The 2017 Lucille Lortel Awards for Outstanding Achievement Off-Broadway were handed out last night to recipients in 19 categories, with three honorary awards also bestowed. The Lortel Awards were distributed in a ceremony at NYU Skirball Center hosted by actor and comedian Taran Killam. This year's event was once again a benefit for The Actors Fund.
American Theater Company (ATC) is proud to announce its Season 33, which kicks off this October with the world premiere of Janine Nabers' Welcome to Jesus, directed by Artistic Director Will Davis, October 26-December 3, 2017.
What Will the Neighbors Say? has announced the launch of its educational program What Will the Kids Say? The inaugural project is an original theatre for young audiences musical, Untitled Shape Show, with book by Co-Artistic Director Sam Hood Adrain and music and lyrics by Will Davis. The show will open Saturday June 24th at the Auditorium at the Providence Public Library, 150 Empire Street, Providence, RI with a cast of professional performers and local young actors.
The Public Theater has announced the line-up for the popular Spotlight Series of free staged readings of new plays by The Public's Emerging Writers Group, beginning on Wednesday, May 31 and running through Monday, June 26.
American Theater Company (ATC) concludes its Season 32 with the world premiere of Dan Aibel's T., an exploration of the competitive ice skating saga between Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding. Margot Bordelon directs a cast featuring Guy Massey (Al), Leah Raidt (T.), ensemble member Tyler Ravelson (Jeff), Kelli Simpkins (Joanne) and Nate Whelden (Shawn). T. runs from May 18-June 25, 2017 (press opening: Monday, May 22).
MCC Theater has announced its five-show 31st Season. The new season - which adds a fifth production to MCC's usual four-show season - boasts an exciting mix of World and New York Premieres from artists both familiar and new to MCC audiences - each fulfilling MCC's longtime commitment to bold, risk-taking works from the most vital voices working in theater today.
In putting together American Theater Company's current production of William Inge's classic play PICNIC, Artistic Director Will Davis said he wanted his cast "to reflect the playwright and the powerful forces in his own psyche that kept him from happiness and fulfillment." Indeed, the actors Davis has cast certainly unlock a great deal of humanity in PICNIC's characters. As outsider Hal, Molly Brennan delivers a particularly inspired performance and bestows an
immense depth of feeling into her role. While this is the first time I've seen a staging of PICNIC, I imagine that Hal is often played more broadly and more stereotypically typecast as a "macho" man-aggressive and assertive. In Brennan's Hal, however, there is a beautiful earnestness and genuine desire for acceptance and belonging. This also makes Hal's desire for Madge (Malic White) a more powerful longing for human connection. Alongside Brennan, White's Madge also has a similar desire for understanding-though the role could be played more desperate still. White's self-assured take on the character does not allow Madge to emit as much desperation as she might.
The 2017 Helen Hayes Award nominations were announced tonight. A line-up of leading theatre artists announced nominations in 47 categories of artistic excellence. Award recipients will be announced at the Helen Hayes Awards gala event to be held at the Lincoln Theatre on Monday, May 15 with an after-party hosted at Washington's legendary 9:30 Club.
American Theater Company (ATC) and the National Public Housing Museum (NPHM) have announced a new partnership to co-create and pilot an educational curriculum in Chicago Public Schools based on ATC's critically acclaimed The Project(s) - a documentary play on Chicago's public housing conceived, co-written and directed by ATC's late Artistic Director PJ Paparelli and co-written by Joshua Jaeger.
American Theater Company's (ATC) Artistic Director Will Davis has announced Katie Klemme as ATC's new managing director, effective immediately. Klemme joins ATC in her new role after having been a resident stage manager with the company since 2008.
As we start our new year, we are offering a more comprehensive weekly roundup of regional stories around our Broadway World, which will now include videos, editor spotlights, regional reviews and more. This week, we feature COPENHAGEN in Washington, DC, FENCES in Salt Lake City, an exclusive behind-the-scenes video of FUN HOME in Denver and more. Check out our top features below!
It seems rather poetic that newly appointed Artistic Director Will Davis's first production at American Theater Company, MEN ON BOATS, focuses rather literally on charting new frontiers. Jaclyn Backhaus's witty, entertaining play (which Davis previously helmed with a different ensemble off-Broadway) offers a fictionalized account of Major John Wesley Powell's expedition along the Colorado and Green Rivers towards the then-unknown Grand Canyon. The titular men on boats comprise a crew of ten split among four vessels-and all are played by women or gender non-conforming performers.
American Theater Company (ATC) opens the regional premiere of Jaclyn Backhaus' Men on Boats tonight, Monday, January 9. Men on Boats is the first production helmed by newly appointed ATC Artistic Director Will Davis, who also staged the production's acclaimed Off Broadway run last year. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!
American Theater Company (ATC) launches its new Opening Weekend program initiative during the first weekend of performances for Men on Boats by Jaclyn Backhaus, directed by ATC Artistic Director Will Davis, Jan. 6-8, 2017 (full run Jan. 6-Feb. 12, 2017).
American Theater Company (ATC) presents the regional premiere of Men on Boats by Jaclyn Backhaus, tonight, Jan. 6, through Feb. 12, 2017, immediately following the production's acclaimed Off Broadway run directed by ATC Artistic Director Will Davis at Playwrights Horizons. Davis also helms the ATC production, with an all-new Chicago cast.
MCC Theater is conducting a casting search for transgender and gender non-conforming performers, as it prepares for the newly announced first show of its 2017-18 Season: the NYC premiere of Charm, a play by Chicago-based, Jefferson Award-winning playwright Philip Dawkins to be directed by Helen Hayes Award winner Will Davis, a transgender artist.
Celebrating 10 seasons of Roundabout Underground, Roundabout Theatre Company has announced the sixth annual Roundabout Underground Reading Series, a five-night event that includes nightly readings of new works written and directed by emerging artists, as well as post-show receptions. The Reading Series will feature new works by Saheem Ali, Emily Feldman, Alex Lubischer, Don Nguyen, Ming Peiffer and Michael Thurber.