South Coast Repertory News

In small towns there are those who stay and those who go. With the return of a sibling, the daily routine of life is shaken up in South Coast Repertory's world premiere of Five Mile Lake by Rachel Bonds. Bonds' new drama is one of three full productions for the 2014 Pacific Playwrights Festival. The show runs April 13-May 4, on the Julianne Argyros Stage. Daniella Topol directs. Tickets are available online: www.scr.org.

The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts presents the West Coast premiere of A Coffin in Egypt, a new chamber opera in one act, based on the play, A Coffin in Egypt by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Horton Foote, for three performances only April 23, 25 and 27 in the Bram Goldsmith Theater. A Coffin in Egypt stars mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade, one of opera's most beloved figures, whose formidable bravura has won her wide acclaim. Ricky Ian Gordon, the composer, has also composed The Grapes of Wrath, Rappahannock County, and Orpheus and Euridice. Leonard Foglia, librettist and director, directed Master Class on Broadway and Jake Heggie's Opera Last Acts.

Segerstrom Center has announced that Shirley MacLaine, originally announced for Friday, September 19, will now appear on Saturday, September 20, 2014.

Disney's Aladdin, a new musical comedy based on the Academy Award-winning animated film, opens tomorrow night, March 20th. Produced by Disney Theatrical Productions, the show features music by Tony Award and eight-time Oscar winner Alan Menken (Beauty and the Beast, Newsies, Sister Act), lyrics by two-time Oscar winner Howard Ashman (Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid), three-time Tony Award and three-time Oscar winner Tim Rice (Evita, Aida) and two-time Tony Award nominee Chad Beguelin (The Wedding Singer), with a book by Beguelin, and is directed and choreographed by Tony Award winner Casey Nicholaw (The Book of Mormon). Scroll down to learn more about the full company, plus watch interviews with the cast!

Following their recent breakout success on America's Got Talent, receiving great accolades from the judges and audiences, Lightwire Theater brings its unique method of storytelling to light at Segerstrom Center for the Arts May 17 at 1:00pm and May 18 at 1:00pm and 3:30pm in Samueli Theater. The timeless tales of Hans Christian Andersen's The Ugly Duckling and Aesop's fable The Tortoise and the Hare meet modern day cutting-edge technology as a dark stage illuminates, bringing these beloved characters to life with the use of electroluminescent wire. Audiences will marvel at the stunning imagery, compelling choreography and stirring music.

The Pasadena Playhouse announced Bruce Davison, Sharon Lawrence and RoxAnne Hart to star in A SONG AT TWILIGHT by Noel Coward, the fifth production of its 2013 - 2014 Season. A SONG AT TWILIGHT is performed tonight, March 18 to April 13; the press opening is Sunday, March 23.

Segerstrom Center for the Arts welcomes the national tour of I LOVE LUCY® LIVE ON STAGE, the brand new hit stage show adapted from the most beloved program in television history, today, March 18 - 23 in Segerstrom Hall.

Carla Ching's comedy Fast Company, about a family of Asian American con artists on the trail of a million-dollar comic book, opens tonight (March 17) at 7:00pm for its New York premiere at the Ensemble Studio Theatre, 549 West 52nd Street.

The world-renowned Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis arrives at Segerstrom Center for the Arts tonight, March 14 at 7:30 p.m. in Segerstrom Hall.

With 'SECONDS', a Festival of Play Readings, Mixed Blood Artistic Director Jack Reuler has curated a 'can't miss' opportunity to catch a glimpse of what's hot in American theatre!

The third play in MALIBU PLAYHOUSE's 2013-2014 season will be The Vortex by Noel Coward, opening Friday, April 11, 2014. The play will be directed by Artistic Director Gene Franklin Smith and stars Shannon Holt and Craig Robert Young. Tickets are $30, and may be purchased through the box office, online at http://www.malibuplayhouse.org or by calling 323-960-7711. There will be previews on April 9th and 10th for $20. Shows are Fridays and Saturdays at 8 PM and Sundays at 3 PM. Malibu Playhouse is located at 29243 Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu, CA 90265 (near Zuma Beach, between Kanan-Dume Road and Morning View Drive, near Heathercliff Road).

What happens when an elderly patient with dementia goes missing in a northern Idaho blizzard, leaving his wife and others behind to face the unknown? The story is Rest, a heartbreakingly funny and tender play commissioned by South Coast Repertory from Samuel D. Hunter. SCR Founding Artistic Director Martin Benson directs the world premiere of Rest, March 28-April 27, on the Segerstrom Stage. The show is a cornerstone production of SCR's Pacific Playwrights Festival. Tickets are available online: www.scr.org.

Magic Theatre will welcome back one of Scotland's leading contemporary playwrights, Linda McLean, with the world premiere of Every Five Minutes, directed by Producing Artistic Director Loretta Greco. Every Five Minutes runs March 26 - April 20. Deemed 'a gritty, fiercely empathetic realist of great skill' (San Francisco Chronicle), McLean's new play celebrates the miraculous power of the human spirit. Every Five Minutes begins with a simple homecoming dinner that takes a fantastical turn as Mo slips into a dreamscape that even those closest to him can't imagine.

Theatre Exile closes its 17th season with the Philadelphia premiere of Annapurna, a moving and explosive new play by critically acclaimed, emerging Broadway playwright Sharr White. Driven by the emotionally charged relationship between a husband and wife, Exile's production stars Barrymore Award-winning actors Pearce Bunting (Exile's A Behanding in Spokane, HBO's Boardwalk Empire) and Catharine Slusar (Iron, Any Given Monday) as Ulysses and Emma. Performances run April 17 - May 11 in Theatre Exile's South Philadelphia Studio X.

A special event that includes a reading of the new comedy 'Birder' by Julie Marie Myatt and a guided bird walk in the gardens of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (NHM) will be presented by Center Theatre Group under its DouglasPlus programming and NHM on April 6 at 7 p.m.

Catherine Trieschmann is back in New York at Women's Project Theater with a tart, satirical skewing of small town cultural wars entitled The Most Deserving. This New York premiere by the acclaimed playwright of crooked and How The World Began (also produced by Women's Project Theater) who is a resident of a small town in western Kansas is directed by Shelley Butler and begins previews Sunday, March 30, at 2:30pm for an opening Tuesday, April 8, at 7:30pm (runs through May 4) at New York City Center Stage II, 131 West 55th Street. Rehearsals begin today, Friday, March 7.

Writers Theatre presents The Dance of Death by August Strindberg, in a new version by Conor McPherson and directed by Henry Wishcamper. The production runs April 1 - July 20, 2014 at 664 Vernon Avenue, Glencoe. The press openings are April 9 and 10, 2014 at 7:30pm.

Written in 1978, Deathtrap still holds the record for longest-running comedy thriller on Broadway. Sidney Bruhl is a playwright desperately in need of a hit. Just in time, a former student sends him the manuscript of his first play, a murder mystery called Deathtrap. Sidney smells a hit, but he's never been that fond of sharing credit. TIME Magazine said, 'If you care to assassinate yourself with laughter, try Deathtrap.'

Broadway stars might boast the biggest fan-bases, but without their directors, the vehicle driving their talents could easily swerve off the tracks. Keeping the runaway train at bay are season's bold Broadway 'conductors'. Scroll down to learn more about this season's intrepid and imaginative leaders!