Williamstown Theatre News

Alley Theatre Artistic Director Gregory Boyd announces the cast and creative team for Alan Ayckbourn's science fiction comedy Communicating Doors. Eleven plays penned by Alan Ayckbourn have been produced by the Alley, including the American premiere of Henceforward, directed by Ayckbourn, in 1987 and House & Garden in 2002. Alan Ayckbourn has been inducted into the American Theatre's Hall of Fame, received the 2010 Critics' Circle Award for Services to the Arts, became the first British playwright to receive both Olivier and Tony Special Lifetime Achievement Awards and was knighted in 1997 for services to the theatre.

Kicking off Horizon's 30th Anniversary season, blue collar collides with blue blood in the haves and have-nots comedy Elemeno Pea (pronounced L-M-N-O-P) by Molly Smith Metzler. A siblings' weekend on Martha's Vineyard goes awry when the younger sister's boss crashes the party. This three-ring circus send-up of the rich and their wannabe "help" finds both flying without a net.

Previews begin tomorrow night, Saturday, March 8, for the return to Broadway of Tony Award-winner and two-time Academy Award-winner Denzel Washington, starring as Walter Lee Younger in Lorraine Hansberry's A RAISIN IN THE SUN. This new production begins previews nearly 55 years to the day that A RAISIN IN THE SUN had its Broadway premiere (March 11, 1959) at the same theatre, the Ethel Barrymore Theatre (243 West 47th Street). Scroll down to learn more about the cast!

Writers Theatre presents The Dance of Death by August Strindberg, in a new version by Conor McPherson and directed by Henry Wishcamper. The production runs April 1 - July 20, 2014 at 664 Vernon Avenue, Glencoe. The press openings are April 9 and 10, 2014 at 7:30pm.

The Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park will present a reading of Stephen MacDonald's drama about the real-life friendship of two World War I soldier poets, NOT ABOUT HEROES, at 7 p.m. Monday, March 24. The reading is being offered in collaboration with the Cincinnati Remembers World War I series, the Cincinnati Opera's citywide series of events in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the onset of World War I.

In conjunction with its upcoming production of Anton Chekhov's passionate classic The Seagull, Huntington Theatre Company will host a number of special post-show conversations. Admission to onsite post-show events is free with a ticket to The Seagull, available at huntingtontheatre.org/seagull, by phone at 617 266 0800, or in person at the BU Theatre (264 Huntington Avenue) and Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA (527 Tremont Street) box offices. Tickets start at $25. Performances begin Today, March 7, 2014 at the Avenue of the Arts / BU Theatre.

Director Christopher Bayes and comic actor Steven Epp - the duo behind the uproarious A Doctor in Spite of Himself - return to Berkeley Repertory Theatre with Accidental Death of an Anarchist, the explosive political farce by Nobel Prize-winning Italian playwright Dario Fo. A Berkeley Rep favorite, Epp delighted audiences in Figaro and The Miser - now the master comedian returns in a criminally funny production about corruption. Only one man can cut through massive bureaucratic duplicity and reveal what happened to the suspected anarchist who died from a fall out of a fourth-floor police station window. Did he jump? Or was he pushed? In this contemporary take on a beloved classic, Berkeley Rep hauls you down to the station for a hilarious interrogation of our culture. This madcap comedy starts previews in the Roda Theatre tonight, March 7, opens March 12, and runs through April 20.

Today, Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC), the nation's oldest AIDS service organization, announces the sensational news that its annual dinner gala will be hosted by the award-winning actress, singer and dancer, Chita Rivera, and held at Cipriani 42nd Street, on Wednesday, March 26, 2014. A revered Broadway legend, Ms. Rivera is not a stranger to GMHC. In 2004, she starred in GMHC's benefit concert, 'Showstoppers,' featuring 20 Broadway stars performing their signature numbers at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall.

Sara Farrington's NEAR VICKSBURG will run today, March 6-16, 2014 at Incubator Arts.

In conjunction with its upcoming production of Anton Chekhov's passionate classic The Seagull, Huntington Theatre Company will host a number of special post-show conversations. Admission to onsite post-show events is free with a ticket to The Seagull, available at huntingtontheatre.org/seagull, by phone at 617 266 0800, or in person at the BU Theatre (264 Huntington Avenue) and Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA (527 Tremont Street) box offices. Tickets start at $25. Performances begin Friday, March 7, 2014 at the Avenue of the Arts / BU Theatre.

Soho Playhouse, the downtown Off-Broadway theatre located at 15 Vandam Street, will present the world premiere of EXTRAORDINARY EXTREMITIES with previews beginning April 4 prior to an official press opening of April 13 it has been announced by producer Darren Lee Cole.

Cameron Mackintosh's acclaimed new production of Alain Boublil & Claude-Michel Schonberg's Tony Award-winning musical masterpiece LES MISERABLES begins previews on Broadway tomorrow, Saturday, March 1 at the Imperial Theatre. The official opening night for LES MISERABLES is Sunday, March 23. Scroll down to learn more about the full cast, plus watch a video of the company in rehearsal!

Fresh off a successful fall residency at Schubas in Chicago and a visit to the recent Ann Arbor Folk Festival, award-winning seven-member indie-folk band/theater troupe PigPen Theatre Co. hits the road today, March 1, headlining dates nationwide.

Ghostlight Records will record the original Broadway cast recording of The Bridges of Madison County, the new romantic musical by the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning team of Marsha Norman ('night Mother, The Color Purple) and Jason Robert Brown (The Last Five Years, Parade).

Berkshire Theatre Group is pleased to announce Tony Award and Drama Desk nominated actress Kate Baldwin, and husband, Broadway and television actor Graham Rowat in the roles of Countess Charlotte Malcolm and Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm for BTG's 2014 summer musical, Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music.

Broadway's BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY has released an all-new TV spot. Check it out below!

Classic Stage Company, under the leadership of Artistic Director Brian Kulick and Executive Director Greg Reiner, will present David Ives' THE HEIR APPARENT, adapted from the play by Jean-Francois Regnard, beginning performances Friday, March 28 at CSC (136 East 13th Street). Directed by John Rando, THE HEIR APPARENT will feature Suzanne Bertish (Madame Argante), Carson Elrod (Crispin), Claire Karpen (Lisette), Amelia Pedlow (Isabelle), David Pittu (Scruple), Dave Quay (Eraste) and Paxton Whitehead (Geronte). The official press opening for THE HEIR APPARENT is Wednesday, April 9. The production will play at limited engagement through Sunday, May 4.

Geva Theatre Center' 41st Season continues with the world premiere of Informed Consent by Deborah Zoe Laufer. Directed by Sean Daniels, this heartwarming, honest and compelling tale, ripped from the headlines and inspired by a true story, begins performances on March 18 and runs in the Elaine P. Wilson Mainstage through April 13.

Animus Theatre Company has announced its 2014 Season, which will feature Matthew Lillard, Leslye Headland, and Alan Langdon, with plays by Bob Glaudini, Tennessee Williams, and Headland. The MainStage Production will be Dutch Heart of Man by Glaudini, directed by Alan Langdon, running April 24th thru May 11th. The Workshop Production will feature four short plays by Tennessee Williams: Moony's Kid Don't Cry; The Long Goodbye; Talk to Me Like the Rain and Let Me Listen; and The Pink Bedroom. The one-act plays, all presented nightly, will be directed by Matthew Lillard and run August 1st thru 10th. Both productions will be presented at the Cherry Lane Theatre in downtown NYC, the 2014 home of Animus Theatre Company. The season will be rounded out in the fall/winter with a multi-media festival headlined by Leslye Headland's Seven Deadly Sin Cycle Plays (Cinephillia, Bachelorette, Assistance, Surfer Girl, Reverb, and The Accidental Blonde) presented as a collection of readings for the first time in New York City. Cast and creatives for all of the above will be announced at a later date.

Performances begin tonight for Roundabout Theatre Company's third annual Roundabout Underground Reading Series. The actors involved in the series include: Pico Alexander, Fred Applegate, De'Adre Aziza, David Aaron Baker, Cassie Beck, Michael Chernus, Diane Davis, Dashiell Eaves, Ryan Eggold, Lisa Emery, Sue Jean Kim, Chad Kimball, Jessica Love, Lizbeth Mackay, Annie McNamara, Alex Mickiewicz, Aaron Clifton Moten, Olivia Oguma, Tonya Pinkins, Paul Pontrelli, Conrad Ricamora, Reg Rogers, Debra Jo Rupp, Campbell Scott and Max von Essen.