and the Starcatcher), Lisa Emery (Far East), Daniel Jenkins (Mary Poppins), Virginia Kull (Dividing the Estate), Ben Rappaport (NBC's 'Outsourced') and Mark Zeisler (Second Stage Theatre's Eurydice). Previews begin on June 7th and opening night is Wednesday, June 22

Tony winner ALice Ripley has been absent from the Chicago engagment of the NEXT TO NORMAL tur thus far, because of a knee injury, according to the Chicago Tribune. A representative from Broadway in Chicago revealed that Ripley is expected to return to the show tonight, May 5.

Clubbed Thumb, the Obie Award-winning New York theatre company that commissions, develops and produces funny, strange, and provocative news plays, presents SUMMERWORKS 2011, its 16th annual festival of original works by American playwrights, from June 5-25 at HERE Arts Center (145 6th Avenue) in Manhattan, it has been announced by Maria Striar, Clubbed Thumb's Producing Artistic Director.

Clubbed Thumb, the Obie Award-winning New York theatre company that commissions, develops and produces funny, strange, and provocative news plays, presents SUMMERWORKS 2011, its 16th annual festival of original works by American playwrights, from June 5-25 at HERE Arts Center (145 6th Avenue) in Manhattan, it has been announced by Maria Striar, Clubbed Thumb's Producing Artistic Director.

The Philadelphia premiere of the smash hit Broadway musical and Tony and Pulitzer Prize-Winning Next to Normal opens at the Academy of Music for a limited engagement June 21 - 26 , 2011 as part of the Broadway Season.

New York City's Ground UP Productions and The Summit Playhouse of Summit, NJ announce a thrilling, first-time-ever endeavor this Spring in The Garden State! After much planning, Summit Playhouse is graciously welcoming Ground UP and will host Ground UP's production of The Importance of Being Earnest, from May 20 to June 5, 2011.(Opening night: Saturday, May 21 at 8pm)

Passage Theatre, Trenton's only professional theater company, is pleased to announce the New Jersey premiere of Mat Smart's two-person drama Samuel J. and K., a play which traces the complex bond between two brothers as they travel to the homeland of the younger.

Executive Producer Lou Spisto today announced that The Old Globe will produce the World Premieres of four new plays and musicals in its 2011-12 Winter Season. The season will feature the World Premiere musicals Some Lovers by music legend Burt Bacharach and Tony Award winner Steven Sater and Nobody Loves You by Gaby Alter and Itamar Moses, as well as the West Coast Premiere of John Kander and Fred Ebb's The Scottsboro Boys, recently nominated for 12 Tony Awards including Best Musical, directed and choreographed by five-time Tony Award winner Susan Stroman. The two plays receiving World Premiere productions are Somewhere by Globe Playwright-in-Residence Matthew Lopez and The Recommendation by Jonathan Caren. The new season also includes revivals of Richard O'Brien's The Rocky Horror Show and the Eugene O'Neill classic Anna Christie directed by Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner David Auburn. Special events include the World Premiere of Odyssey by Todd Almond, a music theater event conceived and directed by Lear deBessonet celebrating the Globe's 75th Anniversary, The Old Globe/University of San Diego Graduate Theatre Program production of Twelfth Night and Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, which returns for its 14th consecutive year.

Nominations in 26 competitive categories for the American Theatre Wing's 65th Annual Antoinette Perry 'Tony' Awards were announced May 3, 2011 by Tony Award winning actor Matthew Broderick and Tony Award winning actress Anika Noni Rose, at the Tony Award Nominations Announcement sponsored by IBM.

Nominations in 26 competitive categories for the American Theatre Wing's 65th Annual Antoinette Perry 'Tony' Awards were announced May 3, 2011 by Tony Award winning actor Matthew Broderick and Tony Award winning actress Anika Noni Rose, at the Tony Award Nominations Announcement sponsored by IBM.

Nominations in 26 competitive categories for the American Theatre Wing's 65th Annual Antoinette Perry 'Tony' Awards were announced May 3, 2011 by Tony Award winning actor Matthew Broderick and Tony Award winning actress Anika Noni Rose, at the Tony Award Nominations Announcement sponsored by IBM.

Nominations in 26 competitive categories for the American Theatre Wing's 65th Annual Antoinette Perry 'Tony' Awards were announced May 3, 2011 by Tony Award winning actor Matthew Broderick and Tony Award winning actress Anika Noni Rose, at the Tony Award Nominations Announcement sponsored by IBM.

Nominations in 26 competitive categories for the American Theatre Wing's 65th Annual Antoinette Perry 'Tony' Awards were announced May 3, 2011 by Tony Award winning actor Matthew Broderick and Tony Award winning actress Anika Noni Rose, at the Tony Award Nominations Announcement sponsored by IBM.

Immediately after the Broadway opening of his play Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, named a Pulitzer Prize finalist last year, Alley Company Artist Rajiv Joseph returns to the Alley with the world premiere of his latest play, The Monster at the Door.

Pine Box Theatre returns from a three-year hiatus with the world premiere of A GIRL WITH SUN IN HER EYES by Chicago writer Joshua Rollins, directed by Matt Miller and featuring Pine Box Company members Audrey Francis & Vince Teninty, acclaimed Chicago actress Karen Aldridge, newcomers Sean Parris & Lucy Sandy and Steppenwolf ensemble member James Vincent Meredith.

New York City's Ground UP Productions and The Summit Playhouse of Summit, NJ announce a thrilling, first-time-ever endeavor this Spring in The Garden State! After much planning, Summit Playhouse is graciously welcoming Ground UP and will host Ground UP's production of The Importance of Being Earnest, from May 20 to June 5, 2011.(Opening night: Saturday, May 21 at 8pm)