Spoleto Festival USA News

Spoleto Festival USA announces Romantics Anonymous, a musical theater production set to run during the 2020 season. Produced by Plush Theatricals in association with Wise Children, the work, which premiered in 2017 at Shakespeare's Globe in Londona?"comes from the mind of Emma Rice, an acclaimed director whose many piecesa?"The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk (2018), The Red Shoes (2011), Don Jon (2009), and Tristan and Yseult (2006)a?"have been seen and adored by Festivalgoers. Rice adapted this musical from the French-Belgian romantic-comedy Les Emotifs anonymes; Christopher Dimond and Michael Kooman developed the lyrics and music.

'What could be better than a play that asks you to shout? Well, one that asks you to sing. All this fun is part of an updated version of 'The Brave Little Tailor...' My son also thought of another reason that Seven in One Blow is the greatest play ever: the actors pass out candy at the end.'-The New York Times

With college theatre program auditions just around the corner, we're highlighting some of the country's most prestigious theatre programs and chatting with the schools' faculty about everything from from the audition process to life after graduation and more. Today we're looking at how twenty-five different major universities help give their theatre students real world experiences. Check out answers from AMDA, University of Michigan, and many more!

Pittsburgh CLO is announced casting for the 28th annual production of A MUSICAL CHRISTMAS CAROL, December 6-22 at the Byham Theater. This year's production will feature lavish costumes, thrilling effects and a talented ensemble of both new and returning performers. Broadway star Mark Jacoby returns to Pittsburgh CLO to lead the cast as Ebenezer Scrooge. Tickets are now available by calling 412-456-6666, online at pittsburghCLO.org or at the Theater Square Box Office.

Spoleto Festival USA announces the return of Scottish Ballet during the 2020 season. Last in Charleston in 2015, the company, which celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2019, performs one of its newest works on May 22, 23, and 24: The Crucible. Choreographer Helen Pickett's retelling of Arthur Miller's iconic drama can be seen at the Charleston Gaillard Center, accompanied by 18 members of the Spoleto Festival USA Orchestra performing a haunting score by Peter Salem.

Knife Edge Productions is pleased to announce their next production, Neil LaBute's In a Dark Dark House. The play runs December 6 - 21 with opening night slated for December 10 at A.R.T/New York Theatres. In a Dark Dark House is directed by the company's Resident Theatre Director, Sam Helfrich.

With college theatre program auditions just around the corner, we're highlighting some of the most prestigious theatre programs from all across the United States to give you insight into what to expect from their programs, from audition advice to real world experience and more. Today we're chatting with faculty from Eckerd College's theatre program about its Reflective Service Learning, partnership with Circle in the Square, and more.

San Francisco Opera announces Canadian soprano Andriana Chuchman as the winner of the 2019 Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Emerging Stars Competition. Chuchman made her Company debut as Mary Hatch in Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer's It's a Wonderful Life last fall and was named a?oe2019 Emerging Star of the Yeara?? based on a popular vote conducted online at sfopera.com from July 9a?"July 31, 2019. As winner of the competition, now in its fourth year, Chuchman receives a $10,000 cash prize.

Totem Pole Playhouse, America's summer theatre, located in Caledonia State Park between Gettysburg and Chambersburg, PA has announced the third offering in the Playhouse's new Friday Fun Nights series, Barbi McCulloch's cabaret-style show, Always Find a Song. The Playhouse is offering reserved seating at $20.00 in advance and $25.00 at the door.

Marcus L. Overton, a passionate and colorful 54-year veteran of the performing arts management world as well as an actor, director, writer, teacher, scholar, linguist and Emmy-award winning radio and TV host, died at age 75 on June 9 in San Diego after a long battle with kidney failure. He is survived by his husband Raymond A. Fluta. Overton left instructions that his ashes were to be taken to Paris, a city he visited yearly, and scattered on the graves of Oscar Wilde, Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas, Marcel Proust and Francois Poulenc.

The Flea Theater is proud to announce the addition of six new Resident Directors to its intensive practicum for early-career directors. Rebecca Aparicio, Jake Beckhard, Daniella Caggiano, Lauren DeLeon, Will Steinberger, and Raz Golden will join the current group of Resident Directors. 

On the heels of a successful 2019 season, Spoleto Festival USA announces its commission of a new full-length opera by MacArthur Fellow and Grammy Award-winner Rhiannon Giddens, based on the life and autobiography of Omar Ibn Said.

Opera America has awarded the fifth cycle of Commissioning Grants from its Opera Grants for Female Composers program to six professional opera companies across the United States.

Israeli filmmaker/director Amos Gitai has crafted a multimedia piece that hurls accusations at his countrymen - most fiercely in Hebrew rather than Arabic. It's a powerful indictment, even if it is a bit one-sided and inflammatory.

On April 23rd, the New-York Historical Society's latest installment of the Bernard and Irene Schwartz Distinguished Speakers Series showcased An American Soldier, a two-act opera composed by Huang Ruo, featuring a libretto by David Henry Hwang, in the Robert H. Smith Auditorium at the New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West, New York, NY 10024.

Boston Baroque presents Monteverdi's final opera, L'incoronazione di Poppea, on Friday, April 26th at 7:30pm and on Sunday, April 28th at 3pm at New England Conservatory's Jordan Hall. These will be the first performances of a new performing edition of the opera by Boston Baroque founder and Music Director Martin Pearlman. The all-star cast includes soprano Amanda Forsythe in the title role and countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo making his Boston Baroque debut as Nero.

This Spring marks the start of the 36th season of the Verdi Chorus, who will present their Spring Concert, L'Amore e la Vita (Love and Life) for two performances only at the First United Methodist Church in Santa Monica on April 6 and 7. Led by Founding Artistic Director Anne Marie Ketchum, the Verdi Chorus is the only choral group in Southern California that focuses primarily on the dramatic and diverse music for opera chorus. This program, which Ketchum humorously calls the Rom-Com of opera, will feature selections from two Verdi operas I vespri siciliani and Ernani, three Donizetti operas - Don Pasquale, La fille du r giment and L'elisir d'amore, as well as operatic sequences from Bizet's Les p cheurs de perles (The Pearl Fishers), Delibes' Lakm , and Puccini's La rondine.

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater announces the full company for the world premiere of Tazewell Thompson's inspirational a cappella music infused play, Jubilee. Inspired by the world-renowned Fisk Jubilee Singers, this uplifting new work chronicles the bold African American ensemble as they travel the world, captivating kings, queens and audiences with hymns and spiritual songs supported by their rich voices. Written and directed by Thompson with vocal arrangements and music direction by Dianne Adams McDowell, Jubilee runs April 26 - June 2, 2019 in the Kreeger Theater.

Following performances at the Young Vic, in the West End, an extensive international tour and a broadcast on the BBC, award-winning theatre company 1927 is to stream a filmed version of its show Golem to coincide with World Theatre Day.

Registration is now open for the MRT Young Company summer program, a professional theatre training program for high school students, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. for three weeks, July 15 to August 2, in downtown Lowell. Nationally recognized creative producer, director, and performer Will Rogers will return to lead the program.