The Royal Shakespeare Company News

At today's Television Critics Association press tour, PBS President & CEO Paula Kerger revealed that Miranda will also host the PBS Arts Fall Festival, which begins on October 21st. 

Vanessa Redgrave has joined the cast of the big screen adaptation of Peter Turner novel FILM STARS DON'T DIE IN LIVERPOOL.

English Touring Theatre today announces the appointment of Richard Twyman as the company's new Artistic Director. Twyman takes up the position in November 2016, taking over from Rachel Tackley who leaves the company to join Chichester Festival Theatre.

The TV and film veteran--and Hollywood wife--is playing father Baptista in the all-female Shakespeare in the Park.

Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland are set to star in Italian director Paolo Virzì's English-language debut film THE LEISURE SEEKER.

Australia's MY FAIR LADY, directed by Julie Andrews, just announced its leading players, featuring acclaimed British performer Alex Jennings, as Professor Higgins and the young Australian star, Anna O'Byrne, as Eliza Doolittle. 

Full casting is today announced for the world premiere of the new musical GROUNDHOG DAY, which previews at the Old Vic from July 11 with a press night on August 16. Carlyss Peer will play Rita Hanson, alongside the previously announced Andy Karl in the role of Phil Connors. Eugene McCoy plays cameraman Larry, and the ensemble cast includes Leo Andrew, David Birch, Ste Clough, Roger Dipper, Georgina Hagen, Kieran Jae, Julie Jupp, Andrew Langtree, Vicki Lee Taylor, Emma Lindars, Antonio Magro, Carolyn Maitland, Kirsty Malpass, Lisa Mathieson,  Jenny O'Leary, Leanne Pinder, Mark Pollard, Damien Poole, Jack Shalloo, Andrew Spillett and Spencer Stafford.

HOUSTON, TEXAS – Houston Ballet, America's fifth largest ballet company, unveiled the first phase of a marketing plan for Artistic Director Stanton Welch's new production of The Nutcracker which premieres on November 25, 2016. To build upon the anticipation and excitement surrounding the upcoming production Houston Ballet's marketing team has devised a unique three-phase brand campaign to introduce audiences to the new look and feel of the ballet.  

Award-winning opera and theatre director Daniel Kramer will join ENO as Artistic Director from 1 August 2016.

British director Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Road to Perdition, Skyfall, Spectre) will be the president of the International Jury of the Competition at the 73rd Venice International Film Festival

According to reports, Oscar-nominated actor, Ian McKellen, has backed out of a book deal with UK publisher Hodder & Stoughton, which was worth approximately $1.4 million.  

THE ROYAL Shakespeare Company bring A Midsummer Night's Dream to The Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury, next month (April).

The Met's new production of Puccini's MANON LESCAUT opens February 12 with Kristine Opolais as the seductive, tragic heroine and Roberto Alagna in a role debut as her ardent lover, the Chevalier des Grieux.

Good morning, BroadwayWorld! Because we know all our readers eat, sleep and breathe Broadway, what could be better than waking up to it? Today's big news: Take cover! DISASTER! wrecks havoc on Broadway starting tonight, PRODIGAL SON opens at MTC, Janis Joplin heads out on tour and more!

The Met's new production of Puccini's MANON LESCAUT opens February 12 with Kristine Opolais as the seductive, tragic heroine and Roberto Alagna in a role debut as her ardent lover, the Chevalier des Grieux.

Actors from The London Stage, an international touring theater troupe based in London and the University of Notre Dame in the U.S., will be in residency at Rice University March 10-12 performing William Shakespeare's A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM.

British actor and filmmaker Alan Rickman has passed away at the age of 69.

After the devastatingly tragic KING LEAR, Shakespeare wrote PERICLES in the style of story theatre.

BroadwayWorld is excited to report that BBC Two has commissioned UPSTART CROW -- a six-part series about the life of William Shakespeare -- as part of the BBC Shakespeare Festival 2016, a major season celebrating the genius of Shakespeare, 400 years after his death. David Mitchell will take on the lead role.

John Dowland, though also a sprightly and humorous composer, is most famous for the darker side of his character and the pervading melancholy that nourished his unquiet soul. But he was in no way the inventor of highly charged melodic poignancy in solo lute music. Two important composers of the generation of English lutenists that preceded him clearly show signs of great invention including moments of tormented yearnings which led to music of extraordinary depth. John Johnson (died in 1594) and Anthony Holborne (died in 1602) were the most prominent lutenists to remain in England during the Elizabethan period (Dowland spent many years on the Continent). Their œuvre contains rhapsodic Pavans of lyrical intensity and richness of harmony, spirited Galliards, striking character pieces and elaborate variations. They were both virtuosos if the highest calibre as the daring of their diminution techniques attests.