Touchstone Theatre News

Outside the Touchstone Theatre in Spring Green, American Players Theatre (APT) stages an exuberant African Dance accompanied by the thunder of drums and keyboard. The impromptu performance celebrates the legacy of color about to be admired on stage in a production of Carlyle Brown's The African Company Presents Richard III. Set in 1821 New York, the play focuses on actual historical events where a small African-American theater company produced their production of Shakespeare's Richard III on the exact same night  the famous Park Theatre owned by Daniel Price opened their production featuring English actor Julius Booth as the deformed king.

The Fresh Voices showcase returns to Touchstone Theatre on July 8 and 9, 2016. This annual event is a celebration of new theatre, featuring original works-in-progress by the 2015-16 Touchstone Apprentices, Raven Dailey and Julia Elberfeld. The evening is composed of three original works-in-progress and this year, centers around the female experience.

Touchstone Theatre presents two sensory-friendly theatrical performances of DaPooch, or The Story of Poochie's Three Hundred and Seventy Second Birthday AND How the Hunga Munga Munga SAVED HIS LIFE! The production is part of the Arts & Access Program, a year-long, Valley-wide celebration of the American with Disabilities Act in honor of its 25th Anniversary. The show performs at Touchstone Theatre on May 21st at 11:00am and 1:00pm; tickets are pay-what-you-will.

Touchstone Theatre presents the eleventh iteration of its acclaimed Young Playwrights' Festival. This showcase of new plays written by local elementary and middle school students performs on May 14th at Zoellner Arts Center's Baker Hall. The full evening includes a preshow party and post-show gala reception in the Lehigh University Black Box Theatre.

In collaboration with American Players Theatre, Ten Chimneys Foundation will present A Conversation with Olympia Dukakis. On Today, March 24th at 7pm, Academy Award-winning actress Olympia Dukakis will take the stage at American Players Theatre's Touchstone Theatre. She will share anecdotes about her remarkable life and career, and will answer questions from the audience - a rare and intimate opportunity.

Touchstone Theatre premieres its new work Bhudoo, an original musical fable, with ten performances between March 31 and May 1, 2016 at various venues throughout the Lehigh Valley. Bhudoo, directed by Touchstone artistic director Jp Jordan, features original songs written by Jordan and Touchstone ensemble associate and Bhudoo playwright Christopher Shorr. The Touchstone acting ensemble - Bill George, Emma Chong, and Mary Wright - performs the 80-minute one-act comedy.

In collaboration with American Players Theatre, Ten Chimneys Foundation will present A Conversation with Olympia Dukakis. On Thursday, March 24th at 7pm, Academy Award-winning actress Olympia Dukakis will take the stage at American Players Theatre's Touchstone Theatre. She will share anecdotes about her remarkable life and career, and will answer questions from the audience - a rare and intimate opportunity.

American Players Theatre (APT) announces its 37th Summer Festival Season, June 3 - October 16, 2016, a diverse lineup of eight classical and contemporary plays in repertory that includes the return and work of two visiting Chicago directors: Derrick Sanders, founding Artistic Director of Congo Square Theatre Company directing The African Company Presents Richard III by Carlyle Brown in APT's intimate 200-seat Touchstone Theatre; and Jeff Award winner William Brown taking on William Shakespeare's King Lear in APT's flagship 1140-seat outdoor amphitheater on the Hill.

Touchstone Theatre starts off 2016 with Mae Swe, an original one-woman play by company member and Spirited Stories storyteller Mary Wright. The play explores themes of home and belonging, set against the backdrop of Burma/Myanmar. Mae Swe runs January 14-17, 2016.

Touchstone Theatre continues celebration of its 35th anniversary season with a new year of Christmas City Follies, the theatre's annual production of a high-spirited, homegrown, vaudevillian variety show. Christmas City Follies XVI runs tonight, December 3-20, 2015 at Touchstone's home on the south side at 321 East Fourth Street in Bethlehem.

Cleveland Public Theatre's Executive Artistic Director, Raymond Bobgan, announces the return of a holiday favorite, The SantaLand Diaries by David Sedaris, adapted by Joe Mantello, produced by the Cleveland Theatre and presented at the Outcalt Theatre at Playhouse Square this holiday season.

American Players Theatre (APT) stages Pierre D. Marivaux's romantic romp The Game of Love and Chance surrounded by the warmth of Spring Green's Touchstone Theatre. What could be more enchanting and elegant on their intimate stage than a golden Rococo chandelier illuminating Nathan Stuber's mimimal and sophisticated set design? Only these APT actors who dazzle the audience dressed in their lush, period Robert Morgan costumes.

Touchstone Theatre is sponsoring its fifth Corporate Creativity Event on November 17th from 8am to 9:30am titled "The Magic of Intelligent Enthusiasm" and held at Ben Franklin Technology Partners. Admission is free; registration to bill@touchstone.org required.

American Players Theatre (APT) is excited to announce its 37th season, which will run June 4 to October 16, 2016. In APT's flagship outdoor amphitheater, William Shakespeare will bookend the Hill season with The Comedy of Errors and King Lear. Also playing on the Hill: Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde and Arcadia by Tom Stoppard.

Touchstone Theatre continues celebration of its 35th anniversary season with a new year of Christmas City Follies, the theatre's annual production of a high-spirited, homegrown, vaudevillian variety show. Christmas City Follies XVI runs December 3-20, 2015 at Touchstone's home on the south side at 321 East Fourth Street in Bethlehem.

Touchstone Theatre presents longtime friends, collaborators, and fellow ensemble theatre artists of The Independent Eye theatre company in their adaptation of William Shakespeare's tragedy King Lear. The play, which runs October 15-18, 2015, features two actors and twenty puppets.

Touchstone Theatre ushers in their 2015-16 season with the American debut of Italian theatre company Teatro Potlach in their original production The First 100 Years of Edith Piaf. The play, directed by Pino Di Buduo and performed by Nathalie Mentha, runs September 17-20, 2015.

In the intimate American Players Theatre's (APT) Touchstone Amphitheater, Edward Albee's 1975 Pulitzer Prize winning play Seascape premiered on Saturday afternoon---perhaps with greater resonance in this century than when originally produced.. Director Laura Gordon returns to the drams after directing Milwaukee Rep's 2007 production in the Stiemke Studio along with APT company member Cristina Panfilio. Panfilio agian performed the role of Sarah, the coming up from the ocean floor lizard wife of Leslie. This stellar duo continues to define Albee's play with sensitivity and endearing wit, along with fellow actors Sarah Day, Jonathan Smoots and LeShawn Banks. 

The South Side's Touchstone Theatre celebrates the coming of their 35th anniversary season with a rebranding of their logo and marketing materials, undertaken with design and guidance from First Generation, an integrated marketing agency based in Allentown.

What do you get when you combine three fierce females, over the top talent, and some of the most climactic moments for women in musical theater? You get a show with humor, vivacity, and drama offering an inside glimpse into Broadway's best babes.