The Public Theatre News

As reported by the Daily News the Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is 'cracking down' on scalpers selling the free tickets to Shakespeare in the Park this summer. All tickets to the Shakespeare In the Park productions are free, tickets are distributed on a first-come first-served basis usually beginnning in the early afternoon. Last summer patrons were linned up as early as 4am to secure their spot in line for the free tickets.

SummerStage has announced their first theater season debut with The Etymology of Bird, written by Zakiyyah Alexander and Directed by Jade King Carroll. This show is a part of SummerStage's summer-long FREE theater program and will take place on Friday, June 11th and Saturday June 12th at Von King Park in Brooklyn and Friday, June 18th and Saturday, June 19th at Betsy Head Park, Brooklyn at 8:00 p.m.

City Parks Foundation (David Rivel, Executive Director) has announced their 25th Anniversary season of SummerStage, with twenty free performance dates and six unique theater productions from June 11 - August 27, 2010.

Leigh Silverman is set to direct a reading of CHINGLISH June 10 and 11. The reading will take place at The Lark Play Development Center in association with the Public Theatre.

After a brief hiatus from any major productions, STAGED! Portland's Musical Theatre Series is back with an ambitious summer line-up. STAGED! is presenting an in-depth look at one of the most dynamic musical theatre composers working today, Tony Award-winning composer Jason Robert Brown.

SummerStage has announced their first theater season debut with The Etymology of Bird, written by Zakiyyah Alexander and Directed by Jade King Carroll. This show is a part of SummerStage's summer-long FREE theater program and will take place on Friday, June 11th and Saturday June 12th at Von King Park in Brooklyn and Friday, June 18th and Saturday, June 19th at Betsy Head Park, Brooklyn at 8:00 p.m.

William Shakespeare's classic comedy A Midsummer Night's Dream is re-imagined with a queer aesthetic in Mauckingbird Theatre Company's gender-bent tale of modern love, directed by Mauckingbird Artistic Director Peter Reynolds and co-Director Lynne Innerst.

The Playwrights' Center of Minneapolis named the recipients of the 2010-11 McKnight National Residency and Commission (Taylor Mac), McKnight Advancement Grants (Mat Smart and Deborah Stein), and McKnight Theater Artist Fellowships (Annie Enneking, Masanari Kawahara, and Robert Rosen) on June 7, 2010. The three programs provide nearly $150,000 in grants and artistic support funds and are underwritten by the Minneapolis-based McKnight Foundation.

Pascal Productions is pleased to announce that the role of Mexican painter, Diego Rivera, in the World Premiere production of MODOTTI, will now be played by Marco Greco (Behind The Counter With Mussolini and Den of Thieves).

Are you sitting at home with the Perfect Musical, wondering how on earth to get producers to notice it? There might be some answers for you at this summer's conference for musical theatre writers in Los Angeles. It's called 'The Biz of the Musical Theatre Biz: a Conference for Writers' and it just might be the key to figuring out how to get your musical produced.

Casting is complete for Goodman Theatre's Chicago-premiere production of Tracey Scott Wilson's The Good Negro, directed by Resident Director Chuck Smith. Wilson and Smith have tapped nine actors to bring this historical drama to the Albert stage, including Karen Aldridge (Goodman's The Cook; Proof); Teagle F. Bougere (Broadway's A Raisin in the Sun; The Tempest); Tory O. Davis (Goodman's Magnolia); John Hoogenakker (Goodman's Rock 'n' Roll; Chicago Shakespeare's Othello); Billy Eugene Jones (Broadway's Passing Strange; Radio Golf); Nambi Kelley (Goodman's Crumbs from the Table of Joy; Victory Gardens' The Lost Boys of Sudan); Demetrios Troy (Northlight's Awake and Sing; Chicago Shakespeare's Richard III); Dan Waller (Goodman's Ghostwritten; Talking Pictures) and Mick Weber (Goodman's Rock 'n' Roll; Chicago Theatre's Shear Madness). The production will run from May 1 - June 6, 2010.

The bids come fast and furious as an off-the-wall family of professional auctioneers puts its heart, its heritage, and even its longest held secrets on the block in the uproarious world premiere of AUCTIONING THE AINSLEYS, by one of America's hottest young playwrights, Laura Schellhardt (The K of D), presented by TheatreWorks, the nationally acclaimed theater of Silicon Valley.

Forced to find a new member just days before an appearance at the White House, the artists of an internationally celebrated string quartet are caught in a crescendo of talent and personality in the regional premiere of Michael Hollinger's OPUS, presented by TheatreWorks, the nationally acclaimed theater of the Silicon Valley.

Paulette Haupt, Artistic Director of the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's National Music Theater Conference, today announced directors for music theater selections previously announced

Know Theatre of Cincinnati and the Cincinnati Fringe Festival is proud to announce The 2010 Cincinnati Fringe Festival. The 7th annual festival is scheduled to kick-off June 1st with CityBeat's official Fringe Kick-off Party. The festival will continue through June 12th with 29 productions and more than 170 artists.

Larry French, Broadway actor and concert artist, died in his sleep on May 28, 2010 of a massive heart attack. He was 58. A graduate of Howard Paine University, he first came to New York City in 1978 from Dallas, Texas, to pursue a career in acting, and shortly thereafter met his wife of 30 years, Jeanne Lehman French, in the Carleton Davis tour of CAMELOT.

Classic Stage Company (CSC), under the leadership of Artistic Director Brian Kulick and Executive Director Jessica R. Jenen, will present two-time Academy Award-winner Dianne Wiest in THE FOREST, by Alexander Ostrovosky, translated by Kathleen Tolan, and directed by Brian Kulick, beginning performances Friday, April 23 at CSC with an official press opening Thursday, May 6 at 7pm. THE FOREST will also star Obie Award-winning actor John Douglas Thompson, who earned great acclaim last year for his title role performance in Othello at Theatre for a New Audience. THE FOREST will play a limited engagement through Sunday May 30 only.

Classic Stage Company (CSC), under the leadership of Artistic Director Brian Kulick and Executive Director Jessica R. Jenen, will present two-time Academy Award-winner Dianne Wiest in THE FOREST, by Alexander Ostrovosky, translated by Kathleen Tolan, and directed by Brian Kulick, beginning performances Friday, April 23 at CSC (136 East 13th Street) with an official press opening Thursday, May 6 at 7pm.

New York's OBIE Award-winning Epic Theatre Ensemble (Zak Berkman, Melissa Friedman, Ron Russell, Founding Executive Directors) today announced the cast and creative team for the New York premiere of Sarah Ruhl's Passion Play (In The Next Room… or the vibrator play) and directed by Mark Wing-Davey (The Singing Forest). The cast will include Brendan Averett, Polly Noonan, Daniel Pearce, Alex Podulke, Keith Reddin, Godfrey L. Simmons Jr., T. Ryder Smith, Felix Solis Jr., Kate Turnbull and Nicole Wiesner.

The award-winning actor PETER FRANCIS JAMES ('Stuff Happens') has joined the cast of PROPHECY, Karen Malpede's play which will begin previews Off-Broadway on May 29 prior to an official press opening on June 8 at the East Fourth Street Theatre (83 E. 4 St.) in Manhattan.