TheatreWorks News

When Lorraine Hansberry Theatre announced last September that Bay Area theatre luminary Margo Hall had been appointed as its first female Artistic Director, it felt like a promise of good things to come. Six months later, the venerable company is back up and running full steam ahead with its first staged production since the COVID-19 pandemic began, Erika Dickerson-Despenza’s [hieroglyph], available to stream on-demand March 13th through April 3rd. Hall directed this as a co-production with Lorraine Hansberry Theatre’s long-time collaborator San Francisco Playhouse, and would seem to be the perfect director to bring it to life. Dickerson-Despenza is a Tow Playwright-in-Residence at New York’s Public Theater who centers her writings on Black women’s land legacies and distinct experiences of environmental racism. Telling the raw, honest story of a 13-year-old girl struggling Post-Hurricane Katrina, wrestling with being displaced to a new city while secretly coping with the PTSD of an assault at the Superdome, [hieroglyph] is part of Dickerson-Despenza’s 10-play Katrina cycle focused on the effects of Hurricane Katrina and its state-sanctioned, man-made disaster rippling in & beyond New Orleans. Hall describes the play as “tragically beautiful.” Patrons may support the organization of their choice by purchasing tickets from Lorraine Hansberry Theatre at lhtsf.org or from San Francisco Playhouse at sfplayhouse.org. BroadwayWorld spoke with Hall last week, just as she was preparing to meet her cast in person for the first time after weeks of Zoom rehearsals. Speaking to her, I got the distinct impression of someone who is exactly where she needs to be right now. This may be her first stint as an artistic director, but in so many ways she has been preparing for this role her entire life. Her decades of experience as an actor, director, playwright, professor and activist all coalesce to serve her in her new role. We talked about her hopes to expand Hansberry’s purview, the need to create culturally-specific theatre, and the exigencies of producing theatre and TV (she is also acting in the new “Blindspotting” series!) during Covid times. Throughout our conversation, I was struck by the sheer joy she exudes for making theatre and for finding herself in a place where she can create new opportunities for Black theatre artists.

Opera San Jose and TheatreWorks partner for Hershey Felder's Puccini, live from Florence. The performance takes place on Sunday, March 14th, 2021 at 5pm Pacific / 7pm Central / 8pm Eastern, and includes extended viewing access of the recording through Sunday, March 21st.

Broadway is coming back to New Mexico when Popejoy Hall reopens this fall! Popejoy Presents has announced the 2021-2022 season featuring the long-awaited Broadway national tour of HAMILTON, now scheduled for 24 performances over three weeks, from January 25 through February 13, 2022.

San Diego Repertory Theatre has announced today the details of the brand new San Diego REP Black Voices 2021 Play Reading Series, a brand new program that will be presented in March and April, 2021. The series will consist of a selection of plays representing a diverse range of Black voices.

Pandora retells the Pandora's Box myth from a feminist perspective. This intriguing new work hypothesizes what might happen if a woman was suddenly created and dropped into the middle of the world now: a woman with no preconceived notions of anything—like beauty, love, or violence—who might allow humanity and the gods to suddenly see the world through her clear eyes. Pandora examines how hope and curiosity can change one woman's fateful actions.

The San Francisco Mime Troupe 2021 virtual fundraiser The Red Star at the End of the Tunnel - Celebrating 25 Years of SFMT's beloved Youth Theater Project (YTP), will be an hour of music, comradeship, featuring Keynote Speaker Colman Domingo - along with SFMT tales from past & present Troupers, and a special live performance of the next installment of our critically-acclaimed radio/podcast series Tales of the Resistance!

peermusic has signed renowned musical theater composing team Douglas Lyons and Ethan Pakchar to an exclusive global publishing deal, as announced today by Kathy Spanberger, President, peermusic, and Carter Armstrong, Senior Vice President, Film and Television.

peermusic has signed renowned musical theater composing team Douglas Lyons and Ethan Pakchar to an exclusive global publishing deal, as announced today by Kathy Spanberger, President, peermusic, and Carter Armstrong, Senior Vice President, Film and Television.

TheatreWorks Silicon Valley has been approved for a $20,000 Grants for Arts Projects award to support its New Works Festival and the upcoming World Premiere of Nan and the Lower Body. Developed in the 2019 TheatreWorks New Works Festival, Jessica Dickey's play Nan and the Lower Body is scheduled to make its World Premiere in July 2022 in the company's 51st season, directed by TheatreWorks Artistic Associate and Director of New Works Giovanna Sardelli.

Centenary Stage Company has announced the cast and creative team for the world premiere production of Darrah Cloud’s Turning.  Performances run February 25 through March 7 in the Sitnik Theatre of the Lackland Performing Arts Center at 715 Grand Ave Hackettstown NJ.

On-demand streaming is available this week to watch Hershey Felder as Sholem Aleichem in BEFORE FIDDLER. Presented by TheatreWorks Silicon Valley in partnership with Hershey Felder Presents Live from Florence, this World Premiere was livestreamed to a worldwide audience on Sunday, February 7.

TheatreWorks Silicon Valley in partnership with Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD) as part of the John F. Kennedy Center Partners in Education Program unveils the February 2021 installments of its Opening the Curtain video series, designed to inspire the next generation of budding artists.

Good news for Hershey Felder fans and musical theater afficionados everywhere! TheatreWorks Silicon Valley is launching the New Year with three world premiere livestreamed performances in partnership with Hershey Felder Presents Live from Florence. First up is Hershey Felder as Sholem Aleichem in BEFORE FIDDLER, presented live at 5pm PST on Sunday, February 7, 2021. Decades before the beloved musical Fiddler on the Roof first delighted audiences, there was Sholem Aleichem and his beloved character of ‘Tevye the Milkman.’ Long before songs like “Tradition,” “If I Were a Rich Man” and “Sunrise, Sunset” first beguiled audiences, there was klezmer, a music that imitated talking, laughing, weeping, and singing, and where musicians didn’t just make music, they spoke to audiences in song. Acclaimed playwright & performer Felder will play Sholem Aleichem, giving audiences the true story of what happened ‘Before Fiddler.’ He will be joined by Florence’s celebrated Klezmerata Fiorentina, comprised of top musicians from Florence’s world-famous Orchestra of the Maggio Musicale. Filmed partially on location where the events actually took place, this production will feature the stories and characters of Sholem Aleichem, along with authentic klezmer music that is sure to move the soul. For more information and to purchase tickets, please visit www.theatreworks.org. BroadwayWorld spoke with Felder last week from his home in Florence where he’s been based ever since the Covid pandemic hit. As always, Felder is fascinating and delightful to talk to, simultaneously brainy and emotionally transparent, and confident enough in his own talents to be open about his enduring fears.

TheatreWorks Silicon Valley has postponed the opening of its 51st mainstage season to October 2021, with eight plays to be presented through August 2022.

If your former spouse wrote a book describing how they left you to take up with someone else, even quoting your personal letters during the breakup – what would you do? That is the tantalizing question explored by Lynne Kaufman in her newest play, 'Divine Madness,' debuting January 30th and 31st on MarshStream. Local stage favorites Julia McNeal and Charles Shaw Robinson will play the roles of celebrated writer Elizabeth Hardwick and poet Robert Lowell, who had a long and intensely complicated marriage. Lowell went on the win the Pulitzer for this work, while Hardwick was left destroyed. What are the chances you would reunite after that kind of public betrayal? BroadwayWorld spoke with Kaufman from her home in San Francisco to learn more about what prompted her to write about Hardwick and Lowell, and also to talk about her long and productive partnership with The Marsh, where her play Who Killed Sylvia Plath? recently won top honors at the The MarshStream International Solo Fest. Kaufman is a terrific conversationalist, at once uncommonly erudite and naturally chatty. It is also clear that she is a born storyteller. Even the simplest question can lead her to unexpected places, like a fascinating tale of meeting spiritual guru Ram Dass in Hawaii.

TheatreWorks Silicon Valley has announced the appointment of Clayton Shelvin as the company’s new Director of Development. As Director of Development, Shelvin will play a prominent role in ensuring the Tony Award-winning company’s continued success and commitment to furthering its impact within its community as well as nationally.

The Marsh welcomes a diversified line-up of guests for Stephanie's MarshStream – from an acclaimed playwright to a leader at the forefront of curriculum education, Bay Area-based actors, a longtime public radio journalist, and more.

As the world catches glimpses of a return to normalcy and dares to imagine a time when we can once again gather together in our theatre spaces, The Old Globe will produce a hybrid of digital and in-person offerings that encompasses a broad range of thrilling theatre created by a diverse group of major talents.

To kick off the New Year, The Marsh launches its Solo Performer Spotlight series with the MarshStream debut of Lynne Kaufman's new work, Divine Madness.

TheatreWorks Silicon Valley in partnership with Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD) as part of the John F. Kennedy Center Partners in Education Program unveils the next two videos of its Opening the Curtain video series, designed to inspire the next generation of budding artists.