The Geffen Playhouse News

TheatreWorks Silicon Valley brings an enchanted bestseller to life for the holidays with the regional premiere of Tuck Everlasting. Set in the 1890s, free-spirited Winnie Foster searches for adventure, finding the Tucks, a close-knit family that has discovered the secret to everlasting life.

More than $100,000 was raised at the exclusive one-night-only reading of Terms of Endearment presented by Berlanti Productions and Jessica Queller at the Geffen Playhouse, it was announced today. All proceeds from the fundraiser will benefit Stand Up To Cancer and Geffen Playhouse's New Play Development Program.

Following a critically acclaimed, sold out run at the Geffen Playhouse earlier this year, the Los Angeles LGBT Center's Lily Tomlin/Jane Wagner Cultural Arts Center, Andrew Carlberg, and Foment Productions will welcome Tony Award-winning playwright and performer Sarah Jones (Bridge & Tunnel) to the Renberg Theatre this fall in her celebrated play Sell/Buy/Date.

Lily Tomlin, Laverne Cox, and Rashida Jones have been set to host the Renberg Theatre gala opening night of Sell/Buy/Date, Tony Award-winning playwright and performer Sarah Jones' smash hit play. Meryl Streep is Honorary Co-Chair. Following a critically acclaimed, sold out run at the Geffen Playhouse earlier this year, the Los Angeles LGBT Center, Andrew Carlberg, and Foment Productions welcome this return engagement to the Renberg Theatre. The opening is on Sunday, October 14, at 7pm and the engagement will run through November 3.

Tony Award-winner Jason Alexander will open his new one-man show 'Jason Alexander: Comedy! Music! Musical Comedy!,' this Thursday night at the NYCB Theatre at Westbury. 

As previously reported, an exclusive one-night-only reading of Terms of Endearment is headed to The Geffen Playhouse. Newly announced Kate Burton, Willie Garson, Alfred Molina, Kumail Nanjiani, and Italia Ricci join the cast.

When Della and her Goddaughter Jen have a truthful heart-to-heart about making the decision whether or not the wedding cake will be baked at Della's Sweets, even though you may need a Kleenex, listen closely to the truthful honesty with which the lines are delivered by these two actresses dedicated to showing audiences that neither side is right nor wrong, just diametrically opposed and correct to each of them. And I am not revealing whether or not Della bakes the cake or even attends the wedding as the truth is revealed during the final moments of the play when THE CAKE proves that love is always the key ingredient in life.

Theater J announces a production of Anna Ziegler's Actually, a provocative new play that explores the timely subject of sexual consent between young people. This hot-button issue is appearing in the news cycle with extraordinary frequency in stories about people at the highest levels of the political arena and about students on college campuses throughout the nation.  Theater J is producing Actually at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater from October 17 - November 18. 

Starting October 7, Artists Repertory Theatre presents Bess Wohl's Small Mouth Sounds, directed by Shawn Lee. Artists Rep's 2016/17 season featured Wohl's American Hero, which was also directed by Lee. Small Mouth Sounds runs from October 7 through November 4 on the Alder Stage.

From hit television writer/producer and acclaimed playwright Bekah Brunstetter (This is Us, Going to a Place where you Already Are), The Cake is a play inspired by a story still in the headlines.

A European premiere from acclaimed American playwright Halley Feiffer, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Gynecologic Oncology Unit at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center of New York City opens at the Finborough Theatre for a four week limited season on Tuesday, 2 October 2018 (Press Nights: Thursday, 4 October 2018 and Friday, 5 October 2018 at 7.30pm).

Award-winning choreographer MANDY MOORE and award-winning director/choreographer WALTER PAINTER join the Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation (SDCF) on Monday, September 24 from 7 to 8 pm at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles as part of SDCF's ongoing One-on-One Conversation series. The series returns to Los Angeles for another in-depth discussion with prominent artists, following its May conversation with the creative team of Soft Power at CTG. SDCF Executive Director David Roberts will moderate.

The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center announced today that is now accepting script submissions for the 2019 National Playwrights Conference. Writers may submit their new plays to the O'Neill's Open Submissions Process through Friday, October 12, 2018.

Have you ever wished for one more chance to say something to someone who has passed away suddenly? What if there was an organization that could arrange for messages to be delivered to those who have died by pairing you up with someone terminally ill who agrees to deliver that message once they have passed on? Would you do it? And what if it was extraordinarily expensive with no way of knowing if your message was ever received? That is the simple magical premise of THE UNTRANSLATABLE SECRETS OF NIKKI CORONA, a new play written by Obie Award-winning playwright Jose Rivera, premiering at the Geffen Playhouse through October 7.

The National Playwrights Conference was established in 1964 as the founding program of the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center. Led by NPC Artistic Director Wendy C. Goldberg, the conference supports playwrights during the creation and development of new plays. Writers of selected works will receive a July 2019 residency with a stipend, housing, meals, and transportation to support an intensive rehearsal process and two script-in-hand public readings with a professional cast and creative team.

From hit television writer/producer and acclaimed playwright Bekah Brunstetter (This is Us, Going to a Place where you Already Are), The Cake is a play inspired by a story still in the headlines. When Della, a North Carolina baker and devout Christian, is asked to bake a cake for her best friend's daughter, she is overjoyed. But that joy is short-lived when she learns the intended is another bride and realizes she is faced with an agonizing choice between faith and family. Struggling to reconcile her deeply held belief in "traditional marriage" and the love she has for the woman she helped raise, Della finds herself in strange new territory.

"Think of these memories as sharp slivers embedded in the soul."International City Theatre presents a gripping drama about war refugees haunted by the death of their loved ones - and by memories of the things they had to do to survive.A Splintered Soul by Long Beach-based playwright Alan L. Brooks opens Oct. 19 atInternational City Theatre in the Long Beach Performing Arts Center. Two low-priced previews take place Oct. 17 and Oct. 18.

When there is a sick child in a family, says playwright Anne Marilyn Lucas, an entire family revolves around the child's illness.  In 2016 more American lives were taken by drug overdoses than were lost in the Vietnam War, according to the Centers for Disease Control, and deaths increased by 10.7%, to 72,000, the following year. 

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Gynaecologic Oncology Unit at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center of New York City is a European premiere from acclaimed American playwright Halley Feiffer, starring actor, comedian and presenter Cariad Lloyd (Peep Show, Channel 4; Have I Got News For You, BBC; West End's Austentatious, Lady Carad's Characters (nominated for the Comedy Awards Best Newcomer 2011), Griefcast (Creator/Host - Winner of Best Podcast of the year 2018, Best Entertainment and Best Interview)).

The prolific playwright Jose Rivera's THE UNTRANSLATABLE SECRETS OF NIKKI CORONA world premieres at the Geffen Playhouse. With previews already begun,  opening night's set for September 12, 2018. When Nikki's twin sister Abril dies, Nikki wishes she had communicated all she should have said to her. Ricardo Chavira plays the pivotal role of Orlando, Nikki's conduit to Abril. We had the opportunity to unveil some various SECRETS of Ricardo's theatrical career.