Literature Revival 1916

During the Roaring 1920s until its closing on July 27, 1959, West Hollywood’s landmark Garden of Allah Hotel on Sunset Blvd. hosted the Hollywood elite looking to have a great time socializing and mingling without the prying eyes of the media or autograph seekers in their faces, or their beds for that matter. I decided to speak with Romy Nordlinger, the playwright and performer of Garden of Alla in which she shares the life of Alla Nazimova, a Jewish immigrant from Tsarist Russia who became a Broadway and silent film superstar, visionary Hollywood director and producer, LGBTQIA trailblazer, and creator of the hotel which became world famous on many levels, both famous and infamous.

The Drama League has announced the fourteen exceptional stage directors receiving the fellowships, assistantships, and residencies of the 2023 Drama League Directors Project.

The Drama League has launched its digital archive of the 2022-2023 International Directors Summit, which united eight world-class directors from around the globe for a series of conversations about the changing nature of their work.

The 2023 Oxford Film Festival (March 1-5) has announced the lineup of official selections and events for the 20th Anniversary annual edition of the popular film festival. Lisa Cortes' documentary Little Richard: I am Everything is the Opening Night selection, and Michael Stevantoni and Strack Azar's The Banality is the Closing Night selection.

This evening, at an event held at Battersea Arts Centre, The Royal Society of Literature (RSL), the charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, announced 60 new appointments including the first induction of writers elected to Fellowship through the Bicentenary RSL Open Initiative. 

Ailyn Pérez has excited Met audiences in several of opera’s benchmark soprano roles, and she adds another one this season as Tatiana, the naïve young girl who grows into a sophisticated beauty in Tchaikovsky’s sumptuous opera of unrequited love.

Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Micheál Martin attended the dedication ceremony for the new Irish Arts Center in Hell's Kitchen yesterday.

Broadway might be dark, but that doesn't mean that theatre isn't happening everywhere! Below, check out where you can get your daily fix of Broadway this weekend, March 6-7, 2021.

The Royal Society of Literature (RSL), the charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, has today in celebration of its 200th birthday announced RSL 200, a five-year festival launched with a series of major new initiatives and 60 new appointments championing the great diversity of writing and writers in the UK.

Find out what happens to the beloved characters in Fiddler on the Roof after the musical ends. TEVYE SERVED RAW is an evening of Sholem Aleichem material, with adaptations of his Tevye stories (“What, Me Worthy?” and “Get Thee Gone!”), scenes from his own long-unseen Yiddish stage version, and three of his purely comedic stories, newly adapted (“Strange Jews on a Train,” “The Yiddish Sisyphus” and “A Stepmother’s Trash-Talk”). 

East Lynne Theater Company commissioned Susan Tischler to create a one-person play based on Croy's book and perform it under the direction of Karen Case Cook, at The Chalfonte Hotel in 2008.  She later performed this comedy at ELTC's performance venue, The Cape May Presbyterian Church and on the road.

There will be a fully cast, abridged virtual production of Rachel Wagstaff's highly acclaimed adaptation of Sebastian Faulks's best-selling novel BIRDSONG, streamed online on 1 July 2020, the anniversary of the Battle of the Somme. 

Need something new to read or watch? Check out this week's list of new and upcoming releases!

The name Roger Duvoisin is familiar to Zimmerli audiences: the museum's gallery dedicated to its collection of original children's book illustrations is named in his honor, more than half of that collection consists of Duvoisin's artwork, and numerous exhibitions have celebrated this beloved author and illustrator. Now, Mood Books: The Children's Stories of Alvin Tresselt and Roger Duvoisin delves into one of the most important aspects of his career, a partnership with author Alvin Tresselt that spanned three decades and resulted in 18 books. The exhibition, opening March 14 at the Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers, features more than 30 original watercolor and gouache illustrations from four of their collaborations: White Snow, Bright Snow, Hide and Seek Fog, It's Time Now!, and What Did You Leave Behind?, all published by Lothrop, Lee & Shepard in New York. The images capture an array of feelings evoked by common experiences that tend to stick with us throughout life in very uncommon ways.

Vancouver Art Gallery presents Rapture, Rhythm and the Tree Of Life - Emily Carr and Her Female Contemporaries from December 7, 2019 to June 28, 2020. Emily Carr (1871-1945) is an iconic Canadian artist who is widely recognized for her paintings of the forested landscapes of British Columbia that evoke the possibility for transcending the material world through the colour, shapes and rhythms of nature. Drawn primarily from the Gallery's permanent collection, this exhibition features a number of Carr's paintings of forest interiors-environments that she often described in her journals as offering an almost rapturous connection to the divine.

The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center announces casting and creative teams for the summer season of new musicals and plays selected for development at the National Music Theater Conference and National Playwrights Conference.

In this solo concert, RESONANCE III, Miki Orihara will be dancing Martha Graham's 'Lamentation (1930)', Doris Humphrey's 'Two Ecstatic Themes (1931)', Seiko Takata's work 'Mother (1938)' Konami Ishii's 'Moon Desert (early 1930's)' and Yuriko's 'Cry (1963)'.

The little OPERA theatre of ny(LOTNY) presents the New York Premiere of Benjamin Britten's opera in two acts, OWEN WINGRAVE, with libretto by Myfanwy Piper, at GK Arts Center, 29 Jay Street, Brooklyn, NY, from May 9-12, 2019, with performances Thursday through Saturday at 7:30pm and Sunday at 3pm. Tickets are $20-$45 and are available at www.ticketcentral.com.

TEVYE SERVED RAW made its New York premiere in 2018 to unanimous rave reviews ("Hilarious" - Jewish Standard; "Incredibly moving" - Tablet; "Brilliantly directed" - Forward) and, by popular demand, returned this year to its home at The Playroom Theater, 151 West 46 Street (just east of Seventh Ave.) There are only two more performances before the strictly limited engagement concludes tonight.

TEVYE SERVED RAW made its New York premiere in 2018 to unanimous rave reviews and, by popular demand, will return this Monday, January 28th to its home at The Playroom Theater, 151 West 46 Street (just east of Seventh Ave.), where it will play through February 13th.

The TEVYE SERVED RAW troupe – currently preparing to resume performances at The Playroom Theater – will present a selection from their show on April 15th at Carnegie Hall, as part of FROM SHTETL TO STAGE: A CELEBRATION OF YIDDISH MUSIC AND CULTURE. The evening will also feature Mike Burstyn, Paula Vogel, Avi Hoffman, Eleanor Reissa, Joanne Borts, Daniel Kahn, violinist Gil Shaham, and pianist Evgeny Kissin.   

The Snowy Day and Other Stories by Ezra Jack Keats announces two performances on MLK Day, January 21st at St. Luke's Theatre. Adapted for the stage by Jerome Hairston with music by Victor Zupanc, the show is inspired by four of Keats' most beloved stories, including the 1963 Caldecott Award-winning picture book, The Snowy Day.

Sholem Aleichem's Tevye stories formed the basis of Fiddler on the Roof. TEVYE SERVED RAW presents this material 'raw,' i.e., as it was created in Europe, before being Americanized for Broadway.

The Drama League (Executive Artistic Director Gabriel Stelian-Shanks) has announced casting for DirectorFest 2019: The 35th Annual Directors Festival, the only festival in the United States exploring the art of contemporary stage directing. DirectorFest takes place at various locations around NYC: New Ohio Theatre (154 Christopher Street), The Drama League Theater Center (32 Avenue of the Americas), LaGuardia Performing Arts Center (31-10 Thompson Avenue, Long Island City), and Joe's Pub (425 Lafayette Street). Festival programming, tickets and additional details are available at www.directorfest.org, or by calling (212) 244-9494.

O'Brien Entertainment has announced the new cast for its remounted production of The Snowy Day and Other Stories by Ezra Jack Keats at St. Luke's Theatre. Adapted for the stage by Jerome Hairston with music by Victor Zupanc, the show is inspired by four of Keats' most beloved stories, including the 1963 Caldecott Award-winning picture book, The Snowy Day.