Topher Payne News

The winners of the 13th Annual Suzi Bass Awards have been decided!

The Georgia Ensemble Theatre in Roswell, celebrates its Silver Anniversary season with a new play by Atlanta-based playwright Topher Payne.

Atlanta professional theatre artists, producers and patrons gather to celebrate the 2016-2017 season of plays and musicals at the 13th Annual Suzi Bass Awards on Monday, November 6, 2017, at 7pm, doors open at 6pm.

T'was the month before Christmas and all through the town, all the holiday movies were making their rounds. Lifetime was ready with yuletide cheer with six original movies to get you to the New Year!

Georgia Ensemble Theatre (GET) is proud to continue the professional theatre's 25th Silver Anniversary Season, exclusively sponsored by The Thoresen Foundation. Co-Founder and Artistic Director Robert J. Farley has chosen five very special productions including three musicals for the season and says, Our 25th Silver Anniversary is going to be one big party all year long. Each show I have selected to celebrate this occasion has been chosen as a tribute to our subscribers, donors, sponsors, and supporters.

Georgia Ensemble Theatre (GET) is proud to continue the professional theatre's 25th Silver Anniversary Season, exclusively sponsored by The Thoresen Foundation. Co-Founder and Artistic Director Robert J. Farley has chosen five very special productions including three musicals for the season and says, Our 25th Silver Anniversary is going to be one big party all year long. Each show I have selected to celebrate this occasion has been chosen as a tribute to our subscribers, donors, sponsors, and supporters.

After nearly two decades of holiday hilarity, Horizon's 19th year of The Santaland Diaries will be marked by a passing of the elf hat and booties to a new leading actor! Horizon Theatre Company announced today that acclaimed local actor, columnist and playwright Topher Payne will take over the role of everyone's favorite satirical, sarcastic elf, Crumpet, in David Sedaris' The Santaland Diaries! Actor Harold Leaver, who blossomed into a beloved local celebrity in this iconic role which he has played at Horizon since it first debuted in the 1990s, is hanging up his tights and turning the telling of Sedaris' now-classic alternative holiday tale. Returning November 17 December 31 to Horizon Theatre, the hilarious holiday sensation is sure to brighten the season. Creative Loafing describes the show as a hilarious cocktail, serving up a dose of seasonal spirit so potent even the most cynical Scrooge could get tipsy. This non-traditional, adult-only, Christmas comedy provides the perfect laughter-induced remedy to the holiday hustle and bustle.

Reviewing the comedy's 2015 Off-Broadway production by Primary Stages, THE NEW YORK TIMES called it a clever canap of a comedy...Mr. Payne is a deft and witty writer.' THE NEW YORKER said of it As hiding gets harder, pitch-perfect comedy ensues: slamming doors, strange disguises, preposterous excuses Eventually, the four must decide whether face-saving domestic lies are worth it, or whether ostracism beats living in fear. In our own era of surveillance and paranoia, their mid-century problems don't feel so far away.

Award-winning playwright Sean Chandler takes you behind the scenes in his new theatre podcast Your Program Is Your Ticket (YPIYT).

The Suzi Bass Awards revealed nominations for the 2016-2017 Atlanta professional theatre season on Monday evening, September 18, to patrons and industry artists.

Georgia Ensemble Theatre (GET) is proud to announce that its upcoming season will mark the professional theatre's 25th Silver Anniversary, exclusively sponsored by The Thoresen Foundation. Co-Founder and Artistic Director Robert J. Farley has announced a special lineup of shows for this milestone and says, "Our 25th Silver Anniversary is going to be one big party all year long. Each play I have selected to celebrate this occasion has been chosen as a tribute to our subscribers, donors, sponsors, and supporters." 

The Only Light in Reno, by Topher Payne, is the hilarious story of when Hollywood came to The Biggest Little City in the World, and everything went up in flames.

Full casting was announced today for Pride Films and Plays' Chicago premiere of PERFECT ARRANGEMENT by Associate Artistic Director Derek Van Barham, who's directing the production. In Topher Payne's comedy, it's 1950, and new colors are being added to the Red Scare. Two U.S. State Department employees, Bob and Norma, have been tasked with identifying sexual deviants within their ranks. There's just one problem: Both Bob and Norma are gay, and have married each other's partners and moved next door to each other as a carefully constructed cover. Inspired by the true story of the earliest stirrings of the American gay rights movement, madcap classic sitcom-style laughs give way to provocative drama as two "All-American" couples are forced to stare down the closet door.

The Only Light in Reno, by Topher Payne, is the hilarious story of when Hollywood came to The Biggest Little City in the World, and everything went up in flames.

Raleigh Little Theatre has announced its 2017-2018 season - scroll down for highlights!

Raleigh Little Theatre has announced its 2017-2018 season - scroll down for highlights!

Uptown Players, a professional theater group located in the Uptown area of Dallas, has announced its 2017-2018 season at the Kalita Humphreys Theater and Dallas City Performance Hall.

Pride Films and Plays' 2017-18 season - its first full season in residence at the Pride Arts Center - will bring Chicago its first look at three plays that examine gay and lesbian lives in earlier decades of the 20th Century, according to Executive Director David Zak and Artistic Director Nelson Rodriguez.

Georgia Ensemble Theatre (GET) Co-Founder and Artistic Director Robert J. Farley has announced a special lineup of shows for the Company's 25th Silver Anniversary Season of professional theatre in North Fulton County.

Epic Theatre Company is kicking off its sixth season with a diverse line-up of brand new, innovative and exhilarating work that looks at the relationship between power and the people it affects.