Wendy Wasserstein News

The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize has announced 10 Finalists for its prestigious playwriting award, the oldest and largest prize awarded to women playwrights.

Dramatists Play Service will celebrate the Acting Edition publication and acquisition of licensing rights for the play 'Accidentally Brave' by Maddie Corman ('A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood,' 'Some Kind of Wonderful,' 'Younger,' Broadway's 'Next Fall') with a book launch at Shakespeare & Co.'s Upper West Side location on Thursday, Feb. 27 at 7p.m.

The talented, award-wining cast for The Wendy Chronicles, a three-play tribute to Pulitzer Prize and Tony-Winning feminist playwright Wendy Wasserstein, is now complete and ready to open on January 5 at The Braid in Santa Monica.

Director/Producer Stan Zimmerman is putting the finishing touches on The Wendy Chronicles with the casting of Academy Award nominee Michael Lerner, two-time Emmy nominated Mindy Sterling and five other up and coming film and television actors -- Allie Gonino, Danny Gomez, Melody Peng, Brittannie Bohman and Raviv Ullman.

The Actors Fund, the national human services organization for everyone in performing arts and entertainment, will hold its Annual Gala on Monday, April 6, 2020. The evening will celebrate Tony Award-winning actor Matthew Broderick and Emmy Award-winning actor, producer and designer Sarah Jessica Parker; Tony Award-winning actor and Chairman of The Actors Fund Brian Stokes Mitchell; Academy Award-winning producer, co-owner of the New York Football Giants, and philanthropist Steve Tisch; and American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) President Richard L. Trumka as they receive The Actors Fund's Medal of Honor.

Three plays by Pulitzer Prize and Tony-winning playwright Wendy Wasserstein will be presented in two triple-header days of theatre readings when JWT, director Stan Zimmerman and an all-star cast salute the groundbreaking artist who made a career out of exploring the lives of intelligent, talented women.

TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, recipient of the 2019 Tony Award for Regional Theatre, has announced the appointment of Tim Bond as its new Artistic Director. Bond will join the company officially in March 2020, stepping in as Founding Artistic Director Robert Kelley winds down his 50th and final season at the helm of the theatre he created, ending one of the longest tenures in American theatre. Kelley previously announced his retirement at the conclusion of the company's current season in June 2020. Said Bond upon accepting the appointment, a?oeI am thrilled to have the opportunity to continue Robert Kelley's great work, and to lead this spirited company into its next exciting phase.a??

Luna Stage's World Premiere production of Mrs. Stern Wanders the Prussian State Library opens this Saturday, October 19, at 8pm. Founder and Academic Director of the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities Roger Berkowitz, playwright Jenny Lyn Bader, director Ari Laura Kreith, and assistant director Chris Kuiken will join the audience for post-show conversations during the first two weekends of Mrs. Stern Wanders the Prussian State Library at Luna Stage. A discussion about the graphic novel The Three Escapes of Hannah Arendt: A Tyranny of Truth by Ken Krimstein will also precede one performance.

The Orange County Playwrights Alliance concludes its 2019 season of new play events on Saturday, November 2 at 2:30pm at the esteemed Chance Theater in Anaheim Hills, with a staged reading of Siblings, a new full-length comedy from Karen Fix Curry. Rose London directs, and the cast features Sara LaFrambroise, Glenn Koppel, Joan Meissenburg, Richard Piatt and Glenda Wright.

'So an actor walked into my office...,' Rozanne Gates began. For over 20 years as an actor's agent in New York City at The Michael Thomas Agency, Gates had hundreds of actors walking into her office. Her job was to make the choice between who got represented and who didn't - and then to make sure that they worked successfully. Her job also included making sure that her clients understood the business aspect of acting, which can be a bit troublesome for many.

The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center is now accepting script submissions for the 2020 National Playwrights Conference. Writers may submit their new plays to the O'Neill's Open Submissions Process through Friday, October 11, 2019.

Jenny Lyn Bader will perform her solo play Equally Divine: The Real Story of the Mona Lisa in the 10th Annual United Solo Festival on Thursday, October 24th at 9:00pm. Directed by Julie Kramer, the performance takes place at the Studio Theatre on Theatre Row, at 410 W. 42nd St.

BroadwayWorld has learned that real-life married couple Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker will come to Broadway in Neil Simon's Plaza Suite following an out of town run at Boston's Colonial Theatre - where the 1968 production also originated, before a 17 week run on Broadway at the Hudson Theatre with previews set to being in March. The production will be directed by John Benjamin Hickey.

The Pulitzer Prize winning The Heidi Chronicles by Wendy Wasserstein opens Alumnae Theatre's 102nd season.

Friends, colleagues, and students of the highly regarded and much loved actor, teacher, writer, and director E. Katherine Kerr will gather on Monday, September 30, 2019, at 6:00 P.M. at Playwrights Horizons Peter Jay Sharp Theater to celebrate her life.

What if we all had a literal internal clock that counted down to our time of death? This is the premise of Marisa Wegrzyn's award winning play Hickorydickory. Cari Lee's mortal clock was tinkered with, so she's stuck at age 17 for eternity. Now she's the same age as her daughter, Dale, whose time may be literally running out. Hickorydickory is a funny, heartbreaking story about family, and mortality, and sacrifice. Part of the Main Stage Series.

Playwrights' Arena announces the cast for LAS MUJERES DEL MAR (THE WOMEN OF THE SEA) by Janine Salinas Schoenberg, which includes Valentina Guerra, Adriana Sevahn Nichols, Gabriela Ortega, Dyana Ortelli, Israel Lopez Reyes, Camila Rozo, Eddie Ruiz

'DARK PLANET: Not Your Mother's Valentine's Day' presented by Planet Connections Theatre Festivity; performing Thursdays and Fridays, February 6 - 21 at the 14th Street Y Theatre, 344 E 14th St, New York City.

Robert ('Bob') Ullman (left), the legendary theatre press agent, whose career included Ethel Merman and Mary Martin: Together on Broadway, A Chorus Line (from workshop to Public Theater to Broadway), Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne in The Visit, Lauren Bacall in Cactus Flower, The Dining Room, Driving Miss Daisy, Sunday in the Park with George, and over 150 additional Broadway and off-Broadway plays and musicals, died on July 31, 2019 in Bayshore, Long Island, New York. He was 97. The cause of death was cardiac arrest. Bob's death was announced by Rev. Joshua Ellis, a long-time Ullman friend, a former Broadway press agent, and now, an Interspiritual minister.

The Group Rep presents LOOSE KNIT, written by Theresa Rebeck, directed by L. Flint Esquerra, produced by Katelyn Ann Clark, a seductively smart, dark comedy about women who, once a week gather to knit. As the sweaters pile up, their lives fall apart. August 2 - September 8, Friday and Saturday evenings at 8:00 pm, Sunday matinees at 2:00 pm, at the Lonny Chapman Theatre in North Hollywood.