All This Intimacy - 2006 - Off-Broadway Articles Page 19

As Houston's leading performing arts presenter, Society for the Performing Arts (SPA) has announced its 2013-2014 season filled with music, dance and family entertainment from the world's best artists and companies.

The editors of Opera News are pleased to announce the honorees for the ninth annual Opera News Awards, paying tribute to five superb artists who have made invaluable contributions to the art form: director Patrice Chéreau, tenor Juan Diego Flórez, mezzo-soprano Christa Ludwig, bass-baritone James Morris and soprano Nina Stemme. The Opera News Awards ceremonywill take place on Sunday, April 13 at the Plaza Hotel in New York City. All the winners - and a host of the city's cultural, civic, and social luminaries - will be present at the gala awards dinner, which will feature celebrity presenters speaking about the awardees and introducing video performance clips.

Tenor Nicholas Phan will kick off his 2013-14 season as one of the prime voices heard in celebrations of the composer's centenary as they culminate this fall. Today, September 5, Phan helps launch Trinity Wall Street's four-month Celebrating Britten Festival with the orchestral song cycle Nocturne. The tenor also curates the 2013 Collaborative Works Festival as the Artistic Director of Collaborative Arts Institute of Chicago, performing Britten's Canticle II: Abraham and Isaac and The Heart of the Matter, plus folk-song arrangements by Beethoven (Sept 11-15). Phan and pianist Myra Huang then embark on a U.S. recital tour - starting at Trinity Wall Street on September 21 - with a program juxtaposing Britten and Schubert.

Tenor Nicholas Phan will kick off his 2013-14 season as one of the prime voices heard in celebrations of the composer's centenary as they culminate this fall. On September 5, Phan helps launch Trinity Wall Street's four-month Celebrating Britten Festival with the orchestral song cycle Nocturne. The tenor also curates the 2013 Collaborative Works Festival as the Artistic Director of Collaborative Arts Institute of Chicago, performing Britten's Canticle II: Abraham and Isaac and The Heart of the Matter, plus folk-song arrangements by Beethoven (Sept 11-15). Phan and pianist Myra Huang then embark on a U.S. recital tour - starting at Trinity Wall Street on September 21 - with a program juxtaposing Britten and Schubert.

In its 2013-14 season of nine shows, the side project continues its drive to create world premiere collaborations. Artistic Director Adam Webster says, 'We are thrilled to present a world premiere from renowned playwright Kathleen Tolan (Goodman Theatre's Memory House), as well as continue the relationship we have with NY-based playwright Daniel Talbott, whose play Slipping we world premiered in 2008, and which was subsequently shortlisted for the 2010 Lambda Award, along with The Brother/Sister Plays. Further, we are excited to team up with Tympanic Theatre Company for our first co-production, Sandalwood.' Tympanic's last co-production was Scott Barsotti's Brewed.

Berkshire Theatre Group and Artistic Director/CEO Kate Maguire are excited to announce the 2013 Fall schedule of events at The Colonial Theatre, The Garage and The Unicorn Theatre. Tickets are available for purchase to members and passholders on August 20 and to the general public on August 22.

The third week of the 2013 Mostly Mozart Festival continues with opera performances, both classic and contemporary. Following their acclaimed 2011 Festival production of Don Giovanni, the Budapest Festival Orchestra (BFO) returns to Mostly Mozart with a new production of Mozart's masterwork comic opera Le nozze di Figaro. The final two Festival performances of this great work take place at the Rose Theater in Jazz at Lincoln Center's Frederick P. Rose Hall at the Time Warner Center tonight, August 13 and August 15, each at 7pm.

Northrop at the University of Minnesota announces single tickets go on-sale today, August 5 for its 2013-14 Northrop Season, which features world-class dance, including copresentations with The O'Shaughnessy at St. Catherine University's Women of Substance and Walker Art Center. Single tickets will be sold through each venue. Series packages continue to be on sale through Northrop.

The third week of the 2013 Mostly Mozart Festival continues with opera performances, both classic and contemporary. Following their acclaimed 2011 Festival production of Don Giovanni, the Budapest Festival Orchestra (BFO) returns to Mostly Mozart with a new production of Mozart's masterwork comic opera Le nozze di Figaro. The final two Festival performances of this great work take place at the Rose Theater in Jazz at Lincoln Center's Frederick P. Rose Hall at the Time Warner Center on August 13 and 15, each at 7pm.

As one of the best MCs in the world during the past decade, very few MCs have matched Fat Joe's longevity. There are only a handful of rap artists who can claim the commercial success and street credibility of the Terror Squad Don. Throughout his career, Fat Joe has obviously been cut from the cloth of supreme mic holders. He's held his own on songs with modern day legends such as Big Pun and Big L, the Wu-Tang Clan, Nas, Grand Puba and one of the greatest collection of Masters of Ceremonies to ever assemble, D.I.T.C. Fat Joe has sold over two million albums, discovered some of the best artist in the rap game (Big Pun, Remy Ma, etc.), been nominated for two Grammy awards, and has achieved commercial and critical success.

Week Two of the 2013 Mostly Mozart Festival begins with the first of two concert series with the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra on Tuesday, August 6 and Wednesday, August 7 in Avery Fisher Hall with French conductor Jeremie Rhorer. Rhorer, returning for the first time since his debut in 2011, will lead Mozart's Overture to Le nozze di Figaro and Beethoven's Symphony No. 1, along with Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 25 in C major, K.503, with guest pianist Paul Lewis, continuing this season's overarching theme of musical lineage between the two iconic composers.

Tonight, June 22 at 8:30pm and Sunday, June 23 at 4pm, Caramoor kicks off the 68th Summer Festival with its first ever Broadway production, She Loves Me. Joining the cast will be John Cullum, Ryan Silverman, Brad Oscar, Etai BenShlomo and Jonathan Freeman. Michele Lynch will choreograph.

Coming up this week, 54 BELOW, the performance venue located just below the legendary Studio 54 at 254 West 54th Street, presents some of the brightest stars from Broadway, cabaret, jazz and beyond. 54 Below also launched its series of late night events. Joining Tuesday nights' popular "Backstage" with Susie Mosheris the "54 Piano Bar," a new vocal competition - 'The Callback," and more:

Cameron Mackintosh announced today that his acclaimed new production of Alain Boublil & Claude-Michel Schonberg's Tony Award-winning musical masterpiece LES MISERABLES will return to the Imperial Theatre, the show's home on Broadway for nearly 13 years and 5244 performances. Previews for the new production of LES MISERABLES will begin Saturday, March 1 with an official opening night Sunday, March 23. The original New York production of LES MISERABLES premiered first at the Broadway Theatre on March 12, 1987, later moving to the Imperial on October 17, 1990, where it played until May 18, 2003, for a total Broadway run of 6680 performances. The casting process for the new production has begun and will be completed later this summer.

Internationally renowned circus company, Casus, brings the humanity into circus through a breathtaking and fragile display of skills withKnee Deep. The show runs at Riverside Studios following a hit run at the 2012 Edinburgh Festival, where it was described as 'awe inspiring' by The Guardian (***** star review). Knee Deep runs for a limited time only from 28 May to 22 June, with a special press performance on the 30 May.

On Saturday, June 22 at 8:30pm and Sunday, June 23 at 4pm, Caramoor kicks off the 68th Summer Festival with its first ever Broadway production, She Loves Me. Joining the cast will be John Cullum, Ryan Silverman, Brad Oscar, Etai BenShlomo and Jonathan Freeman. Michele Lynch will choreograph.

St. Ann's Warehouse has announced programming highlights of its 2013-14 season, which will kick off in October with the American Premiere of the Donmar Warehouse's tremendously acclaimed all-female production of Julius Caesar.

Internationally renowned circus company, Casus, brings the humanity into circus through a breathtaking and fragile display of skills withKnee Deep. The show runs at Riverside Studios following a hit run at the 2012 Edinburgh Festival, where it was described as 'awe inspiring' by The Guardian (***** star review). Knee Deep runs for a limited time only from 28 May to 22 June, with a special press performance on the 30 May.

Wendy Beckett's seductive new play, LOVE THERAPY opens at the DR2 Theatre (101 East 15th Street) on Monday, April 29th. Directed by Evan Bergman, LOVE THERAPY is the fourth in a series of ten of Ms. Beckett's plays that will be brought across the Pacific from Australia by Peter Walters for Pascal Productions. For tickets, please visit Telecharge.com or call (212) 239-6200.

Manhattan Theatre Club's world premiere production of Richard Greenberg's The Assembled Parties opens tonight, April 17, at MTC's Samuel J. Friedman Theatre. Let's see what the critics had to say...

Columbia Stages will present NEW PLAYS NOW, the annual festival of new plays by emerging artists from the MFA Theatre Program at Columbia University School of the Arts. NEW PLAYS NOW will run from tonight, April 17 to May 11 and will feature original works by Paulina Barros, Keith Boynton, Talya Chalef, Angelica Cheri, Pei-Chieh Chiang, Paola Lazaro Muñoz, Alessandra Most, Christina Quintana, Torrey Townsend, and Zhao Binghao.

In a refreshingly to-the-point discussion session, Kate Weare and her company dancers revisited two recent works: 'Drop Down' (2006) and 'Garden' (2011).

The NTG has announced that its first tour will be Shakespeare's Globe Theatre's critically acclaimed production of Howard Brenton's In Extremis, the love story of Abelard and Heloise, which will play at venues across the UK in Spring 2014. In Extremis will reunite the original creative team (also responsible for Anne Boleyn) including director John Dove and designer Michael Taylor. First produced by the Globe in 2006, and revived thanks to popular acclaim in 2007, this retelling of the story of Abelard and Heloise received an initially limited run.

Columbia Stages will present NEW PLAYS NOW, the annual festival of new plays by emerging artists from the MFA Theatre Program at Columbia University School of the Arts. NEW PLAYS NOW will run from April 17 to May 11 and will feature original works by Paulina Barros, Keith Boynton, Talya Chalef, Angelica Cheri, Pei-Chieh Chiang, Paola Lazaro Muñoz, Alessandra Most, Christina Quintana, Torrey Townsend, and Zhao Binghao.

GOD STEELING was a super interesting play. Couching this relationship story within the social and political climate of the early 1980s is not something that I frankly see enough. How race, social standing and culture plays into the lives of these union 'brothers' is a bottomless pool of material. Overall, I would like to have seen a bit more subtlety in the performances, but I do have to say that James Fenton's set is worth the price of admission.