Will Power News

Shakespeare comes in a variety of flavors at the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival this summer, including a new production: Shakespeare for Kids. Children ages 4 to 12 can experience Shakespeare at their level and help Team Shakespeare tell the story of A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Georgia Shakespeare continues its popular Family Classics Series with a world-premiere adaptation of Lewis Carroll's classic story Alice in Wonderland July 18 - August 1. Performances take place Tuesday through Saturday at 10:00 a.m. with additional shows on Tuesday July 21 and 28 at 7:00 p.m. at the Conant Performing Arts Center (4484 Peachtree Rd. Atlanta, 30319 at Oglethorpe University).

Launched in 2006, the Edgerton Foundation New American Play Awards have a growing track record for success, with 24 out of 46 plays living on in subsequent productions, many of which are nominated for prestigious awards. ?That?s a remarkable outcome,? said Teresa Eyring, Executive Director of Theatre Communications Group (TCG). ?Dr. Brad Edgerton and his wife Louise are clearly making a contribution to play development that has an impact on the continuing life of new plays.?

A bold, irreverent romp through 37 of Shakespeare's plays in just 99 minutes, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) is a wildly comic valentine to the Bard. Three brave actors reenact some of Shakespeare's best-known plays with blazing hilarity that promises to be a sidesplitting roller coaster ride.

The Yale Repertory Theatre (James Bundy, Artistic Director; Victoria Nolan, Managing Director) production of Arthur Miller's Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning masterpiece DEATH OF A SALESMAN, featuring three-time Emmy Award winner and two-time Tony Award nominee Charles S. Dutton as Willy Loman, and directed by James Bundy opens tomorrow, Thursday, April 30 and continues through May 23 only at Yale Repertory Theatre (1120 Chapel Street, at York Street)

Tarell Alvin McCraney and Will Power, two award-winning playwrights with longstanding relationships with McCarter Theatre Center, have both received national attention for their contributions to the American theatrical culture. The Advocate has selected McCraney for its special 'Forty Under 40' issue, while Power is featured in American Theatre magazine's 25th Anniversary issue.

New York Theatre Workshop (NYTW) Artistic Director James C. Nicola and Managing Director William Russo have announced plans for NYTW's 2009-10 season. One of New York's leading non-profit theatre companies, NYTW will present a 27th season that includes work by Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen, Rebecca Gilman, and Geoffrey Cowan and Leroy Aarons. A fourth production, scheduled for spring 2010, will be announced in the coming weeks.

The Yale Repertory Theatre (James Bundy, Artistic Director; Victoria Nolan, Managing Director) production of Arthur Miller's Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning masterpiece DEATH OF A SALESMAN, featuring three-time Emmy Award winner and two-time Tony Award nominee Charles S. Dutton as Willy Loman, and directed by James Bundy opens tomorrow, Thursday, April 30 and continues through May 23 only at Yale Repertory Theatre (1120 Chapel Street, at York Street)

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEAL) has awarded Atlanta's Georgia Shakespeare with a $25,000 grant to participate in Shakespeare for a New Generation for 2009 - 2010. The grant will allow Georgia Shakespeare to expand its professional tour production of Abet to 15 schools in underserved areas of Georgia, western North Carolina, and southeastern Alabama.

Rehearsals begin today in New Haven for the Yale Repertory Theatre (James Bundy, Artistic Director; Victoria Nolan, Managing Director) production of Arthur Miller's Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning masterpiece DEATH OF A SALESMAN, featuring three-time Emmy Award winner and two-time Tony Award nominee Charles S. Dutton as Willy Loman, and directed by James Bundy. Performances begin April 24 and continue through May 23 only at Yale Repertory Theatre (1120 Chapel Street, at York Street). Opening Night is Thursday, April 30.

YALE REPERTORY THEATRE (James Bundy, Artistic Director; Victoria Nolan, Managing Director) is pleased to announce its 2009-10 Season, which will include Henrik Ibsen's The Master Builder directed by OBIE Award winner Evan Yionoulis (Yale Rep's Richard II and Black Snow); Eclipsed, a new play by Danai Gurira, co-author of the acclaimed In the Continuum, directed by Liesl Tommy (the world premiere of The Good Negro); the world premiere of Compulsion by Rinne Groff directed by Oskar Eustis; Carlo Goldoni's commedia dell'arte masterpiece The Servant of Two Masters directed by Christopher Bayes (choreographer of the hit Broadway production of Alfred Hitchock's The 39 Steps); and Battle of Black and Dogs by Bernard-Marie Koltès directed by Robert Woodruff (co-adaptor and director of 2009's Notes from Underground at Yale Rep).

To mark two decades at the creative helm of McCarter Theatre Center, Artistic Director Emily Mann has announced the 2009-2010 Theater Season, which will include the revival of an audience favorite, an eighteenth-century comic masterpiece, a knockout world premiere drama, a contemporary American classic, and a soaring new musical.

Long considered the essential magazine for professional not-for-profit theatre, AMERICAN THEATRE magazine (AT), published ten times annually by Theatre Communications Group (TCG), has been providing theatre professionals, students, advocates and audiences a comprehensive journal since April, 1984. At a time when coverage of the arts may be at an all-time low, the substantive and continuing contributions of AMERICAN THEATRE put it in a class of its own.

Rehearsals begin today in New Haven for the Yale Repertory Theatre (James Bundy, Artistic Director; Victoria Nolan, Managing Director) production of Arthur Miller's Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning masterpiece DEATH OF A SALESMAN, featuring three-time Emmy Award winner and two-time Tony Award nominee Charles S. Dutton as Willy Loman, and directed by James Bundy. Performances begin April 24 and continue through May 23 only at Yale Repertory Theatre (1120 Chapel Street, at York Street). Opening Night is Thursday, April 30.

Bristol Riverside Theatre presents the World Premiere of What You Will, a BRT original interpretation of Shakespeare's comedy Twelfth Night from February 10 through March 1, 2009. A daring and bold take on the classic comedy that combines the language of Shakespeare with contemporary rhythms and movement, What You Will is conceived and co-directed by BRT Artistic Director Keith Baker and Donald Byrd, acclaimed choreographer of Broadway's The Color Purple and Artistic Director of Seattle's Spectrum Dance Theater. Music direction and original music by hip hop producer Justin Ellington completes the marriage of text, high-energy movement and heart-pounding music. What You Will begins previews February 10, opens February 12, and closes March 1, 2009. Tickets are $29 - $37, with $10 student tickets, and are available by calling the Box Office at (215) 785-0100 or visiting the theatre at 120 Radcliffe Street in Bristol, with information online at www.brtstage.org. [A full performance schedule follows on page 4.] In this new interpretation, Shakespeare's original text is heard with a distinctively contemporary American voice as the worlds of modern urban and classical theatre are fused. In What You Will (Shakespeare's full title for the play was Twelfth Night, Or What You Will), the social center of Illyria is Club 12th Night - a place where pranks and disguises, playful games and folly rule. A shipwrecked woman stumbles into the club, beginning a chain of events leading to an astonishing conclusion. Mistaken identities, intrigue, music, a beautiful heiress, drunken partiers, and a spiteful servant merge with a hip-hop rhythm in Shakespeare's enchanting tale of revelry and love.

Bristol Riverside Theatre presents the World Premiere of What You Will, a BRT original interpretation of Shakespeare's comedy Twelfth Night from February 10 through March 1, 2009. A daring and bold take on the classic comedy that combines the language of Shakespeare with contemporary rhythms and movement, What You Will is conceived and co-directed by BRT Artistic Director Keith Baker and Donald Byrd, acclaimed choreographer of Broadway's The Color Purple and Artistic Director of Seattle's Spectrum Dance Theater. Music direction and original music by hip hop producer Justin Ellington completes the marriage of text, high-energy movement and heart-pounding music. What You Will begins previews February 10, opens February 12, and closes March 1, 2009. Tickets are $29 - $37, with $10 student tickets, and are available by calling the Box Office at (215) 785-0100 or visiting the theatre at 120 Radcliffe Street in Bristol, with information online at www.brtstage.org. [A full performance schedule follows on page 4.] In this new interpretation, Shakespeare's original text is heard with a distinctively contemporary American voice as the worlds of modern urban and classical theatre are fused. In What You Will (Shakespeare's full title for the play was Twelfth Night, Or What You Will), the social center of Illyria is Club 12th Night - a place where pranks and disguises, playful games and folly rule. A shipwrecked woman stumbles into the club, beginning a chain of events leading to an astonishing conclusion. Mistaken identities, intrigue, music, a beautiful heiress, drunken partiers, and a spiteful servant merge with a hip-hop rhythm in Shakespeare's enchanting tale of revelry and love.

Bristol Riverside Theatre is pleased to announce the winners of their highly successful First-Ever By The River Poetry Slam. The event, held last month, packed over 250 students, parents and friends into the theatre and showcased creative poetry works by 40 high school students from all over the area. Schools represented included Bristol High School, Harry S Truman High School, Burlington City High School, West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South, and Abington Friends School.

Bristol Riverside Theatre concludes its Bridges Informance Series with Donald Byrd's renowned Spectrum Dance Theatre on Friday, January 9. Byrd recently choreographed Broadway's Tony-nominated hit The Color Purple, and he is the collaborator and co-director for BRT's upcoming World Premiere of What You Will.

The Public Theater (Artistic Director Oskar Eustis; Executive Director Andrew D. Hamingson) announced that TAKING OVER, the first new solo play by OBIE Award winner Danny Hoch in 10 years, has been extended through Sunday, December 21 due to popular demand. Directed by Tony Taccone, TAKING OVER opened on Sunday, November 23 and was originally scheduled to close on Sunday, December 14.

Bristol Riverside Theatre concludes its Bridges Informance Series with Donald Byrd's renowned Spectrum Dance Theatre on Friday, January 9. Byrd recently choreographed Broadway's Tony-nominated hit The Color Purple, and he is the collaborator and co-director for BRT's upcoming World Premiere of What You Will.