TheatreWorks News

BWW Feature: 2020 ARTS-LOUISVILLE/BROADWAY WORLD THEATRE AWARDS at Arts-Louisville.com

Bullying and gender stereotypes are issues youngsters deal with every day. Now, K-5 students around the Bay Area can explore these important issues in an engaging and creative way as TheatreWorks Silicon Valley brings its award-winning Oskar tour to Bay Area Elementary Schools. Developed in an effort to help today's youngest students develop the resiliency and strategies needed to cope with bullying at school, and to increase sensitivity and empathy, 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, and San Francisco (see list for specific schools). To contact TheatreWorks Education about scheduling an assembly, schools may email education@theatreworks.org or call 650-463-7146.

Aurora Theatre Company continues its dynamic 28th season with  Joe Orton's LOOT. Former Aurora Artistic Director Tom Ross (Everything is Illuminated, This Is How It Goes, A Delicate Balance) directs this comedic tour de force.

Heather Orth stars as mysterious opium den proprietress Princess Puffer in Foothill Music Theatre's new production of Rupert Holmes' rollicking musical comedy a?oeThe Mystery of Edwin Drood.a?? A Tony Award winner for Best Musical, the show is based on an unfinished novel by Charles Dickens. As the novel was left incomplete, so is the show - up to a point. When the cast reaches the part in the story where Dickens left off, they put a vote to the audience at each performance as to how the show will end. Ms. Orth has been gracing Bay Area stages with astonishing frequency as of late. She possesses a big, flexible voice and the ability to charm the pants off you or break your heart with her emotional transparency. BroadwayWorld caught up with her recently while she was still in the thick of rehearsals for a?oeDrood.a?? She has often played characters older than she is, and as she matures one gets the sense she may just be coming into her own as a musical theater performer, and even bigger opportunities may be on the horizon.

THE PRINCE OF EGYPT, the brand-new musical that officially opens tonight (Tuesday 25 February 2020) at London's Dominion Theatre, has added 7 extra weeks to its limited engagement with 100,000 new tickets now on sale to Saturday 31 October 2020.

TheatreWorks Silicon Valley will end its 50th anniversary season with the Regional Premiere of Lauren Gunderson's The Book of Will, directed by TheatreWorks Founding Artistic Director Robert Kelley in his final show at the helm of the theatre company he founded.

Full casting has been announced for NY Classical Theatre's staged reading of Carlyle Brown's drama The African Company Presents Richard III, which will be performed on two nights in March in Harlem and midtown.

Betty Jacobs passed away peacefully on February 22, 2020 at the age of 100, at the Actors Fund Home in Englewood, New Jersey.

Last night, supporters of TheatreWorks Silicon Valley gathered to hear the 2019 Regional Theatre Tony Award-winning company and its Board of Trustees announce the launch of its 50th Anniversary Campaign, a $5 million fundraising campaign to ensure the future success of the nationally-acclaimed theatre, including commissions for new plays and musicals. 

THE LEGEND OF ROCK, PAPER, SCISSORS, a family-friendly, fun world premiere musical, comes to First Stage this March. Based on the bestselling book by Drew Daywalt and illustrated by Adam Rex, First Stage Playwright in Residence John Maclay wrote the book and lyrics with Eric Nordin, also doing music and lyrics. First Stage favorite Kelly Doherty, (outstanding as Miss Trunchbull in last season's hit MATILDA The Musical), will be making her First Stage directing debut with this production.

THE PRINCE OF EGYPT, the brand-new musical that is now in previews at London's Dominion Theatre, has released a series of principal cast character portraits!

The Circuit Playhouse, Inc., parent company to The Circuit Playhouse, TheatreWorks at the Square, and Playhouse on the Square have announced their 2020-2021 Season.

Stephanie Beatriz credits her 'Brooklyn Nine-Nine' co-star Melissa Fumero for encouraging her to give it her all and try out for the upcoming movie musical 'In The Heights,' which she ended up scoring a role in. Stephanie also reveals that starring in the movie with Broadway actress Daphne Rubin-Vega is extremely special since she looked up to her as a Latina woman when she was growing up.

 On February 21st, TheatreWorks New Milford will open Nick Payne's two-character love story, Constellations.  This seemingly simple boy- meets-girl tale is spun into what seems like an infinite loop of 'might-have-been' alternatives which will bedazzle the audience in more ways than one. Note: Due to adult situations and language, it is not recommended for children.

The San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle has announced the recipients of its four Special Awards for 2020. The Special Awards will be presented as part of its 44th Annual Excellence in Theatre Awards Gala to be held on Monday, March 30, 2020 at San Francisco's historic Victoria Theatre. The event will be Bay Area performer Ken Sonkin with musical entertainment provided by The Lost Trio.

Newly appointed Music Director and Principal Conductor David Charles Abell brings the fun and elegance of Oscar Hammerstein 2nd's masterworks to Philly in HAMMERSTEIN: The Song is You.

TheatreWorks Silicon Valley will celebrate its 50th birthday in April 2020 with the return of the timeless hit musical Ragtime, helmed by Founding Artistic Director Robert Kelley. This sweeping and stirring musical masterpiece paints a portrait of America at the dawn of the twentieth century, interweaving the lives of three familiesa?"white, African American, and immigranta?"finding their places and pursuing the American Dream in a rapidly changing world. Featuring the Tony Award-winning book by Pulitzer Prize finalist Terrence McNally (Master Class, Kiss of the Spider Woman, The Rink) and the Tony Award-winning score by Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens (Once on This Island, Anastasia, Seussical The Musical), the musical is based on E. L. Doctorow's best-selling novel of the same name. An enthusiastic favorite much anticipated by TheatreWorks audiences, Ragtime will begin performances April 1, 2020 and has already been extended by a week to May 3, 2020 (press opening: April 4, 2020) at Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, 500 Castro St. Mountain View, CA 94041. For tickets (starting at $30) and more information the public may visit TheatreWorks.org or call (650) 463-1960.

Hunger & Thirst Theatre will present DISCUS, a vibrant adaptation of the Greek myth of Apollo and Hyacinth, written by Becca Schlossberg and directed by Adin Walker. DISCUS begins performances on Thursday, April 9 for a limited engagement through Saturday, April 18.

Honeck-Moss Productions will present a?oeIn The Works.a?? This exciting series is an opportunity for composers to try out new work in front of an audience and see how it plays in a supportive environment. It is also an opportunity to create community among the composers and their performers.

Desert Theatreworks presents a Neil Simon play every season. This year's production is the 1988 farce, RUMORS, which is the perfect vehicle to show off DTW's team of talented actors' physical comedy skills. And they do show it off, in spades; the laughs keep coming, as much from the performers' and director Rebecca Havely's wizardry as from Neil Simon's script.