The Public Theater News

Artists Repertory Theatre kicks off its 2018/19 season with Skeleton Crew by Dominique Morisseau, directed by William (Bill) Earl Ray. Skeleton Crew is the third play in Morisseau's The Detroit Project (A 3-Play Cycle) following Detroit '67 and Paradise Blue. For Skeleton Crew, Morisseau received a 2016 Obie Award and the play was selected for the 2014 Kilroy List. Skeleton Crew runs from September 2 through September 30 on the Morrison Stage.

The Love Show, NYC's premier theatrical dance company, and special guests pay kick-ass homage to Liberty Belle, Zoya the Destroya, and all of the other heroes and heels of GLOW. Experience wrestling as you've never seen it before. Clotheslines and Kick lines! Suplexes and Soutenus! Boston Crabs and Bump 'n' Grind! Join us for one night only of piledriving dance, burlesque, comedy, and great, great music, as we turn back the clock to the '80s and transform LPR's stage into the squared circle of the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling!

The Marsh San Francisco adds more free performances of Brian Copeland's The Waiting Period, due to ongoing support from a GoFundMe campaign and generous corporate contributions from Fremont Bank and OSIsoft in San Leandro. This deeply moving and surprisingly funny work outlines Copeland's own struggles with depression and suicidal thought, and is presented at no cost to remove all barriers for those who may be struggling with depression themselves.

The National Asian American Theatre Company, kicks off their 28th season with Stephen Brown-Fried's new adaptation of Shakespeare's Henry VI. This Off-Broadway limited engagement at the Mezzanine Theatre at A.R.T./New York Theaters (502 West 53rd Street at Tenth Avenue) will open Tuesday August 21st (Part 1) and Wednesday August 22nd (Part 2).  Performances continue through September 8th only.

The Philly POPS will make its 40th Anniversary Season debut with performances by Broadway star Leslie Odom Jr. on September 28, 29 and 30 at the Kimmel Center.

The Department of Theater at Brooklyn College is one of New York City's outstanding institutions in the training of theater artists. With the assistance of a generous grant from the Tow Foundation, the Department of Theater, in conjunction with the MFA Playwriting Program, headed by co-coordinators Mac Wellman and Erin Courtney, will present the annual Weasel Festival, hosted by The Public Theater (August 17-24). This festival of new works, previously produced by the playwrights, will feature performances of full length plays written by Kate Dakota Kremer, Rachel Kauder Nalebuff, Jerry Lieblich, and April Ranger all of whom are recent graduates of the MFA Playwrighting Program at Brooklyn College.

This September, Joe's Pub at The Public kicks off its 20th Anniversary year, celebrating two decades of presenting the best in live music and performance nightly with a commitment to diversity, production values, community, and artistic freedom. The fall season is comprised of Joe's Pub debuts like Max Vernon and The Tiger Lillies; familiar faces like Justin Vivian Bond, John Kelly, and Shaina Taub; and two New York Voices commissions: Refrigerated Dreams, a collaboration from Nona Hendryx and Carrie Mae Weems, and Murray Hill's About To Break, directed by Scott Wittman. There will also be a change in leadership at Joe's Pub - Alex Knowlton will become Director of Joe's Pub, as Shanta Thake will inaugurate a new role at The Public Theater as Senior Director of Artistic Programs.

For the 20-somethings working at a chic, unnamed New York magazine, the only thing that matters is style, status - and selling out to the highest bidder. The Echo Theater Company presents a razor-sharp, darkly comic drama about ambition, office warfare and pecking orders by MacArthur "genius" grant recipient Branden Jacobs-Jenkins.Chris Fields directs the West Coast premiere of Pulitzer Prize-finalist Gloria, opening Sept. 15 at Atwater Village Theatre.

The Public Theater announces complete for the New York premiere of MOTHER OF THE MAID, written by Emmy Award winner Jane Anderson.

The Playwrights Realm (Katherine Kovner, Founding Artistic Director; Roberta Pereira, Producing Director) today announces the complete cast and creative team for the world premiere of Jonathan Payne's The Revolving Cycles Truly and Steadily Roll'd, directed by Awoye Timpo (Sept. 7-Oct. 6, at The Duke on 42nd Street, a New 42nd Street project).  This world premiere marks the first full production from the mordantly funny and unsparing voice of Jonathan Payne.

Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater offers the perfect end to a delicious season: Raging Skillet, by Jacques Lamarre, August 22 to September 15. Based on "The Raging Skillet: The True Life Adventures of Chef Rossi, A Memoir with Recipes," Raging Skillet is directed by Sasha Bratt, with Shanel Sparr as Chef Rossi, Kathryn Kates as her mom, and Michael Patrick Trimm as DJ Skillit. Performances are at 8:00 p.m., Tuesdays through Saturdays. Two preview performances, August 22 and 23, begin at 7:30 p.m.

WP THEATER announces the 15 artists selected for the 2018-2020 WP Lab. The two-year residency begins in late August and culminates with the biennial WP Pipeline Festival.

Ma-Yi Theater Company - which has had a breakout season with the award-winning success of the musical KPOP, and recently with Mike Lew's new play TEENAGE DICK (at The Public Theater) - announces its 2018-19 season of new works, according to the company's Producing Artistic Director, Ralph B. Peña.  Among the offerings will be world-premieres of plays that have been created and developed through Ma-Yi's celebrated Writers Lab, which has the distinction of being a primary incubator of new Asian American theater and the largest collective of Asian-American playwrights in the world. 

GHOSTLIGHT RECORDS will release the original cast recording of the critically-acclaimed new musical Hundred Days in digital and streaming formats on Friday, September 21. A physical CD release will follow later this year. Hundred Days features a book by The Bengsons and Sarah Gancher, music and lyrics by The Bengsons. The show was directed by Anne Kauffman with movement direction by Sonya Tayeh. 

'Clown Show' is a play about the struggle of two clowns to bring joy. Koko and Pipi test the patience of the theatre manager as they prepare to do their show for adults and kiddies. They worry that in the age of smartphones and texting the children won't be as responsive to live performance as they used to be. But they are determined to use their talents and skills to bring delight to the audience.

Once Upon a Rhyme: A Musical Tale (formerly iLLA! A Hip Hop Musical), with book, music, and lyrics by Ronve O'Daniel and music, orchestrations, and arrangements by Jevares C. Myrick will be presented as part of TheatreWorks Silicon Valley's 2018 New Works Festival.

Following critical acclaim and with the current run almost sold out, the European premiere of Jordan Seavey's Homos, or Everyone in America at the Finborough Theatre adds 3 extra Wednesday matinees due to public demand - 15, 22 and 29 August at 3pm. Josh Seymour directs Tyrone Huntley (The Academic), Harry McEntire (The Writer), Dan Krikler (Dan) and Cash Holland (Laila). The production completes its run on 1 September.

In a small border town, young Alicia comes home from college with a "friend" for her family to meet. The trouble begins when her loving grandma (Kika) and well-intentioned yet nosy aunts assume that Alicia is bringing home a boyfriend or fiance. Alicia, wanting her family's acceptance and fearing ancient Mexican magic, turns to her three fairy-drag-queen friends for guidance.

Rick Charles Mueller, like most people, makes mistakes. But in his case, he learns from them, and then writes. He writes plays, he fictionalizes some of his experiences, embellishes, creates new scenarios, maybe new characters, and then puts it out there so that his experience can entertain...but also teach a life lesson. It's nothing new to the writer, actor, director, and now producer of his own new play, Forbidden, curently playing for a limited engagement at The 13th Street Repertory Theatre in Greenwich Village.

American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) announced today casting for Lynn Nottage's 2017 Pulitzer Prize-winning drama, Sweat, performing at A.C.T.'s Geary Theater (415 Geary St., San Francisco) September 26-October 21, 2018.