TheatreWorks News

Winners have been announced for the 2020 BroadwayWorld San Francisco Awards - which were back bigger than ever, celebrating the best in local theatre of the past decade! 

The new musical by writing team Burwell & Sasser about Alexandre Dumas and the real Count of Monte Cristo will stream starting January 16. The musical follows famed real-life novelist Alexandre Dumas in his attempt to finish his latest novel while suffering crippling writer's block.

TheatreWorks Silicon Valley launches the New Year with the announcement of three World Premiere livestreamed performances in partnership with Hershey Felder Presents Live from Florence. First up in this year in the Hershey Felder Presents – Live from Florence series is BEFORE FIDDLER, featuring Klezmerata Fiorentina.

Aurora Theatre Company will continue its 29th season with Toni Morrison’s THE BLUEST EYE, adapted by Lydia R. Diamond. Associate Artistic Director Dawn Monique Williams (Bull In A China Shop) directs this poignant drama about Black girlhood, the poisonous effects of racism, and the heartbreak of shame.

The Fox Cities Performing Arts Center has announced performances slated for the 2020-21 Season. Due to the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Center will continue to deliver on its mission virtually through the end of 2020 and is focusing on opening its doors in early 2021 for an exciting lineup of performances.

Carly Ozard is here to dispel a myth about BIPOC performers and she's doing it by taking matters into her own hands and creating an online concert series where these artists can shine.

Newly adapted for the screen, Felder performed the acclaimed work from a rich, filmic setting from Florence, Italy, offering a front row seat for this intimate look at the music and life of a great genius from locations where the composer lived and worked.

Word For Wordcast now expands with three new podcasts. On December 28 The 14 Mission by Anita Cabrera posts to Word for Word’s site, on January 14 & 21 2021 Citizen by Greg Sarris goes up with Books & Roses by Helen Oyeyemi posting in three parts February 14, 21 & 28 2021.

The Sappho Project has announced the appointment of three founding members of its Board of Directors, making up the full slate of board members for 2020. Joining the Board of Directors is BRIAN LOWDERMILK (they/them or she/her), ANEESH SHETH (she/her), and REGINA VICTOR (they/them).

Virtuoso actor/pianist/playwright Hershey Felder is bringing us a holiday treat with a livestreamed performance of his hit show Hershey Felder TCHAIKOVSKY presented live from Florence, Italy where Tchaikovsky lived and worked. It is also not so incidentally where Felder himself lives and has been hunkered down ever since his normally hectic life of constant touring was brought to a halt by the Covid epidemic. Hershey Felder TCHAIKOVSKY features an extended focus on the composer’s iconic The Nutcracker ballet, and also delves into his life in Italy, and his array of works from the ballets Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty, to his 1812 Overture, and brilliant symphonic works. Presented by TheatreWorks Silicon Valley in partnership with Hershey Felder Presents Live from Florence, the richly cinematic show is directed by Florentine film artist Stefano Decarli and based on the original stage play directed by Trevor Hay. Hershey Felder TCHAIKOVSKY will be presented live on Sunday, December 20, 2020 (5pm PST/8pm EST) with streaming on-demand access available December 21 – 27, 2020. Tickets and more information are available at TheatreWorks.org. BroadwayWorld spoke with Felder just a couple of days ago while he was in the thick of final preparations for the livestream - about who the real Tchaikovsky was and his difficulties as a gay man in tsarist Russia, the enduring popularity of his music, and how Felder is spending the holidays in Florence. He is always a fun and fascinating person to talk to, with his encyclopedic knowledge of the arts and his idiosyncratically musical syntax. His response to even a simple question can be at once funny, nerdy and heartfelt.

If there’s any truth to the notion that names can become our destiny, then I can’t think of a more apt name for TheatreWorks Silicon Valley’s new Artistic Director than Tim Bond. As an artist, as a leader and as a person, he is all about finding and honoring those things that can bring us all together. The latest case-in-point is Simple Gifts, the brand-new holiday show he has crafted to ring in the season. Simple Gifts is a joyful, multicultural celebration of beloved holiday songs and traditions from many diverse backgrounds. Conceived and directed by Bond, the show features a cast of Bay Area theater veterans who share beautiful music, meaningful memories, and take audiences on a journey through a variety of winter celebrations, including Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, Bodhi Day, Noche Buena, Diwali, Las Posadas, Winter Solstice, as well as exploring Christmas traditions from around the world. Presented as part of TheatreWorks from Home, Simple Gifts will be streamed at set times through December 27, 2020, with on-demand streaming available December 28, 2020 - January 1, 2021. Live post-show conversations with members of the cast will follow every performance. For additional information, and to gain streaming access to Simple Gifts, visit TheatreWorks.org. BroadwayWorld spoke with Bond about how he came up with the idea for the show and went about putting it all together in the time of Covid. We also talked about what the winter holidays mean to him and his own traditions and memories. He is effortlessly engaging and very easy to talk to, sort of like that interesting person you happen to meet at a party and suddenly find yourself chatting away with about any number of things. And it seems that any conversation with Bond ultimately comes around to his passion for using the arts to bring people together.

On Saturday December 19th at 8:00 p.m., TheatreWorks New Milford’s Page 2 Stage series presents a VIRTUAL free staged reading of 'Hate Mail' by Kira Obolensky and Bill Corbett, starring Matt Austin and Heather Haneman.

The Talkback is a series of in-depth conversations with some of the biggest and hottest names on Broadway, as well as a few folks in the casting and management industries.

Virtuoso performer/playwright Hershey Felder will ring in the holiday season with a livestreamed performance of his hit show Hershey Felder TCHAIKOVSKY, offering home-viewers a front row seat for this acclaimed work that brings to life the famed Russian composer of The Nutcracker Suite.

TheatreWorks Silicon Valley in partnership with Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD) as part of the John F. Kennedy Center Partners in Education Program will inspire the next generation of budding artists with Opening the Curtain, a video series introducing PAUSD elementary students to the breadth of careers available in performing arts, including acting, tech, scenery, costumes, directing, administration, and more.

Due to the current rise in COVID-19 cases in and around Shelby County, Playhouse on the Square has made the difficult decision to suspend all scheduled in-person stage productions until June of 2021.  This includes the 52nd season line up of performances on the stages of  Playhouse on the Square, The Circuit Playhouse, and TheatreWorks at the Square.

TheatreWorks Silicon Valley will ring in the holiday season with Simple Gifts, a joyful, multicultural celebration of beloved holiday songs and traditions from many diverse backgrounds. TheatreWorks Artistic Director Tim Bond directs his first virtual production with this World Premiere work, crafted by Bond and a cast featuring a bounty of Bay Area theatre veterans.

Playhouse on the Square, in partnership with Sue and Frank Guarino, have announced the staged readings for this year's competition finalists.  Streamed live via Zoom, the six readings will take place on the Playhouse on the Square main stage, December 6-8 & December 13-15 at 7:00 pm. 

The Marsh continues to offer a wide variety of new programming at 7:30pm nightly on MarshStream, its popular broadcast platform.

Centenary Stage Company's rescheduled 2020 Women Playwrights Series closes on Wednesday, November 18 at 7:30 PM with I'll Give You Something to Cry About by Patricia Cotter.