Verona News

An Australian premiere opens the season with a new production of Verdi's dark tale of seduction and intrigue, Rigoletto. There are some opera arias you just have to hear sung by the very best and inRigoletto you have the perfect opportunity. Italian opera star Gianluca Terranova will sing the memorable 'La donna è mobile' as the Duke in this stunning, broody new production. Recent Ringcycle standouts – Warwick Fyfe (in the title role) and Daniel Sumegi (as Sparafucile) – reunite, heading up a stellar cast.

RSC Artistic Director Gregory Doran has announced the company's Summer 2014 season in Stratford-upon-Avon with three early titles in the Company's six year journey across Shakespeare's entire First Folio of 36 plays. They are Henry IV Part I, Henry IV Part II, and The Two Gentlemen of Verona. They will be shot for broadcast as part of "Live from Stratford-upon-Avon," a program that screens the world's greatest classical theatre company from Shakespeare's home town around the world through a continued partnership with Picturehouse Entertainment. This year also marks the 450th anniversary year of Shakespeare's birth.

Berkeley Repertory Theatre continues the second half of its season with Tribes, a sophisticated and moving family drama by celebrated British playwright Nina Raine. Her profound and powerful new play became an award-winning hit in London and New York. Now renowned director Jonathan Moscone brings it to Berkeley Rep this April for its Bay Area premiere. Tribes follows Billy, a young man who was born deaf into a loquacious and highly opinionated academic family who raised him to lip-read and integrate into the hearing world. When he meets Sylvia - raised by Deaf parents and going deaf herself - Billy decides it's time to speak on his own terms and to be heard. Playing out in words, sign language, and sometimes mesmerizing silence, this penetrating drama examines familial love, notions of belonging, and the intersections of communication. Tribes start previews tonight, April 11, opens on April 16, and closes on Sunday, May 11, 2014.

Pacific Northwest Ballet continues its 2013-2014 season with George Balanchine's A Midsummer Night's Dream. A complete delight for all ages, this full-length ballet is based on William Shakespeare's comedy about the romantic adventures, quarrels and reunions of two pairs of mortal lovers and the king and queen of the fairies. Balanchine's Midsummer, which New York City Ballet premiered in 1962, was the first original evening-length ballet he choreographed in America. Staged by PNB Founding Artistic Director Francia Russell, PNB's production is an enchanted landscape where misunderstandings and mayhem weave tangled paths through the opulent layers of Martin Pakledinaz's designs and Balanchine's marvelously crafted partnerings. All ends well in Act II's wedding festivities with the recognition of ideal love, tenderly portrayed in an exquisite pas de deux. A Midsummer Night's Dream plays for eight performances only, tonight, April 11-19 at McCaw Hall at Seattle Center Tickets start at $28 and may be purchased by calling the PNB Box Office at 206. 441.2424, online at PNB.org, or in person at the PNB Box Office at 301 Mercer Street.

According to Variety, the stage vet is currently finalizing a deal to join the cast of Disney's sequel to Tim Burton's 2010 film ALICE IN WONDERLAND, titled THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS. MUPPETS helmer James Bobin will direct. The picture is scheduled to hit theaters on May 27, 2016. Mia Wasikowska will reprise her role as Alice while Johnny Depp returns as According to Variety, the stage vet is currently finalizing a deal to join the cast of Disney's sequel to Tim Burton's 2010 film ALICE IN WONDERLAND, titled THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS. MUPPETS helmer James Bobin will direct. The picture is scheduled to hit theaters on May 27, 2016, with Mia Wasikowska on board reprise her role as Alice, with Johnny Depp returning as The Mad Hatter.

Good morning, BroadwayWorld! Because we know all our readers eat, sleep and breathe Broadway, what could be better than waking up to it? Today's big news: Ovation will air its special on Susan Boyle tonight!

Casting is announced for Simon Godwin's production of The Two Gentlemen of Verona which opens in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon this July with a press night on Tuesday 22 July, before being broadcast live into cinemas worldwide, streamed into schools and transferring to Newcastle Theatre Royal.

No one is standing on ceremony in Impro Theatre's latest comedic invention, SHAKESPEARE UNSCRIPTED. On the contrary, the only formality you'll find here is the kind you leave at the door when you step foot into the theater.

Rachel Kavanaugh directs Michael Wynne's remarkable new play Hope Place, a tender portrayal of family life and how memories, real and imagined, can shape our lives. The play was specially commissioned for the opening season at the new Everyman Theatre and elegantly captures the living history that is, the Liverpool Everyman.

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 on Friday, June 13, 2014 with Press Opening on Saturday, June 14th, and runs at Theater Wit in Chicago through Sunday, July 20, 2014.

Milwaukee's tiny black box Off the Wall Theatre seats approximately 40 people for their innovative production of William Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet (R&J). While small in size, the theatre company offers huge rewards for anyone who attends their performances. The company's Artistic Director Dale Gutzman continually probes the intricacies of theater, often reinventing timeless stories including the classics, into avant garde productions on a miniscule budget that his audiences marvel at and revitalize a play's evocative power.

Actor Sharif Atkins ('White Collar,' 'Hawaii,' 'ER') will star as Clay in the co-production of 'Dutchman' by LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka) by Dr. Barbara Ann Teer's National Black Theatre (NBT) and The Classical Theatre of Harlem (CTH). The two theater companies are mounting the production 50 years after the March 1964 world premiere of the play at the Cherry Lane Theatre and in tribute to the late theater great Baraka, who died on January 9. Ambien Mitchell stars opposite Atkins as Lula and Lorenzo Scott joins the cast as the Conductor. Previews of the Carl Cofield-directed show begin on April 30 and run through May 2, and performances run from May 3 through May 23 at National Black Theatre in Harlem.

'If you like action-packed thrillers,' writes Lynnea Benson, Artistic Director of Frog and Peach Theatre, 'you are going to love King John.' She calls the seldom-produced history play 'Game of Thrones, Shakespeare style,' being filled with wars over crowns, gold and power; craven courtiers, bickering in-laws, a greedy, power-mad Cardinal; illegitimate relatives and two very ambitious Queen Mothers. She will direct the classic April 24 to May 18, 2014 featuring a cast of Frog and Peach stalwarts including Karen Lynn Gorney ('Saturday Night Fever,' 'All My Children') as the ruthlessly clever Queen Elinor.

Rubicon Theatre continues the company's 16th Not Your Typical Season with a special run of Love, Loss, and What I Wore -- a witty and wise celebration of womanhood adapted by Nora and Delia Ephron, creators of such hits as 'When Harry Met Sally,' 'Sleepless in Seattle,' 'You've Got Mail,' 'The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants' and 'Silkwood.'

'If you like action-packed thrillers,' writes Lynnea Benson, Artistic Director of Frog and Peach Theatre, 'you are going to love King John.' She calls the seldom-produced history play 'Game of Thrones, Shakespeare style,' being filled with wars over crowns, gold and power; craven courtiers, bickering in-laws, a greedy, power-mad Cardinal; illegitimate relatives and two very ambitious Queen Mothers. She will direct the classic April 24 to May 18, 2014 featuring a cast of Frog and Peach stalwarts including Karen Lynn Gorney ('Saturday Night Fever,' 'All My Children') as the ruthlessly clever Queen Elinor.

Stark Naked Theatre Company concludes its third season with a compelling production of one of William Shakespeare's most fascinating plays, The Winter's Tale. Directed by acclaimed Houston actor/director Philip Lehl, The Winter's Tale opens on May 2nd and runs through May 16th at STUDIO 101.

The Harbor Lights Theater Company, led by Executive Artistic Director Tamara Jenkins, Co-Artistic Director Jay Montgomery, and Associate Producer Beth Gittleman, announces its fifth season as Staten Island's first and only Professional Equity theater company with the American classic Driving Miss Daisy.

UATG to present Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, directed by Megan Dansie. Introducing Akkshey Caplash and Abby Hampton as 'Romeo' and 'Juliet'. The production will run at the Little Theatre, The Cloisters, University of Adelaide, Sat 3, Tues-Sat 6-10 & 13-17 May 2014 at 7.30pm.

The celebrated off-Broadway comedy, Around the World in 80 Days, which features five actors in a theatrical tour-de-force playing 39 characters from Jules Verne's classic adventure novel, will come alive through the Arizona Theatre Company production at the Herberger Theater Center, 222 E. Monroe, from today, March 27-April 13.

Due to critical and popular acclaim, SpeakEasy Stage Company is adding one additional week of performances to its New England premiere production of THE WHALE by Samuel D. Hunter.