Essential Self-Defense

With Broadway's 2014 season now in full swing, there's a solid group of performers making their Broadway debuts this Spring. Meet all of the Great White Way's newest stars below, and be sure to let us know who you're most looking forward to seeing onstage!

Directed by Tony Award-winner Anna D. Shapiro, the new Broadway production of Of Mice and Men begins performances tomorrow, Wednesday, March 19, 2014 and will officially open on Wednesday, April 16, 2014 at the Longacre Theatre (220 West 48th Street). Scroll down to learn more about the full company, plus watch interviews with the cast and get a sneak peek at the play below!

Theatre Communications Group (TCG) has announced the publication of The Hallway Trilogy by Adam Rapp, the author of the Pulitzer Prize-finalist, Red Light Winter. This harrowing series weaving tales of love, torment and redemption received its world premiere at New York City's Rattlestick Playwrights Theater in February 2011.

The quintessential portrait of maniacal ambition and lust for power is on stage in William Shakespeare's epic history play Richard III at Folger Theatre. Robert Richmond

YALE REPERTORY THEATRE presents the world premiere of THESE PAPER BULLETS!, a modish ripoff of William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, adapted by Rolin Jones, with songs by Billie Joe Armstrong, and directed by Jackson Gay, March 14-April 5 at the University Theatre (222 York Street). Opening Night is Thursday, March 20.

Vineyard Theatre (108 E. 15 St.) has announced that tickets to the new musical ARLINGTON by Victor Lodato and Polly Pen -- with previews set to begin Wednesday, February 12 prior to its official opening night on Sunday, March 2 - will go on sale Monday, January 6 at 1 p.m..

The quintessential portrait of maniacal ambition and lust for power is on stage in William Shakespeare's epic history play Richard III at Folger Theatre. Robert Richmond

A new work by Pulitzer Prize finalist Adam Rapp looks at loss, regret and the tenacity of hope. The play, The Purple Lights of Joppa Illinois, is featured in the next NewSCRipts reading at South Coast Repertory today, Dec. 9, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $15 and available through the Box Office at (714) 708-5555 or online at www.scr.orgA new work by Pulitzer Prize finalist Adam Rapp looks at loss, regret and the tenacity of hope. The play, The Purple Lights of Joppa Illinois, is featured in the next NewSCRipts reading at South Coast Repertory today, Dec. 9, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $15 and available through the Box Office at (714) 708-5555 or online at www.scr.org.

A new work by Pulitzer Prize finalist Adam Rapp looks at loss, regret and the tenacity of hope. The play, The Purple Lights of Joppa Illinois, is featured in the next NewSCRipts reading at South Coast Repertory on Monday, Dec. 9, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $15 and available through the Box Office at (714) 708-5555 or online at www.scr.org.

Vineyard Theatre (108 E. 15 St.) has announced the dates, creative team and leading actress for its next production - the new musical ARLINGTON by Victor Lodato and Polly Pen - with previews set to begin Wednesday, February 12 prior to its official opening night on Sunday, March 2, according to Douglas Aibel, Artistic Director, and Sarah Stern, Co-Artistic Director.

Ars Nova (Jason Eagan, Artistic Director; Jeremy Blocker, Managing Director) proudly presents the world premiere of Steven Levenson's new play Core Values, directed by Carolyn Cantor. A limited Off-Broadway engagement plays Tuesday, April 23 through Saturday, May 18 at Ars Nova (511 West 54th Street). Official Opening Night takes place Monday, May 6 at 7:00 PM.

Playwrights Horizons presents the World Premiere of The Great God Pan, a new play by Obie Award winner Amy Herzog (After the Revolution at PH, 4000 Miles). Directed by Carolyn Cantor (After the Revolution and Essential Self-Defense at PH, Pumpgirl, Orange Water Flower), the production opened last night, December 18 at 7PM. The limited engagement will play through Sunday, January 6 at Playwrights Horizons' Mainstage Theater (416 West 42nd Street). BroadwayWorld brings you complete coverage from the opening below!

Playwrights Horizons presents the World Premiere of The Great God Pan, a new play by Obie Award winner Amy Herzog (After the Revolution at PH, 4000 Miles). Directed by Carolyn Cantor (After the Revolution and Essential Self-Defense at PH, Pumpgirl, Orange Water Flower), the production is currently in previews and has an Opening Night set for Tuesday, December 18 at 7PM. The limited engagement will play through Sunday, January 6 at Playwrights Horizons' Mainstage Theater (416 West 42nd Street). BroadwayWorld brings you highlights from the show below!

Playwrights Horizons presents the World Premiere of The Great God Pan, a new play by Obie Award winner Amy Herzog (After the Revolution at PH, 4000 Miles). Directed by Carolyn Cantor (After the Revolution and Essential Self-Defense at PH, Pumpgirl, Orange Water Flower), the production is currently in previews and has an Opening Night set for Tuesday, December 18 at 7PM. The limited engagement will play through Sunday, January 6 at Playwrights Horizons' Mainstage Theater (416 West 42nd Street). BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast onstage in the photos below!

Previews begin this Saturday evening November 24 at 8PM for the Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) World Premiere of THE GREAT GOD PAN, a new play by Obie Award winner Amy Herzog (After the Revolution at PH, 4000 Miles). Directed by Carolyn Cantor (After the Revolution and Essential Self-Defense at PH, Pumpgirl, Orange Water Flower), the production has an Opening Night set for Tuesday, December 18 at 7PM. The limited engagement will play through Sunday, January 6 at Playwrights Horizons' Mainstage Theater (416 West 42nd Street).

Vineyard Theatre will open its 30th Anniversary season with the world premiere production of Douglas McGrath's play CHECKERS. Opening night is set for tonight, October 28th. The production will be directed by Terry Kinney, it has been announced by The Vineyard's Artistic Director Douglas Aibel and Co-Artistic Director Sarah Stern.

Playwrights Horizons presents THE GREAT GOD PAN, the World Premiere of a new play by Obie Award winner Amy Herzog (After the Revolution at PH, 4000 Miles), directed by Carolyn Cantor (After the Revolution and Essential Self-Defense at PH, Pumpgirl, Orange Water Flower). The cast met the press earlier today, and you can check out photos from the event below!

Vineyard Theatre will open its 30th Anniversary season with the world premiere production of Douglas McGrath's play CHECKERS. Preview performances begin tonight, and opening night is set for October 28th. The production will be directed by Terry Kinney, it has been announced by The Vineyard's Artistic Director Douglas Aibel and Co-Artistic Director Sarah Stern.

Sunday, September 23rd marked the 60th anniversary of Richard Nixon's political game-changing 'Checkers speech,' and today, September 24th at 10 a.m. tickets go on sale for the Vineyard Theatre's world-premiere production of CHECKERS, a play by Douglas McGrath about Nixon, his wife Pat and that historic speech. CHECKERS is directed by Terry Kinney. Preview performances begin at The Vineyard (108 E. 15 St.) on October 12; October 31 is opening night. Tickets can be purchased by calling The Vineyard box office at 212 353 0303 or online at

Sunday, September 23rd marks the 60th anniversary of Richard Nixon's political game-changing 'Checkers speech,' and on Monday, September 24th at 10 a.m. tickets go on sale for the Vineyard Theatre's world-premiere production of CHECKERS, a play by Douglas McGrath about Nixon, his wife Pat and that historic speech. CHECKERS is directed by Terry Kinney. Preview performances begin at The Vineyard (108 E. 15 St.) on October 12; October 31 is opening night. Tickets can be purchased by calling The Vineyard box office at 212 353 0303 or online at www.vineyardtheatre.org.

Rattlestick Playwrights Theater Artistic Director David Van Asselt and Managing Director Brian Long have announced the cast and creative team for the world premiere of Through the Yellow Hour, a play written and directed by Adam Rapp (Pulitzer Prize finalist for Red Light Winter). The first production of the company's 18th season, Through the Yellow Hour will begin performances tonight, September 13, 2012 at Rattlestick Theater (224 Waverly Place-off Seventh Avenue South, between Perry and West 11th Streets). The cast includes Hani Furstenberg, Brian Mendes, Matt Pilieci, Danielle Slavick, Alok Tewari, Joanne Tucker, and Vladimir Versailles.

Vineyard Theatre will open its 30th Anniversary season with the world premiere production of Douglas McGrath's play CHECKERS. Preview performances begin on October 12th, and opening night is set for October 28th. The production will be directed by Terry Kinney, it has been announced by The Vineyard's Artistic Director Douglas Aibel and Co-Artistic Director Sarah Stern.

Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) has announced additional casting for its 2012/2013 Season, with initial casting for THE GREAT GOD PAN, the World Premiere of a new play by Obie Award winner Amy Herzog (After the Revolution at PH, 4000 Miles), directed by Carolyn Cantor (After the Revolution and Essential Self-Defense at PH, Pumpgirl, Orange Water Flower).

Rattlestick Playwrights Theater Artistic Director David Van Asselt and Managing Director Brian Long have announced the cast and creative team for the world premiere of Through the Yellow Hour, a play written and directed by Adam Rapp (Pulitzer Prize finalist for Red Light Winter). The first production of the company's 18th season, Through the Yellow Hour will begin performances on Thursday, September 13, 2012 at Rattlestick Theater (224 Waverly Place-off Seventh Avenue South, between Perry and West 11th Streets). The cast includes Hani Furstenberg, Brian Mendes, Matt Pilieci, Danielle Slavick, Alok Tewari, Joanne Tucker, and Vladimir Versailles.

Playwrights Horizons has announced additional casting for its 2012/2013 Season.

Artistic Director Les Waters and Managing Director Jennifer Bielstein today announced that award-winning playwright and director Adam Rapp will direct Sam Shepard's True West in Actors Theatre's 2012-13 Season.True West will run in the Bingham Theatre aspart of the Brown-Forman Series, November 13-December 9, 2012. Press opening is slated for November 16, 2012.

Playwrights Horizons, under the leadership of Artistic Director Tim Sanford and Managing Director Leslie Marcus, has announced additional casting for its 2012/2013 Season. Four-time Tony Award nominee Kelli O'Hara and two-time Tony Award winner Judith Ivey join previously-announced Oscar and two-time Tony Award nominee Amy Ryan and Emmy Award nominee David Schwimmer for the Playwrights Horizons 2012/2013 Season at the theater company's home at 416 West 42nd Street.

Lucas Papaelias, of Broadway's ONCE is set to join the line up of the previously announced 17th annual LOWER EAST SIDE (LES) FESTIVAL OF THE ARTS. Papaelias is also known as LPfunK and is an actor/guitarist/composer who was nominated for a Drama Desk Award (Best Original Music in a Play) for his work in Adam Rapp's "Essential Self-Defense" at Playwrights Horizons. Most recently, he co-wrote the rock musical PYRAMIDICA: Songs of Freedom, which takes place live in a pyramid scheme company's "free" orientation, and was presented at the Vineyard Arts Project's New Writers / New Plays Festival. He also conceived of, and composed, the rock opera ITHACA: a Perpetual Shredfest, the story of a Lower East Side rock band performing their final concert, which had presentations at Joe's Pub and ARS Nova.

According to the New York Times, Playwrights Horizons will present FAR FROM HEAVEN, a new musical with book by Tony Award winner and two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist Richard Greenberg (Take Me Out, Three Days of Rain), music by Tony Award nominee Scott Frankel (Grey Gardens) and lyrics by Tony Award nominee Michael Korie (Grey Gardens, The Grapes of Wrath), in Spring 2013. The show will also play Williamstown Theatre Festival this summer. The musical was adapted from the acclaimed, award-winning 2002 Focus Features/Vulcan Productions motion picture Far From Heaven, written and directed by Todd Haynes.

Manhattan Theatre Club has announced full casting for the upcoming world premiere of REGRETS by Matt Charman, directed by Carolyn Cantor.

New York: Royal Family Productions presents a benefit reading of RAPP READS RAPP. Anthony Rapp reading Adam Rapp's play, Nocturne. This special benefit will take place on Monday, December 12 at Symphony Space (2537 Broadway at 95th Street). Tickets are $65 and can be purchased by visiting www.symphonyspace.org.

Royal Family Productions presents a benefit reading of RAPP READS RAPP: Anthony Rapp reading Adam Rapp's play, Nocturne.

Manhattan Theatre Club has announced that Tony Award winner Adriane Lenox will return to MTC this spring in REGRETS, the new play by Matt Charman. This world premiere production will be directed by Carolyn Cantor (After The Revolution, for which she recently received the Callaway award, and Pumpgirl). REGRETS will now begin previews Thursday, March 8, 2012 and open Tuesday, March 27, 2012 at MTC at New York City Center - Stage I.

The Guthrie Theater just completed a four-week run of Obie Award-winning playwright Adam Rapp's The Edge of Our Bodies, an intimate and intriguing story of Bernadette, a young woman at the threshold of adulthood on a harrowing journey in search of experience. This marks the first time that a production of Rapp's work was performed at the Guthrie Theater. The Guthrie's production featured Minnesota native and recent New York transplant Ali Rose Dachis who wowed audiences last year with her turn as Lauren in the Guthrie's Circle Mirror Transformation. Dachis is a 2009 graduate of the University of Minnesota/Guthrie Theater B.F.A. Actor Training Program. Guthrie Associate Director of Studio Programming Benjamin McGovern directed this powerful and insightful story. Rapp recently stopped by the production, and you can check out a photo below!

New York: Royal Family Productions presents a benefit reading of RAPP READS RAPP. Anthony Rapp reading Adam Rapp's play, Nocturne. This special benefit will take place on Monday, December 12 at Symphony Space (2537 Broadway at 95th Street). Tickets are $65 and can be purchased by visiting www.symphonyspace.org.

The Amoralists today announced a final extension of HotelMotel, their acclaimed, site-specific theatrical event at The Gershwin Hotel. As a grassroots company, The Amoralists understand that theatre is often prohibitively expensive and are pleased to offer $35 tickets for these last three weeks of performances (originally $60). HotelMotel now runs through October 10. 'We are proud of the work that we've done on the show,' says The Amoralists' Artistic Director James Kautz, 'We've put our heart and soul into this production and we want as many people as possible to see it.'

Atlantic Theater Company (Neil Pepe, Artistic Director; Jeffory Lawson, Managing Director) is proud to announce that Betsy Aidem, Quincy Tyler Bernstine, Reed Birney, Christine Lahti, Shane McRae, Cotter Smith, and Katherine Waterston will star in the world premiere of Adam Rapp's DREAMS OF FLYING DREAMS OF FALLING, directed by Neil Pepe.

Atlantic Theater Company (Neil Pepe, Artistic Director; Jeffory Lawson, Managing Director) is proud to present Betsy Aidem, Quincy Tyler Bernstine, Reed Birney, Christine Lahti, Shane McRae, Cotter Smith, and Katherine Waterston in the world premiere of Adam Rapp's DREAMS OF FLYING DREAMS OF FALLING, directed by Neil Pepe.

The Amoralists today announced a final extension of HotelMotel, their acclaimed, site-specific theatrical event at The Gershwin Hotel. As a grassroots company, The Amoralists understand that theatre is often prohibitively expensive and are pleased to offer $35 tickets for these last three weeks of performances (originally $60). HotelMotel now runs through October 10. 'We are proud of the work that we've done on the show,' says The Amoralists' Artistic Director James Kautz, 'We've put our heart and soul into this production and we want as many people as possible to see it.'

The Manhattan Theatre Club has announced full casting for the upcoming world premiere of CLOSE UP SPACE by Molly Smith Metzler, directed by Leigh Silverman. Joining the cast is Academy Award & Emmy Award nominee Rosie Perez (Fearless, The Ritz) as famous author 'Vanessa Finn Adams.' Completing the cast are Jessica DiGiovanni (Off-Broadway Debut) and Colby Minifie (The Pillowman, Landscape of the Body) as well as already announced Tony Award and four-time Emmy Award winner David Hyde Pierce ('Frasier', Curtains) and Obie Award winner Michael Chernus (The Aliens, In The Wake).

Atlantic Theater Company (Neil Pepe, Artistic Director; Jeffory Lawson, Managing Director) is proud to announce that Betsy Aidem, Quincy Tyler Bernstine, Reed Birney, Christine Lahti, Shane McRae, Cotter Smith, and Katherine Waterston will star in the world premiere of Adam Rapp's DREAMS OF FLYING DREAMS OF FALLING, directed by Neil Pepe. Check out photos of the cast below!

The Amoralists are proud to present HotelMotel, a site-specific theatrical event featuring the New York Premiere of Animals and Plants, written and directed by Obie Award-winner Adam Rapp, and the World Premiere of Pink Knees on Pale Skin, written and directed by Derek Ahonen. HotelMotel closes Off-Broadwayon Augst 29, 2011 at The Gershwin Hotel, located at 7 East 27 Street between Madison & Fifth Avenues in New York City.