Susan Smith News

Samuel French has announced a talented roster of judges for the Samuel French Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival (OOB Festival), the nation's premiere short play competition, running from August 5th-10th at the Peter Jay Sharp Theatre.

Wonderland will be live-streamed on Saturday 26 July 7.30pm over the internet worldwide and free on hampsteadtheatre.com and theguardian.com.

Royal Court Theatre and Headlong co-production of The Nether by Jennifer Haley begins tonight, Thursday 17 July and runs through Saturday 9 August 2014.

Chautauqua Theater Company (CTC), under the leadership of Vivienne Benesch Artistic Director and Sarah Clare Corporandy Managing Director, is proud to present The May Queen a world premiere comedy by Molly Smith Metzler from July 18-27, directed by Vivienne Benesch, on the Bratton Theater Mainstage.

Playwrights Horizons, under the leadership of Artistic Director Tim Sanford and Managing Director Leslie Marcus, has announced the sixth production of its upcoming 2014/2015 Season. As previously-announced, the season will conclude with a new work by Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner Bruce Norris (Clybourne Park and The Pain and the Itch at PH, Domesticated). That play will be the New York premiere of THE QUALMS, directed by Tony Award and Obie Award winner Pam MacKinnon (Clybourne Park and Completeness at PH; Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; Dinner with Friends; the current When We Were Young and Unafraid).

Apollinaire Theatre Company's 11th year of offering free bilingual productions on alternating nights in English and Spanish in Chelsea's Mary O'Malley Park features 2 plays about crossing borders, fear of the Others among us, linguistic slight of hand, and finding one's voice in the chaos.

Chester Theatre Company celebrates its 25th Anniversary Season with a special production of the one-woman comedy HIGH DIVE by Leslie Ayvazian. The production, which runs from July 22th through July 24th at the Chester Town Hall in Chester, MA, will feature CTC favorite Jennifer Rohn in her sixth CTC appearance.

Chester Theatre Company celebrates its 25th Anniversary Season with a special production of the one-woman comedy HIGH DIVE by Leslie Ayvazian. The production, which runs from July 22th through July 24th at the Chester Town Hall in Chester, MA, will feature CTC favorite Jennifer Rohn in her sixth CTC appearance.

Playwrights Horizons has announced initial casting for its upcoming 2014/2015 Season. The announcement includes casting for the first two shows of the season: initial casting for BOOTYCANDY, the New York premiere of a new play written and directed by Obie Award winner Robert O'Hara (In the Continuum, Antebellum, Insurrection: Holding History); and initial casting for GRAND CONCOURSE, the World Premiere of a new play by playwright and two-time Obie Award-winning actress Heidi Schreck (There Are No More Big Secrets, Creature), directed by Kip Fagan (The Revisionist, Asuncion).

The Weird Sisters Theatre Project continue their 2014 summer season with Late: A Cowboy Song by Sarah Ruhl at Actor's Express theatre, July 21-August 5. The play is an early work of the award-winning playwright about perpetually late Mary, a woman who is desperately searching to find herself.

Dorset Theatre Festival is proud to present the World Premiere of Leslie Ayvazian's new comedy Out of the City beginning July 10th. This is the third world premiere that Dorset has produced in the past five seasons, continuing a tradition of New Play Development to which Artistic Director Dina Janis has proven deeply committed. "Fostering new work is one of the most important things we do here at Dorset, from our Young Playwrights workshops, to our New Play Reading Series, to these exciting World Premieres. It's a thrilling and rewarding process." Past world premieres have included Theresa Rebeck's The Novelist and The Whore and Mr. Moore by Michael Cristofer.

Curious Theatre Company announces their newest program for young playwrights: The Curious New Voices National Collective. Building on the 10-year success of their month-long local Summer Writing Intensive, this summer Curious will be piloting a week-long intensive open to young playwrights selected by regional theatres across the country.

The Royal Court Theatre announces a new season of work today, Friday 27 June, including new plays from Molly Davies, Zinnie Harris, Rory Mullarkey, Tim Price and Jack Thorne; a debut play from first-time playwright Diana Nneka Atuona; a collaboration between scientist Chris Rapley, playwright and director Duncan Macmillan and director Katie Mitchell and a new production for young people and their families - Enda Walsh's new adaptation of Roald Dahl's The Twits.

Curious Theatre Company announces their newest program for young playwrights: The Curious New Voices National Collective. Building on the 10-year success of their month-long local Summer Writing Intensive, this summer Curious will be piloting a week-long intensive open to young playwrights selected by regional theatres across the country.

The Brooklyn College Department of Theater will present its inaugural New Works Brooklyn festival today, June 25-29. The series will feature staged readings of one-act plays written by Kia Corthron, Erin Courtney, Jose Rivera, Anne Washburn, and Mac Wellman, all of whom will take part in audience talkbacks during the week. In addition, Rivera will direct his own piece, and Corthron, Courtney, Washburn, and Wellman will take part in a panel discussion on the development of new plays on the closing day of the festival.

The Brooklyn College Department of Theater will present its inaugural New Works Brooklyn festival on June 25-29. The series will feature staged readings of one-act plays written by Kia Corthron, Erin Courtney, Jose Rivera, Anne Washburn, and Mac Wellman, all of whom will take part in audience talkbacks during the week. In addition, Rivera will direct his own piece, and Corthron, Courtney, Washburn, and Wellman will take part in a panel discussion on the development of new plays on the closing day of the festival.

Hampstead Theatre presents the World Premiere of WONDERLAND by Beth Steel, directed by Edward Hall, designed by Ashley Martin Davis, choreographed by Scott Ambler, and with music composed by Simon Slater. The show will play today, 20 June - 26 July 2014. Press Night: Thursday 26 June at 7pm.

The award-winning comedy, Dead Man's Cell Phone returns to Chicago under the direction of one of Chicago's newest theatre companies, The Enthusiasts Theatre Company. Sarah Ruhl's smash hit comedy opens with an incessantly ringing cell phone in a quiet cafe. Jean, a stranger at the next table who has had enough. And Gordon, a dead man-with a lot of loose ends. So begins Dead Man's Cell Phone, a wildly imaginative comedy. The show is about the struggle to connect in a technologically obsessed world. Dead Man's Cell Phone is a wildly imaginative comedy by MacArthur "Genius" Grant recipient and Pulitzer Prize finalist, Sarah Ruhl, author of the The Clean House and Eurydice. The last local production was done by Steppenwolf Theatre Company in March 2008.

UCSB's LAUNCH PAD program was featured in the March 2013 issue of American Theatre magazine as an innovative model of new play development in the US. While professional theatres are not always able to take a risk on producing new work, the university offers a playwright the chance to see the play produced in a safe environment with students who are deeply engaged and hungry to learn how this process works. Since its inception in 2005, the department has developed and produced 9 plays with the playwright in residence.

59E59 Theaters presents the second show in the inaugural 5A Season with the New York premiere of BAUER, written by Lauren Gunderson and directed by Bill English. Produced by the San Francisco Playhouse, BAUER begins performances on Tuesday, September 2 for a limited engagement through Sunday, October 12. Opening Night is Tuesday, September 9 at 7 PM.