Verona News

The Luckiest People, a tense, new family dramedy produced by Orlando Shakespeare Theater (Orlando Shakes) in Partnership with UCF, comes to the Goldman Theater from March 28 - April 29, 2018. Tickets ($25 - $50) are available now by phone (407) 447-1700 ext. 1, online www.orlandoshakes.org, or in person at the John and Rita Lowndes Shakespeare Center (812 East Rollins Street).

Hartford Stage Artistic Director Darko Tresnjak and Managing Director Michael Stotts announced today the cast and creative team for the world premiere of The Age of Innocence, which will feature four-time Tony Award winner Boyd Gaines and more.

Co-Artistic Directors of Morphic Graffiti, Luke Fredericks and Stewart Charlesworth, today announce full casting for their new adaptation of William Wycherley's restoration comedy The Country Wife. Fredericks directs theatre veteran Richard Clews whose credits include King Lear, (Chichester Festival Theatre) and extensive work for the RSC and Shakespeare's Globe, Sarah Lam (Chimerica, Almeida Theatre / Harold Pinter Theatre, Lucky Man, No Problem!) and Sam Graham (Spooks, Kingdom, Footballer's Wives) who join the previously announced 'Bright Young Things' - EastEnders' Eddie Eyre, Call the Midwife's Leo Staar, West End stars Siubhan Harrison and Nancy Sullivan along with Daniel Cane, Mabel Clements and Joshua Hill completing the full company. Thrust into the excesses and seductions of late 1920s London: a city exploding with a heavy mix of jazz, gin and scandalous affairs, the production opens at Southwark Playhouse on 4 April, with previews from 28 March, and runs until 21 April.

Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre presents seven world premieres choreographed by seven company dancers in its March mixed repertory program: “Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre: New Works,” on stage March 16-25, at the August Wilson Center. Tickets start at $28, and are available at www.pbt.org, 412-456-6666 or the Box Office at Theater Square.

Lobby Hero begins previews tonight at Second Stage's Hayes Theater. Get to know the cast below as they begin Broadway performances!

The Eli and Edythe Broad Stage in Santa Monica presents Bedlam, the acclaimed New York based theatre company, with a fresh kinetic look at two plays with four actors, playing 49 characters in William Shakespeare and George Bernard Shaw's most famous creations, side by side, Hamlet and Saint Joan, in repertory April 5 to 15 at The Broad Stage. This engagement will be the company's West-Coast debut.

Continuing its commitment to bringing free Shakespeare to the community and strengthening audience engagement with the arts, The Public Theater will mount its MOBILE UNIT again this spring with a free three-week tour to the five boroughs of Shakespeare's HENRY V, directed by Robert O'Hara.Now in its eighth year, the Mobile Unit's free tour (March 29 - April 21) brings Shakespeare and other works to audiences who have limited or no access to the arts by visiting correctional facilities, homeless shelters, social service organizations, and other community venues.

Independent Shakespeare Co. (ISC), presenters of the Griffith Park Free Shakespeare Festival announce the debut production in ISC's new and larger performance home, ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL, directed by Melissa Chalsma. ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL will begin previews on Thursday, March 22, opens Saturday, March 24 at 7:30pm and performs through Sunday, April 22 at the ISC Studio in the Atwater Crossing Arts + Innovation Complex, 3191 Casitas Ave., #130 in Atwater Village.

Due to demand, The New Group has announced a three-week extension for Jerry Springer - The Opera, with Matt McGrath appearing as Jerry Springer beginning March 13.  Terrence Mann, currently appearing in the role of Jerry Springer, plays his final performance March 11 due to an existing commitment beyond that date.

Theatre Calgary's new Artistic Director, Stafford Arima, has announced his first season of plays.

BEDLAM (Eric Tucker, Artistic Director; Kimberly Pau Boston, Managing Director) returns to the work of George Bernard Shaw with their new production of PYGMALION featuring Rajesh Bose as Mr. Doolittle, Annabel Capper, Nigel Gore, Edmund Lewis, Vaishnavi Sharma as Eliza Doolittle, and Eric Tucker as Professor Henry Higgins.

It may be cold outside but it is so very hot inside the Can Can with their dazzling production of "Romeo + Juliet". But this is not your typical R+J with its rockin' vocals, thumpin' beat, and just the highlights of a storyline. Oh, and did I mention the cast seems to have trouble keeping their clothes on?

As the annual festival of fearless storytelling, Roundhouse Last Worst Festival returns to the Roundhouse for two and a half weeks of bold performances from established and emerging spoken word artists. Boundless Theatre and Boom Shakalaka Productions will present new songs from Parakeet - a work in development by Brigitte Aphrodite, with music and additional lyrics by Quiet Boy, directed by Laura Keefe on June 28th.

The 2018 Auckland Fringe is the first annual iteration of the festival - an organic result of the momentum created from the success of the 2017 Fringe. The Auckland Fringe has existed in various guises since 2009, but it wasn't until the current Festival Director Lydia Zanetti took over during make-or-break times, and carried off an explosive Auckland Fringe in 2017 that we've seen it start to show its teeth.

This season's hit Off-Broadway play, Afterglow, written and directed by S. Asher Gelman, puts a new block of tickets on sale through July 1, 2018. Afterglow began performances on June 12, 2017 and this extension will allow the show to run beyond their one-year anniversary and celebrate NYC Pride.

Nuffield Southampton Theatres, Theatr Clwyd and English Touring Theatre today announce casting for their co-production of Tennessee Williams' masterpiece A Streetcar Named Desire. 2017 RTST Sir Peter Hall Director Award winner Chelsea Walker directs Nicole Agada (Woman/Nurse), Will Bliss (Steve), Dexter Flanders (Mitch), Kelly Gough (Blanche), Amber James (Stella), Patrick Knowles (Stanley), Marai Louis (Eunice) and Joe Manjon (Pablo/Doctor/Paperboy). The second production in the inaugural season at NST City, A Streetcar Named Desire opens at Nuffield Southampton Theatres on 28 March with previews from 23 March, running until 31 March. The production will tour the UK with English Touring Theatre ahead of opening at Theatr Clwyd, where it plays from 15 March until 2 June, before returning to NST City.

California State University, Fullerton begins the spring 2018 season with Alan Ayckbourn's comedy, Taking Steps. Seasoned professional Mark Ramont directs the production, which runs February 23-March 18, 2018 in the Hallberg Theatre on campus. The comedy centers around the tale of Roland, a hard-drinking, irascible tycoon who is interested in buying an old Victorian house that was once a brothel. His wife, a frustrated dancer, constantly threatening to leave him, joins in this frenetic race up and down the dark mansion's many steps in what The Evening News called 'a farce of riotous delight.'   

Yale Repertory Theatre (James Bundy, Artistic Director; Victoria Nolan, Managing Director) presents Father Comes Home From the Wars, Parts 1, 2 & 3 by Suzan-Lori Parks, directed by Liz Diamond, March 16-April 7, at the University Theatre (222 York Street). Opening Night is Thursday, March 22. Father Comes Home From the Wars, Parts 1, 2 & 3 is a co-production with San Francisco's American Conservatory Theater, where it will play April 25-May 20.

On the evening of Tuesday, February 13, 2018 at the David H. Koch Theater, New York City Ballet featured Romeo and Juliet - a ballet in two acts. It was based on the play by William Shakespeare, music by Sergei Prokofiev, and choreography by Peter Martins.  The scenery was created by Per Kirkeby and the costumes were by Per Kirkeby and Kirsten Lund Nielsen.  The orchestra was conducted by Andrew Litton. The curtain opened to reveal blood red trees and background. This visual was brilliantly conceived by Mr. Kirkeby. It foreshadowed the "flames of lost love and passion". It's opening musical strains evoked a myriad of ominous events yet to occur in the lives of these two star-crossed young people and their families.

March brings the return of Avner Eisenberg to Acorn Productions, this time as the co-director of the monthly Naked Shakespeare show entitled "Vaudevillians," which will be performed at Mechanics Hall on First Friday, with a Thursday night preview, and the following Thursday at Oxbow Blending and Bottling.