The Geffen Playhouse News

Producers Greg Berlanti and Robbie Rogers and Creative Producers Dylan Pager and Andy Jones announced today the return of David Kwong's The Enigmatist to The High Line Hotel (180 10th Ave, New York, NY 10011). After overwhelming demand and six months of sold-out performances earlier in 2019, magician and cruciverbalist David Kwong will bring his immersive evening of puzzles, cryptology and illusions back to New York City for a limited engagement, beginning November 1, 2019 that must end January 2020.

Nadine Garner (The Blake Mysteries) stars alongside Gig Clarke (The Code), Nicholas Denton (Wild), Paul Goddard (Pulse), Yalin Ozucelik (Othello) and Dan Spielman (Macbeth) in the Australian premiere of Anna Ziegler's Photograph 51, a delicate exploration of sacrifice in the pursuit of science, love and a place in history.

Applications for all 2020 Orchard Project residencies are now open. Artists, writers, ensembles, and companies are encouraged to apply this fall to the program's Professional Lab, Greenhouse program, or Episodic Lab.

I had the following to say about playwright Joshua Harmon' s play Bad Jews: 'Excessively harsh reality is at the core of most contemporary dramedies. A character cannot be rude or abrasive enough to arouse a viewer's attention or glean laughs. It's particularly characteristic of the irritating females who talk too fast, too loud and scream their shrewish lungs out. It makes me happy that I live alone; and yes, I do care and respect others and their feelings; but, being pleasant nowadays is considered boring and in drama, it will never win awards, so on with the show. ' Harmon's current play Skintight is receiving its West Coast premiere at the Geffen Playhouse and star Idina Menzel's character Jodi is another shrewish female, selfish and most definitely in need of a lesson or two about how to treat others. The play has already been extended through October 12. It boasts a dynamic six person cast and is worth your time.

ACT a?' A Contemporary Theatre, under the direction of Artistic Director John Langs, officially announces its 55th seasona?'a celebration of five contemporary plays including ACT's 50th Mainstage world premiere. The 2020 mainstage season will open with the Pulitzer Prize-winning Sweat by Lynn Nottage, followed by The Effect, a scintillating, pill-popping love story by Lucy Prebble. Summer 2020 will feature a co-production with the Denver Center for the Performing Arts with the soaring coming-of-age musical-drama Choir Boy by the Academy Award-winning screenwriter of Moonlight, Tarell Alvin McCraney. Fall at ACT will feature the world premiere of The Laugh Track by Wendy MacLeod, inspired by the true story of the first female Hollywood writer on the I Love Lucy Show. Closing the season, will be the weirdly wonderful and witty Witch by Jen Silverman, an updated version of The Witch of Edmonton, where the Devil comes to bargain for souls and things go awry when he meets up with the town outcast.

USA Network announced today that Amanda Peet (“The Romanoffs”) and Christian Slater (MR. ROBOT) will star in the second season of anthology series DIRTY JOHN, titled DIRTY JOHN: THE BETTY BRODERICK STORY. This second installment will be based on another epic true tale of love gone wrong -- a story that spans the 1960s to the '80s, through the breakdown of a marriage that Oprah deemed one of “America's messiest divorces” even before it ended in double homicide.

Geffen Playhouse today announced the full cast for its world premiere adaptation of Key Largo, directed by Tony Award winner Doug Hughes (Doubt, Farragut North) and featuring Academy Award nominee Andy Garcia (Mama Mia! Here We Go Again, The Godfather: Part III) as Johnny Rocco. The Geffen Playhouse production is adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher and Andy Garcia, based on the play by Maxwell Anderson and the screenplay by Richard Brooks & John Huston. Original music is composed by 10-time GRAMMY Award winner and Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient Arturo Sandoval.

2019 marks the fifth year of Everyman Theatre's innovative and exciting Salon Series. These play parties showcase emerging female playwrights and are directed by women from Everyman's Resident Company over select Monday nights this fall.

Playwright Josh Harmon's SKINTIGHT receives its west coast premiere at the Geffen Playhouse, already in previews. Daniel Aukin directs this neurotic family drama featuring the original stars of the Broadway production (Idina Menzel, Will Brittain and Eli Gelb), with Harry Groener, Kimberly Jürgen and Jeff Skowron rounding out the cast. I was lucky enough that Will Brittain (who plays Trey, the young, hunky boyfriend of patriarch Elliott) was able to squeeze in some time for me in his busy rehearsal schedule to answer just a few of my long list of questions.

Get a first look at Idina Menzel in Skintight at the Geffen Playhouse!

In this fiendishly funny new play by Jen Silverman, inspired by The Witch of Edmonton by Rowley, Dekker and Ford, a charming devil arrives in the quiet village of Edmonton to bargain for the souls of its residents in exchange for their darkest wishes.

The National Arts Club (NAC) has selected Inda Craig-Galván as the recipient of the 2019 Kesselring Prize for playwriting. Since 1980, the $25,000 award has been presented to an outstanding playwright deserving of national recognition.

IAMA Theatre Company opens its 2019-20 12th anniversary season with an award-winning play about a mother and father trying to do right by their son.

Staged on a brilliantly creative two-setting, split-level scenic design by Dane Laffrey which includes a scene-dividing projected face on a screen on which the most extraordinary, ever-changing, light-flashing and color-changing eyes appear, this inventive retelling of a sharp, subversive fable debates how much our souls are worth when hope is hard to come by beginning when a charming Devil (Evan Jonigkeit, a black-clad, roguishly perfect scene stealer) arrives in the quiet village of Edmonton to bargain for the souls of its residents in exchange for their darkest wishes. But which of the five inhabitants will agree to sell their soul to attain whatever it is they think will make them happiest?

The west coast premiere of Jen Silverman's WITCH will launch the Geffen Playhouse's 2019/2020 season, having begun previews August 20, 2019. Originally commissioned by and premiering at Writers Theatre, WITCH centers on a charming outsider arriving to the quiet village of Edmonton bargaining for souls in exchange for the villagers' darkest wishes. I had the opportunity to delve into the sharp, clever mind of Jen Silverman on her creation of WITCH.

In this fiendishly funny new play by Jen Silverman, inspired by The Witch of Edmonton by Rowley, Dekker and Ford, a charming devil arrives in the quiet village of Edmonton to bargain for the souls of its residents in exchange for their darkest wishes.

Totem Pole Playhouse, America's summer theatre, located in Caledonia State Park between Gettysburg and Chambersburg, PA has announced the final production in the Playhouse's new summer subscription series, Wrong Turn at Lungfish by legendary writer/director, Garry Marshall and acclaimed screenwriter, Lowell Ganz. 

Town Hall Theatre 75TH a?oeTRANSFORMATIONSa?? Season 2019/20 kicks off with Matthew Lopez's fabulously flamboyant comedy THE LEGEND OF GEORGIA MCBRIDE.  THE LEGEND OF GEORGIA MCBRIDE will have 12 performances, including two previews, September 26 through October 19, 2019, at Town Hall Theatre Company, 3535 School Street, in Lafayette, CA.  Tickets are $18 - $30, and are available through the Box Office at (925) 283-1557 or online at www.TownHallTheatre.com. 

General public tickets are now on sale for a one-day-only Master Class exploring the craft of acting taught by Kathleen Turner, a living legend of the stage and screen.

The Segal Centre is proud to present the stirring and inspiring Hershey Felder Presents production of The Pianist of Willesden Lane in the Sylvan Adams Theatre from September 8 to 29, 2019. The show stars internationally-acclaimed storyteller and concert pianist Mona Gol