Shana Cooper News

American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) Artistic Director Carey Perloff announced today five of the seven productions that will comprise the lineup of the company's 49th subscription season, including the West Coast premiere of Will Eno's inventive new comedy, The Realistic Joneses; OBIE Award winner John Douglas Thompson in Terry Teachout's Satchmo at the Waldorf; the groundbreaking new musical, The Unfortunates; Eugene O'Neill's classic comedy, Ah, Wilderness!; and the world premiere of Monstress, a theatrical adaptation of short stories by San Francisco author Lysley Tenorio.

PlayMakers Repertory Company takes audiences into the darker reaches of the forest with two tales of magic and transformation in the theater's annual rotating repertory event. The professional theater in residence at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill performs 'Into the Woods' by Tony Award-winner Stephen Sondheim and 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' by William Shakespeare today, Nov. 1 to Dec. 7.

PlayMakers Repertory Company takes audiences into the darker reaches of the forest with two tales of magic and transformation in the theater's annual rotating repertory event. The professional theater in residence at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill performs "Into the Woods" by Tony Award-winner Stephen Sondheim and "A Midsummer Night's Dream" by William Shakespeare Nov. 1 to Dec. 7.

California Shakespeare Theater continues its 2014 season with Shakespeare's comic exploration of love in all its glory and madness, A Midsummer Night's Dream, directed by Shana Cooper, with movement by Erika Chong Shuch. A Midsummer Night's Dream plays at the Bruns Amphitheater now through September 28. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

California Shakespeare Theater continues its 2014 season with Shakespeare's comic exploration of love in all its glory and madness, A Midsummer Night's Dream, directed by Shana Cooper, with movement by Erika Chong Shuch. A Midsummer Night's Dream plays at the Bruns Amphitheater from tonight, September 3 through September 28.

California Shakespeare Theater continues its 2014 season with Shakespeare's comic exploration of love in all its glory and madness, A Midsummer Night's Dream, directed by Shana Cooper, with movement by Erika Chong Shuch. A Midsummer Night's Dream plays at the Bruns Amphitheater from September 3 through September 28.

Theatre Communications Group (TCG) announces the 2014 Round 2 recipients of the Leadership U[niversity]-One-on-One program. Through the support of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, grants of $75,000 have been awarded to six exceptionally talented early-career leaders from all areas of theatre for professional development via mentorships at a TCG Member Theatre, with an additional $5,000 honorarium for their mentor. The goal of this program is to strengthen the field by developing the individuals who are the core and the future of theatre.

Circle X Theatre Co. has announced its 2014 reading series of six plays, to take place May 5 - June 16, 2014 at 8 p.m. on Monday evenings. There will be no reading on May 26 in observance of Memorial Day.

Get yourself ready for something naughty, witty and all around fun as the Seattle Rep has brought to town David Ives' battle of wills and words, “Venus in Fur”. This ribald evening from two powerhouse performers is rife with Ives' typical meaty dialog will keep you guessing as to who's really in charge.

The Old Globe today announced it will present the New Voices Festival, a weekend of readings of new American plays by both professional and aspiring playwrights, today, Dec. 13 - 15, 2013.

The Old Globe today announced it will present the New Voices Festival, a weekend of readings of new American plays by both professional and aspiring playwrights, Dec. 13 - 15, 2013. The Festival will kick off Friday with an evening of 10-minute plays, directed by Katherine Harroff, that were written over the past year by community members who took part in The Old Globe Community Voices, a program dedicated to introducing adult residents of San Diego County to the process of creating their own theatrical work. The Festival weekend will also feature readings by professional playwrights, including Luce by JC Lee, directed by Shana Cooper; The Great Pretender by David West Read, directed by Richard Seer; and A Nice Indian Boy by Madhuri Shekar, directed by James Vasquez. Funded by a grant from The James Irvine Foundation, the New Voices Festival will take place in the Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, part of the Globe's Conrad Prebys Theatre Center. Tickets to all four readings are free but require reservations. Reservations are currently available to donors and subscribers. Tickets can be reserved by calling the Box Office at (619) 23-GLOBE.

California Shakespeare Theater today announced its plans for 40thanniversary season, which includes a play that "changed American theater forever" according to the New York Times in its Broadway premiere; George Bernard Shaw's brilliant anti-romantic comedy, and two wildly inventive Shakespeare productions. The season will feature the return of directors Shana Cooper (Romeo and Juliet, Taming of the Shrew), Patricia McGregor (Spunk, A Winter's Tale), and Aaron Posner (A Midsummer Night's Dream), and choreographer Erika Chong Shuch (The Tempest).

California Shakespeare Theater continues its 2013 season with a theatrically inventive production of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, directed byShana Cooper (2011's Taming of the Shrew) playing at the Bruns Amphitheater July 3-28.

California Shakespeare Theater today announced it has received a world-class sound system courtesy of Meyer Sound of Berkeley and Sound Associates of New York. The new audio upgrade includes loudspeakers, digital audio distribution, and control interface manufactured by Meyer Sound at its Berkeley headquarters. In addition, Sound Associates is providing a Shure digital wireless system with the goal to enhance the voices of the artists and to make the productions easier to hear in the intimate Bruns Amphitheater setting. The state-of-the-art system will debut with Cal Shakes' opening production of the 2013 season, American Night: The Ballad of Juan Jose.

According to the Hartford Courant, the Connecticut Critics Circle has announced its nominations for the 2012-13 theater season. Scroll below for the full list of nominees!

I left high school a year early to go to a small acting conservatory in California called PCPA, the Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts. It was a perfect training program for me, focused on acting, Shakespeare, voice and movement. It was a rigorous schedule, 10-6 every day except Monday and then rehearsal and performances at night. It was a challenge to find time to do homework. You could find me performing in 'The Miracle Worker' or 'Tommy' and meanwhile, offstage, I'd be trying to read 'Othello' and memorize 'A Lie of the Mind' for class the next day. It was a great place to train because there is a huge regional theatre intertwined with the conservatory, so we would take classes during the day and then act alongside our professors that night. It was an incredible way to see and honor everyone's unique process of crafting character, and begin to forge one's own process.

New York's Rattlestick Playwrights Theater presents its Los Angeles premiere of the critically-acclaimed play Slipping, written and directed by Daniel Talbott, which began previews Thursday, April 4, 2013 at Elephant Stages' Lillian Theatre in Hollywood, Calif. and will run through May 5, 2013. The opening night party for Slipping, the first Los Angeles production from Rattlestick, was held at the Elephant Stages' Lillian Theatre on Saturday, April 13, 2013 in Los Angeles, Calif. Scroll down for photos from the celebrations!

Montoya's writing is impassioned, witty and insightful and we can't help but come away knowing that we and our family history are part of the Night too. The play disappoints, however, when it allows leftist politics a soapbox.

Yale Rep (James Bundy, Artistic Director; Victoria Nolan, Managing Director) opens its 2012-13 season with AMERICAN NIGHT: THE BALLAD OF JUAN JOSÉ, written by Richard Montoya, developed by Culture Clash and Jo Bonney, and directed by Shana Cooper. AMERICAN NIGHT will play now through October 13 at the University Theatre (222 York Street). Opening Night is tonight, September 27.

Yale Rep (James Bundy, Artistic Director; Victoria Nolan, Managing Director) opens its 2012-13 season with AMERICAN NIGHT: THE BALLAD OF JUAN JOSÉ, written by Richard Montoya, developed by Culture Clash and Jo Bonney, and directed by Shana Cooper. AMERICAN NIGHT will play September 21-October 13 at the University Theatre (222 York Street). Opening Night is Thursday, September 27.