Stephen Belber News

Labyrinth Theater Company, the award-winning, downtown ensemble, announced today the New York Premiere of The Muscles in Our Toes by Labyrinth Company Member Stephen Belber, and directed by Anne Kauffman. The play will be produced in late Spring 2014 at Labyrinth's home in New York City's West Village, the Bank Street Theater (155 Bank Street).

The School of Arts and Enterprise-Department of Theatre presents the inaugural show of their 2013-14 season, the award winning The Laramie Project, by Moises Kaufman, Leigh Fondakowski, Greg Pierotti, Andy Paris and Stephen Belber. The Laramie Project is directed by Phil Miller, The School of Arts & Enterprise New Director of Theatre. The Laramie Project features an 11-member cast comprised of some of the brightest young actors in the San Gabriel Valley.

In Stephen Belber's new play 'The Power of Duff' a lonely newsman seeks redemption by inadvertently turning his anchor desk into a pulpit, working miracles for strangers while still failing to communicate at home.

A host of characters are desperately seeking human connection in 'Splendor,' 'Water by the Spoonful,' and 'The Power of Duff,' three new plays currently making their Boston premieres.

Tonight, November 4, The New School for Drama and Naked Angels present Angels Ajar, an exclusive preview of new full-length works-in-progress, by award winning Jon Robin Baitz (New School for Drama Faculty and Naked Angels Founding Member), Janine Nabers (New School for Drama MFA '08); and Kirit Limperis, a gifted participant from 3Thursdays, Naked Angels' public high school outreach program.

On November 4, The New School for Drama and Naked Angelspresent Angels Ajar, an exclusive preview of new full-length works-in-progress, by award winning Jon Robin Baitz (New School for Drama Faculty and Naked Angels Founding Member),Janine Nabers (New School for Drama MFA '08); and Kirit Limperis, a gifted participant from 3Thursdays, Naked Angels' public high school outreach program.

The Power of Duff playwright Stephen Belber and Trinity College professor of religion in public lifeMark Silk will lead the conversation at the Huntington Theatre Company's Humanities Forum on Sunday, November 3rd following the 2pm performance of Belber's The Power of Duff.

On November 4, The New School for Drama and Naked Angelspresent Angels Ajar, an exclusive preview of new full-length works-in-progress, by award winning Jon Robin Baitz (New School for Drama Faculty and Naked Angels Founding Member),Janine Nabers (New School for Drama MFA '08); and Kirit Limperis, a gifted participant from 3Thursdays, Naked Angels' public high school outreach program.

Worst. Thanksgiving. Ever. A family gathering to celebrate the iconic American holiday turns into a scathing indictment of phony liberal values in The Pain and the Itch by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Bruce Norris (Clybourne Park), continuing through Dec. 1 at the Zephyr Theatre.

David Wilson Barnes plays Charlie Duff, a burnt-out local newscaster who transforms first his community and then himself when he begins praying on-air in the Huntington Theatre Company's new production of Stephen Belber's moving new drama The Power of Duff. Amy Pietz ("The Office," "Caroline in the City") plays Duff's ex-wife Lisa, and Jennifer Westfeldt (Kissing Jessica Stein, Friends with Kids) plays Sue, Charlie's co-anchor, in the production helmed by Huntington Artistic Director Peter DuBois. Performances began on October 11 at the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA. The Power of Duff is produced in association with New York Stage and Film and Vassar's Powerhouse Theater. BroadwayWorld has photos from the opening night celebrations on October 23rd below -- including Westfeldt's boyfriend Jon Hamm!

David Wilson Barnes (Becky Shaw at Second Stage Theatre and London's Almeida Theatre) plays Charlie Duff, a burnt-out local newscaster who transforms first his community and then himself when he begins praying on-air in the Huntington Theatre Company's new production of Stephen Belber's moving new drama The Power of Duff. Amy Pietz ('The Office,' 'Caroline in the City') plays Duff's ex-wife Lisa, and Jennifer Westfeldt (Kissing Jessica Stein, Friends with Kids) plays Sue, Charlie's co-anchor, in the production helmed by Huntington Artistic Director Peter DuBois. The Power of Duff is produced in association with New York Stage and Film and Vassar's Powerhouse Theater. Check out a first look below!

THE BOOK OF MORMON's tour stars Nic Rouleau and Ben Platt just announced via Twitter that they will soon join the Broadway company, replacing Matt Doyle (Elder Price) and Cody Jamison Strand (Elser Cunningham) respectively. Rouleau wrote: 'Thrilled to announce that Heavenly Father is sending me back to Broadway to serve another mission at @BookofMormon in January!!' Platt wrote: 'Bursting with excitement to finally announce that I will be joining the Broadway company of @BookofMormon this January!! #DreamComeTrue #NYC'

A Red Orchid Theatre (AROT) welcomes award-winning actor Kamal Angelo Bolden, director and long-time AROT artistic associate Shade Murray, and lighting designer Mike Durst into its storied Ensemble. Bolden, Murray and Durst are the most recent additions to the A Red Orchid Theatre Ensemble, which includes Lance Baker, Dado, Jennifer Engstrom, Kirsten Fitzgerald, Joseph Fosco, Steve Haggard, Mierka Girten, Larry Grimm, Karen Kawa, Karen Kessler, Danny McCarthy, Brett Neveu, Michael Shannon, Guy Van Swearingen, Doug Vickers, Natalie West and Craig Wright.

The Laramie Project Ten Years Later/by Moises Kaufman, Leigh Fondakowski, Greg Pierotti, Andy Paris and Stephen Belber/produced by Jon Imparato/directed by Ken Sawyer/The L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center,Davidson/Valentini Theatre/through November 16

Stage & Screen, a collaboration between Coolidge Corner Theatre and Huntington Theatre Company that explores the depictions of shared themes in Huntington productions and acclaimed films begins its second season of collaboration tonight, October 14 at 7pm with Sidney Lumet's Academy Award-winning film Network. The screening will be followed by a conversation with playwright, screenwriter, and film director Stephen Belber and others from the Huntington's production of The Power of Duff.

David Wilson Barnes (Becky Shaw at Second Stage Theatre and London's Almeida Theatre) plays Charlie Duff, a burnt-out local newscaster who transforms first his community and then himself when he begins praying on-air in the Huntington Theatre Company's new production of Stephen Belber's moving new drama The Power of Duff. Amy Pietz ('The Office,' 'Caroline in the City') plays Duff's ex-wife Lisa, and Jennifer Westfeldt (Kissing Jessica Stein, Friends with Kids) plays Sue, Charlie's co-anchor, in the production helmed by Huntington Artistic Director Peter DuBois. Performances begin tonight, October 11 at the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA. The Power of Duff is produced in association with New York Stage and Film and Vassar's Powerhouse Theater.

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater announces the full company for Charles Randolph-Wright's world premiere drama Love in Afghanistan. Randolph-Wright, a Resident Playwright through Arena Stage's American Voices New Play Institute and director of Motown the Musical currently on Broadway, joins forces with director Lucie Tiberghien (MCC Theater's Don't Go Gentle) to bring to life the tale of two fantastically different people discovering love in the most unlikely of places: war-torn Afghanistan. One, an emerging hip-hop artist, the other, a high-level Afghan interpreter, both fight to navigate the pitfalls of romance, religious differences and political unrest. Love in Afghanistan runs tonight, October 11-November 17, 2013 in the Arlene and Robert Kogod Cradle.

David Wilson Barnes (Becky Shaw at Second Stage Theatre and London's Almeida Theatre) plays Charlie Duff, a burnt-out local newscaster who transforms first his community and then himself when he begins praying on-air in the Huntington Theatre Company's new production of Stephen Belber's moving new drama The Power of Duff. Amy Pietz ('The Office,' 'Caroline in the City') plays Duff's ex-wife Lisa, and Jennifer Westfeldt (Kissing Jessica Stein, Friends with Kids) plays Sue, Charlie's co-anchor, in the production helmed by Huntington Artistic Director Peter DuBois. Performances begin on October 11 at the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA. The Power of Duff is produced in association with New York Stage and Film and Vassar's Powerhouse Theater. Check out the videos below!

THE LARAMIE PROJECT: TEN YEARS LATER is a play meant to be experienced, not just seen. And you will be fully immersed from the moment you walk inside this intimate theater-in-the-round staging. With the silhouettes of the audience seated across the room against the background of rolling hills, sky and prairie on the theater walls, you will feel as if you are right there in Laramie, literally pulled into the lives of every person represented onstage.

Noor Theatre's Highlight Reading Series continues this Monday at 7:30pm with an excerpt of The Shadow Spirit, by Ibn Daniyal. Written in Cairo in the 13th century, this saucy, satirical piece offers a raucous glimpse into medieval Cairo's underworld of pimps, prostitutes and dirty dealings. This is a rare opportunity to hear one of Egypt's earliest secular plays, which was written by a contemporary of Chaucer.