Ty Defoe News

La MaMa's wildly popular family series LA MAMA KIDS returns this season with a line-up of Family Friendly productions and workshops from artists.

The first phase of the Apples and Oranges Arts THEatre ACCELERATOR culminates in a live Shark-Tank-style pitch session where participants present their shows to theatre and tech industry veterans including BroadwayWorld.com's Robert Diamond, Broadway Producer Deborah Taylor Barerra, Investor and Producer Frank Kavanaugh, and Senior Executive and Private Investor Jonathan Ledden.

Little Shadow Productions, in association with HERE, presents THE FLATIRON HEX, co-written and performed by James Godwin (Henson Alternative's Off-Broadway's Stuffed and Unstrung), co-written and directed by Tom Burnett (Uncle Jimmy's Dirty Basement).

Little Shadow Productions, in association with HERE, presents THE JOSHUA SHOW: EPISODE 2, written and performed by award-winning puppeteer Joshua Holden (Avenue Q National Tour), with live musical stylings by Jeb Colwell, and directed by Jessica Lazar.

Royal Family Productions, a non-profit theatre company known for its innovative productions and development of new original work, is partnering with We So Hapa, a non-profit group founded to showcase multi-ethnic talent, for this diversity-centric, one-night-only cabaret event entitled Songs of Otherness on Friday, September 1, 2017 at Royal Family Performing Arts Space (145 West 46th Street, 3rd Floor).

Little Shadow Productions, in association with HERE, presents THE FLATIRON HEX, co-written and performed by James Godwin (Henson Alternative's Off-Broadway's Stuffed and Unstrung), co-written and directed by Tom Burnett (Uncle Jimmy's Dirty Basement).

Over 50 productions of local and international artists will visit the stages of La MaMa during the 2017-2018 season. La MaMa's 56th season highlights artists of different generations, gender identities, and cultural backgrounds, who question social mores and confront stereotypes, corruption, bigotry, racism, and xenophobia in their work.

The New York Musical Festival (NYMF) has announced the performer lineup for two of their concert events: Women of Note, and How The Light Gets In; and a new panel discussion with Honest Accomplice Theatre, titled Expanding Representations of Gender Identity and Sexuality on Stage.

Rattlestick Playwrights Theater has announced the line-up for NEW SONGS NOW, an unplugged concert series, presented in association with New Neighborhood and Rosalind Productions, Inc. taking place Sunday, July 23 through Thursday, July 27 at 8:30pm at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater (224 Waverly Place New York, NY 10014).

Rattlestick Playwrights Theater has announced its complete 2017/18 which will kick off with Diana Oh's {my lingerie play} 2017: Installation #9: THE CONCERT AND CALL TO ARMS!!!!!!!!! this September, presented in association with Rosalind Productions, Inc., music by Diana Oh, co-directed by Stephanie Ryan Johnstone and Oh, with music direction by Ryan McCurdy. The mainstage season will continue in January 2018 with Dael Orlandersmith's UNTIL THE FLOOD and Mashuq Mushtaq Deen's DRAW THE CIRCLE will be presented in repertory.

Perseverance Theatre has announced the formation of The Writer's Circle. Perseverance Theatre has awarded participation into The Writer's Circle to five playwrights. The award includes commission, including development support, for a two-year period of time to write and develop a new Alaskan play.

Rattlestick Playwrights Theater and Rosalind Productions Inc. have announced the New Voices/New Works summer reading series. The New Voices/New Works program was launched earlier this year and actively scouts and incubates new voices.

Free outdoor entertainment returns to the newly renovated "Bricks" June 16 when DanceAbility International takes the Courtyard Stage as the first Oregon Shakespeare Festival Green Show performers of the season. The Green Show begins with the official opening of the outdoor Allen Elizabethan Theatre and continues through October 15, six nights a week at 6:45 p.m. The full schedule of free performances by local, national and international acts is available here.

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival invites audiences to "be our guest" for a Falstaffian romp through merry old Windsor; a heroic, Homeric journey home to Ithaka; and a revelatory musical journey of self-discovery when its outdoor theatre opens the weekend of June 16-18. The Allen Elizabethan Theatre will feature The Merry Wives of Windsor, directed by Dawn Monique Williams; The Odyssey, adapted and directed by Mary Zimmerman; and Disney's Beauty and the Beast, directed by Eric Tucker. Previews begin June 6, and all three shows will run through the weekend of October 13-15.

The New York Musical Festival (NYMF) announced today its final selections for 2017 NYMF. A series of developmental readings, invited productions, concerts and Beta Events will join the previously announced programming.

Theatre Communications Group announces a special, one-night-only event to screen the #LegacyLeaders video of Muriel Miguel, founder of Spiderwoman Theater. The event will be hosted by La MaMa ETC- The Downstairs (66 East 4th Street) in New York City, Tuesday, May 2nd, 2017 at 7:00pm.

Castillo Theatre presents a special community screening in honor of New Federal Theatre Founder Woodie King Jr., as part of the Legacy Leaders of Color Video Project (LLCVP). The event will be held at the Castillo Theatre, 543 West 42nd Street in Manhattan, on Tuesday, April 18, 2017 at 7pm with a panel discussion, film screening, audience Q&A, followed by a reception.

Ibex, Inc,  announced today that the world premiere for CRANE: ON EARTH, IN SKY, created by Heather Henson and Ty DeFoe with direction by Maija Gracia,  will take place at the Lied Center for the Performing Arts in Lincoln, Nebraska (www.liedcenter.org)  on March 9th and 10th. This will be followed by an engagement at the Merryman Performing Arts Center in Kearney, Nebraska (www.merrymancenter.org)  on March 13th.  A national tour and possible return to New York City are planned. An earlier version of the show was performed as part of the La Mama Theatre Puppet Series.

Ibex, Inc, previously announced that the world premiere for CRANE: ON EARTH, IN SKY, created by Heather Henson and Ty DeFoe with direction by Maija Garcia, will take place at the Lied Center for the Performing Arts in Lincoln, Nebraska (www.liedcenter.org) tonight and tomorrow, March 9th and 10th

Just last night, the Jonathan Larson Grants, given annually to honor emerging composers, lyricists and book writers, were presented to the 2017 recipients: Ben Bonnema, Maggie-Kate Coleman & Erato A. Kremmyda, Ty Defoe & Tidtaya Sinutoke, and Michael R. Jackson.