The Public Theatre News

HOW TO BE A GOOD ITALIAN DAUGHTER, a play written and performed by Antoinette LaVecchia, will begin its recently-announced 8-week extension Off-Broadway on Thursday, October 29 at 7p.m. at the Cherry Lane Studio Theatre in Manhattan. The production is now scheduled to play through December 12, 2009.

The Theatre Company at CAP21 presents The Dorothy Strelsin New Works Reading Series -Salvation, a New Comedy by James McLindon. Salvation will be presented Monday, November 9th, 7:30PM.

With the 2009 Summer Classical Repertory Season at a close, The Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum broadens its scope to focus on activities such as its year-round educational programs and ongoing development series for playwrights, 'Botanicum Seedlings.' The program's Fall Playreadings are Laura Shamas' Trapper Joan on Sunday, November 15 and Twigs and Bone by Tiffany Antone on Sunday, November 22. Readings begin at 1 pm, and admission is free.

For one show only, quadruple threat singer/songwriter/composer/lyricist Jeremy Schonfeld will bring his heralded rock-theater fusion to Joe's Pub (425 Lafayette Street, NYC). The special late night concert event will take place on Monday, October 26th, at 11:30pm.

Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company continues Season 30, the 2009-10 Season, with a creative staging of FULL CIRCLE by Charles L. Mee (Big Love, bobrauschenbergamerica) that will be performed throughout the Woolly facility.

Zachary James opens his one man show, IMBECILE D'AMOUR, Sunday, October 25th. Gorilla Tango Theatre will host James' performance on Sunday, October 25th at 7:00pm.

Acclaimed theater company Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) has announced nine initial performers who will participate in the return of its unique benefit evening STORIES ON 5 STORIES on Monday, November 9. Among those taking part in the special event will be two-time Academy Award winner and two-time Obie Award winner Diane Wiest (Memory House at Playwrights Horizons/PH, Hannah and Her Sisters, Bullets Over Broadway), Tony Award winner Debra Monk (Assassins at PH, Redwood Curtain, Curtains), Obie Award winner Jason Butler Harner (current Stage Manager in Our Town, Hedda Gabler, The Coast of Utopia), Clarence Derwent Award winner Zoe Kazan (100 Saints You Should Know at PH; Come Back, Little Sheba; Things We Want), Theatre World Award winner Cassie Beck (The Drunken City and Prayer for My Enemy at PH), Cristin Milioti (The Retributionists at PH, the upcoming The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter), Sue Jean Kim (The Drunken City and BFE at PH, 365 Days/365 Plays), Carmen M. Herlihy (The Thugs, Crooked) and Greg Keller (Broadway's Uncle Vanya, The Rainmaker). Additional performers will be announced in the coming weeks.

'HOW TO BE A GOOD ITALIAN DAUGHTER (In Spite of Myself)' -- a play written and performed by Antoinette LaVecchia -- has announced that it will extend its Off-Broadway engagement at the Cherry Lane Studio Theatre (38 Commerce St.) in Manhattan for eight weeks, running now through December 20, 2009. The play will perform a revised schedule, with new ticket prices during its extension.

New Rep On Tour will open its tenth season with George Orwell's Animal Farm. The Tour will travel to 20 Boston area schools and reach over 8,000 students.

For one show only, quadruple threat singer/songwriter/composer/lyricist Jeremy Schonfeld will bring his heralded rock-theater fusion to Joe's Pub (425 Lafayette Street, NYC). The special late night concert event will take place on Monday, October 26th, at 11:30pm.

Rattlestick Playwrights Theater continues its 15th anniversary season with the world premiere of Post No Bills, a Tex-Mex play with music by Mando Alvarado. Directed by Michael Ray Escamilla, performances begin Thursday, November 11th, 2009. Opening night is Thursday, November 19th at 7pm. The show is scheduled to run through Sunday, December 13th, 2009.

The Public Theater, Tony Kushner and Jeanine Tesori presented COURAGE IN CONCERT, a one-night-only benefit concert reuniting Kevin Kline, Jenifer Lewis, Austin Pendleton, Meryl Streep and Frederick Weller for an evening of songs from the Public Theater's 2006 Shakespeare in the Park production of Brecht's masterpiece, Mother Courage and Her Children. The benefit was performed at The Public Theater on Monday, October 19th with all proceeds benefiting American Jewish World Service and Partners In Health.

Full casting was announced today for MEMPHIS, an original Broadway musical, opening Monday, October 19, 2009 at the Shubert Theatre (225 W. 44th Street) following critically-acclaimed and sold-out engagements at La Jolla Playhouse and Seattle's 5th Avenue Theatre. Previews begin on Wednesday, September 23, 2009.

Zachary James opens his one man show, IMBECILE D'AMOUR, Sunday, October 25th. Gorilla Tango Theatre will host James' performance on Sunday, October 25th at 7:00pm.

The Archery Contest delivers a risqué, daring and hyper-stylized sex comedy that shoots straight into the heart of marriage in America. Behind this Technicolor Romantic Pastoral lies a glittering and scathing indictment of rules and regulations, rituals, and rites of spring. A foursome and a sexton breach the boundaries of matrimonial shackles and dive headlong into a hedonistic lifestyle with complex consequences.

Connecticut Repertory Theatre (CRT) will present Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen's The Exonerated, October 9 - 18 in the Nafe Katter on the Storrs campus

American Theater Company (ATC) kicks off its 25th season with the Chicago Premiere of Yeast Nation (the triumph of life) with music & lyrics by Mark Hollmann and book & lyrics by Greg Kotis. The production is directed by Artistic Director PJ Paparelli, with Musical Direction by Mark Elliott, and will run September 10 - October 18, 2009 at American Theater Company, 1909 W. Byron St, Chicago. An official opening is set for Thursday, September 17, 2009 at 7 PM.

Kate Dawson presents the second encore return of her wildly successful show The Asshole In My Head, her hysterical one-woman show told through stories and song.

Astoria Performing Arts Center is pleased to announce their production of the 2005 Tony Award nominee for Best Play, Martin McDonagh's The Pillowman, directed by Tom Wojtunik.

Academy Award nominated director Spike Lee, the award winning Culture Project, Steve Colman and Jayson Jackson in association with The Public Theater is presenting County of Kings. Written and performed by Lemon Andersen (Russell Simmons Def Poetry Jam), and directed by Elise Thoron, County of Kings will open tonight, October 12 at The Public Theater. The show has been in previews since September 29 and will run for a six week limited engagement.