South Coast Repertory News

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 Theatre @ Boston Court and Rattlestick Playwrights Theater present Everything You Touch, by Shelia Callaghan, directed by Jessica Kubzansky. Opening night is Saturday, April 12, 2014 on the Main Stage at Boston Court Performing Arts Center, 70 North Mentor Avenue.

From today, March 7 through April 5, 2014, SpeakEasy Stage Company will present the New England premiere of the acclaimed Off-Broadway drama THE WHALE by Samuel D. Hunter.

All the Way, the new play by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Robert Schenkkan, starring BREAKING BAD's Bryan Cranston, is currently in previews on Broadway at the Neil Simon Theatre. The production officially opens on Thursday, March 6, 2014 for a strictly limited engagement. The play is directed by Bill Rauch, Artistic Director of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, where All the Way began its theatrical life. Scroll down to learn more about the full cast of ALL THE WAY, plus watch interviews with the company below!

From April 3 - April 12, 2014, The Boston Teen Acting Troupe will present the New England premiere of THE DREAM OF THE BURNING BOY, the hit Off-Broadway drama by David West Read. This will be the first production entirely produced, directed, acted and designed by teenagers. The play will be directed by Jack Serio and performed in The Stanford Calderwood Pavilion at The Boston Center for The Arts, 527 Tremont St in Boston's South End.

As part of Artists at Play's mission to present stories of underrepresented communities, they will develop and showcase two new works to the L.A. theatre community. This upcoming event features readings of Marabella by local playwright Boni B. Alvarez, whose Dallas Non-Stop was recently Ovation Recommended; and Qui Nguyen's She Kills Monsters, named one of the Best 10 Plays of 2013 (TimeOut Chicago, Edge Boston).

Off-Broadway's The New Group honors Beth Henley, playwright, author of Crimes of the Heart and The Jacksonian, and Geoff Rich, Executive Director of The New Group 2002-2013, with The 2014 Michael Mendelson Award at the company's Annual Gala, 'Bright Lights Off-Broadway.' The Gala, set to take place Monday, March 10 beginning at 6:00pm at Tribeca Rooftop (2 Desbrosses Street), features appearances by Ed Harris, Holly Hunter, Carol Kane, Amy Madigan, Bill Pullman and Jonathan Marc Sherman and performances by Stephen Bogardus, Lea DeLaria and John Tartaglia, along with cocktails, dinner, and silent and live auctions filled with an array of exciting items and one-of-a-kind experiences.

South Coast Repertory has announced an exciting lineup of shows from March to June. Check out the full linup below!

Arcadia Performing Arts Foundation presents Broadway star Susan Egan, who originated the role of 'Belle' in Disney's Beauty and the Beast on Broadway, as part of its first season at the Arcadia Performing Arts Center, tonight, March 1 at 8pm. Joining Egan on stage is the sixty-member Arcadia Stage, the theatre student program at Arcadia High School. They will sing four songs with Egan, and then two from their upcoming production of Curtains.

Segerstrom Center for the Arts will present LA Opera Off Grand with a special concert performance of Jules Massenet's lyric masterpiece Thais on Tuesday, May 27 at 7:30 p.m. in the Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall. The opera tells the story of Thais, a courtesan in Alexandria, Egypt during the Byzantine period whom men find irresistible in the hedonistic way she celebrates life and its most sensual pleasures. The monk Athanael vows to save her soul, but loses his own when his unholy obsession for her overpowers him. The incomparable Georgian soprano Nino Machaidze will sing the title Role alongside LA Opera General Director Placido Domingo in the baritone role as her conflicted savior, Athanael. Patrick Fournillier will conduct the same cast as well as the LA Opera Orchestra and Chorus that will appear in the company's fully-staged production from May 17 - June 7 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. The opera is filled with intoxicating melodies, including the well known violin concert piece, Meditation. There will also be a free Preview Talk prior to the Segerstrom Center performance in the Studio Performance Space from 6:30 - 7:15 p.m. Thais will be performed in French with English supertitles.

Two captivating displays of youthful musicality take place this month as Pacific Symphony Youth Orchestra (PSYO) and Pacific Symphony Youth Wind Ensemble (PSYWE) perform an impressive range of music for their individual spring concerts.

Last night at Opening Night of Carson Kreitzer's Lasso of Truth, Marin Theatre Company's artistic director Jasson Minadakis and managing director Michael Barker announced the company's 2014-15 season programming today. Featuring six new plays by living contemporary playwrights in MTC's intimate 231-seat mainstage Boyer Theatre, the season includes:

Today, The Ground Floor: Berkeley Rep's Center for the Creation and Development of New Work announces that it has selected 18 projects from more than 30 innovative artists for its third Summer Residency Lab. This June, as part of an extraordinary laboratory for collaboration, some of the nation's most prominent and promising writers, directors, and composers will unite at the Theatre's campus in West Berkeley for an intense four-week period to live, dine, and create new plays together. Dozens more local and out-of-town actors and directors will join The Ground Floor process, bringing the number of artists involved close to 100.

Aurora Theatre Company presents the Bay Area Premiere of WITTENBERG, David Davalos' audacious comedy about reason versus faith. Josh Costello (San Francisco Playhouse, Marin Theatre Company, Impact Theatre) directs this smarty-pants celebration of history, language, academia, and religion, featuring Dan Hiatt (The Arsonists), Elizabeth Carter (Trouble in Mind), Jeremy Kahn, and Michael Stevenson. WITTENBERG plays April 4 through May 4 at the Aurora Theatre in Berkeley. For tickets ($32-60) and information the public can call (510) 843-4822 or visit auroratheatre.org.

Olney Theatre Center, a Maryland destination for professional theater performance and education, will present the National New Play Network (NNPN) Rolling World Premiere of I And You by playwright Lauren Gunderson today, February 26 - March 23, 2014 in the Mulitz-Gudelsky Theatre Lab. Ms. Gunderson's play was just last week selected as a finalist for the prestigious Susan Smith Blackburn Award.

Experience something(s) new: Three world premiere productions and four new play readings during South Coast Repertory's 2014 Pacific Playwrights Festival, April 25-27.

Casting has been announced for the world premiere of BREATHING TIME, a new play by "House of Cards" creator Beau Willimon, directed by Aaron Rossini and presented Off-Broadway by Fault Line Theatre. The cast will feature Whitney Conkling, Craig Wesley Divino, Lee Dolson, John Racioppo, Shannon Marie Sullivan and Molly Thomas. Preview performances begin Friday, March 21 prior to an official press opening of Thursday, March 27 at Teatro Iati (64 East 4th Street) in Manhattan.

Yoshiki, Asia's foremost rock icon and multi talented music superstar, will bring his new live show, Yoshiki Classical, to Segerstrom Center for the Arts for a special one-night-only concert on Friday, April 25 at 8 p.m. in the Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall.

As South Coast Repertory's 50th Season celebration continues, look at its past, get a preview of its future and take a peek behind the scenes to see how the magic of theatre happens during a special Open House.

Segerstrom Center for the Arts welcomes jazz master Dr. Lonnie Smith in his Center debut tonight, February 21 and tomorrow, February 22 in Samueli Theater.