Theatre Development Fund News

Fifth Third Bank Broadway in Atlanta announced today that single tickets for the national tour of the explosive Broadway hit AMERICAN IDIOT, called "wonderfully raucous" and "emotionally charged" by The New York Times and "flat-out electrifying" by the Boston Globe, will go on sale January 26 at 10:00 a.m. The show will play May 1-4 as part of the Fifth Third Bank Broadway in Atlanta 2013/2014 season. Ticket prices start at $30 and will be available at the Fox Theatre box office (660 Peachtree Street, NE), by visiting broadwayinatlanta.com or by calling 1-855-285-8499. Group orders of 10 or more may be placed by calling 404-881-2000.

Don't Quit Your Night Job, returned to its new home at 54 Below in New York City on Thursday, January 16th, 11:30pm. Scroll down for photos!

Don't Quit Your Night Job, returns to its new home at 54 Below in New York City on Thursday, January 16th, 11:30pm. Joining creators STEVE ROSEN, SARAH SALTZBERG and DAN LIPTON will be DERRICK BASKIN (Memphis), Tony nominee JOHN ELLISON CONLEE (The Watson Intelligence), LILLA CRAWFORD (Annie, upcoming 'Into The Woods' film), LEA DeLARIA (Orange is the New Black), ALEXANDER GEMIGNANI (Les Miserables), JASON KRAVITS (Relatively Speaking, 'The Michael J. Fox Show'), Tony nominated composer lyricists BENJ PASEK AND JUSTIN PAUL (A Christmas Story, Dogfight), EPHRAIM SYKES (Motown, Newsies), Tony nominee MARY TESTA (Disaster! Queen of the Mist), and stage, tv, film icon, and the star of the critically acclaimed and soon to arrive on broadway - Honeymoon in Vegas... TONY DANZA! With DJ's Andrew Andrew (Girls), and a special visit from DAVID ROSSMER. Featuring DAMIEN BASSMAN (The Addams Family) on drums, RACHEL MAIER (Soul Doctor) on stage management; and presented by LIPTON, ROSEN, SALTZBERG and SHOSHANA FEINSTEIN

Berkeley Repertory Theatre announces the world premiere of The House that will not Stand, a historical comedic drama commissioned from award-winning poet-playwright and Oakland native Marcus Gardley. Sensuous, witty, heartbreaking, and uplifting - The House that will not Stand unearths a story about free women of color in 1836 New Orleans, where black Creole women entered into common-law marriages with affluent white men. When her wealthy lover mysteriously dies, Beartrice Albans' foundation of security hangs precariously by a thread. She is left to fend for her three unwed daughters in a world where freedom must be carefully negotiated. Told in a rich and lyrical river of words, this new play was developed through The Ground Floor: Berkeley Rep's Center for the Creation and Development of New Work. It's helmed by Patricia McGregor, whose many credits include the celebrated production of Spunk at California Shakespeare Theater. The House that will not Stand begins previews on Berkeley Rep's intimate Thrust Stage on Friday, January 31, opens on Wednesday, February 5 and runs through Sunday, March 16, 2014.

Lookingglass Theatre Company launches a more comprehensive accessibility initiative in conjunction with the Theatre Development Fund. As part of the initiative, Lookingglass will now provide open captioning, Braille program books, touch tours and audio-described performances for all of its productions, in an effort to better serve its audience members with visual and hearing impairments.

For the first time in The Fire This Time Festival history Season Five will feature a fully realized production of a full-length play, Lord's Resistance, by Season Two playwright Camille Darby, directed by Christopher Burris. The production will play six performances at The Kraine Theater (85 East 4th Street between 2nd Avenue and Bowery) January 22-31, Wednesday through Friday at 7:30pm. Tickets ($15) are available online at www.horseTRADE.info or by calling Smarttix at 212-868-4444.

Don't Quit Your Night Job returns to its new home at 54 Below in New York City on December 19th, 11:30pm. Joining creators Steve Rosen, Sarah Saltzberg and Dan Lipton are a slew of Broadway performers.

The Commercial Theater Institute (CTI) is now accepting applications for the next 14-week program which will take place on Monday evenings from 7:00pm - 10:00pm between February 10 and May 19, 2014. The entire seminar and course schedule will be announced soon.

Don't Quit Your Night Job returns to New York City at its new home, 54 Below, tonight, November 21st, 11:30pm.

Don't Quit Your Night Job returns to New York City at its new home, 54 Below, on November 21st, 11:30pm.

For the budget minded holiday gifter who wants to give theatre tickets to their friends and loved ones, Theatre Development Fund (TDF), (the not-for-profit performing arts service organization), offers the one GIFT CERTIFICATE good for discount and full-price tickets to shows on and Off Broadway with TKTS GIFT CERTIFICATES.

Great Lakes Theater (GLT), Cleveland's Classic Company, will present a "sensory-friendly" matinee performance of its 25th anniversary production of A Christmas Carol for children and adults on the autism spectrum and their families at the Ohio Theatre, PlayhouseSquare on Wednesday, November 27th at 11:00 a.m. Coordinated in partnership with Theatre Development Fund: Autism Theatre Initiative, the Cuyahoga County Board of Developmental Disabilities and Milestones Autism Organization, the exclusive performance for patrons on the autism spectrum is the first professional theater offering of its kind in the state of Ohio.

Tom Viertel has been appointed Executive Director of the Commercial Theater Institute, effective immediately. The announcement was made today by Charlotte St. Martin, Executive Director of The Broadway League, and Victoria Bailey, Executive Director of Theatre Development Fund.

T. Fellowship in association with Columbia University School of the Arts announced Aaron Glick as the third fellow in the one-year program designed to educate and empower new creative producers. The fellow will receive a stipend of $10,000 with a $20,000 budget for the development of a new theatrical production.

Over 450 elementary and secondary school students who are either deaf or hard of hearing from 17 schools in the tri-State region, will attended one of the next three Wednesday matinee performances of the hit musical Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella. Three upcoming matinee performances (today, October 30, November 6 and 13) of the show will be simultaneously sign language interpreted and open captioned by TDF's Accessibility Programs (TAP), which is bringing the students with mild to severe hearing loss to the theatre through their 'Access for Young Audiences' program. Additionally, earlier this month, TAP brought 100 students who are blind or have low vision to the Wednesday matinee performance on October 9, which featured audio description.

Over 450 elementary and secondary school students who are either deaf or hard of hearing from 17 schools in the tri-State region, will attended one of the next three Wednesday matinee performances of the hit musical Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella. Three upcoming matinee performances (October 30, November 6 and 13) of the show will be simultaneously sign language interpreted and open captioned by TDF's Accessibility Programs (TAP), which is bringing the students with mild to severe hearing loss to the theatre through their 'Access for Young Audiences' program. Additionally, earlier this month, TAP brought 100 students who are blind or have low vision to the Wednesday matinee performance on October 9, which featured audio description.

In July of 2009, TDF launched a new service, "Off-Off@$9," designed to build off-Off Broadway audiences by providing $9 advance eTix exclusively to TDF members. The program has been so successful and popular with the hundreds of productions that have participated, and thousands of adventurous theatre lovers, that TDF is now offering "Off-Off@$9" to the general public.

The Broadway League just announced the recipients of its eighteenth annual National Education and Community Engagement Grants. These grants support inspired and inventive programs for a wide range of participants to experience and understand Broadway performances as a form of artistic expression and a powerful educational tool.

Film executive and Broadway producer Henry Guettel died of pneumonia on October 7, 2013, in Southampton, New York, according to his wife Mary Rodgers Guettel. He was 85.