Long Wharf Theatre (LWT), in collaboration with Yale Repertory Theatre (YRT), will host the 2019 New Haven Regional August Wilson Monologue Competition (AWMC).The Regional Competition will be presented on Thursday, February 28, 2019 at 7 PM at Yale Repertory Theatre, 1120 Chapel St, New Haven, CT 06510. Fifteen participants from the Greater New Haven Area, Hartford County, and Fairfield County, will compete to win all-expense paid trip to the National Competition in NYC where they will perform on a Broadway stage, see a Broadway play, and have a chance to win college scholarships. The National Competition will take place in May 6, 2019 at Broadway's August Wilson Theatre.
Broadway and TV star Brandon J. Dirden (All the Way, Jitney, The Americans) is set to host the 11th annual New York City August Wilson Monologue Competition, sponsored by LEAP (Learning through an Expanded Arts Program, Inc.)
Few directors working today can honestly say that their careers span so many genres of the entertainment industry. Live television. Theatre. The list goes on and on. But Tony Award-winner Kenny Leon can easily claim such an honor. With a resume spanning three decades, Leon has more than proven his place as one of the American theatre's most preeminent and prolific directors. Most recently represented on Broadway with his acclaimed production of American Son (starring Kerry Washington and Steven Pasquale and soon to be filmed for an upcoming release on Netflix), Leon has proved time and again to be a director for a new generation, impressing upon his audiences the importance of racial matters in our country. And now, he humbly shares his success in a memoir entitled Take You Wherever You Go (released in 2018 from Grand Central Publishing), in which he shares his deep passion for directing through the lens of his humble upbringings in Tallahassee and St. Petersburg, Florida.
YALE REPERTORY THEATRE (James Bundy, Artistic Director; Victoria Nolan, Managing Director) will present the world premiere of GOOD FAITH: Four Chats about Race and the New Haven Fire Department, a new play by Karen Hartman, directed by Kenny Leon, February 1-23, 2019.
Anotidaishe Chikunya, a senior at Dana Hall School, took first place on Monday, January 28, 2019 with her performance as Berniece from The Piano Lesson at the Boston Regional Finals of the August Wilson Monologue Competition, held for the ninth year by the Education Department of the Huntington Theatre Company, the playwright's longtime artistic home. Sarah Purvis, a junior at Boston Collegiate Charter School, was named first runner-up and portrayed Black Mary from Gem of the Ocean; Osamede Izevbizua (Toledo, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom), a junior at John D. O'Bryant School of Mathematics and Science, was named second runner-up. The three will receive a total of $850 in prize money, and the top two winners will be awarded an all-expense-paid trip to New York City where they will perform their monologues at Broadway's August Wilson Theatre in the National Competition on May 6, 2019. Airfare, hotel accommodations, workshops, and tickets to attend a Broadway production will be provided in collaboration with Kenny Leon's True Colors Theatre Company and Jujamcyn Theatres. The national competition is free and open to the public.
The Public Theater announced complete casting today for the world premiere play AIN'T NO MO', written by Jordan E. Cooper and directed by Stevie Walker-Webb.
Yale Repertory Theatre will present the world premiere of Good Faith: Four Chats about Race and the New Haven Fire Department by Karen Hartman, directed by Kenny Leon, February 1-23, 2019 at Yale Repertory Theatre (1120 Chapel Street). Opening Night is Thursday, February 7.
The Billie Holiday Theatre at RestorationART, in association with Kenny Leon's True Colors Theatre Company, is presenting Colman Domingo's Dot under the direction of Tony Award-winning director Kenny Leon (American Son currently on Broadway starring Kerry Washington, A Raisin in the Sun and August Wilson's Fences) and starring Emmy Award-winning Billie Holiday Theatre alumna Denise Burse ('Black Mirror,' Tyler Perry's 'House of Payne') as Dotty. The production began previews on October 20th, opened on October 25th and will run through November 18th at The Billie Holiday Theatre, 1368 Fulton Street, Brooklyn, NY 11216. Scroll down for full coverage of the evening's festivities.
Steven Pasquale and Kerry Washington alongside Eugene Lee and Jeremy Jordan are gearing up to star in the new Broadway play American Son, beginning performances today, Saturday, October 6. Get to know the cast below as they begin Broadway performances!
The York Theatre Company (James Morgan, Producing Artistic Director; Evans Haile, Executive Director), dedicated to the development of new musicals and rediscovery of musical gems from the past, presents the Off-Broadway premiere of the acclaimed new musical Midnight at The Never Get, with book, music, and lyrics by Mark Sonnenblick, co-conceived by Sam Bolen, by arrangement with Visceral Entertainment and Mark Cortale Productions. Directed by Max Friedman, with choreography by Andrew Palermo, and music direction/arrangements by Adam Podd, the cast will feature Sam Bolen, Jeremy Cohen, and Jon J. Peterson. Performances begin Tuesday, October 2, 2018 for a limited engagement through Sunday afternoon, November 4, 2018 at The York Theatre Company at Saint Peter's (entrance on East 54th Street, just east of Lexington Avenue). Opening Night is Thursday evening, October 11, 2018 at 6:45 p.m.
Following the success of its world premiere commission at Park Square Theatre in 2016, NINA SIMONE: FOUR WOMEN went on to a second production at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., one of the nation's top regional theatres last year.
True Colors Theatre Company proudly announced today the appointment of Jamil Jude to the role of artistic director for the theater, effective at the beginning of the 2019-20 season. A champion of works by new and emerging artists, Jude, who previously served as Associate Artistic Director, is poised to continue the high level of artistic excellence and black classic storytelling for which the theater is known. Co-founder and current Artistic Director Kenny Leon is pleased to pass the torch to Jude and will transition to Artistic Director Emeritus at the end of the 2018-19 season, continuing to oversee the August Wilson Monologue Competition National Finals.
Following the success of its world premiere commission at Park Square Theatre in 2016, NINA SIMONE: FOUR WOMEN went on to a second production at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., one of the nation's top regional theatres last year.
Long Wharf Theatre's Education Department, in conjunction with Yale Repertory Theatre, will launch the first in a series of events designed to encourage local students and schools to participate in the Regional August Wilson Monologue Competition.
The Suzi Bass Awards revealed nominations for the 2017-2018 Atlanta professional theatre season on Monday evening, August 27, to patrons and industry artists. The Suzi Nomination Party was generously hosted by Synchronicity Theatre, at 7:30pm, One Peachtree Pointe, 1545 Peachtree St. NE #102, Atlanta.
Following the success of its world premiere commission at Park Square Theatre in 2016, NINA SIMONE: FOUR WOMEN went on to a second production at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., one of the nation's top regional theatres last year.
Artistic Director Kenny Leon and True Colors Theatre Company are thrilled to present Christina Ham's Nina Simone: Four Women beginning this September. In its Atlanta debut, Nina Simone: Four Women, directed by Michele Shay, brings to life the four women from the play's namesake song, giving voice to "Aunt Sarah", "Sephronia", "Sweet Thing", and "Peaches". The day after the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, these four women find themselves in search of solace in the ruins of the church, where Nina is struggling to compose a song that can capture the pain and protest that resides in her heart. This play with music includes some of Nina Simone's most popular civil rights anthems such as "Mississippi Goddam," "Go Limp," and "Young, Gifted, and Black."
