Vaclav Havel News

TACT presents the World Premiere of The Gravedigger's Lullaby, a play that arrives on the Mainstage by way of the company's 2015 newTACTics New Play Festival where it was workshopped and developed.

It's the summer of 1977 and 22-year-old Lenka is fleeing authoritarian Czechoslovakia for the art and beauty of New York City. At the start of her journey, Lenka is confronted by an Old Woman from an extinct Slavic tribe who guides her through a dream-like world where the past and future meet and multiple realities collide.

Legendary artists and long-time friends Joan Baez, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Indigo Girls Amy Ray and Emily Saliers announced that they will share the stage in a special group performance as Four Voices in June.

Legendary artists and longtime friends Joan Baez, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Amy Ray and Emily Saliers will share the stage in a special group performance as Four Voices in June.

Mad Cat continues its 17th season with a production of two of Vaclav Havel's sharp political dramas AUDIENCE and PROTEST. The subversive Czechoslovakian playwright, Prime Minister & President, Vaclav Havel was a in danger of being declared a 'social parasite' by the neo-Stalinist regime of Gustav Husak when he wrote AUDIENCE & PROTEST back in 1975 & 1978. His plays had been banned and, in the time of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic of 1974, writers faced imprisonment if they did not have a stamp in the employment box of their Citizen Identification passport. Havel solved this problem by finding a job as a brewery hand. Havel rolled barrels in the basement of a regional brewery in Trutnov and the experience profoundly changed his writing. His work in the brewery suddenly gave him back the refreshing existential perspective 'from below, from where the absurd and grotesque dimensions of the world are always more plainly visible.' And then an incident occurred on the job that gave him the inspirational seed for what is his best loved, and arguably finest, play, AUDIENCE. Havel claimed the piece was written quickly and easily 'from the hip,' opening up a new way of working in the theater for Havel - writing his first autobiographical play.

TACT has announced that the 2016 - '17 season will continue with the World Premiere of The Gravedigger's Lullaby, a play that arrives on the Mainstage by way of the company's 2015 newTACTics New Play Festival where it was workshopped and developed. 

The Central Works 2016 Season closing production of Karen Zacarias' a new play Into the Beautiful North, has extended and must close November 20 (originally scheduled to close Nov. 13). Central Works' first partnership with the National New Play Network was met with a tremendous response from the press and audiences alike. Described at its premiere as possessing the "alchemy of inspired satire, turned into a laugh-filled theatrical experience" and "never allowing the humor to blind us to the plight of its characters...".  Into the Beautiful North is based on the novel by Pulitzer Prize finalist Luis Alberto Urrea and inspired by the classic Hollywood western The Magnificent Seven.

Legendary artist and activist, Joan Baez, has been nominated as part of the class of 2017 for induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Baez's career has spanned over 50 years during which she unselfconsciously introduced Bob Dylan to the world in 1963, marched on the front lines of the Civil Rights movement with Martin Luther King, inspired Vaclav Havel to fight for a Czech Republic, and continues to this day to stand passionately on behalf of causes she embraces. She is the recipient of many honors including the Recording Academy's Lifetime Achievement Award and Amnesty International's Ambassador of Conscience award. Her early albums introduced songs, which found their way into the rock vernacular including “House Of the Rising Sun” (the Animals), “John Riley” (the Byrds), and “Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You” (Led Zeppelin).  

Gary Naylor sees a play from Europe that can't quite decide what it wants to be but raises interesting questions all the same.

The Central Works 2016 Season closes with Into the Beautiful North, a new play by Karen Zacarias opening Today October 15 in the historic Berkeley City Club. This production marks CW's first partnership with the National New Play Network for this Rolling World Premiere. Into the Beautiful North is based on the novel by Pulitzer Prize finalist Luis Alberto Urrea and inspired by the classic Hollywood western The Magnificent Seven.

The Central Works 2016 Season closes with Into the Beautiful North, a new play by Karen Zacarias opening Saturday October 15 in the historic Berkeley City Club. This production marks CW's first partnership with the National New Play Network for this Rolling World Premiere. Into the Beautiful North is based on the novel by Pulitzer Prize finalist Luis Alberto Urrea and inspired by the classic Hollywood western The Magnificent Seven.

The Central Works 2016 Season closes with Into the Beautiful North, a new play by Karen Zacarias opening Saturday October 15 in the historic Berkeley City Club. This production marks CW's first partnership with the National New Play Network for this Rolling World Premiere. Into the Beautiful North is based on the novel by Pulitzer Prize finalist Luis Alberto Urrea and inspired by the classic Hollywood western The Magnificent Seven.

The first production for a new company, Red Phoenix, is Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus.

Banana Boat Productions in association with New Perspectives Theatre Company (NPTC) is pleased to announce Crossing Boundaries, two short plays from Trinidadian writers as part of OFF THE BOAT, a summer Caribbean Theatre Festival. Dueling Voices, by the prolific Zeno Obi Constance, is paired with Nice by Mustapha Matura (Playboy of the West Indies.) The production runs August 18 through 27th at New Perspectives Studio, 458 West 37th Street, with performances Wednesday - Saturday at 7:30pm and Sundays at 4:00pm.

 'Hound Dog,' a gripping new two-character play by Ward Morehouse III, will have a closed reading at the T. Schreiber Studio, 151 West 26th Street on July 13.

PTP/NYC (Potomac Theatre Project), in association with Middlebury College, presents its 30th repertory season, its 10th consecutive in New York City, running from tonight, July 5, through August 7, 2016 in a limited 5-week Off-Broadway engagement at The Atlantic Stage 2, located at 330 West 16th Street between 8th and 9th Avenues.

The world premiere of The Iron Heel, an adaptation of Jack London's 1908 novel, will be presented at multiple venues across the city from July 28 - September 5 on the 100th anniversary of his death. The novel is considered to be the first modern dystopian novel, was an inspiration for Orwell's 1984, and was praised in a book review by Leon Trotsky. Written as socialist propaganda, it is the story of an election between a socialist revolutionary and an entrenched oligarch. The oligarch prevails, turning America fascist, and inspiring the Marxist revolution. Set in Jack London's future, 1912 - 1934, its themes nonetheless have obvious relevance during this election season, a century later.

PTP/NYC (Potomac Theatre Project), in association with Middlebury College, presents its 30th repertory season, its 10th consecutive in New York City, running from July 5 - August 7, 2016 in a limited 5-week Off-Broadway engagement at The Atlantic Stage 2, located at 330 West 16th Street between 8th and 9th Avenues.

Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance returns this spring with new choreography and repertory for a two-night run at NYU/Tisch School of the Arts, Jack Crystal Theater, today, June 2 and tomorrow, June 3 at 7:30pm. The production will feature Veiled, a new contemporary ballet for seven women inspired by Martin Bresnick's Prayers Remain Forever. Veiled will be one of three works presented each evening.