Spalding Gray News

Pride Films and Plays' Chicago premiere production of Daniel MacIvor's HIS GREATNESS - inspired by a 'potentially true story' during the declining days of Tennessee Williams - will be performed at the 15th Annual International Dublin Gay Play Festival, to be held May 7-20, 2018 in Dublin, Ireland. The entire original cast of last fall's production will travel to Dublin and will perform the play from May 14 - 19, with two performances on May 19th. In MacIvor's play, a great American playwright, his trusted and loyal assistant, and a young Canadian street hustler find themselves together for two days in a hotel room in Vancouver as the playwright is about to premiere a new play that he hopes will reinvigorate his career. The ensuing battle for power, love and loyalty is frequently funny, engagingly dark and ultimately moving.  Danne W. Taylor will repeat his role as "The Playwright," Andrew Kain Miller will return as "The Assistant" and Whitman Johnson will again play "The Young Man." Pride Films and Plays' Executive Director David Zak is again directing the play for this remount. 

REDCAT, CalArts' downtown center for contemporary arts, presents the legendary New York theater ensemble, The Wooster Group in A PINK CHAIR (In Place of a Fake Antique), April 5 to April 15, 2018.

After selling out every performance in February & March, PianoFight presents the final encore engagement of F*ck Tinder: a love story, Written & Performed by David Rodwin.

Abrons Arts Center is pleased to present the world premiere of Aloha, Aloha, or When I Was a Queen (April 4-21), a solo play written and performed by Eliza Bent and directed by Knud Adams. In 1996, a young Eliza Bent, along with a friend, created, directed and starred in an amateur historical film for a school project. In it, Bent portrayed Hawaii's last reigning monarch, Queen Liliuokalani. 22 years later, Bent uses her home movie as a jumping off point to lead audiences on a journey that grapples with personal history, legacy, and cultural appropriation. In the tradition of Spalding Gray, Fran Lebowitz, and David Sedaris, Bent's humorous cringe-inducing stories chart a young Bostonian's education in race and appropriation.

The Wooster Group will open their newest piece, A PINK CHAIR (In Place of a Fake Antique) at The Performing Garage (33 Wooster Street) in New York City, with performances from April 28 through May 19, with press opening on Wednesday, May 9. The production will come to New York following a run in Los Angeles at The Roy and Edna Disney/CALARTS Theater from April 5-15, 2018.

Producers Darlene Kaplan, Laura Janik Cronin and Scott Newsome, in association with Alec Seymour, present the Off-Broadway premiere of The Stone Witch, a play by Shem Bitterman (A Death in Colombia, Influence).  Performances begin Monday, March 12, 2018 for an open-ended engagement atThe Westside Theatre - Upstairs (407 West 43rd Street between 9th and 10th Avenues).  Opening Night is Sunday evening, March 25, 2018 at 6:30PM.

REDCAT, CalArts' downtown center for contemporary arts, presents the legendary New York theater ensemble, The Wooster Group in A PINK CHAIR (In Place of a Fake Antique), April 5 to April 15, 2018.

Urban Stages (Frances Hill, Founding Artistic Director), will close its 34th season with the New York Premiere of Sean Christopher Lewis's DOGS OF RWANDA, directed by Frances Hill and Peter Napolitano. This limited engagement at Urban Stages (259 West 30th Street), begins performances on Friday, March 9, opens on Monday, March 12 and will run through Saturday, March 31, 2018.

Due to popular demand, The Marsh San Francisco will extend Josh Kornbluth's insightful Josh's Brain Improvs until the end of 2018. Originally set to close March 28, the show will continue every other month on the final Wednesday of each month, with his last performance scheduled for November 28, 2018

Performance Space New York kicks off its East Village Series, contemplating the past, present, and future of the organization and its neighborhood, with Welcome to Lenapehoking (February 17, 4pm, Free), a partnership with the The Lenape Center, and Avant-Garde-Arama, the extravaganza of experimentation that's also the organization's longest-running program (February 18, 6pm, Free). Performance Space New York's Executive Artistic Director Jenny Schlenzka steps into her new curatorial role with these events honoring the neighborhood's original caretakers and the organization's own trailblazing roots, as springboards into an exhilarating new chapter.

Playwrights Guild of Canada (PGC) and Expect Theatre present live and intimate interviews with d'bi young, Judith Thompson, Keith Barker, and Daniel MacIvor at the Red Sandcastle Theatre in Toronto, Ontario. Each interview will be recorded live with an audience and later featured on the PlayME Podcast as the PlayME Monologue Series (PlayMe Mono). PlayME has more than half-a-million listeners in 80 countries and has been rated as one of the Top 20 Performing Arts Podcasts in the world.

Abrons Arts Center is pleased to present the world premiere of Aloha, Aloha, or When I Was a Queen (April 4-21), a solo play written and performed by Eliza Bent and directed by Knud Adams. In 1996, a young Eliza Bent, along with a friend, created, directed and starred in an amateur historical film for a school project. In it, Bent portrayed Hawaii's last reigning monarch, Queen Liliuokalani. 22 years later, Bent uses her home movie as a jumping off point to lead audiences on a journey that grapples with personal history, legacy, and cultural appropriation. In the tradition of Spaulding Gray, Fran Leibowitz, and David Sedaris, Bent's humorous cringe-inducing stories chart a young Bostonian's education in race and appropriation.

Urban Stages (Frances Hill, Founding Artistic Director), will close its 34th season with the New York Premiere of Sean Christopher Lewis's DOGS OF RWANDA, directed by Frances Hill and Peter Napolitano. This limited engagement at Urban Stages (259 West 30th Street), begins performances on Friday, March 9, opens on Monday, March 12 and will run through Saturday, March 31, 2018. Tickets for are $35 ($25 during previews; $50 on opening and $15 student rush) and may be purchased via OvationTix at www.urbanstages.org or by phone at 1.866.811.4111.

The Unique Panel Discussion will celebrate a new book by Ronald Rand, "CREATE! How Extraordinary Artists Live to Create and Create to Live" at the historical theatrical club, The Lambs 3 West 51st Street, New York City, Monday, March 12th, 2018, 7:00-8:00pm. There is no charge for the Event. Seating is limited - reservations are necessary at: (212) 586-0306 or RSVP@The-Lambs.org     

PianoFight presents a special VALENTINE'S DAY show of F*ck Tinder: a love story, Written & Performed by David Rodwin. TWO NIGHTS ONLY: Thursday, February 8 @8pm, Wednesday, February 14 @9:30pm, PianoFight, Mainstage (144 Taylor St, San Francisco, CA 94102). Tix $20 GA. $30VIP tix with reserved seats, wine & chocolate. Tix: http://www.f-tinder.com

Producers Darlene Kaplan, Laura Janik Cronin and Scott J. Newsome, have announced, today, the cast and creative team for the Off-Broadway premiere of The Stone Witch, a play by Shem Bitterman (A Death in Colombia, Influence). Performances begin Monday, March 12, 2018 for an open-ended engagement at The Westside Theatre - Upstairs (407 West 43rd Street between 9th and 10th Avenues). Opening Night is set for Sunday evening, March 25, 2018 at 6:30PM.

FRIGID New York will present the 12th Annual FRIGID Festival at The Kraine Theater (85 East 4th Street between 2nd Avenue and Bowery) and UNDER St. Marks (94 St. Marks Place between 1st Avenue and Avenue A) February 14-March 4. Founded in 2007, FRIGID is an open and uncensored theatre festival that gives artists an opportunity to let their ingenuity thrive in a venue that values freedom of expression and artistic determination. In true support of our Indie Theater Community, 100% of box office proceeds will go directly to the artists whose work is being presented. FRIGID is here to chill out the New York independent theatre scene's ideas of what a theatre festival can be!

Performance Space New York (formerly Performance Space 122) presents the East Village Series, its first semi-annual themed series, and the first program curated by the institution's new Executive Artistic Director, Jenny Schlenzka. This presentation of works from some of today's most radical performers and multidisciplinary artists resituates the institution in newly revamped spaces, designed by Deborah Berke Partners, in 122 Community Center (150 First Avenue, at East 9th Street), where Performance Space 122 was founded, and where it operated until it moved out in 2011 for the building renovation. The series contemplates the past, present, and future of the organization and its neighborhood.

Performance Space 122, the birthplace of contemporary performance as it is known today, returns to its legendary home in the East Village, under the leadership of new Executive Artistic Director Jenny Schlenzka, after nearly six years presenting new works in partnership with venues across New York City. The institution will welcome the public to its newly renovated, column-free facilities at 150 1st Avenue - custom-designed by Deborah Berke Partners for interdisciplinary performance - with its 2018 Coil Festival (January 10 February 4, 2018).

Due to popular demand, The Marsh San Francisco will extend Josh Kornbluth's insightful Josh's Brain Improvs from January 31 to March 28. The statistics are daunting when it comes to dementia one in three seniors dies with Alzheimer's or another type of dementia; every 66 seconds someone in the US develops the disease. Kornbluth, who is currently engaged in a residency as a scholar at the Global Health Institute, presents Josh's Brain Improvs, a series of improvisations based on his experiences working at the Memory and Aging Center at UCSF and Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland. Kornbluth, who is spending his time with people who have dementia and their caregivers, as well as researchers, nurses, social workers, and others, shares stories from the Brain Place (as he refers to it) - shedding a personal light on this national epidemic. Each performance includes a post-show talkback with various brain experts, in which audience members can ask questions from those in the field working to combat this disease. Josh's Brain Improvs will be presented 7:30pm on the last Wednesday of every other month beginning January 31 at The Marsh San Francisco, 1062 Valencia St., San Francisco. For tickets ($10-$25 general admission, $35 and $55 reserved), the public may visit www.themarsh.org or call The Marsh box office at 415-282-3055 (open 1- 4pm, Monday through Friday).