Shakespeare & Company News

The National New Play Network (NNPN), the country's alliance of non-profit theaters that champions the development, production, and continued life of new plays, in collaboration with the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival and Stanford University's National Center for New Plays, will host nearly fifty playwrights, directors and dramaturgs July 26 - August 3, 2014 as part of a week-long workshop for new works by MFA students from New York University-Tisch School of the Arts, Hunter College, University of California-San Diego, and the Juilliard School. A committee of NNPN Core Members has selected six scripts written by Hilary Bettis, Nathan Cann, Bennett Fisher, David Jacobi, Georgette Kelly, and Amy Witting. The Workshop will also feature projects by the National Theatre School of Canada's Geoffrey Simon Brown and Atlanta's Alliance Theatre's Kendeda Graduate Playwriting Prize-winner Tsehaye Geralyn Hebert.

Andrew Carlberg, in association with Ride on Theatre, presents an immersive, all new theatrical experience, The Blind Date Project, created by Bojana Novakovic and Mark Winter and directed by Scott Rodgers (in rotation with Tanya Goldberg and Mark Winter). Coming straight from sell out seasons around Australia, The Blind Date Project will open on Wednesday, May 28 at 8pm and be an ongoing Wednesday night event at the Three Clubs 1123 N. Vine St. (at Santa Monica Blvd.) in Hollywood.

Shrunken Shakespeare Company and Pulp Variety Streamcast members starred in new authorized adaptation of IDW's Graphic Novel Kill Shakespeare on Sunday, May 11 at The Kraine Theater. Cast members included Yvonne Cone (Shakespeare & Co, SSC, TBG), Jennifer Martina (SSC, PVS), Sam Parrott (Shakespeare & Co, SSC), Michael Moreno (Shakespeare Forum: Merchant of Venice; Shakespeare & Co.: All's Well...), Sketkh Williams (PVS), Robert Davenport (SSC, UCB), Eric Chase (One Life to Live, SSC, PVS), Amanda Baumler (SSC, PVS), Matt Golden (PVS), Equiano Mosieri (Shakespeare & Co: Romeo and Juliet; Berkshire Theatre Fest), Richard Templeton (PVS), and Adam Luke (PVS).

During the summer month weekends, the Royal Shakespeare Company's outdoor theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, The Dell, will play host to a range of lively student, community and semi-professional productions. Performances kick off on Saturday 7 June, and continue until Sunday 31 August.

Tonight at the Royal Shakespeare Company's Stratford-upon-Avon home, the RSC's Henry IV Part I will be filmed for "Live from Stratford-upon-Avon," the RSC program that screens the world's greatest classical theatre company from Shakespeare's home town around the world through a continued partnership with Picturehouse Entertainment. It will be seen in US cinemas from June 3 - July 3, and will be seen in 315 UK cinemas live tonight, with further screenings there tomorrow.

Casting for Shakespeare & Company's upcoming Summer Performance Season was finalized last week which includes a roster of audience favorites, critics' top picks and a bevy of newcomers joining the Company's ranks in this celebratory season in honor of the 450th anniversary of Shakespeare's birth. See play titles, casting, Press Openings and full schedules for each production listed below.

Dark & Stormy Productions presents the regional premiere of the Outer Critics Award-nominated play The Drunken City by Adam Bock. Previously, Dark & Stormy presented Outside Providence by Edward Allan Baker, Speed-the-Plow by David Mamet, and The Receptionist by Adam Bock.

Lookingglass Theatre Company announces an extension of In the Garden: A Darwinian Love Story, the World-Premiere production by Artistic Associate Sara Gmitter and directed by Jessica Thebus. The show now runs through Sunday, June 29, 2014. The two-week extension goes on sale to the public on Thursday, May 15, 2014. In the Garden runs at Lookingglass Theatre Company, located inside Chicago's historic Water Tower Water Works, 821 N. Michigan Ave. at Pearson.

As I approach an anniversary of sorts in the creation of Tennessee Shakespeare Company eight years ago from Massachusetts, I found myself this month getting asked by a number of new audience members during our recent production of The Taming of the Shrew (which I will write about later) how the company was forged.

GAME OF THRONES actor Owen Teale will star in director Terry Hands' new production of UNDER MILK WOOD at Birmingham Repertory Theatre from June 2 to 7. The production marks the centenary of Dylan Thomas' birth, as well as the 60th anniversary since UNDER MILK WOOD was first produced in Britain, as a radio play by the BBC, in 1954. A cast of Welsh actors also includes TORCHWOOD actor Kai Owen and Steven Meo (THE FABULOUS BAKER BOYS).

New Repertory Theatre proudly announces an encore presentation of Deborah Margolin's Imagining Madoff, May 28 through June 1, 2014 at the Boston University Theatre Lane-Comley Studio 210. Nominated for two 2014 Elliot Norton Awards (Outstanding Production; Outstanding Actor, Jeremiah Kissel), Imagining Madoff is co-presented with Boston Center for American Performance (BCAP) and is directed by Elaine Vaan Hogue. Tickets are $36 and may be purchased by calling the New Rep box office at 617-923-8487 or online at newrep.org. Student, senior, and group discounts are available.

As part of its Southern Exposure Series, which features new and classic literature by Southern writers with Southern inspiration, Tennessee Shakespeare Company this summer introduces two very special Literary Salons hosted by Memphis' newest Irish restaurant and by one of the city's great patrons of the arts.

Space is still available for visual and performing arts summer camps at the Howard County Arts Council (HCAC) in Ellicott City. Programs are open to the public, regardless of residency in Howard County, for students entering grades K-7. Campers must be a minimum of five years of age by September 1, 2014 to be eligible for summer camp.

This summer the writers of previous Edinburgh Fringe hits Coalition and Making News and multi-award winning director of Instinct For Kindness and Lockerbie - Unfinished Business are set to team up with one of the most respected actors of his generation to present a satirical tale of political intrigue, gamesmanship and ambition in the corridors of power. Alan Cox is to be directed by Hannah Eidinow in Robert Khan and Tom Salinsky's Kingmaker, the story of a fictional yet strangely familiar political figure whose bumbling bonhomie disguises a fierce determination and a heart of steel.

The City Shakespeare Company invites the public to a staged reading of their feature film adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth on May 22, 2014. The film will shoot September in Boulder, Colorado and is already funded and partially cast.

To close its 47th Season, Marin Theatre Company will produce the West Coast premiere of Failure: A Love Story by the 'hugely talented Chicago writer' (Chicago Tribune) Philip Dawkins. Directed by MTC's artistic director Jasson Minadakis, this 'enchanted and enchanting' play about love and loss will feature five actors playing multiple characters, using puppets and playing live music both original (by MTC's frequent collaborator Chris Houston, a Berkeley-based composer and musician) and from the era of the play - 1920s Chicago.

Casting is announced for Seattle Shakespeare Company's free Wooden O productions of The Two Gentlemen of Verona and Julius Caesar which start performances on Thursday, July 10. Both productions will perform in park venues throughout King County (please see attached schedule) and then transfer to Walla Walla, WA as part of Shakespeare Walla Walla.

From today, May 10 to June 7, 2014, SpeakEasy Stage Company will present the New England Premiere of one of the most talked-about shows in theatre history: CARRIE the musical.

The American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) at Harvard University, under the leadership of Diane Paulus, Artistic Director and William Russo, Managing Director; presents the last production of its 2013/14 Season, THE TEMPEST, adapted and directed by Aaron Posner and Teller from the play by William Shakespeare, with magic by Teller, music by Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan, and movement by Matt Kent of Pilobolus.