Stephen Wadsworth News

California Stage of Sacramento will be presenting the Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill musical, The Threepenny Opera, begining February 5th. This classic show tells the story of what happens when the banks get richer and the poor get poorer. The musical incorporates the tale of the doomed love affair of Mac Heath, London's reining thief, and Polly Peachum, the deceptively sweet daughter of a successful businessman who specializes in human misery and controls the city's beggars. Based loosely on John Gay's much earlier Beggars' Opera, it is filled with betrayals, schemes, revenge, reversals of fortune, and Weill's famously dissonant score.

The Kennedy Center today announced the casting for Golden Age, a new play by Terrence McNally. Following its world premiere with the Philadelphia Theatre Company, the production will run March 12 to April 4, 2010 in the Kennedy Center Family Theater as part of Terrence McNally's Nights at the Opera, a five-week event featuring three of the playwright's works performed concurrently on three Kennedy Center stages.

Infamous Commonwealth Theatre welcomes new Managing Director Abbie Colton. Abbie Colton has worked in the Chicago theater community as a stage manager, production manager, set designer and producer with companies such as WNEP Theater and The Factory Theater.

The Kennedy Center today announced the casting of Emmy and Tony Award® winning actress Tyne Daly as Maria Callas in the production of Master Class by Terrence McNally which will run March 25 - April 18, 2010 in the Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater.

The Kennedy Center today announced the casting of Emmy and Tony Award® winning actress Tyne Daly as Maria Callas in the production of Master Class by Terrence McNally which will run March 25 - April 18, 2010 in the Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater.

Seattle Opera's signature production of Wagner's Ring des Nibelungen returns to McCaw Hall in August. The four operas that comprise the Ring-Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Siegfried, and Götterdämmerung-will be presented in three full cycles: August 9 to 14, August 17 to 22, and August 25 to 30.

Seattle Opera's signature production of Wagner's Ring des Nibelungen returns to McCaw Hall in August. The four operas that comprise the Ring-Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Siegfried, and Götterdämmerung-will be presented in three full cycles: August 9 to 14, August 17 to 22, and August 25 to 30.

Seattle Opera's signature production of Wagner's Ring des Nibelungen returns to McCaw Hall in August. The four operas that comprise the Ring-Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Siegfried, and Götterdämmerung-will be presented in three full cycles: August 9 to 14, August 17 to 22, and August 25 to 30.

The road to Valhalla is paved with more than gods, heroes, and rings. This summer Seattle Opera is giving you a peek into the massive preparations a production of the Ring requires, in a series of 10-minute behind-the-scenes videos, called The Road to Valhalla. The first video, released on the website last week, features Speight Jenkins' conversations with several artists?including Janice Baird (Brünnhilde), Greer Grimsley (Wotan), and director Stephen Wadsworth, among others?plus a glimpse at the artists in rehearsal. Four additional segments will be released this summer, delving into costume creation, sets and props, special effects, and the orchestra and chorus. Check back each Tuesday through August 4 for future installments.

The road to Valhalla is paved with more than gods, heroes, and rings. This summer Seattle Opera is giving you a peek into the massive preparations a production of the Ring requires, in a series of 10-minute behind-the-scenes videos, called The Road to Valhalla. The first video, released on the website last week, features Speight Jenkins' conversations with several artists?including Janice Baird (Brünnhilde), Greer Grimsley (Wotan), and director Stephen Wadsworth, among others?plus a glimpse at the artists in rehearsal. Four additional segments will be released this summer, delving into costume creation, sets and props, special effects, and the orchestra and chorus. Check back each Tuesday through August 4 for future installments.

Seattle Opera announced today that the company will receive a $500,000 grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in support of Amelia, a newly commissioned American opera.

Single tickets for the individual Ring des Nibelungen operas will go on sale to the general public in a web pre-sale starting June 6

Bass John Relyea has been named the recipient of the fourth annual Beverly Sills Artist Award for young singers at the Metropolitan Opera. The $50,000 award, the largest of its kind in the United States, is designated for extraordinarily gifted singers between the ages of 25 and 40 who have already appeared in featured solo roles with the Met.

El?na Garan?a sings the title role of La Cenerentola, Rossini's charming version of the Cinderella story, for the first time with the company beginning May 1. The Latvian mezzo-soprano made her highly acclaimed Met debut last season as Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia.

The Tony Award® -winning McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton, NJ, has announced the complete cast for the world premiere of Tarell Alvin McCraney's landmark trilogy The Brother/Sister Plays. Presented in two parts, the production will be presented with a single cast and performed in repertory in McCarter's Berlind Theatre. The Brother/Sister Plays is co-produced with New York's Public Theater.

Even as it announces a new season filled with hot plays and another show bound for Broadway, Berkeley Repertory Theatre concludes its current season with the world premiere of a smart and sassy script featuring favorite local artists: You, Nero, a new comedy written by Amy Freed and directed by Sharon Ott, rules the Thrust Stage this spring. Starring Danny Scheie as the preposterous emperor of ancient Rome, You, Nero begins previews on May 15, opens May 20, and closes June 28.

McCarter Theatre Center announces the complete cast of William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, directed by Rebecca Taichman. A co-production with Washington, D.C.'s Shakespeare Theatre Company, Twelfth Night begins performances in the Matthews Theatre on Tuesday, March 10 and runs until March 29. (Press opening Friday, March 13). Shipwrecked in a foreign land without family, friends or possessions-what's a girl to do? Identity is under siege in the labyrinth of misconceptions that is Twelfth Night, Shakespeare's bewitching comedy of unquenchable desire, self-deception and misdirected love. This fantastical, timeless production-helmed by rising-star director Rebecca Taichman-is a real sensualist's delight: full of longing 'all as hungry as the sea' and awash in ethereal charm.

McCarter Theatre is pleased to welcome its new Managing Director, Timothy J. Shields. Mr. Shields, a nationally recognized theater executive, was appointed Managing Director by the McCarter Theatre Board of Trustees in September and began work at McCarter on January 5, 2009. 'My acceptance of the position at McCarter Theatre represents something of a homecoming, as I worked at McCarter from 1983 to 1992, and most of my family is on the East Coast,' said Shields. 'The opportunity to become Managing Director of a Tony Award-winning regional theater with such a great reputation was simply too hard to pass up.' He added, 'The unbelievably high level of the productions and presentations that McCarter does for its audiences is work that any arts professional would be pleased to be associated with, and everyone strives to make the work even better. Any organization that has that sort of ambition is one that I'm proud to lead.' Mr. Shields comes to McCarter from Milwaukee Repertory Theater, where he has served as Managing Director since 1998. During his tenure, The Rep's operating budget more than doubled, ticket sales and contributed income reached record levels, and statewide tours of Rep productions in 2006, 2007, and 2008 were re-established.

In her 13 years as artistic director of Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Sharon Ott led the company to new artistic heights, national prestige, and a well-deserved Tony Award. Now, after a 12-year absence, she returns with a gripping production of Fyodor Dostoevsky's classic Crime and Punishment. The scene of this Crime is Berkeley Rep's intimate Thrust Stage, where Ott earned her reputation as a dazzling director. The show begins previews on February 27, opens March 4, and closes March 29. Its executive producers are John and Helen Meyer and Richard H. Rubin and H. Marcia Smolens, with production sponsorship from the Bernard Osher Foundation. BART and Wells Fargo are the season sponsors for Berkeley Rep's 41st year of fearless theatre.

McCarter Theatre Center announces the complete cast of George Bernard Shaw's still provocative Mrs. Warren's Profession, the third show of the theater's 2008-2009 season. Directed by McCarter Artistic Director Emily Mann, the production will feature Suzanne Bertish, Robin Chadwick, Edward Hibbert, Madeleine Hutchins, Michael Izquierdo, and Rocco Sisto. Mrs. Warren's Profession begins performances in the Berlind Theatre on Friday, January 9 and runs through February 15. (Press opening Friday, January 16).