Tom Stoppard News

The 2009 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize has been awarded to British playwright and Liverpool native, Chloe Moss for her critically acclaimed play This Wide Night.

Whidbey Island Center for the Arts, under the leadership of Executive Director Stacie Burgua, announces the cast of Rabbit Hole, by David Lindsay-Abaire. The production, directed by Chris Fisher, features Max Cole-Takanikos, Patricia Duff, Tom Harris, Jill Johnson, and Melissa McAlerney. Performances will begin at Whidbey Island Center for the Arts, 565 Camano Avenue, on Friday, April 10 and continue through Saturday, April 25.

Connecticut Repertory Theatre (CRT) will present William Shakespeare?s Pericles, Feb. 26 ? March 8 in the Nafe Katter Theatre on the Storrs campus. For tickets and information, call 860-486-4226 or visit www.crt.uconn.edu.

The producers of Blithe Spirit are pleased to announce the show will play The Shubert Theatre (225 West 44th Street). Rehearsals are scheduled to begin Monday, January 26, 2009 with the first performance on Thursday, February 26, 2009.

Connecticut Repertory Theatre (CRT) will present William Shakespeare's Pericles, Feb. 26 - March 8 in the Nafe Katter Theatre on the Storrs campus. For tickets and information, call 860-486-4226 or visit www.crt.uconn.edu. In Shakespeare's masterful story, Pericles, Prince of Tyre, suffers agonizing losses, endures personal betrayals, and faces a tsunami-like wave of spirit-numbing catastrophes in a quest that also includes moments of celebration, festivity, observance, remembrance and unparalleled joy. Pericles' tempest-tossed odyssey raises profound questions about why suffering and grave, undeserved misfortunes befall our lives, and offers hope through courage and redemption.

Tony Winner John Rando returns to Houston's Alley Theatre to direct Two-time Tony Nominee Josie de Guzman as Maggie Cutler, Theatre World Award Winner James Black as Sheridan Whiteside and Alley Company Member Elizabeth Heflin as Lorraine Sheldon in Kaufman and Hart's classic comedy The Man Who Came to Dinner, beginning performances on February 20 on the Alley's Hubbard Stage.

Publick Theatre Boston returns to the familiar, eclectic worlds of English gardens, strained family relations, and quantum physics with the New England premiere of Charlotte Jones's award-winning comedy Humble Boy. Performances are April 9 through May 2, 2009 at the Plaza Theatre at the Boston Center for the Arts, 539 Tremont Street in Boston's South End. Performances are Thursdays and Fridays at 8:00 pm, Saturdays at 3:00 pm and 8:00 pm and Sundays at 3:00pm. Press Performance is Sunday April 12 at 3pm. Tickets: $35-$32 (Preview Performances April 9-12 All Tickets $20).

Keen Company (Artistic Director Carl Forsman, Executive Director Wayne Kelton) is thrilled to present John Cullum, Jonathan Hogan and Tony Roberts in the New York premiere of Heroes, by G?rald Sibleyras with a translation by Tom Stoppard and directed by Carl Forsman. Heroes received the 2006 Olivier Award for Best New Comedy. Performances begin on Tuesday, February 24 and run through April 11 at The Clurman Theatre / Theatre Row, 410 West 42nd Street, between 9th and 10th Avenues. Opening is scheduled for Sunday, March 8. An evocative comedy about three World War I veterans living in a veterans' home who plot a new assault - a trip to a stand of poplar trees in the distance. But should they bring the stone dog with them? Author G?rald Sibleyras calls Heroes a play 'about the universal desire to escape the confines of life.' Winner of London's Olivier Award for Best New Comedy in 2006 and Paris' Moliere Award for Outstanding Comedy in 2003, Keen presents its New York debut.

Keen Company is thrilled to announce that Broadway legends John Cullum and Tony Roberts will play two of the three roles in its upcoming production of the New York premiere of Heroes by Gerald Sibleyras with a translation by Tom Stoppard. Tony Award-winner John Cullum starred in Keen's critically acclaimed The Conscientious Objector, and currently plays the father in August: Osage County. Tony Roberts was most recently seen on Broadway in Xanadu. The two actors will be under the direction of Carl Forsman (A.D. of Keen Company). Heroes, playing from February 24 - April 11, received London's Olivier Award for Best Comedy in 2006.

The Boston University College of Fine Arts (CFA) is pleased to present their second annual InCite Arts Festival, 'InCite 2009: Art Never Backs Down,' taking place March 3 - 10, 2009 in New York City. Conceived to showcase the dynamic artistic strengths and synergy of the College's schools of Music, Theatre, and Visual Arts, the festival offers new and interdisciplinary programming that boasts an eclectic and compelling combination of titles and artists. Throughout history, art's response to bad times has been to endure, using creativity and wit, and InCite epitomizes that response.

Celebrating its 40th Anniversary, T. Schreiber Studio will present a production of Tom Stoppard's dazzling romantic comedy The Real Thing at The Gloria Maddox Theater, 151 West 26th Street, 7th Floor from February 19th to March 29th. Directed by Terry Schreiber, director of the Tony-nominated play K2, as well as The Trip Back Down (starring John Cullum) and Devour the Snow on Broadway, The Real Thing is Stoppard's multi-layered look at love, passion, adultery, and marriage. The full-scale, profession production will feature members of the T. Schreiber Company.

Up-and-coming Seattle director Braden Abraham (My Name is Rachel Corrie) stages Harold Pinter's love-triangle-with-a-twist Betrayal at Seattle Repertory Theatre, February 19-March 22, 2009. In this fresh retelling of Pinter's gripping drama, a woman's illicit relationship with her husband's best friend is played out in reverse, from the end of the affair to their first encounter. Betrayal plays in Seattle Rep's intimate Leo K. Theatre. Previews begin February 19, with opening night set for February 25. Tickets are available through the Seattle Repertory Theatre box office seven days a week at (206) 443-2222, toll-free at (877) 900-9285, as well as online at www.seattlerep.org. Director Braden Abraham directed My Name is Rachel Corrie for Seattle Rep in 2007. Other recent projects include Paul Mullin's The Ten Thousand Things at Washington Ensemble Theatre and The K of D by Laura Schellhardt. His cast features Seattle-based actress Cheyenne Casebier (most recently seen as Milady in the Rep's The Three Musketeers) and New York actors Alex Podulke and David Christopher Wells (most recently seen on Broadway in Tom Stoppard's award winning trilogy The Coast of Utopia).

Connecticut Repertory Theatre (CRT) will present William Shakespeare?s Pericles, Feb. 26 ? March 8 in the Nafe Katter Theatre on the Storrs campus. For tickets and information, call 860-486-4226 or visit www.crt.uconn.edu.

Celebrating its 40th Anniversary, T. Schreiber Studio will present a production of Tom Stoppard?s dazzling romantic comedy The Real Thing at The Gloria Maddox Theater, 151 West 26th Street, 7th Floor from February 19th to March 29th.

1812 Productions is pleased to present its third world premiere comedy of the 2008-2009 season, The Karma Cookie. The Karma Cookie will run from March 5th to March 29th at The Adrienne Theatre, 2030 Sansom Street. Press Opening is Wednesday March 11th. Tickets range from $17-$35 and are available by contacting 1812 Productions directly at (215) 592-9560 or at www.1812productions.org.

Jean Doumanian Productions and Barrow Street Theatre(Scott Morfee and Tom Wirtshafter) today announced that they will produce director David Cromer's acclaimed staging of Thornton Wilder's Our Town at Off Broadway's Barrow Street Theatre. Performances will begin on February 17, with anofficial opening night set for Thursday, February 26. The production will require acomplete redesign of the theater space.

Whidbey Island Center for the Arts presents Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, by Tom Stoppard ('Shakespeare in Love' screen-writer), directed by Katherine Woodzick. Performances continue at Whidbey Island Center for the Arts, 565 Camano Avenue, through Saturday, February 21. Tickets range in price from $12 to $16, with discounts available for students and groups, and are available from www.WICAonline.com or 360.221.8268 - 800/638.7631.

This summer, Broadway?s hottest musical made Canadian premiere electrifying audiences at the Toronto Centre for the Arts, extending twice and garnering extraordinary critical acclaim. Today, Dancap Productions Inc. and Jersey Boys are pleased to announce that the show will remain in Toronto! 'After our first eight weeks of performances, it has become ever so clear that Jersey Boys and the great city of Toronto seem meant for each other,' says Michael David, Producer of Jersey Boys. 'We are most excited to join with Aubrey Dan and Dancap to perpetuate that relationship hopefully for a very long time to come.'

Tom Stoppard?s classic comic masterpiece, Travesties, previewing at the Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House from 9 March 2009 (opening 13 March), will reunite one of Australia?s most versatile comic actors, Jonathan Biggins, with director Richard Cottrell, award-wining designer Michael Scott-Mitchell and Composer and Sound Designer, Paul Charlier: the creative team behind Sydney Theatre Company?s 2007 hit, Ying Tong.

The wit and creativity of Steve Martin debuts on the Saint Sebastian Players' (SSP) stage when the company performs his play Picasso at the Lapin Agile. The production runs February 13-March 8, 2009 at St. Bonaventure, 1625 W. Diversey Pkwy. in Chicago. In Picasso at the Lapin Agile, Albert Einstein and Pablo Picasso meet at a bar in Montmartre, Paris on October 8, 1904. Both men are on the verge of an amazing idea-Einstein will publish his special theory of relativity in 1905, and Picasso will paint Les Demoiselles d'Avignon in 1907-when they find themselves at the Lapin Agile (Nimble Rabbit), where they have a lengthy debate about the value of genius and talent while interacting with a host of other characters. Directing SSP's production of Picasso at the Lapin Agile is Steven Walanka, who has directed SSP productions of Tribute, The Lion in Winter, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Days of Wine and Roses and The Caine Mutiny Court Martial. The cast features Luke Daigle as Picasso, Doug Werder as Einstein, SSP member Renae Stone, as well as Lauren Goode, Rob Grabowski, Jaclyn Jensen, Chris Kordys, Steve Malone, Nate Negron and Jeff Taylor. In addition, in an effort to attract new and larger audiences, SSP has cast the role of the 'female admirer' with a different actress at each of the 12 performances. Mike Patrick is set designer, Rachel Lambert is costume designer, Stacy Raker is assistant director, SSP member Kelly Rhyne is stage manager and SSP member Jim Masini is producer.