The world premiere of America V. 2.1: The Sad Demise and Eventual Extinction of the American Negro is running now through June 30 at the Barrington Stage Company's St. Germain Stage.
This bold, brave, important, timely, and highly relevant story is a cautionary tale. In the spirit of Brave New World, 1984, and Fahrenheit 451 it is set in a dystopian society but as Playwright Stacey Rose, who was awarded the grand prize in BSC's Bonnie & Terry Burman New Play Award of 2019 for this piece, points out - in the 'not too distant future'. It has a lot to say.
Goodman Theatre announces a line-up of free readings written by members of its Playwrights Unit-a year-long residency for Chicago-based writers to develop their plays-in-progress with the Goodman's artistic team, in partnership with Chicago Dramatists. Members of the 2018/2019 Playwrights Unit include Georgette Kelly, Dianne Nora, Marisela Treviño Orta and Stacey Rose. Free, one-time-only readings take place July 5-7 at Goodman Theatre (170 N. Dearborn); to make a reservation call 312.443.3800 or visit GoodmanTheatre.org/PlaywrightsUnitReadings. Availability is extremely limited. More information about each writer follows; headshots can be found in the Press Room.
Barrington Stage Company announced today casting for its 25th Anniversary season. Casting will include Elijah Alexander, Mara Davi, Carson Elrod, Joel de la Fuente, Mykal Kilgore, Alyse Alan Louis, Kate MacCluggage, Jeff McCarthy, Julia Murney, Jonathan Raviv, Debra Jo Rupp and more. Full casting for the 25th Anniversary season is below.
Kansas City Repertory Theatre celebrated the end of its 2018/2019 run and the new works theater community with the OriginKC: NEW WORKS FESTIVAL, running April 19 through May 19, 2019. The focal point of the Festival is the three-day intensive Festival Launch Weekend, May 3, 4 and 5, that features staged readings, panel discussions, two premiere opening nights, and post-show conversations.
Kansas City Repertory Theatre Executive Director Angela Lee Gieras has announced the organization's 2019 Gala, THE CAST PARTY. Featuring a performance by international recording artist and Broadway veteran Shoshana Bean, THE CAST PARTY promises an evening of Broadway-style glamour. Gala chairs Roshann Parris and Jeff Dobbs will host this annual fundraising event on Friday, May 10, at 5:30 PM at The Abbott, located at 1901 Cherry St. in Kansas City's Crossroads arts district.
Kansas City Repertory Theatre wraps up its 2018/19 season with the fourth annual OriginKC: NEW WORKS FESTIVAL, April 19 through May 19, 2019. The OriginKC: NEW WORKS FESTIVAL positions Kansas City as a major player and national center for the cultivation and production of new works, while offering theatre artists from across the country the financial, creative, and artistic resources required to develop vital, diverse works of theatre.
Kansas City, MO-Kansas City Repertory Theatre on Monday evening announced the 2019/2020 prospective season in front of a packed Posinelli Conference Center audience including members of the news media. Executive Director Angela Gieras, Interim Artistic Director Jason Chanos, and Assistant Artistic Director Kim Martin- Cotton announced the plays and musicals slated for the new season beginning in September 2019 at the Spencer Theatre on the UMKC campus and at the Copaken Stage downtown.
Kansas City Repertory Theatre offered local audiences a sneak peek at their 2019/2020 season this evening at a special invitation-only event for Subscribers and local press, announcing the featured plays and musicals slated for next season at its two venues, Spencer Theatre, and Copaken Stage.
Barrington Stage Company (BSC), the award-winning theatre in the Berkshires (Pittsfield, MA) under the leadership of Artistic Director Julianne Boyd, announced today its 25th Anniversary season, which will feature four world premieres, including the new musical from BSC's Musical Theatre Lab, Fall Springs by Niko Tsakalakos and Peter Sinn Nachtrieb; America v. 2.1: The Sad Demise & Eventual Extinction of The American Negro by Stacey Rose; American Underground by Brent Askari; and Ragtag Theatre's Hansel and Gretel, commissioned by BSC.
Barrington Stage Company announced today that Stacey Rose is the inaugural winner of The Bonnie and Terry Burman New Play Award, a new national play contest at BSC. Rose will be awarded $25,000 and her play America v. 2.1: The Sad Demise & Eventual Extinction of the American Negro will receive a world premiere production at BSC.
The Lark is thrilled to announce five plays and playwrights have been chosen through its Open Access Program for the 25th Annual Playwrights' Week. This year's plays, selected from a pool of over 1,200 submissions, will be: Sistren by Erin Buckley; Even Flowers Bloom in Hell, Sometimes by Franky D. Gonzalez; As Is: Conversations With Big Black Women in Confined Spaces by Stacey Rose; form of a girl unknown by Charly Evon Simpson; and Desarrollo by Juliany Taveras. The selected playwrights will participate in an intensive seven-day retreat, designed to foster a peer-based community among the writers, their creative teams, and The Lark's staff.
The Danger: A Homage to Strange Fruit is a theatrical symphony in four movements that contemplates the legacy of violence against Black bodies in America. Inspired by the mysterious hanging death of 17-year-old Lennon Lacy in 2014 in Bladenboro, NC, this dystopic ghost play follows the interracial couple He and She into the world of The Station, a long ago abandoned rail station waiting room, an in-between place that houses Black souls who left the earth in violent ways and who constantly seek their way home. In 2015, Rose received NYU's Rita Goldberg Prize for The Danger -- an award recognizing the best play by a graduate or undergraduate student.
Goodman Theatre's commitment to new works and emerging artists continues in its 2018/2019 Season. Today, the Goodman named four Chicago-based writers to its Playwrights Unit-Georgette Kelly, whose play Ballast was featured on The Kilroys List and received the Craig Noel Award for Outstanding New Play; Dianne Nora, a playwright, dramaturg, theater scholar and comedy writer who works in Chicago, Brooklyn and Dublin; Marisela Treviño Orta, semifinalist for the 2018 O'Neill Theater Center National Playwrights Conference and 2019 Kendeda Finalist (Alliance Theatre); and Stacey Rose, whose work has been presented at New York University Tisch School of the Arts, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, National Black Theatre and more. The Playwrights Unit, in partnership with Chicago Dramatists, meets bi-monthly to discuss their commissioned plays-in-progress with the Goodman's artistic team. The residency culminates in a public staged reading of each new play in Summer 2019.
The Danger: A Homage to Strange Fruit is a theatrical symphony in four movements that contemplates the legacy of violence against Black bodies in America. Inspired by the mysterious hanging death of 17-year-old Lennon Lacy in 2014 in Bladenboro, NC, this dystopic ghost play follows the interracial couple He and She into the world of The Station, a long ago abandoned rail station waiting room, an in-between place that houses Black souls who left the earth in violent ways and who constantly seek their way home. In 2015, Rose received NYU's Rita Goldberg Prize for The Danger -- an award recognizing the best play by a graduate or undergraduate student.
A mix of emerging and established artists fills the fall roster at multi-disciplinary performance venue JACK, with acknowledged masters Toshi Reagon and trumpeter Peter Evans sharing a season with up-and-comers, including playwright Stacey Rose, solo performer Kareem M. Lucas, playwright Robert Quillen Camp and Bessie-nominated dancer Shamar Wayne Watt, among others. Special highlights are the return of the acclaimed Gracie Gardner play, ATHENA, Korean choreographer In Kyung Lee with Vogel, a poetic piece focused on the female gaze, Black Revolutionary Theater Workshop with the premiere of Sheyenne Javonne Brown's Summoned, in which Orpheus and Eurydice meet the Black Lives Matter movement, and irreverent dancer/choreographer Greg Zuccolo with his "danced play," Busy White People, Goodnight.
The Core Writer program at the Playwrights' Center gives 25-30 of the most exciting playwrights from across the country the time and tools to develop new work for the stage. The Center is announcing new Core Writers Darren Canady, Erin Courtney, Marisela Treviño Orta, Stacey Rose, Ariel Stess and Ray Yamanouchi. In addition, the Playwrights' Center is pleased to welcome three new student playwrights to its Core Apprentice program for 2018-19: Lily Padilla, Drew Paryzer and Lauren Wimmer.
Each year, the Playwrights' Center serves as an artistic home for nearly 40 fellows and Core Writers, in addition to supporting 2,000+ member playwrights across the globe and partnering with producing theaters to move work from page to stage. The Center today announced the 2018-19 Jerome Fellows Sofya Levitsky-Weitz, Casey Llewellyn and Philana Imade Omorotionmwan; Many Voices Fellows Marvin Gonzalez De Leon and Haygen-Brice Walker; and Many Voices Mentee Antonio Duke.
Sundance Institute's Theatre Lab kicks off on May 6th, and today announced this year's participating acting company and creative advisors. The Lab, which runs through May 27 at the Fellah Hotel outside Marrakech, Morocco, is supervised by Artistic Director Philip Himberg and Producing Director Christopher Hibma, and is the centerpiece of the Institute's year-round work with the theatre community, alternating locations between Sundance Resort in Utah and a venue in the Middle East/North African region, as part of a multi-year commitment to international work and a means of facilitating cultural exchange between artists writing in English and Arabic.
Sundance Institute announces the slate of theatremakers from the U.S. and Middle East / North Africa who will convene at the Theatre Program's second annual Theatre Lab in Morocco next month. The Lab, which will take place from May 6 - 27 at the Fellah Hotel outside Marrakech, comprises three uninterrupted weeks of consultation, mentorship and workshop performance of new work for the stage. The Theatre Lab alternates locations each season, moving between the Sundance Resort in Utah, and a venue in the Middle East/North African region, as part of a multi-year commitment to international work and a means of facilitating cultural exchange between artists. Led by Sundance Institute Theatre Program Director Philip Himberg and Producing Director Christopher Hibma, teams of creative advisors, actors and dramaturgs will collaborate with writers and directors, independent from commercial or public pressures, as they develop their projects.