TheatreWorks News

Voting is NOW OPEN and the first votes are in for the 2019 BroadwayWorld Louisville Awards, brought to you by TodayTix! The nominees are set, and now you can vote to make sure your favorite local theatres and performers are recognized!

Booking is now open for TheatreWorks Silicon Valley's award-winning Oskar tour, travelling to Bay Area schools in Spring 2020. Developed in an effort to help today's K-5 students develop the resiliency and coping strategies needed to deal with bullying at school, and to increase sensitivity and discussing gender stereotypes, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley's Education program will present the West Coast Premiere of Oskar and the Big Bully Battle, Part 2 as well as Oskar and the Countless Costume Changes, written by award-winning playwrights Prince Gomolvilas and Matt Ackels. The Oskar tour runs March 2 - April 10, 2020, and will travel to schools in the South Bay, Peninsula, East Bay, Marin, and San Francisco. To contact TheatreWorks Education about scheduling an assembly, schools may email education@theatreworks.org or call 650-463-7146.  

The Emelin Theatre for the Performing Arts has released their schedule for upcoming January and February events:

TheatreWorks Silicon Valley presents the internationally-acclaimed The Pianist of Willesden Lane. Starring celebrated pianist Mona Golabek, this triumphant tour de force recounts the inspiring true story of Golabek's mother, Lisa Jura, a young Jewish musician. Created and directed by TheatreWorks favorite Hershey Felder, this musical journey follows Jura's escape from Nazi-occupied Austria via the Kindertransport, and her life at a children's home on Willesden Lane in London, where she later survived the London Blitz. Combining vivid storytelling and masterful performances of classics by Bach, Beethoven, and Rachmaninoff, The Pianist of Willesden Lane is a one-woman show that illustrates how music can bring light and hope to even the darkest of times.

Greenhouse Theater Center is pleased to announce the launch of Young People's Theatre of Lincoln Park (YPT), a new company offering both high-quality Theater for Young Audience (TYA) productions (professional actors performing for children and families), along with performance opportunities for children of all ages and backgrounds. Housed in the historic Greenhouse Theater Center in the heart of Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood, YPT will announce its inaugural 2020-21 season in the Spring of 2020. Randy White, who most recently directed GTC's critically acclaimed production of Midsummer (A Play with Songs), will serve as the theatre's Managing and Artistic Director. As part of its mission, YPT will commission and develop new works and offer educational opportunities for young people.

THE PRINCE OF EGYPT has released a new music video featuring a brand-new song by Grammy and Academy Award-winner Stephen Schwartz, titled 'Footprints on the Sand.' The song is performed by Luke Brady who plays Moses.

Join us for a surreal 24 hours in St Nowhere's Hospital. A hospital where the doctors are clowns, injured athletes dance on their hands and microscopic viruses bounce along the corridors, which slide in and out along with your consciousness. This is what it means to be SICK, walking the tightrope of hope and despair.

Montana TheatreWorks, producers of Damn Yankees, Annie, and Oklahoma!, are proud to present A CHRISTMAS CAROL at The Ellen Theatre. Directed by Mark Kuntz, the play opens December 6 and runs for eleven performances, closing on December 22.

This week, the Broadwaysted Crew is having a blast sharing laughs and stories with Rob Rokicki, composer and lyricist of The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical! We're pouring out Milagro Tequila and Hudson Whiskey while Rob spills about the epic journey from page to stage for Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief, going from bartender to composer/lyricist in a Broadway theatre, and things that you should definitely not put in the microwave.

Theatre Bay Area held its sixth-annual TBA Awards Celebration on Monday, November 4 at the Herbst Theatre. Featuring a a?oeradically inclusivea?? pricing structure, over 800 people attended the event, exceeding the previous year's attendance by nearly 20%.

TheatreWorks Silicon Valley rings in the holidays with the new musical Pride and Prejudice, the 2019 Tony-winning company's 70th World Premiere.

Trinity Rep continues its 2019-20 Season with the behind-the-scenes dramatic comedy Fade by Tanya Saracho. Directed by Tatyana-Marie Carlo, the show features guest artist Elia Saldana as Lucia, a Mexican-born novelist who just accepted her first job writing for television, where her ambition might make her betray everything she thought she valued. Opposite Saldana is resident acting company member Daniel Duque-Estrada as Abel, an ex-Marine working as a janitor at the station who has more to his story than meets the eye. Fade runs December 5, 2019 a?" January 5, 2020, with press opening on Monday, December 9 at 7:30 pm. Tickets start at $27. More information can be found at www.TrinityRep.com/fade.

Pittsburgh CLO is announced casting for the 28th annual production of A MUSICAL CHRISTMAS CAROL, December 6-22 at the Byham Theater. This year's production will feature lavish costumes, thrilling effects and a talented ensemble of both new and returning performers. Broadway star Mark Jacoby returns to Pittsburgh CLO to lead the cast as Ebenezer Scrooge. Tickets are now available by calling 412-456-6666, online at pittsburghCLO.org or at the Theater Square Box Office.

Memphis' Professional Resident Theatre company announces the finalists to the 2019 NewWorks@TheWorks Playwriting competition finalists.

TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, recipient of the 2019 Tony Award for Regional Theatre, has announced the appointment of Tim Bond as its new Artistic Director. Bond will join the company officially in March 2020, stepping in as Founding Artistic Director Robert Kelley winds down his 50th and final season at the helm of the theatre he created, ending one of the longest tenures in American theatre. Kelley previously announced his retirement at the conclusion of the company's current season in June 2020. Said Bond upon accepting the appointment, a?oeI am thrilled to have the opportunity to continue Robert Kelley's great work, and to lead this spirited company into its next exciting phase.a??

Desert Theatreworks (DTW) has mounted an excellently acted, enjoyable, comedic production of Ken Ludwig's 2017 adaptation of Agatha Christie's MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS. The script drags in spots, but director Lance Phillips-Martinez has created a visual feast that keeps the audience's attention.

The Drama League announced today the 2020 line-up of DirectorFest: The 36th Annual Directors Festival, the only festival in the United States dedicated to the art of contemporary stage directing. For its 36th year, the festival will include six fully-staged productions, a showcase concert of a new musical, a town hall, and conversations with directors including 2017 Tony Award Winner Rebecca Taichman (Indecent), 2014 Tony Award Winner and 2010 Drama League Founders Award for Excellence in Directing Kenny Leon (A Soldier's Play), and Intimacy Director Claire Warden (HBO's Mrs. Fletcher).

Multi award-winning Foothill Theatre Arts presents Bertolt Brecht's satirical masterpiece about the rise of a demagogue, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, in a stunning new adaption by Pulitzer, Olivier and Tony Award-winning American playwright, Bruce Norris (Clybourne Park) making its Bay Area premiere. Director Bruce McLeod invites audiences into a seedy 1930s Chicago cabaret for this production, presented three weeks only November 8 – 24, 2019 (press opening: Saturday, November 9) at the Lohman Theatre, 12345 El Monte Road, Los Altos Hills.

Stars of stage and screen, playwrights, composers, and supporters of TheatreWorks Silicon Valley came together Saturday, November 2, 2019 to celebrate the acclaimed regional theatre at And the Tony Award Goes To…Celebrating TheatreWorks at 50, a once-in-a-lifetime event honoring the company's half-century and its 2019 Regional Theatre Tony® Award. Some 480 guests attended this extraordinary event which raised nearly $800,000 for TheatreWorks marking it the most attended and most successful fundraiser in the company's history. Guests appropriately gathered in the heart of Silicon Valley at Mountain View's Computer History Museum for cocktails, dinner, and a lively auction, then proceeded to the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, where a stellar array of TheatreWorks alumni returned to pay tribute to its history through words and music.

Believe in magic this Holiday Season at the Fulton Theatre! Peter Pan flies in, November 14 through December 29, with previews November 12 & 13. An adventure for the entire family, Peter Pan is being produced on the grand scale of the Fulton's Beauty and the Beast.