The Geffen Playhouse News

Just last night, Vineyard Theatre presented its 2019 Gala fundraiser, celebrating Tony, Olivier, Drama Desk, and Drama League Award nominated artist and Vineyard Board Member, Colman Domingo. Check out photos from the star-studded red carpet below!

Just last night, Vineyard Theatre presented its 2019 Gala fundraiser, celebrating Tony, Olivier, Drama Desk, and Drama League Award nominated artist and Vineyard Board Member, Colman Domingo. 

Geffen Playhouse and Audible will co-produce Nightfall for the Los Angeles theater's 2019/2020 season, it was announced today. Written by Marisela Treviño Orta (The River Bride, Braided Sorrow, Wolf at the Door) as part of Audible's Emerging Playwrights Fund, Nightfall will make its world premiere in Geffen's Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater in February and marks the completion of the Geffen Playhouse 2019/2020 season lineup.

Vineyard Theatre announces that Tony Award winner Leslie Odom, Jr. (HAMILTON), Tony Award nominee Sarah Stiles (TOOTSIE), Ngozi Anyanwu (GOOD GRIEF), and Kathryn Erbe ('Law & Order: Criminal Intent'), and DJ Crystal Clear will join the line-up of stars set for the company's 2019 Gala fundraiser celebrating Tony, Olivier, Drama Desk, and Drama League Award nominated artist and Vineyard Board Member, Colman Domingo.

California Shakespeare Theater opens its 2019 summer season with A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare, playing May 22 through June 16, 2019 at the Bruns Amphitheater in Orinda. The season launches with A Pay What You Can performance on Wednesday, May 22nd. Tickets will be available starting at 10am on the day of each show through TodayTix (todaytix.com) and the Cal Shakes Box Office (calshakes.org or 510.548.9666).

Pasadena Playhouse, the State Theater of California, announces the latest news on its spring and summer programming.  Academy and Tony Award Nominee John C. Reilly and an amazing ensemble of actors will create a spirited evening of Story Theater in Gather: Surprising Stories & Other Mischief, which Reilly has created with Patrick Murphy, who will also direct. The production will play Friday, May 24  through Saturday, June 22, in the Carrie Hamilton Theatre of the Pasadena Playhouse.

Christopher Sepulveda & 3Gems Productions present a visiting production at the Odyssey Theatre, BE A GOOD LITTLE WIDOW, written by Bekah Brunstetter (Producer/Writer "This Is Us," The Cake) and directed by Brandon Baer. BE A GOOD LITTLE WIDOW will preview on Saturday, May 18 at 8pm; Sunday May 19 at 2pm; Wednesday, May 22 & Thursday, May 23 at 8pm; will open on Friday, May 24 at 8pm and perform through Sunday, June 9 at the Odyssey Theatre, 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd. in Los Angeles.

A prodigal son's return home is the focus of Dead Accounts opening at Little Fish Theatre on May 16 for a four-week run. LFT company member Branda Lock directs this story about boiling points and big money from Peabody and Writers' Guild Award winner Theresa Rebeck.

Directed with finesse by Kimberly Senior, THE NICETIES features Lisa Banes as the liberal, white professor Janine, and Jordan Boatman as the ambitious young black student Zoe, who become involved in a polite clash of perspectives that quickly explodes into an urgent and dangerous debate threatening to ruin both their lives. We first meet the two opinionated and obviously brilliant women in Janine's somewhat cramped office, with its slanted ceiling (thanks to scenic designer Cameron Anderson) indicating her top floor status in the department. Posters of great political leaders from all sides, including George Washington, Lech Wa??sa, Nelson Mandela, Emiliano Zapata, and female Suffragettes, adorn her office walls with books about other leaders and revolutionaries scattered around the place. Certainly, all appearances indicate Jeanine is the type of open-minded teacher every student would want to instruct them about American History. Right?

Rubicon Theatre continues the company's 21st 'Coming of Age' season with the World Premiere of WOMEN BEYOND BORDERS, a play inspired by and loosely based on the remarkable journey of Lorraine Serena and a dynamic group of California-based artists who founded the non-profit Women Beyond Borders (WBB).

Vineyard Theatre announces an initial line-up of stars set for the company's 2019 Gala fundraiser celebrating Tony, Olivier, Drama Desk, and Drama League Award nominated artist and Vineyard Board Member, Colman Domingo. The annual benefit Gala will take place on Monday, May 6, 2019, beginning at 6:00pm at Edison Ballroom (240 West 47th Street).

At an elite East Coast university, an ambitious young black student (Jordan Boatman) and her esteemed white professor (Lisa Banes) meet to discuss a paper the college junior is writing about the American Revolution. They're both liberal. They're both women. They're both brilliant. But very quickly, discussions of grammar and Google turn to race and reputation, and before they know it, they're in dangerous territory neither of them had foreseen - and facing stunning implications that can't be undone, threatening to ruin both their lives.

The Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theater Festival is pleased to announce that Kathleen Turner, a living legend of the stage and screen, will be the guest of honor at this year's Performance Gala, the festival's annual fundraising dinner.

Critically-acclaimed musical theater singer and comedic cabaret artist  Maureen McVerry presents her New Solo Cabaret Show,

Playwright Eleanor Burgess' latest work THE NICETIES receives its west coast premiere at the Geffen Playhouse beginning April 9, 2019. THE NICETIES charts the escalating series of calm-to-volatile discourses between a university college professor and her brilliant student on history, race and reputation. Eleanor, a Huntington Playwright Fellow, carved out some time to answer a few of my inquisitive inquiries on her writing processes, while touching on some of her professional milestones.

The Brown/Trinity Rep MFA Programs end their 2018-19 season with two plays in rep, How We Got On by Idris Goodwin, and She Kills Monsters by Qui Nguyen. She Kills Monsters, directed by Tatyana-Marie Carlo ('20) tackles grief through one of the most popular role-playing games, Dungeons & Dragons. How We Got On, directed by Josiah Davis('20), is a coming-of-age story for three young hip hop artists in the suburbs growing up alongside a new genre of music. All performances will take place in rep from May 3 - 19 at thePell Chafee Performance Center, 87 Empire Street, Providence. Tickets are on sale now at Trinity Rep's box office, by phone (401) 351-4242, or online atwww.TrinityRep.com/MFAShows.

At an elite East Coast university, an ambitious young black student (Jordan Boatman) and her esteemed white professor (Lisa Banes) meet to discuss a paper the college junior is writing about the American Revolution. They're both liberal. They're both women. They're both brilliant. But very quickly, discussions of grammar and Google turn to race and reputation, and before they know it, they're in dangerous territory neither of them had foreseen - and facing stunning implications that can't be undone, threatening to ruin both their lives.

The Brown/Trinity Rep MFA Programs end their 2018-19 season with two plays in rep, How We Got On by Idris Goodwin, and She Kills Monsters by Qui Nguyen. She Kills Monsters, directed by Tatyana-Marie Carlo ('20) tackles grief through one of the most popular role-playing games, Dungeons & Dragons.

TheatreWorks Silicon Valley continues its 2018/19 season with the World Premiere of Hershey Felder: A Paris Love Story, written and performed by piano virtuoso Hershey Felder, who shattered box office records at TheatreWorks with his acclaimed portrayals of Irving Berlin, Beethoven, and Tchaikovsky. Now, Felder captures the life and music of Impressionist composer Claude Debussy, a visionary who proclaimed nature his religion, creating music of ravishing beauty, color, and compassion, from the sweeping "La mer" to the evocative "Prelude a l'apres-midi d'un faune" and the mystical "Clair de lune." Intertwined with Debussy's story, Felder for the first time shares his own deeply personal connection to the City of Light. Directed by Trevor Hay, Hershey Felder: A Paris Love Story will be presented April 3 - May 5, 2019 (press opening: April 6, 2019) at Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, 500 Castro Street, Mountain View. For tickets ($40-$120) and more information the public may visit TheatreWorks.org or call (650) 463-1960.

Sultry heat and Tolstoy's "Anna Karenina" combine to spark rich fantasies and broken dreams, passion and adultery.Open Fist Theatre Company presentsAnna In The Tropics, the powerful, poignant and poetic play that garnered the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for then unknown Cuban-American playwright Nilo Cruz.Jon Lawrence Rivera directs for a May 3opening at Atwater Village Theatre, where performances will continue through June 8. Pay-what-you-want previews begin April 26.