The Public Theater News

Shattered Globe Theatre will continue its 2019-20 Season with the Chicago premiere of Kevin Artigue's SHEEPDOG, a love story that investigates the blurred lines between duty and passion in the face of police brutality, directed by Wardell Julius Clark. SHEEPDOG will play January 16 a?" February 29, 2020 at Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont Ave. in Chicago. Tickets are currently available at www.shatteredglobe.org, by calling (773) 975-8150 or in person at the Theater Wit Box Office. The press opening is Sunday, January 19  at 3 pm.

Tantrum Theater, Ohio University's professional theater company, announces an innovative new collaborative partnership with Musical Theatre Factory (MTF), a leading non-profit organization focused on developing bold and inclusive new musicals by early career artists. The first new work from this partnership will be a developmental reading of the new musical Eighty-Sixed by Sam Salmond and Jeremy J. King, with a public performance on January 18, 2020.

Theatre for a New Audience (TFANA; Jeffrey Horowitz, Founding Artistic Director) presents William Shakespeare's Timon of Athens, a co-production with Shakespeare Theatre Company in association with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Director Simon Godwin (Measure for Measure) returns to TFANA with a reimagining of his vibrant staging of Timon of Athens, which premiered at the Royal Shakespeare Company in 2018 - the first time the play had been staged with a female lead.

Ensemble Studio Theatre/Los Angeles in association with VS. Theatre Company has announced the world premiere production of The Water Tribe, a new play by Don Cummings. Under the direction of Tricia Small, there will be three preview performances January 10a?"12 and opening is set for Friday, January 17, at 8pm. The engagement will run through February 9 at VS. Theatre.

New York Times bestselling author Chris Bohjalian will bring his world-premiere stage adaptation of his novel Midwives to George Street Playhouse next month and kick off 2020 in George Street's new home at the New Brunswick Performing Arts Center. 

We're heading into the final week of voting for the 2019 BroadwayWorld San Antonio Awards, brought to you by TodayTix! Vote today to make sure your favorite local theatre's achievements and performers are recognized!

F*It Club, the New York Innovative Award-winning film and theatre company, will complete ten years of its annual series of short, commissioned world-premiere plays at the IRT Theater as part of their 3B Development Series in Manhattan's West Village with The Spring Fling: Happily Ever After, ten new short plays by Bekah Brunstetter (NBC's This Is Us, The Cake), Matthew Lee Erlbach (Showtime's Masters of Sex, The Doppelganger), Monet Hurst-Mendoza (NBC's Law and Order: SVU ), Daniel K. Isaac (Fullerton), Chelsea Marcantel (Airness), Gregory S. Moss (Indian Summer, punkplay), Leah Nanako Winkler (NBC's New Amsterdam, Kentucky, God Says This), Larry Powell (Lost Dog), Daniel Talbott (ABC's The Conners), & Pia Wilson (National Geographic's Genius).

The Philly POPS starts the new year with a tip of the hat to one of Broadway's greatest luminaries, Marvin Hamlisch, conducted by Marvin's mentee and friend, Music Director Todd Ellison, January 17-19, 2020. HAMLISCH: With Love features Disney Broadway powerhouse Ashley Brown and four Musical Theater students from Temple University's Boyer College of Music and Dance.

Huntington Theatre Company has announced the extension of We All Fall Down written by Boston area playwright and Huntington Playwriting Fellow Lila Rose Kaplan and directed by Obie Award winner and artistic director of Hartford Stage Melia Bensussen. 

The Kimmel Center Cultural Campus has announced three new Jazz Residency teams for the 2019-20 season: Ruth Naomi Floyd (Composer/Vocals) and Charles a?oeChaza?? Lattimore Howard (Lyricist/Poet); Immanuel Wilkins (Composer/Saxophone) with Rog Walker (Photographer) and David Dempewolf (Video Installation); and Richard Hill Jr. (Composer/Voice/Bass). Each team will create a new, relevant, and engaging a?oePhilly Madea?? work for the community. In the Kimmel Center Jazz Residency's seventh consecutive year, all three of these original pieces will focus on the relationship of Philadelphia against a social issue, including the homelessness issue, the introspective examination of one's cultural identity as a citizen, and a futuristic look at neighborhoods.

Broadway actress Jennifer Damiano will perform at Holmdel Theatre Companys Broadway at the Barn Series on January 4.

The Public Theater (Artistic Director, Oskar Eustis; Executive Director, Patrick Willingham) announced complete casting today for the New York premiere of THE VAGRANT TRILOGY, a Public Theater commission, written by Emerging Writers Group Alumna Mona Mansour. Directed by Mark Wing-Davey, THE VAGRANT TRILOGY begins performances in the LuEsther Hall on Tuesday, March 17 with a Joseph Papp Free Preview performance, and will run through Sunday, April 26 with an official press opening on Wednesday, April 1.

ALL ARTS, the broadcast and digital platform created earlier this year by New York Public Media company WNET, announced today the selection of its first Artist in Residence, veteran theater artist Taylor Mac. 

Adam Chanler-Berat, Tavi Gevinson, and Andy Grotelueschen have joined the upcoming Classic Stage Company revival of Assassins. They will play the roles of John Hinckley Jr., Squeaky Fromme, and Samuel Byck respectively.

On January 23, The MacDowell Colony kicks off the year-long MacDowell NYC Salon Series a?oeSpark & Illuminationa?? with an evening of original musical theatre as James Lapine, Tom Kitt, and Michael Korie (pictured at MacDowell above) will be on hand to present excerpts of Flying Over Sunset and talk about their MacDowell-supported collaboration just weeks before the musical's Broadway premiere. Writer-director Lapine, composer Kitt, and lyricist Korie will present songs from their new play in an intimate setting in Chelsea and will share stories of their creative process. The evening launches a series of public salons scheduled for 2020, as some of the contemporary art world's most dynamic creators will perform, exhibit, and read from works created at The MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, NH, one of the nation's leading contemporary arts organizations and its first artist residency program.

Take a look at video from The Public Theater's A BRIGHT ROOM CALLED DAY, written by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner and directed by Public Theater Artistic Director Oskar Eustis. This scorching new version of Kushner's first play began performances in the Anspacher Theater on Tuesday, October 29 with an official press opening on Monday, November 25. A BRIGHT ROOM CALLED DAY was originally scheduled to close on December 8, but has now been extended twice through Sunday, December 22.

In this episode, Ben and Daniel talk to four-time Tony-winning lighting designer Kevin Adams about the soundtrack to the 1973 film 'Jesus Christ Superstar.' They also discuss 'Hair,' Barry Dennen, Barbra Streisand, Sandra Bernhard, 'Without You I'm Nothing,' Jodie Foster, Madonna, Tommy, Rupert Everett, Michael Mayer, Spike Lee, Jennifer Holliday, Stephen Trask, and John Cameron Mitchell. Kevin shares stories from his career, from working as a gogo dancer, to working on music videos, to collaborating with legendary directors and performers at The Mark Taper Forum, The Public Theater, and on Broadway. Kevin's credits include 'Hedwig and the Angry Inch,' 'Spring Awakening,' 'Passing Strange,' 'Next to Normal,' 'The Cher Show,' and 'SpongeBob SquarePants.'

Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for theatre, has announced the 2020 TCG Gala: Our Stories will be held on Monday, February 3, 2020 at The Edison Ballroom (240 W 47th Street). The Gala will honor the National Black Theatre Festival of Winston-Salem and David Henry Hwang and will include festive performances, inspiring speakers, and a celebratory dinner with theatre leaders, celebrities, and enthusiasts. A 6:00pm cocktail reception will be followed by a 7:00pm seated dinner, with entertainment beginning at 7:20pm. Additional programming will be announced soon.

Normal Ave will launch its 2nd Annual NAPSeries (Normal Ave Playwrights Series) with 29-hour readings of four brand new plays. This year's festival will include Men Accumulate by Peter Kim George, On Trash Monsters by Gillian Beth Durkee, Sarah Sits Shiva for Herself by Megan Pope, and Seven Letter Names by Kristian O'Hare. All readings will take place January 10-12 at Normal Ave's Medicine Show Theatre, located at 549 W 52nd Street, and are free and open to the public.