TheatreWorks News

Imprint Theatreworks is pleased to announce the finalists chosen for our Inaugural First Impressions Festival for Local Playwrights. Ten original works will be featured, all by playwrights based in Dallas and Fort Worth.

Imprint Theatreworks has announced the finalists chosen for our Inaugural First Impressions Festival for Local Playwrights. Ten original works will be featured, all by playwrights based in Dallas and Fort Worth.

Parents looking for a fun and enriching camp for their artistic offspring can find an outlet on the Peninsula this spring and summer. TheatreWorks Silicon Valley introduces three programs for grades K-12: Spring Theatre Camp (April 2-13), Summer Theatre Camp (June 4-August 3) and Teen Teaching Artists in Training (June 4-August 3). The camps, staged by TheatreWorks Education staff, are chock-full of theatre activities for children and youths. Each program is taught by theatre professionals, who foster and encourage the campers' creativity and imagination, as well as teach basic performance skills. For more information the public may visit theatreworks.org/youth-programs or call (650) 463-7154.

Chance Theater, Anaheim's official resident theater company, is pleased to announce its production of Violet, which will kick off its 20th Anniversary Season. The show has book and lyrics by Brian Crawley, music by Jeanine Tesori, direction and choreography by Kari Hayter, and musical direction by Robyn Manion. Violet will preview from February 2 through February 9; regular performances will begin February 10 and continue through March 4 at Chance Theater @ Bette Aitken theater arts Center on the Cripe Stage.

Back by popular demand, Ammunition Theatre Company is proud to be reviving its wildly successful production by playwright D.G. Watson, THE TRAGEDY: A COMEDY. Acclaimed director Ahmed Best will be at the helm. The unique comic play returns March 8th, at THE PICO - 10508 W Pico Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90064. The show will play monthly (2nd or 3rd Thursday of each month).

Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky changed the way people think. Their groundbreaking research on how people make decisions won the pair of brilliant Israeli psychologists a McArthur Genius Award and a Nobel Prize.

Inspired by the classic Cyrano de Bergerac, Michael Golamco's 'Cowboy vs. Samurai' is not only a tale of misplaced love, it's also an insightful and wonderfully funny meditation on being Asian in middle America, on self-identity, and on the ways we categorize ourselves as well as each other. Pear Theatre's production of 'Cowboy vs. Samurai,' directed by Jeffrey Lo, previews on March 15, with press and Opening Night on Friday, March 16, followed by a champagne gala. The show runs Thursdays through Sundays through April 8. All performances are held at the Pear Theatre, 1110 La Avenida St., Mountain View. Tickets can be purchased by visiting www.thepear.org or calling (650) 254-1148.

From March 1 to 18, La MaMa will present Theater Three Collaborative in a new production of 'Extreme Whether,' a 'Cli-Fi' play written and directed by Karen Malpede. The piece juxtaposes psychological and magical realism in a tale of a courageous climate researcher who is defamed by special interests, including his own family. Obie-winner Rocco Sisto heads a cast of six.

Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) presents the second workshop in the series How to Wrote a Musical That Works, Conflict & Obstacles, onSunday, February 25, 2018 from 10am - 6pm at NOLA Rehearsal Studio, 244 W 54th St., 5th floor, Studio 5. Submission fee is $10 for members, $20 for non-members. If accepted, it will be applied to a participation fee of $100 ($80 for TRU members). Those not selected will be invited and encouraged to attend the workshop as observers. The price is $55 ($35 for TRU members). Go to https://truonline.org/events/feedback-workshop-2-2018, click the link to download the application, fill it out, and email toTRUPlaySubmissions@gmail.com to sign up. If accepted, the workshop includes 2 seats for the entire day workshop as well as your presentation slot. Space is limited. Any additional attendees from the musical team (including music director, additional collaborators and cast members) who wish to observe the entire workshop must reserve in advance and will be charged $25 per person.

Bay Area audiences have a handful of performances left to catch Hershey Felder at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley in Our Great Tchaikovsky as it heads into its final weeks. Felder's newest work - which set a new record for sales before opening for TheatreWorks earlier this month - runs Tuesdays through Sundays, now through February 11, 2018, at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, 500 Castro St., Mountain View. For tickets ($45-$105) and information the public may visit TheatreWorks.org or call (650) 463-1960.

FEINSTEIN'S/54 BELOW, Broadway's Supper Club, presents Ethan Paulini and Christina Sajous will host a very special evening, Ethan Paulini and Friends on March 12, 2018. Nissa Kahle will provide Musical Direction. Ethan Paulini founded the independent studio #ethancoaches in 2012 and it has since grown to include over 250 clients. From Broadway to TV, regional theatre to national tours, #ethancoaches clients are everywhere.

In an effort to help today's K-5 students develop the resiliency and coping strategies needed to deal with bullying at school and avoid bullying others, and to learn how to manage when stress and pressure become overwhelming, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley's Education program will be touring Bay Area schools with its award-winning shows Oskar and the Big Bully Battle, and Oskar and the Last Straw. The Oskar tour runs February 26 to April 13, 2018 with performances scheduled in the South Bay, Peninsula, East Bay, and San Francisco (see tour location list below for specific schools). To contact TheatreWorks Education about scheduling an assembly, schools may email learn@theatreworks.org or call 650-463-7154.  

If ever there was a musical that will make Floridians fall out of their seats in hysterics, cheer for the bad girl and fall in love with a zany cast of characters, it's The Great American Trailer Park Musical! Now in March 2018, TheatreWorks Florida is beyond thrilled to revive their award-winning production that swept the 2010 Orlando Fringe Festival awards and won "Best In Fest"!

Elizabeth Birnkrant, known for her roles in JESUS HOPPED THE A TRAIN for Eclipse Theatre, 1984 at Steppenwolf, VICES AND VIRTUES: THE GREAT WAR at Profiles Theatre and other roles with Sideshow, First Floor and Roadworks theatre companies, has been cast in the leading role of L'il Bit in The Artistic Home's production of Paula Vogel's Pulitzer Prize winning HOW I LEARNED TO DRIVE. The Artistic Home co-founder John Mossman will play Uncle Peck, the family member who has a sexual relationship with his niece Li'l Bit during her pre-teen and teenage years. Mossman, who directed The Artistic Home's BY THE BOG OF CATS last year, as an actor has most recently appeared as Leontes in THE WINTERS TALE and O'Trigger in THE RIVALS at Lakeside Shakespeare Theatre.  He has also appeared with The Artistic Home as MACBETH and as Shannon in NIGHT OF THE IGUANA. He played Atticus Finch in Oak Park Festival Theatre's TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD and performed in the Steppenwolf production of THE MARCH.

Word for Word's first production of their 25th Anniversary Season is Lucia Berlin:Stories running February 14-March 11, in the Z Below Theater in San Francisco. Lucia Berlin:Stories opens with press performances February 17 & 18, Saturday 8 PM and Sunday 3 PM  (previews Feb. 14 - 16). The stories are from Lucia Berlin's posthumously published, critically acclaimed, A Manual for Cleaning Women featuring the stories 'Her First Detox', 'Emergency Room Notebook 1977', 'Unmanageable', '502' and 'Here It Is Saturday'. Directed by Nancy Shelby and JoAnne Winter, Lucia Berlin:Stories is set to an evocative jazz score by Marcus Shelby, and illuminated with vibrant projections by Naomie Kremer. Author Lydia Davis in The New Yorker described Berlin's work: 'Lucia Berlin's stories are electric, they buzz and crackle as the live wires touch....This is exhilarating writing' On Sunday, February 25,following the 3PM performance: Lucia's Sons, a post-show talk with Jeff Berlin and David Berlin in conversation with the audience and remarking about the performances, stories, and their life with their mother Lucia Berlin. 

Updated this week! Check out upcoming Equity Auditions from Sunday, January 28, 2018 for both productions in your area and around the country including what/when/where and how to audition!

The Huntington Theatre Company presents the irresistible comedy, Bad Dates, featuring Haneefah Wood (Cassandra in Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike at the Huntington and Blanche in Fox TV's Grease Live! ), written by Theresa Rebeck (creator of NBC's Smash and the Elliot Norton and IRNE Award-winning play Mauritius, produced at the Huntington in 2006), and directed by Jessica Stone (director of Ripcord and Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike at the Huntington). Performances run from January 26 through February 25, 2018 at the Avenue of the Arts / Huntington Avenue Theatre.

I was lucky enough to experience IMPRINT Theatreworks inaugural production of David Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross at Bath House Cultural Center in Dallas, TX. What a thrill! As soon as I walked into the door, I was surrounded by the feeling of love and encouragement for this cast, crew and artistic team and their new venture. Creating art is such a passionate and spiritual experience and you could just sense that the minds involved with IMPRINT Theatreworks are definitely on the right track.

Long Wharf Theatre, in conjunction with Berkeley Rep, presents Office Hour, by Julia Cho, directed by Lisa Peterson.

The winner of the 2016 Tony Award for Best Play, Stephen Karam's The Humans, begins performances on January 24 in Northwest Arkansas. In its 2016 Broadway production, the play was a breakout critical and popular success, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and called the best play of the year by nearly a dozen top publications ranging from The New York Times to the Washington Post. Performances are scheduled January 24-February 18, and tickets are on sale now from $17-$48 at (479) 443-5600 or theatre2.org.