Shakespeare & Company News

On last night's Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Glenda Jackson, currently starring in Three Tall Women on Broadway, recounted her decision to move from critically-acclaimed actress to a Member of Parliament. Watch the clip and hear what she had to say below!

Eugene O'Neill's Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece Long Day's Journey Into Night  comes to the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts for a limited three-week engagement from Friday, June 8 through Sunday, July 1. Richard Eyre's acclaimed Bristol Old Vic production stars Academy Award winner Jeremy Irons(Brideshead Revisited, Reversal of Fortune,  'The Borgias') and Olivier Award winner and Oscar nominee Lesley Manville(Another Year,  'Harlots,' Phantom Thread). Matthew Beard (The Imitation Game, The Riot Club), Rory Keenan (BBC's 'War & Peace,' 'Peaky Blinders') and Jessica Regan (reprising the role as Cathleen from the 2016 Bristol Old Vic production) round out the ensemble cast.  

Jump For Joy! The Off-Broadway cast recording of the New York premiere production of the new musical Unexpected Joy, with book and lyrics by Bill Russell (Side Show) and music by Janet Hood (Elegies for Angels, Punks, and Raging Queens with Bill Russell), will be recorded and released by JAY Records. Produced by John Yap, the recording will feature the original cast of The York Theatre Company production who will gather at Sear Sound Studios (353 West 48th Street) on Monday, May 14, 2018 to lay down the tracks for the recording.

Milwaukee Repertory Theater presents the World Premiere production of Lost Girl by Kimberly Belflower performed by the 2017/18 Professional Training Institute (PTI) ensemble this July 19-22, 2018 in the Stiemke Studio.  PTI is an advanced actor-training program for students in 8th-12th grade who may have an interest in pursuing a career as a professional theater artist.   The 2017/18 PTI ensemble features sixteen students hailing from fourteen different high schools who received free training from some of the top theater professionals in the world, culminating in this capstone performance  of Lost Girl where they will be employed as paid, professional actors.

The Broadway Education Alliance just announced that The Roger Rees Awards for Excellence in Student Performance will be held on Saturday, May 19 at Pearl Studios in Manhattan. This program is open to high schools located in Brooklyn, the Bronx, Manhattan, Queens, Staten Island, Long Island, Orange and Rockland Counties, and Westchester. To be eligible, high schools must present an officially licensed production of a Broadway musical during the 2017- 2018 academic year. The Roger Rees Awards has accepted 29 schools, whose students will compete for the title of Best Actor and Best Actress. Winners of the Roger Rees Award will represent the Greater New York region at The Broadway League Foundation's Jimmy® Awards (also known as the National High School Musical Theatre Awards) in June.

Director, choreographer, writer and performer Mitch Sebastian returns to the Bridewell Theatre this Thursday (17 May 2018), 20 years after he directed Pippin at the venue, to see a new production of the show and answer the audience's questions.

Central Works 2018 season of new plays leaps into the spring with the world premiere of Palace Wreckers, Inc, written and directed by Gary Graves, opening with a press night today, May 12, and running through June 10  (previews May 10 & 11) in architect Julia Morgan's historic Berkeley City Club. This Central Works Method play is a 'revenge comedy' - based on a Greek tragedy, turned into a contemporary comedy. The Central Works Method brings together writer, actors and director at the very outset of the playwriting process. In a supportive workshop environment, group research and collective brainstorming contribute to the entire development of the script.

Edward Albee's Three Tall Women will play a special Midnight Performance as a benefit for The Actors Fund. The production, directed by Joe Mantello, opened on Broadway on March 29 to ecstatic reviews. Last week, Mantello's production of The Boys in the Band started previews on Broadway. To celebrate their director and the vital work of The Actors Fund, the entire cast of The Boys in the Band will host the Midnight Performance of Three Tall Women,

Today Underbelly announces a further 82 shows, providing a final dazzling flurry to complete it's 2018 Fringe programme, the most ambitious in the company's 19th year run. Featuring a mix of death-defying circus, contagious music and dance with critically acclaimed theatre makers and unforgettable comedy, this year's programme has something for people of all ages, predispositions and predilections to enjoy.

In 1968, playwright David Edgar was 20 years old. It was also the year of some of the most important and formative events in modern history, including the Paris student revolt, the assassination of Martin Luther King, Enoch Powell's "rivers of blood" speech, and the ongoing war in Vietnam. Trying It On is a new play written and performed by David Edgar, which reflects on the legacy of this momentous year, drawing on first-person interviews with some of the leading political figures of the time, as well as contemporary activists. The performance also marks David's first professional stage performance in this contemplative one-man play.

Artemisia launches its 2018-19 Theatre Season with six ground breaking and all-new feminist plays featured in Fall Festival 2018. This year's playwrights were chosen after a dedicated search by Artemisia's Artistic Staff and their remarkable new works are not to be missed! Each play is staged only once by Chicago's excellent pool of talent. From this unique lineup, one play will be chosen by Artistic Director, Julie Proudfoot, whose dedicated development process with the playwright will be shared directly with Artemisia's audience and lead to the play's exciting premiere production in Chicago. This year's festival follows diverse and fascinating female characters, all on a journey of empowerment.

The selection committee for the inaugural session of The 5th Avenue Theatre's new musical initiative, First Draft: Raise Your Voice, has been announced. This cycle is currently soliciting submissions nation-wide from womxn, gender non-conforming and non-binary folx with a submission deadline of June 15. Comprised of a team of outstanding womxn, the selection committee includes performers, producers, directors, playwrights and thought leaders in the Seattle theater landscape: Desdamona Chiang, Lauren DuPree, Keiko Green, Allison Narver, and Sarah Porkalob, lead by The 5th's Kelsey Thorgalsen and Bill Berry.

PlayGround's Festival of New Works 2018 festival continues with the premiere of the full-length play SCAPEGOAT by William Bivins opening with a press night on May 23, running through June 17 (previews May 21 & 22), a co-production with Lorraine Hansberry Theatre.

Main Street Theater (MST) announces its 43rd Season which includes eight productions on the MainStage and seven at its Theater for Youth for 2018-2019.

Strawdog Theatre Company is proud to announce the cast and creative team for the final production in the 2017 - 2018 season, Bennett Fisher's Damascus directed by Cody Estle, May 11 - June 23, at Strawdog Theatre, 1802 W. Berenice Ave.

She Loves Me is currently running at Village Players of Birmingham to close out their 95thseason. The romantic musical comedy with book by Joe Masteroff, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and music by Jerry Bock will play for two more weekends - ending May 20th. The Tony award-winning show premiered on Broadway in 1963 and has had award-winning revivals in 1993, 2000, and 2016. BroadwayWorld Detroit had a quick chance to speak with one of the performers of Village Players' production, Joshua Whitson, about his role and how he feels about She Loves Me - "a classic tale that will keep the audience laughing and smiling throughout!"

After last year's (2017) sold-out run, and the most successful show in the 40 year history of Theatre Rhinoceros, we are thrilled to be presenting - BY POPULAR DEMAND - an encore production for 2017/2018 Season of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert - The Musical. Priscilla has a book by Australian film director/writer Stephan Elliott and Allan Scott, using well-known pop songs as its score. Adapted from Elliott's 1994 Oscar-winning film The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, the musical is the heart-warming, uplifting adventure of three friends who hop aboard a battered old bus searching for love and friendship and end up finding more than they could have ever dreamed of. With a dazzling array of over-the-top costumes, extraordinary headdresses, A FULL SIZE BUS - ON STAGE, and a hit parade of dance floor favorites, this wildly fresh and funny musical is a journey to the heart of FABULOUS.

Theatre for a New Audience (TFANA; Jeffrey Horowitz, Founding Artistic Director), an award-winning company presenting Shakespeare alongside other classic and contemporary drama at Polonsky Shakespeare Center, Downtown Brooklyn, is pleased to announce its 2018-19 season-the 39th since its founding in 1979.

Dry Room is a cross-disciplinary piece about childhood trauma, friendship, and redemption. Following its successful premiere at the World Stage Design Quadrennial 2017, the show will give its UK premiere at the Brighton Fringe.

After a successful inaugural year in 2017, EXIT Theatre brings a treasure trove of storytellers together to Talk Story. As an art form and a means of communication, storytelling is one of our deepest-rooted instincts, and thanks to the phenomenal successes of series such as Porchlight, Bawdy, and The Moth, it's enjoying a renaissance in the Bay Area and across the country. Join us in June as we present a diverse slate of stories, spoken straight from the heart.