Underbelly News

Today we are tipping our very best top hat to Uncle Sam and celebrating the greatest theatre-themed July 4 moments in honor of Independence Day!

Birdy is afraid she might be crazy. It runs in the family, she thinks. Her grandfather had religious hallucinations. Her father was hospitalized for depression and self-harm. Birdy spends her life worrying-wanting so much to save the world, to help each person she sees. She's haunted by the fear she's inherited her family madness and there's nothing she can do about it. Part memory play, part manifesto of compassion, and part anxiety attack, Karie Richards' deeply personal solo show BIRDY… OR, HOW NOT TO DISAPPEAR plays July 2-13 at theHelen Gardiner Phelan Playhouse as part of the 2014 Toronto Fringe Festival. Tickets are available via www.fringetoronto.com, by phone at 416-966-1062 ext.1, or at the door.

Play Solo presents the European Premiere of Running Into Me, a compelling story of one woman's remarkable struggle to break free from a misguided upbringing on the streets of LA, at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2014. It will be staged at Underbelly Cowgate from Thursday 31 July to Sunday 24 August (not 11 Aug).

The first season with the Everyman and Playhouse back together has been extraordinary; thousands flocked to the opening weekend and the Everyman has since earned a national RIBA award and North West building of the year. Now the theatres look ahead to an autumn season featuring three ambitious new productions, full of invention and humanity.

The twenty act shortlist has today been announced for Circus Maximus 2014. Britain's only competition dedicated solely to performers of the circus arts is in its second year, with this 2014's prospective finalists spanning the entire range of circus disciplines from acrobatics to contortion to juggling to balancing to clowning.

Back in February of this year, masked mystery-producer Tom Stell – formerly known only by the moniker of Golden Features – unleashed a 4 track EP that shook the Australian music scene to its very core. As countless producers from the Southern hemisphere continued to produce the now famous 'Australian' sound, Tom achieved the unlikely with his self-titled 'Golden Features' EP, and set himself apart from the rest of the movement.

Marlton, NJ

FoolsFURY, 'one of the brightest stars of the San Francisco experimental theater scene' (San Francisco Arts Monthly), is pleased to announce the program for the fifth FURY Factory festival of ensemble theater, July 6 - 20, 2014.

The distinguished experience of Director Kenneth Albers returns to American Players Theatre (APT) in rural Spring Green for David Mamet's multiple award winning play, American Buffalo. First produced in 1975, the three person drama fills the indoor Touchstone Theater with the talents of Brian Mani, James Ridge and Brendan Meyer in perhaps one of the most poetic uses of profanity heard and placed on stage.

Bottleneck by Luke Barnes, directed by Steven Atkinson and performed by James Cooney, returns to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, after a hit run in 2012, playing at Underbelly's Topside at 13.30 Wednesday 30July - Sunday 24August.

Following a highly acclaimed run at the Bristol Shakespeare Festival, Stance Theatre presents a powerful Richard III ahead of other summer blockbuster productions. Drag King Richard III explores the complexity of switching gender as lead character Laurie embarks on the challenging journey of transitioning from female to male.

Amy and Emily, the Indigo Girls, have joined the Chicago-area stop of the That Girl Tour which includes singer/songwriter Brandy Clark and headliner Sugarland's Jennifer Nettles.

Kokandy Productions has announced casting for ASSASSINS, directed by Rachel Edwards Harvith with music direction by Kory Danielson and choreography by Mike Ford. ASSASSINS begins performances today, June 13, 2014 with Press Opening on Saturday, June 14th, and runs at Theater Wit in Chicago through Sunday, July 20, 2014.

After a critically acclaimed and extended run in 2013, Award-winning Pipeline Theatre Company will present an encore engagement of CLOWN BAR by Adam Szymkowicz, with music & additional lyrics by Adam Overett. It will be directed by Andrew Neisler. Originally announced to return to its original venue, the production will instead transfer to legendary clown haunt The Box beginning June 14. Opening is slated for June 21.

Birdy is afraid she might be crazy. It runs in the family, she thinks. Her grandfather had religious hallucinations. Her father was hospitalized for depression and self-harm. Birdy spends her life worrying-wanting so much to save the world, to help each person she sees. She's haunted by the fear she's inherited her family madness and there's nothing she can do about it. Part memory play, part manifesto of compassion, and part anxiety attack, Karie Richards' deeply personal solo show BIRDY… OR, HOW NOT TO DISAPPEAR plays July 2-13 at theHelen Gardiner Phelan Playhouse as part of the 2014 Toronto Fringe Festival. Tickets are available via www.fringetoronto.com, by phone at 416-966-1062 ext.1, or at the door.

We're talking about Gravity and Other Myths, a troupe from Australia whose unique close-up acrobatic show A Simple Space has been booked for a six-week season (30 May - 6 July 2014) at the Udderbelly Festival on the South Bank (10 April -13 July), having astounded Fringe audiences in both hemispheres in 2013. Edinburgh and Adelaide Festival goers have turned up in their droves, bought up every ticket and unfailingly given standing ovations. Now, Londoners, it's over to you.

Dixon Place (Ellie Covan, Artistic Director) presents the 23rd Annual HOT!, the NYC Celebration of Queer Culture. The world's longest-running LGBTQ Performance Festival, HOT! offers theater, music, dance, puppetry, performance art and homoeroticism for the whole family! HOT! is the pioneering festival of queer performance and culture - and the oldest annual festival of its kind in the world. Dixon Place is proud the HOT! serves as the model for other queer festivals across the globe and has become a performance destination for emerging talent in the LGBTQ community. This year's HOT!, featuring hundreds of participating artists presenting their newest creations, will run July 5th through August 2nd at Dixon Place, located at 161A Chrystie Street in New York City.

The ninth annual Charlotte Shakespeare Festival opens with a musical, 1960s staging of William Shakespeare's Love's Labor's Lost from today, May 29 to June 15 at The Green. The festival moves indoors to the Booth Playhouse from August 7 to 24 with a 1970s staging of Measure for Measure.

Pasadena, CA

American Idiot delivers both the fun of a rock show and the glorious visual trapping of musical theatre for an entertaining mash-up of Broadway and Alt Rock.