Thom Weaver News

Neil LaBute's sometimes controversial, always unsettling fascination with the war between the sexes is on full display in THE MERCY SEAT.

Theatre Philadelphia, the non-profit organization that promotes and celebrates theatre across the Philadelphia region, has announced this year's nominees for the Barrymore Awards for Excellence in Theatre. 

The Wilma Theater has announced its 2019-2020 Season, featuring a lineup of new and innovative plays from some of the most exciting emerging voices in the field of theater. The season begins with a limited run of a world premiere stage adaptation of Etel Adnan's famous poem There, which will be co-presented with FringeArts in the 2019 Fringe Festival, co-created by Wilma Artistic Director Blanka Zizka and world-renowned visual artist Rosa Barba.

Society for the Performing Arts (SPA) is pleased to announce that their groundbreaking show SHADOWLAND: The New Adventure will perform one night only at Jones Hall for the Performing Arts in Houston on Friday, April 12 at 7:30 p.m.  PILOBOLUS' SHADOWLAND shows are the first of a kind presentation of multi-media, shadow play and dance. SHADOWLAND The New Adventure is touring American cities following extended engagements in Germany and throughout Europe.   

Delaware Theatre Company proudly presents the Olivier Award winning musical Honk! with music by George Stiles and book and lyrics by Anthony Drewe, directed by Bud Martin. This family friendly musical, adapted from Hans Christian Andersen's The Ugly Duckling runs April 17 - May 12, 2019. Tickets are on sale now starting at $20 and can be purchased online at DelawareTheatre.org or by calling the Box Office at (302) 594-1100. The cast features Barrymore Award winner Kim Carson, Maria Konstantinidis, Rachel Brennan, Jenna Pastuszek, Jake Blouch, Christopher Sapienza, Newton Buchanan, Sean O'Neill, Camiel Warren-Taylor, Jojo Schlecht, and Charlotte Taylor. Adam Hoyak plays Ugly, the famous duckling.

Lantern Theater Company announces its upcoming 2019/20 season, which will include an ambitious and eclectic mix of classic, contemporary, and new work for the stage. The five plays that comprise the company's mainstage season include Bertolt Brecht's The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, a brilliant drama about politics and fear that remains an instructive parable today; the Philadelphia premiere of Anna Zieger's The Last Match, a funny and moving drama from the author of the Lantern's smash hit Photograph 51; the Philadelphia premiere of The Vertical Hour by renowned British playwright David Hare, a sophisticated drama about the shifting alliances of family; William Shakespeare's tragedy Othello; and a world premiere adaptation of Moliere's The Misanthrope. This new adaptation by revered Philadelphia theater artist Peter DeLaurier will enthrall audiences as the action moves to modern-day Washington, D.C.

Ahktar has a knack for writing real people with real flaws, and for taking a hard look at tough, often-uncomfortable issues in our society. Per a WUWM interview, Akhtar asserts that Junk is not pessimistic, just real. "It's bleak but it's realistic, unfortunately," he says. "If you're coming to the play and you're expecting something uplifting, just be prepared."

Milwaukee Repertory Theater presents Junk, the hit Broadway play by Milwaukee native and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Ayad Akhtar in the Quadracci Powerhouse now through February 17, 2019.  Since its Broadway premiere at Lincoln Center last year, Ayad Akhtar along with Artistic Director Mark Clements have continued to hone Junk to bring Milwaukee audiences a new, two hour no intermission riveting story set in the financial world of the 1980s.

Milwaukee Repertory Theater presents Junk, the hit Broadway play by Milwaukee native and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Ayad Akhtar in the Quadracci Powerhouse now through February 17, 2019.  Since its Broadway premiere at Lincoln Center last year, Ayad Akhtar along with Artistic Director Mark Clements have continued to hone Junk to bring Milwaukee audiences a new, two hour no intermission riveting story set in the financial world of the 1980s.

Delaware Theatre Company proudly presents a new adaptation of George Bernard Shaw's Saint Joan by Chelsea Marcantel. This fiercely feminist retelling of a timeless classic runs February 6 24, 2019. Tickets are on sale now starting at $25 and can be purchased online at DelawareTheatre.org or by calling the Box Office at (302) 594-1100.

In this dark comedy, Reza de Wet weaves together a collection of Chekhov's iconic characters into a single musing on the end of a world. On February 1, EgoPo Classic Theater presents this great South African playwright's take on Anton Chekhov's classic, twenty years later, during the fall the privileged society. Three Sisters Two previews January 30-31 and opens Friday, February 1. The show runs three weeks, closing Feb. 17.

Charlotte's Web is a heartwarming story of a special friendship between a lovable pig and everyone's favorite spider. When a runt pig is born on the Arable farm, the young girl Fern saves him and nurtures him. She names him Wilbur and helps him grow big and strong. Wilbur is moved to the Zuckerman farm where he befriends a batch of barnyard animals, including a talented spider that weaves words into her web that are crucial to saving Wilbur's life as the story unfurls.

Lantern Theater Company is thrilled to announce the world premiere of an original adaptation of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, commissioned and developed through the Lantern's New Play Program and co-created by Philadelphia-based artists Anthony Lawton, Christopher Colucci, and Thom Weaver. In this wonderfully clear and direct telling of Dickens' beloved novella, Lawton will bring the story boldly to life as only live theater can. Just in time for the holiday season, audiences of all ages are invited to come rediscover this story of a miser's miraculous redemption from a life of bitterness, greed, and isolation. Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol runs Thursday, December 13, 2018, through Sunday, January 6, 2019, in the Black Box Theater at Drexel University's URBN Center Annex; a full schedule of performances is included in the fact sheet below. 

Milwaukee Repertory Theater is pleased to announce the complete cast and creative team for the Midwest premiere of Junk by Milwaukee native and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Ayad Akhtar. Since its Broadway premiere at Lincoln Center last year, Ayad Akhtar along with Artistic Director Mark Clements have continued to hone Junk to bring Milwaukee audiences a new, two hour no intermission riveting story set in the financial world of the 1980s.

The power grid is gone (d'oh!), and disaster has plunged the world into darkness. In the aftermath, a group of survivors gather in the dead of winter, trying to brave their new reality by recounting an episode of The Simpsons. Under the direction of Yury Urnov, The Wilma Theater's HotHouse Company tackles Anne Washburn's wickedly smart dark comedy that charts life after lights, October 23 through November 11.

EgoPo Classic Theater announces their 2018-19 Season: Theater of South Africa, celebrating great dramatic works of South Africa and highlighting the remarkable transformation from apartheid to democracy. The season will begin with a South African version of Eugene O'Neill's Desire Under the Elms, as created and performed by Abrahamse and Meyer Productions from Cape Town, South Africa, in partnership with Drexel University's Westphal College of Media Arts & Design and their Performing Arts Department. EgoPo's mainstage season launches with A Human Being Died That Night, a gripping account of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission by psychologist Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela; followed by Three Sisters Two by Reza de Wet, a Chekhov sequel confronting the fall of privileged class; and concluding with two plays in rotation repertory: "Master Harold"…and the Boys by Athol Fugard and Egoli by Matsemela Manaka (co-produced with Theatre in the X), shining a light on two vastly different experiences under apartheid.

The nominations have been announced for the 2018 Equity Joseph Jefferson ('Jeff') Awards.

Delaware Theatre Company kicks off their 40th Anniversary season with the World Premiere of Sanctions. Written by Philadelphia playwright Bruce Graham (White Guy on the Bus, The Outgoing Tide), this hard-hitting play tackles issues of institutional racism in sports and sexual assault on college campuses. Graham's incendiary and timely new drama, inspired by true events, runs September 12 - 30, 2018. Tickets are on sale now starting at $25 and can be purchased online at DelawareTheatre.org or by calling the Box Office at (302) 594-1100.

Theatre Philadelphia, the region's marketing and leadership organization for theatre, proudly announces the 2018 nominees for the Barrymore Award for Excellence in Theatre. Celebrating the rich, diverse professional theatre scene in the Greater Philadelphia region, the Barrymore Ceremony will be held on Monday, November 5th at 7pm at the Bok Building at 1901 S. 9th Street in South Philadelphia. Guests will continue the festivities with an after-party Celebration at the same location. Tickets for artists, supporters, and the general public are now on sale at www.theatrephiladelphia.org.

Arden Theatre Company, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is proud to announce that they have received 18 2018 Barrymore Award Nominations for Excellence in Theatre.