Lantern Theater Company concludes its record-smashing 2017/18 season with the regional premiere of Don't Dress for Dinner by French playwright Marc Camoletti. Lantern Resident Director Kathryn MacMillan will direct a cast that includes some of Philadelphia's finest comedic actors: Chris Anthony, Jessica Bedford, Marc LeVasseur, Lee Minora, Karen Peakes, and William Zielinski. Theater critics and members of the press are invited to request tickets for opening night on Wednesday, May 30 at 7 p.m. by contacting Anne Shuff at ashuff@lanterntheater.org. Performances run Thursday, May 24 through Sunday, June 24, 2018; a full schedule is included in the fact sheet below.
Wilma Theater News
by Julie Musbach -
People's Light presents the wildly successful off-Broadway hit Skeleton Crew, a powerful story of love and loyalty by New Play Frontiers writer Dominique Morisseau. This funny, incisive, and "deeply American" (The New York Times) play that "theatergoers won't want to miss" (Huffington Post) centers on a group of Detroit autoworkers as they confront the eroding manufacturing industry. Steve H. Broadnax III, who directed the theatre's critically-acclaimed staging of The Mountaintop in 2016, returns for the production. Skeleton Crew opens on June 13 and has already extended to July 15 on the Steinbright Stage at People's Light.
by BWW News Desk -
Itamar Moses has won the 2018 Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical for THE BAND'S VISIT.
by Julie Musbach -
Philadelphia's Bearded Ladies Cabaret returns to The Wilma Theater with You Can Never Go Down the Drain after their New York City run at La MaMa and Joe's Pub at the Public Theater. Mr. Rogers always said: no matter how bad things are, 'You can never go down the drain.' Using and abusing iconic songs from the children's show, John Jarboe, Artistic Director of Philadelphia's Bearded Ladies Cabaret, puts this idea to the test. For this performance, expect a goldfish funeral, gay romps into the land of make-believe, and some earnest questions about irony. You Can Never Go Down the Drain runs for ten performances between June 20th to July 1st at The Wilma Theater.
by A.A. Cristi -
The U.S. Premiere of Toshiki Okada's Time's Journey Through a Room opens this Sunday, May 20, at the Mezzanine Theatre at the A.R.T./New York Theatres. Presented by The Play Company (PlayCo), led by Founding Producer Kate Loewald and Managing Director Robert G. Bradshaw, Time's Journey Through a Room is PlayCo's third collaboration with Okada, translator Aya Ogawa and director Dan Rothenberg. This haunting play, set in Japan after the Fukushima disaster, stars the Japanese-born, New York based performers Yuki Kawahisa (Honoka), Maho Honda (Arisa) and Kensaku Shinohara (Kazuki). The play is both an intimate examination of how we move forward from life-altering events, and a study of how we experience time, asking whether we can ever be alive to the present moment.
by A.A. Cristi -
Rob Ruggiero, Producing Artistic Director announced today that TheaterWorks will present the Westport Country Playhouse's acclaimed production of THE INVISIBLE HAND by Ayad Akhtar, May 24 through June 23, 2018. THE INVISIBLE HAND is the fourth show of TheaterWorks 32nd Season.
by Stephi Wild -
According to Philly.com, an audience member interrupted a performance of the play Passage at the Wilma Theater in Center City Thursday night. Jaylene Clark Owens, an actress in the production, was performing a scene that included a white actor (Ross Beschler) and Filipino actor (Justin Jain), when a man interrupted loudly, referencing Forrest Gump in a racially-charged comment.
by Julie Musbach -
A collective of perspectives. A public outcry. The establishment of a movement. This month, two new plays- Until the Flood by Dael Orlandersmith, directed by Neel Keller and florissant & canfield by Kristiana Rae Colon, directed by Derrick Sanders-bring a national dialogue to the stage.
by A.A. Cristi -
The Play Company (PlayCo), led by Founding Producer Kate Loewald and Managing Director Robert G. Bradshaw, today announces the complete cast for Toshiki Okada's Time's Journey Through a Room, marking PlayCo's third collaboration with Okada, translator Aya Ogawa, and director Dan Rothenberg, May 10 - June 10, 2018. This haunting play, set in post-Fukushima Japan, will star three Japanese born performers, all of whom are now based in New York: Yuki Kawahisa (Honoka), Maho Honda (Arisa) and Kensaku Shinohara (Kazuki). The play is both an intimate examination of how we move forward from life-altering events, and a study of how we experience time, asking whether we can ever be alive to the present moment.
by Stephi Wild -
Vietgone by Qui Nguyen is the Vietnamese-American playwright's own creation story-a telling of his parents' 1975 refugee camp romance in a "geek theater" spectacle that's at turns affecting, sage, raucous, and fantastical. A screenwriter for Marvel Studios and founder of Obie Award-winning company Vampire Cowboys, Nguyen's work champions representation and diversity on stage while dripping with pop culture nods, contemporary music, and action-adventure narrative. The production pairs this Studio-commissioned playwright with director and Studio Cabinet member Natsu Onoda Power. Drawing on Vietgone's comic book aesthetics, Studio's Stage 4 is transformed into a garage concert with a live band and original funk-rock-punk-n-roll score, giving audiences a front row seat to this anything-but-typical story of boy meets girl.
by A.A. Cristi -
The Wilma Theater will hold its annual Theater Lovers Fete on Monday, May 14 at 5:30pm, at the theater's home on 265 South Broad Street. The celebration honors the company's own Artistic Director Blanka Zizka, inspired by the Wilma's recent transformations under her leadership. For the last 37 years, Zizka has led the Wilma in its mission to "create living, adventurous art," and her vision continues to foster growth and fearless experimentation within the local and international theater community. The Fete celebrates the Wilma's new era of artistic exploration.
by Julie Musbach -
People's Light proudly presents an inventive, intimate version of one of Shakespeare's most timeless plays. In Romeo & Juliet: A Requiem, the parents, Friar, and Nurse recreate the passion and recklessness of their star-crossed children to face their culpability and seek redemption.
by Julie Musbach -
Roundabout Theatre Company's Broadway revival of Tom Stoppard's Tony Award-winning play Travesties begins previews tonight! Get to know the cast below as they begin Broadway performances!
by Stephi Wild -
Columbia University School of the Arts presents ten new plays written by the Columbia MFA Playwriting Students of 2018. The esteemed faculty who have nurtured these students, including Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage and Charles L. Mee, invite you to experience these innovative new playwrights.
by A.A. Cristi -
Villanova Theatre is proud to present Barrymore Award-winning director James Ijames' vibrant new take on William Shakespeare's timeless romantic comedy Much Ado About Nothing, on stage April 10-22. As Shakespeare's most celebrated and well-loved comedy, Much Ado About Nothing has captured the hearts of audiences all around the world due to the epic scope of its storytelling and the compelling charm of the characters' emotional journeys.
by Julie Musbach -
Obie Award-winning playwright Christopher Chen brings the World Premiere of Passage to The Wilma Theater in collaboration with Wilma Artistic Director Blanka Zizka and the Wilma HotHouse Company of actors. Praised by The New Yorker for his ability to find "ingenious ways to pull the rug out from under the audience's feet," Chen's new play uses the theater's primal evocative powers to examine the most essential questions of our time. Passage begins on Wednesday, April 18th, 2018, and opens on Wednesday, April 25th, 2018.
by Julie Musbach -
Shakespeare Theatre Company today announces the cast of Lerner and Loewe's multiple Tony Award-winning musical Camelot. Directed by STC Associate Artistic Director Alan Paul (Kiss Me, Kate; Man of La Mancha), the classic musical will play at Sidney Harman Hall (610 F St NW) from May 22 through July 1, concluding STC's 2017-2018 mainstage season.
by Julie Musbach -
What kind of future will you have living in these here United States? Remember when you were eleven years old and you had a bike, one that made you dream about a world bigger than the one in which you live?
by Julie Musbach -
Lincoln Center Theater's upcoming production of Lerner & Loewe's My Fair Lady is officially in previews! Get to know the cast below as they begin Broadway performances!
by Stephi Wild -
The Case Western Reserve University/Cleveland Play House MFA Acting Program announces the debut performance of the Class of 2020. Fifth of July, from Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lanford Wilson, will run in the Helen Theatre at Playhouse Square.
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