Susan Smith News

What if there were a happy pill that could take away all the stresses and strains of life? That's the premise of Rx, the latest play from Kate Fodor (100 Saints You Should Know). Deftly balancing sardonic shots at Big Pharma with a tender love story between a clinical researcher and a patient taking part in a drug trial, Rx is 'a winning combination of light satire and romance.' (NY Times)

Theatre Horizon continues its season with the Philadelphia area premiere of Annie Baker's Circle Mirror Transformation. This Obie Award winning play runs February 20-March 16. Opening night is February 27 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets cost $20-$35. Theatre Horizon is located at 401 DeKalb St. More information can be found at www.theatrehorizon.org or by calling 610.283.2230.

What if there were a happy pill that could take away all the stresses and strains of life? That's the premise of Rx, the latest play from Kate Fodor (100 Saints You Should Know). Deftly balancing sardonic shots at Big Pharma with a tender love story between a clinical researcher and a patient taking part in a drug trial, Rx is 'a winning combination of light satire and romance.' (NY Times)

Profiles Theatre continues its 25th Anniversary Season with the Midwest premiere of Gidion's Knot by Johnna Adams, directed by Artistic Director Joe Jahraus and featuring Amy J. Carle and Laura Hooper. The production runs January 17 - March 9, 2014 at The Alley Stage, 4147 N. Broadway. Please note the new opening date: The press opening is Saturday, January 25 at 8:00pm.

The Old Globe today announced the complete cast and creative team for the West Coast premiere of Laura Marks's powerful new play Bethany. Directed by Gaye Taylor Upchurch, Bethany will run Jan. 25 - Feb. 23, 2014 in the Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, part of the Globe's Conrad Prebys Theatre Center. Preview performances run Jan. 25 - Jan. 29. Opening night is Thursday, Jan. 30 at 8:00 p.m. Meet the cast and creative team in the photos below!

The Old Globe today announced the complete cast and creative team for the West Coast premiere of Laura Marks's powerful new play Bethany. Directed by Gaye Taylor Upchurch, Bethany will run Jan. 25 - Feb. 23, 2014 in the Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, part of the Globe's Conrad Prebys Theatre Center. Preview performances run Jan. 25 - Jan. 29.

YALE REPERTORY THEATRE presents THE FAIRYTALE LIVES OF RUSSIAN GIRLS by Meg Miroshnik, directed by Rachel Chavkin, January 31-February 22 at Yale Repertory Theatre (1120 Chapel Street). Opening Night is Thursday, February 6. The cast of THE FAIRYTALE LIVES OF RUSSIAN GIRLS is Sofiya Akilova, Celeste Arias, Stephanie Hayes, Jessica Jelliffe, Felicity Jones, and Emily Walton.

terraNOVA Collective has announced the six talented playwrights selected, from a record-breaking number of submissions, for the 2014 Groundbreakers Playwrights Group, a unique playwriting intensive for these individuals to collaborate and cultivate work, meeting once a week for 18 weeks. The artists are ALEXANDRA COLLIER (We Play for the Gods), STEVE DiUBALDO (Coyote and the Origin of Death), SUKARI JONES (The River Is Me), BOO KILLEBREW (co-founder of CollaborationTown), JORDAN SEAVEY (co-Artistic Director CollaborationTown), and MFONISO UDOFIA (2013 Sundance Theatre Lab Resident Playwright and a 2013 Summer Yale Resident).

The critically-acclaimed FURIOUS THEATRE COMPANY will present the second show of their 2013-2014 season, in association with, and direct from its critically-acclaimed run at the ARTISTS REPERTORY THEATRE in Portland, the rolling U.S. premiere of FOXFINDER written by Dawn King and directed by Damaso Rodriguez. FOXFINDER will feature Furious members, Sara Hennessey and Shawn Lee as well as Amanda Soden and Joshua Weinstein and will preview tonight, January 8, Thursday, January 9 and Friday, January 10 at 8pm and will open on Saturday, January 11 at 8:00pm and run through Sunday, February 2 at the Pasadena Playhouse Carrie Hamilton Theatre, 39 S. El Molino Ave. in Pasadena.

Back by popular demand, book clubs take the spotlight in the New Year with the return of The Book Club Play by Karen Zacari?as at Horizon Theatre. The show follows a tight-knit book club bound for pandemonium when it becomes the focus of a documentary film. The Book Club Play runs January 17 - February 23, 2014.

'The Piano Teacher' opens February 5, 2014, with a limited run through February 23 in the Smith Theatre of the Horowitz Visual and Performing Arts Center (HVPA) on the campus of HCC. For tickets and additional information, visit www.repstage.org or call 443-518-1500. Press performance is Saturday, February 8, at 8 p.m.

Award-winning square product theatre and Goddess Here Productions present the Regional Premiere of Johnna Adams' 'Gidion's Knot,' Finalist for the 2013 Steinberg New Play Award and the 2012 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize.

City Theatre continues its 2013-2014 season with The Mountaintop by Katori Hall, a powerful and provocative reimagining of a pivotal night in Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s life-his last. Directed by Peter Flynn, The Mountaintop runs on City Theatre's Mainstage from January 18 to February 9, 2014, with an Opening Night performance on Friday, January 24 at 8pm.

San Francisco, CA, December 20, 2013 – The five-time Grammy Award-winning San Francisco Girls Chorus--Lisa Bielawa, Artistic Director and Valérie Sainte-Agathe, Music Director and Principal Conductor—continues its 35th anniversary season with a fully staged production of Benjamin Britten's 1957 opera Noye's Fludde, based on the biblical deluge story, in one performance only, Saturday, March 29, 2014, at 8 pm at Temple Emanu-El in San Francisco. Conducted by Ms. Sainte-Agathe, the cast will feature guest artists Carey Perloff as The Voice of God, bass-baritone Joe Chappell as Noah, mezzo-soprano Silvie Jensen as Mrs. Noah and other soloist roles performed by members of the San Francisco Girls Chorus, to be announced. The production will be staged by Ariel Craft and will feature original art, costumes and set pieces created by members of San Francisco's acclaimed Creativity Explored, supported by a grant from the Creative Work Fund. The evening features the performance and includes a cocktail party and dinner to benefit the San Francisco Girls Chorus. For information and tickets, visitwww.sfgirlschorus.org .

Religion, politics and theater collide when Bart DeLorenzo directs the Los Angeles premiere of Passion Play by Tony and two-time Pulitzer Prize nominee Sarah Ruhl, kicking off the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble's 45th Anniversary Season in a co-production with Evidence Room. Performances begin Jan. 25 at the Odyssey Theatre in West L.A. and continue through March 16.

This January, playwright Christina Masciotti whose most recent play VISION DISTURBANCE, directed by Richard Maxwell, was described as a "showcase for Masciotti's gift for writing" by The New York Times, "brilliant … and … unforgettable" by The New Yorker, and named one of the Top Ten Plays of 2010 by Time Out New York, will premiere her latest play ADULT, presented by Darling and Company in association with terraNOVA Collective, at Abrons Art Center.

Chance Theater presents the fifth show of its 15th Anniversary Season - a family-friendly holiday offering The Secret Garden - The Musical with book and lyrics by Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Marsha Norman, music by Tony Award nominee Lucy Simon, and directed by Casey Long and KC Wilkerson. The Secret Garden - The Musical opened on November 30 and continues through December 29 at Chance Theater. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

Different Stages continues its 2013 - 2014 season with Julia Cho's prize winning play The Language Archive. George is a man consumed with preserving and documenting the dying languages of far-flung cultures. Closer to home, though, language is failing him. He doesn't know what to say to his wife, Mary to keep her from leaving him, and he doesn't recognize the deep feelings that his lab assistant, Emma has for him. Language and love are the twin themes of this loopy excursion into the difficulty of finding words for what lies in our hearts. A Susan Smith Blackburn Prize winner, this lyrical, quirky comedy offers a gorgeous look at the power of words and the private languages that love inspires.

After a six-week hiatus, 'The Norwegians' by C. Denby Swanson will resume Off-Broadway performances on January 9, 2014 at The Drilling Company, 236 West 78th Street. The production, which began Off-off Broadway last season, has had 75 performances so far. It played Off-off Broadway from March 8 to April 14, 2013 and re-opened October 3, 2014 on an Off-Broadway contract. The Off-Broadway run was suspended November 24, 2013 to accommodate a pre-existing commitment for the theater space. Encouraged by solid audience demand, The Drilling Company has decided to resume the Off-Broadway production January 9, 2014 as an open-ended run.

Williamstown Theatre Festival has named Mandy Greenfield as its new Artistic Director, the Festival's Board Chair Matt Harris announced today. Greenfield, who is currently Artistic Producer at Manhattan Theatre Club, succeeds Jenny Gersten beginning September 2014. As previously announced, Gersten departs Williamstown Theatre Festival in January 2014 to become Executive Director of Friends of the Highline. Gersten will program the upcoming 2014 season, and Williamstown Theatre Festival Producer Stephen Kaus will oversee the season. Greenfield's tenure as Artistic Director will begin immediately following the 2014 season, the Festival's 60th.