Half-Past Wednesday - 1962 - Off-Broadway Articles Page 7

The Smith Center for the Performing Arts welcomes world-renowned performers, family programming and returning favorites as part of the 2016 winter/spring season.

Sometimes it seems there is so much theater happening that it's difficult to keep track of it all. From personal experience, despite all the datebooks, smart phones, tablets, desktop computers and laptops...it's hard to keep everything straight in this wacky business of the show.

A CELEBRATION OF THE BEST HOLIDAY COMMERCIALS FROM AROUND THE WORLD — Kevin Frazier ('Entertainment Tonight”) and Keltie Knight ('The Insider”) host this holiday celebration with a countdown of the 12 best holiday commercials ever – one for each of the 12 days of Christmas.

Sometimes it seems there is so much theater happening that it's difficult to keep track of it all. From personal experience, despite all the datebooks, smart phones, tablets, desktop computers and laptops...it's hard to keep everything straight in this wacky business of the show.

·         In 2016 the Royal Court Theatre celebrates its 60th birthday by looking towards the future. The new season includes six world premieres, five UK and worldwide collaborations, one European premiere, a major collaboration with LIFT, a partnership with Picturehouse Cinemas, the return of Open Court and ongoing work in Tottenham and Pimlico.

The Chicago Public Library Foundation and the Chicago Public Library have announced that the 16th annual Carl Sandburg Literary Award will be presented to legendary composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim. Universally heralded for his immense contributions to musical theater in a career spanning more than 50 years, Sondheim will be honored at the Carl Sandburg Literary Awards Dinner Wednesday, October 21, 2015 at The Forum (725 W. Roosevelt Road) on the campus of the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Joan Raffe, Jhett Tolentino, and Douglas Denoff announced today that two time Tony Award-winner Joe DiPietro's 'delightfully deceitful' comedy, Clever Little Lies, will play off-Broadway's Westside Theatre Upstairs (407 West 43rd Street, between 9th and 10th Avenues), following critically acclaimed, sold-out runs at George Street Playhouse in 2013 and Guild Hall last summer. Starring Emmy, Grammy, and Golden Globe Award-winner Marlo Thomas and direction by David Saint, Clever Little Lies will begin previews on Friday, September 18th for an exclusive limited engagement through January 3rd, 2016. The official opening night is set for Wednesday, October 14th.

The Rita Moreno California High School Musical Honors - formerly called The California High School Musical Honors - announced today the 2015 nominees who will compete in front of a panel of nationally recognized judges on Monday, June 1, 2015 at San Jose's Center for the Performing Arts.

The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust announces the highlights and overview of programming scheduled for the 56th annual Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival, a production of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust. The 10-day celebration of the arts in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is unlike any other in the nation, recently being nominated by USA Today.com for being the Best Art Festival in the nation.

The Public Theater announced additional casting today for the 2015 Free Shakespeare in the Park season, beginning Wednesday, May 27 at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. This summer will feature Shakespeare's late romances with THE TEMPEST, directed by Tony Award nominee Michael Greif, and CYMBELINE, directed by Tony Award winner Daniel Sullivan. Jesse Tyler Ferguson will return to the Park this summer as Trinculo in THE TEMPEST, along with Hamish Linklater and Lily Rabe teaming up again with Daniel Sullivan on CYMBELINE to play Posthumus Leonatus/Cloten and Imogen, respectively.

The Los Altos Stage Company will present Edward Albee's Tony Award winning masterpiece, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? The hilariously dark martial war of words opens April 9 and runs through May 3, 2015.

After playing to sold-out audiences in New York, American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.), in a coproduction with the Guthrie Theater, is thrilled to present the West Coast premiere of Anne Washburn's Mr. Burns, a post-electric play (tonight, February 18-March 15, 2015).

From February 10-12, 2015, EarShot (the National Orchestral Composition Discovery Network) and the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra (BPO), JoAnn Falletta, Music Director, will present the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra New Music Readings at Kleinhans Music Hall (3 Symphony Circle, Buffalo). On Wednesday, February 11 at 7pm at Kleinhans Hall, the public will have the opportunity for a behind-the-scenes look at the process of bringing brand new orchestral works to life, as music by the four selected composers is read by the BPO under the baton of associate conductor, Stefan Sanders. The composers – Cody Forrest, Jay Hurst, Yuan-Chen Li, and Scott Ordway – were selected through a national call for scores, and during the Readings will receive feedback from BPO Musicians, Sanders, and mentor composers Robert Beaser of The Juilliard School and artistic director laureate of American Composers Orchestra, Rob Deemer from SUNY Fredonia, and Pulitzer Prize winner Melinda Wagner. Afterwards, the audience is invited to be a part of a discussion Q&A with the young composers, the conductor, and mentor composers.

After playing to sold-out audiences in New York, American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.), in a coproduction with the Guthrie Theater, is thrilled to present the West Coast premiere of Anne Washburn's Mr. Burns, a post-electric play (February 18-March 15, 2015).

The following are highlights of The CW's Holiday episodes and specials

This week at Bookworks includes Concscious Living, Conscious Aging, Renowned Native American Poet, Tony Hillerman Prize Winner and more. For more information, please visit bkwrks.com/event.

This November's events at Bookworks are below. For more information on any event, visit bkwrks.com/event.

The Film Society of Lincoln Center will present Let There Be Light: The Films of John Huston, December 19 - January 11,

New York City Center's 11th annual Fall for Dance Festival will feature free performances in Central Park and 24 acclaimed dance companies and artists from around the world, in six unique programs in September and October 2014. In keeping with the Festival's commitment to make dance accessible to everyone, the Festival will kick off with two FREE evenings of dance at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park, in association with The Public Theater, today and tomorrow, September 12 and 13 (rain date, September 14) and will continue at City Center from October 8 - October 19 with all tickets at $15. The Festival's many free pre-show events will include dance lessons and panels by choreographers, artists and dance educators. Tickets will go on sale Sunday, September 14 at 11 a.m.

The New York Philharmonic and Alan Gilbert continue The Nielsen Project - the Philharmonic's acclaimed multi-season survey of the six symphonies and three concertos by Danish composer Carl Nielsen (1865-1931) - with performances of Nielsen's Maskarade Overture and Symphonies No. 5 and No. 6, Sinfonia semplice, as well as the second release of the Philharmonic's series of recordings of Nielsen's complete symphonies and concertos.

New York City Center's 11th annual Fall for Dance Festival will feature free performances in Central Park and 24 acclaimed dance companies and artists from around the world, in six unique programs in September and October 2014.

The current Stephen Sondheim tribute show, Our Time, starring KT Sullivan and Jeff Harnar at the Laurie Beechman (which I attended on July 9 and 16; there are two more Wednesday performances at 6pm on August 6, 13), is a charming, classy, and entertaining affair. But it also includes enough flaws in execution that prevent it from being truly great. For one thing, it doesn't really feel like a duo show. It's more like two solo performances within one show, where the performers fit in a couple of numbers together to justify the concept. A critique of the Sullivan/Harnar Sondheim set provides an interesting opportunity to analyze the anatomy of a duo show and the choices that can make it work—or not.

The journeys organized by Travel Dynamics combine first-class accommodations and stimulating sight-seeing with intimate chamber music performances in extraordinary locations. As co-Artistic Director of the Chamber Music Society, along with my wife, the pianist Wu Han, we program the concerts and select additional musicians from the Society's artist roster to join us as collaborators. The passengers include music lovers who join the cruises through two of our prominent chamber music institutions New York's Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and Silicon Valley's Music@Menlo. Joining us on this adventure were Suzanne Davidson and Edward Sweeney, the executive directors of each organization respectively, as well as violinists Kristin Lee and Arnaud Sussmann, two of the most exciting young performers on the classical music scene today.

CASA VALENTINA, the critically acclaimed world premiere play by four-time Tony Award winner Harvey Fierstein, directed by two-time Tony Award winner Joe Mantello, begins the final week of its extended run Tuesday, June 24 at MTC's Samuel J. Friedman Theatre (261 West 47th Street). The production is presented by Manhattan Theatre Club (Lynne Meadow, Artistic Director; Barry Grove, Executive Producer), by special arrangement with Colin Callender, Robert Cole, Frederick Zollo and The Shubert Organization.

The schedule for this summer's Lincoln Center Out of Doors festival, which runs from July 20 to August 10, was announced today by Bill Bragin, Lincoln Center's Director of Public Programming. Nearly 100 free performances will take place across the plazas of Lincoln Center during three weeks. A special Memorial Concert for Pete and Toshi Seeger on July 20 will be followed by the official opening concert on July 23 with Larry Harlow's Hommy: A Latin Opera, the landmark work's first performance in 40 years. Complete festival details and a chronological listing of events follow.