The Public Theatre News

Austrian Stage presented the US and English-language premiere of Canned Meat, a staged reading of this funny, touching Austrian drama.  The performance featured Tony Award Nominee Xanthe Elbrick, alongside Teresa Avia Lim, William DeMeritt and Vince Nappo. 

In the spirit of celebrating 35 years of cutting-edge performances, Undermain establishes its Repertoire Series to honor the gems of its production history, with a reboot of An Iliad, a landmark production from 2012 starring Bruce DuBose and Paul Semrad, directed by Undermain Artistic Director Katherine Owens. An Iliad is a modern-day retelling of Homer's classic. Poetry and humor, the ancient tale of the Trojan War and the modern world collide in this captivating theatrical experience. The setting is simple: the empty theater. The time is now: the present moment. The lone figure onstage is a storyteller-possibly Homer, possibly one of the many bards who followed in his footsteps. He is fated to tell this story throughout history.  Tickets on sale now! www.undermain.org

After his hit production of King Charles III, David Muse returns to Shakespeare Theatre Company to direct Shakespeare's Richard the Third, a mesmerizing chronicle of the megalomaniac's rampage to the throne. The production will play at Sidney Harman Hall (610 F Street NW) from February 5-March 10, 2019.

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater announces the full company for the world premiere of Kenneth Lin's timely cautionary tale of capitalism run amok, Kleptocracy. Inspired by the power struggle between the richest of the Oligarchs and an ambitious Vladimir Putin after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Lin (House of Cards) explores U.S. - Russia relations then and now. Directed by Jackson Gay, and by special arrangement with Robert Ahrens, Mickey Liddell and Michael Mills, Kleptocracy runs January 18 - February 24, 2019 in the Kreeger Theater.

Cherry Lane Theatre is proud to announce dates for its upcoming Off-Broadway presentation of Matt Williams' ACTUALLY, WE'RE F**KED, directed by John Pasquin. Performances will begin on February 26, the production will open on March 7, and run through April 7, 2019 at Cherry Lane Theatre (38 Commerce Street). Tickets are $65-$95 and are available at www.CherryLaneTheatre.org

Taylor Mac's Holiday Sauce, the latest installment of the artist's award-winning A 24-Decade History of Popular Music project, will return to The Town Hall in New York City for another skewering of the sacred and the secular today, December 11th at 8pm. A follow-up to its debut at The Town Hall in December 2017, the show explores Christmas as calamity, upending our yuletide traditions and celebrating the holiday in all of its dysfunction with the families you choose to love.

Yule love A Christmas Carol at The Public Theatre. This weekend only! 

Crowded Fire Theater (CFT) Crowded Fire's Artistic Director Mina Morita unveiled the 2019 mainstage season lineup including two new plays that continue to uphold the company's long tradition of creating boundary-pushing theater.

Beth Fowler, who won two SAG Awards for her performance as Sister Jane Ingalls on the hit Netflix series "ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK", will play Grandma Kurnitz in this Sunday's benefit reading of LOST IN YONKERS.

San Diego Repertory Theatre announced today the cast and creative team for the fourth production in their 43rd season, Julia Cho's Aubergine. Directed by San Diego REP Associate Artistic Director Todd Salovey, Aubergine is an unforgettable story of love, family and the healing power of food. Performances run January 24 - February 17, 2019, in the Lyceum Space Theatre. Tickets start at $25 and are currently on sale to the general public. Previews are January 24 - 29, 2019. Press opening is Wednesday, January 30 at 7:00 p.m. 

Four new works for the stage, with a global cohort of theatremakers, have gathered for development at the two-week Sundance Institute Theatre Lab at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA), convening December 2-16, 2018, including a public performance on December 7. The Labs process, rigorous and generative, is founded on concentrated and abundant time and resources; projects are cast individually and rehearsed daily.

Vineyard Theatre Artistic Directors Douglas Aibel and Sarah Stern announce that the 2018 Susan Stroman Directing Award will be presented to Whitney White on Sunday, December 16 at The Vineyard's 2nd annual Open House from 3-7pm.

Andrea Wolff's I Can't Trace Time, a passionate and whimsical musical memoir, will play one more show in December, moving to the Laurie Beechman Theatre on 12/10 at 6pm. With a signature mixture of pop and Broadway and an ensemble led by Music Director Jude Obermuller, I Can't Trace Time features a master entertainer who has been widely lauded for her strong comic timing, offbeat and compelling characterizations and superb taste in music. Special Guest Artist, guitarist Sean Harkness will appear. The show is directed by 2018 MAC and Bistro Award winning writer-actor, Dan Ruth. The Laurie Beechman Theatre is at 407 W.42nd Street, in the rear and downstairs at the West Bank Cafe. Tickets may be purchased online at: https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/pr/1001723.

FAIRFIELD LUDLOWE HIGH SCHOOL DRAMA CLUB presents 2 One-Act Plays by Thornton Wilder : The Long Christmas Dinner & Pullman Car Hiawatha on Friday, November 30th at 8:00 PM and Today, December 1 at 2:00 PM & 8:00 PM. Tickets: $10.00 in the FLHS Nancy Larsen AUDITORIUM, 785 Unquowa Road, Fairfield, CT. Tickets available at the door.

This holiday season, for one weekend only, Dec 14, 15, and 16th, The Public Theatre, will present their acclaimed adaptation of A Christmas Carol followed by a holiday sing-a-long featuring Christmas Carol fiddler Jennifer Armstrong. The Public Theatre's own version of Dickens' classic has become a favorite holiday tradition in Lewiston/Auburn. This inventive adaptation, performed by six actors and a fiddler, was developed and written for The Public Theatre by Artistic Director Christopher Schario in 1993, and has since been published by Dramatists Play Service and is now regularly performed by theatres around the world.

FAIRFIELD LUDLOWE HIGH SCHOOL DRAMA CLUB presents 2 One-Act Plays by Thornton Wilder : The Long Christmas Dinner & Pullman Car Hiawatha today, November 30th at 8:00 PM and Saturday, December 1 at 2:00 PM & 8:00 PM. Tickets: $10.00 in the FLHS Nancy Larsen AUDITORIUM, 785 Unquowa Road, Fairfield, CT. Tickets available at the door.

THE GAME, a new musical with book and lyrics by Eric Kornfeld and music by John McDaniel, will be presented in a private industry presentation, Thursday, December 6 at 3:30pm and Friday, December 7, 2018 at 11am. Presentations will be held at Pearl Studios.

Celebrated actress Erin Davie, who made her Broadway debut (and won a Theatre World Award) for her breakthrough performance as Young 'Edie' Beale in Broadway's GREY GARDENS opposite Christine Ebersole, has been cast in the lead role of Bella Kurnitz in Neil Simon's Tony and Pulitzer Prize winning masterpiece LOST IN YONKERS (Ms. Davie will take on the role which won Mercedes Ruehl a Tony Award for Best Actress In 1991, a role she also recreated in the 1993 film version). 

Rita Gardner, the legendary New York actress who originated the role of Louisa in 1960 opposite Jerry Orbach in Off-Broadway's THE FANTASTICKS (the world's longest running musical) has joined the cast of the December 9th benefit performance of Neil Simon's Pulitzer Prize winning play LOST IN YONKERS.

Well-known character actor Liz McCartney, who has thrilled Broadway audiences for decades with her performances in THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE, DANCE OF THE VAMPIRES, THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, LES MISERABLES, ANNIE, MAMMA MIA!, and the recent revivals of MY FAIR LADY, SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE and SOUTH PACIFIC, has joined the cast of Neil Simon's LOST IN YONKERS, a benefit evening conceived and co-directed by Tim Realbuto.