Stella Adler News

Laura Osnes (Bonnie and Clyde, Anything Goes) will perform tonight with a lineup of other New York stage veterans and rising stars, at an intimate evening event benefiting New York performing arts festival The Kitchen Riots.

Laura Osnes (Bonnie and Clyde, Anything Goes) joins a lineup of other New York stage veterans and rising stars tonight, August 6, at an intimate evening event benefiting New York performing arts festival The Kitchen Riots.

The Stella Adler Studio of Acting's Summer Shakespeare program will perform Shakespeare's Coriolanus on August 10th. The cast are members of the studio's free Outreach program for disadvantaged New York City youth. Students from all five of New York's boroughs auditioned and 22 kids were invited to participate in the legendary acting school's program. The studio looks for kids who live at or under the poverty line who don't have arts access at school and who display an appetite or passion to learn something new. The students are mentored by theater professionals such as Broadway fight director J. Steven White.

Laura Osnes (Bonnie and Clyde, Anything Goes) will be joining a lineup of other New York stage veterans and rising stars next week on Monday, August 6, at an intimate evening event benefiting New York performing arts festival The Kitchen Riots.

Theatre East presents "Normalcy" by Bennett Windheim, Off Broadway at the Peter Jay Sharp Theatre, 416 West 42nd Street, NYC. Benard Cummings directs the new play. Previews begin for the limited engagement on August 31 and the opening is Wednesday, September 5, 2012 at 7:00 pm. For this opening of its 2012-13 season, there will be a series of talk-backs throughout the run, with the author, the producers and director, as well as experts in the respective field of this emotionally charged play. The schedule will soon be announced.

Theatre East presents "Normalcy" by Bennett Windheim, Off Broadway at the Peter Jay Sharp Theatre, 416 West 42nd Street, NYC. Benard Cummings directs the new play. Previews begin for the limited engagement on August 31 and the opening is Wednesday, September 5, 2012 at 7:00 pm. For this opening of its 2012-13 season, there will be a series of talk-backs throughout the run, with the author, the producers and director, as well as experts in the respective field of this emotionally charged play.

The New Group has announced complete casting for Francine Volpe's suspenseful drama The Good Mother. Darren Goldstein, Alfredo Narciso, Eric Nelsen and Bill Sage join Gretchen Mol (previously announced) in this world premiere directed by Scott Elliott. Previews for the play, which launches The New Group's 2012-13 season, begin October 29 in advance of an Official Opening Night on Thursday, November 15. A limited Off-Broadway engagement is slated through December 22 at The New Group @ Theatre Row (The Acorn Theatre / 410 West 42nd Street / Acorn Theatre).

'Band of Brooders' and 'Abstinence Only,' two short plays by Jim Pangrazio, directed by Jason Hale, depict Americans fighting to free themselves-from Americans and are set to play The First Floor Theater (74A East Fourth Street) for Summer Shares at La Mama, August 29 to September 2, 2012. Presented by Nucleo Eclecttico Theatre, a Denis Diderot Production.

Bay Street Theatre will present the World Premiere of a musical as the third production of the 2012 Mainstage Season. Tony award winner Lillias White will play Maybelle Smith in BIG MAYBELLE: SOUL OF THE BLUES, written and directed by Paul Levine. Michael Mitchell is the Musical Director; Orchestrations are by Musical Supervisor Kenny Seymour. The show runs Tuesday, August 7 through Sunday, September 2. Showtimes are Tuesdays through Saturdays at 8pm with Wednesday matinees on August 15, 22, and 29 at 2pm and a 4pm matinee on Saturdays August 18 and 25. Sunday showtime is at 7pm. Tickets to this spectacular event are $66-76. Previews August 7-10 are sponsored by PCH Builders and Property Management. The week of August 12-18 is sponsored by Peconic Landing.

Lemon, a new documentary about the acclaimed New York poet/playwright Lemon Andersen, will have its broadcast premiere on PBS as part of Latino Public Broadcasting's arts and culture series VOCES on Friday, October 19, 2012 from 10:00-11:00 p.m. ET (check local listings), in conjunction with Hispanic Heritage Month. Produced and directed by Laura Brownson and Beth Levison, Lemon is a Russell Simmons presentation in association with Impact Partners.

Stella Adler Theatre (Los Angeles) presents Anthony Skordi in the premiere of "ONASSIS", written by Anthony Skordi and directed by Bruce Katzman, with a preview on Sept 13 and an opening set for Sept 14. The show runs through Oct. 28, 2012.

59E59 Theaters (Elysabeth Kleinhans, Artistic Director; Peter Tear, Executive Producer) welcomes The Shop with the US premiere of TENDER NAPALM, written by Philip Ridley and directed by Paul Takacs. TENDER NAPALM begins performances on Thursday, August 23 for a limited engagement through Sunday, September 9. Press opening is Wednesday, August 29 at 7:30 PM. The performance schedule is Tuesday - Thursday at 7:30 PM; Friday and Saturday at 8:30 PM; and Sunday at 3:30 PM. Performances are at 59E59 Theaters (59 East 59th Street, between Park and Madison Avenues). Tickets are $18 ($12.60 for 59E59 Members). To purchase tickets, call Ticket Central at (212) 279-4200 or go to www.59e59.org.

Bay Street Theatre will present the World Premiere of a musical as the third production of the 2012 Mainstage Season. Tony Award winner Lillias White will play Maybelle Smith in BIG MAYBELLE: SOUL OF THE BLUES, written and directed by Paul Levine. The show runs Tuesday, August 7 through Sunday, September 2.

Leo Rising, Inc. will present FINDING ELIZABETH TAYLOR as part of the 16th annual New York International Fringe Festival - FringeNYC at the HERE Mainstage Theatre (145 Sixth Ave., entrance on Dominick).

The Stella Adler Studio's Harold Clurman Laboratory Theater Company has announced the world premiere of The Empty Ocean, a brand new original play by Anton Dudley, on June 14. Dudley has been acknowledged as an important emerging author by some of the most prestigious dramatic writing programs including Manhattan Theatre Club, New York Theatre Workshop, The Eugene O'Neill Musical Theatre Conference, The Lark Play Development Center, and MCC Theater/Playwrights' Coalition.

The Puppetmaster of Lodz by Gilles Segal, translated by Sara O'Connor and directed by Brian Roff will begin Berkshire Theatre Group's Theatre Festival season at The Unicorn Theatre, 6 East St. in Stockbridge tonight June 21 with an official press opening on June 23.

The Stella Adler Studio of Acting's Outreach Division will perform Shakespeare's JULIUS CAESAR today, June 20 and June 21 & 22. The cast are members of the Outreach Division's Adler Youth Group, a free after-school program for disadvantaged New York City youth.

Today we are talking to an actor who has appeared in over fifty feature films and starred in plays on Broadway and in the West End all about his career thus far, looking ahead to his new role as John Sculley in the forthcoming jOBS, co-starring Ashton Kutcher as Steve Jobs and Josh Gad as Steve Wozniak, directed by Joshua Michael Stewart - the one and only Matthew Modine. In this all-encompassing chat tracing the past to the present, Modine also manages to give us the scoop on his featured role in the final part of Christopher Nolan's BATMAN trilogy, THE DARK KNIGHT RISES, and shares his candid impressions of working with Anne Hathaway, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and the rest of the starry cast of the sure-to-be blockbuster of the summer. Additionally, Modine illustrates his experiences working with director Robert Altman on screen and stage projects as diverse as SHORT CUTS and STREAMERS on film, Arthur Miller's FINISHING THE PICTURE in Chicago and RESURRECTION BLUES at the Old Vic in the West End and Modine expresses his overall general enthusiasm for acting and reveals deeply probing insight into many of his most memorable and famous roles to date - ranging from roles in Stanley Kubrick's FULL METAL JACKET to Alan Parker's BIRDY to his work with Oliver Stone, Tony Richardson, Jonathan Demme, John Sayles, Mike Figgis, John Schlesinger and others. All of that, a thorough discussion of his recent roles in the theatrical productions of TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD and THE MIRACLE WORKER, as well as recollections of working on many of his most beloved projects to date, such as AND THE BAND PLAYED ON, THE REAL BLONDE, ORPHANS, CUTTHROAT ISLAND, BYE BYE LOVE, THE HOTEL NEW HAMPSHIRE, WEEDS - and much, much more!