Play Memory - 1984 - Broadway Articles Page 11

It is with sadness that the Stratford Festival bids farewell to the man who was Canada's oldest working actor. William Needles died January 12, at the age of 97, surrounded by his family, at a hospice in Alliston, Ontario. Just days earlier, he had left his adopted hometown of Stratford, after suffering a massive heart attack on December 19.

Now that 2015 is squarely in the rearview mirror, and everyone is back to work after the holidays, it is time to take a look at some of the best films of the past year. As was the case with my Top 15 TV Shows of 2015 list, this is not intended to be a comprehensive list. I am one man, and I have not yet seen every major movie released last year. However, as I continue to work through screeners and upcoming screenings (I live in Orlando, so not all of the awards-bait has been released here yet), I will count down the top 2015 releases that I saw during the calendar year. Notable omissions are BRIDGE OF SPIES, THE REVENANT, THE DANISH GIRL, and CONCUSSION, all of which I hope to see by the end of the week.

The Irish Repertory Theatre (Charlotte Moore, Artistic Director and Ciaran O'Reilly, Producing Director) presents its first production of 2016, THE BURIAL AT THEBES written by Irish Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney, based on Sophocles' Antigone.  Directed by Charlotte Moore, THE BURIAL AT THEBES will now star two-time Emmy Award-winner and Tony nominee Larry Bryggman (Proof, Picnic, "As the World Turns") as Creon, The King of Thebes (who replaces the previously announced John Cullum), and Rebekah Brockman (seen as Nettie on the acclaimed Cinemax series "The Knick") as Antigone.  THE BURIAL AT THEBES will be performed Thursday, January 14 - Sunday, March 6, 2016. Opening Night is scheduled for Sunday, January 24, 2016.  Tickets are on sale now through the Irish Rep box office at 212-727-2737 or online at www.irishrep.org.

Entering its seventh season in 2015-16, CONTACT!, the Philharmonic's new-music series, will extend its reach across New York City through a new partnership with National Sawdust (formerly Original Music Workshop), a new, non-profit, state-of-the-art music venue opening in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in October 2015.

Now, Elaine May has joined the lineup of hosts. Monty Python's Eric Idle and John Cleese are also set to perform (hopefully selections from SPAMALOT!), with readings and other music also planned.

An Equity staged reading of PRESENTING ETHEL MERMAN, a new play with music tracing the ups and downs of the famed Broadway star affectionately known as 'the Merm', is being held today, October 13, in a private presentation for industry producers and insiders.

Gloucester Stage proudly presents The Arthur Miller Centennial, a celebration of playwright Arthur Miller and his work in honor of his 100th birthday, on Saturday, October 17 at 7:30pm at Gloucester Stage, 267 East Main Street, Gloucester, MA.

Lorne Michaels, Brian Lourd, and Barry Diller are currently involved in planning the long overdue event

Fear, deceit, and paranoia run rampant in Cleveland Play House's (CPH) gripping new production of Arthur Miller's THE CRUCIBLE.

BroadwayWorld has just learned that an Equity staged reading of PRESENTING ETHEL MERMAN, a new play with music tracing the ups and downs of the famed Broadway star affectionately known as 'the Merm', is currently rehearsing for private presentations to industry producers and insiders.

Harold Pinter was born in Hackney, in London's East End, in October of 1930. An only child, he was born to Jewish parents of very moderate means; his father, a tailor, and his mother, a homemaker, were first-generation descendants of Eastern European immigrants. Like many of his contemporaries, Pinter's childhood was shaped by the onslaught of World War II; at the age of nine, he was evacuated from London through Operation Pied Piper and resettled in a town in Cornwall. The sense of isolation he felt in Cornwall would come to influence his work, as would the changed London to which he returned during the Blitz, where he was witness to, as his 2008 Guardianobituary put it, 'the dramatic nature of wartime life - the palpable fear, the sexual desperation, the genuine sense that everything could end tomorrow.'

Fear, deceit, and paranoia run rampant in Cleveland Play House's (CPH) gripping new production of Arthur Miller's THE CRUCIBLE.

Tony Award-winning playwright Lisa Kron will be a featured guest and participant at the launch party of the Women's Voices Theater Festival on September 8 at the National Museum of Women in the Arts. The invitation-only event kicks off the beginning of the Festival, an unprecedented collaboration among professional theater companies that includes the presentation of more than 50 world-premiere productions of work by female playwrights, taking place this September and October in the nation's capital region. The launch party features a creative conversation between Kron and National Public Radio's Special Correspondent Susan Stamberg focused on gender parity in the arts in the Museum's Performance Hall, followed by a celebratory party and toast to officially declare the start of the Festival.

Tracie Bennett plays the title role in the new musical version of MRS HENDERSON PRESENTS at Theatre Royal, Bath, from tonight, August 15, to September 5, 2015. Emma Williams will play 'Maureen'.

The Gateway has announced that Ms. Betty Buckley will appear in an exclusive one-night only concert event at The Gateway Playhouse on August 17th. For tickets: https://pacsc.org/Online/

Roundabout Theatre Company (Todd Haimes, Artistic Director) just announced that Thom Yorke, singer and principal songwriter for the three-time Grammy Award-winning alternative rock band, Radiohead, will compose original music for Harold Pinter's Old Times, directed by Douglas Hodge, and starring Clive Owen, Eve Best and Kelly Reilly as part of Roundabout's 50th anniversary season.

The Broadway community mourned the loss of Tony Award-winning actor and Tony-nominated director, Roger Rees, who passed away last Friday at age 71, by dimming the Great White Way's theater marquees in his memory tonight, July 15th, at 7:45 p.m. for one minute. Scroll down for footage and photos of the special moment to honor the one-of-a-kind star.

The Broadway community mourns the loss of Tony Award - winning actor and Tony Award - nominated director, Roger Rees, who passed away last Friday at age 71. The marquees of Broadway theatres in New York will be dimmed in his memory tonight, July 15th, at exactly 7:45pm for one minute.

The Broadway community mourns the loss of Tony Award® - winning actor and Tony Award - nominated director, Roger Rees, who passed away on Fridayat age 71. The marquees of Broadway theatres in New York will be dimmed in his memory on Wednesday, July 15th, at exactly 7:45pm for one minute.

Theatre for a New Audience, Founding Artistic Director Jeffrey Horowitz, announces its 2015-16 season, Inimitable Voices, Four plays by Shakespeare and Major American and European authors, at Polonsky Shakespeare Center, 262 Ashland Place.

Rehearsals started today for the new British musical MRS HENDERSON PRESENTS, starring TRACIE BENNETT (taking over from Janie Dee who has had to withdraw for personal reasons), which concludes the Theatre Royal Bath summer season, Saturday 15th August - Saturday 5th September, prior to a West End run.

In this taut 2013 theatrical adaptation of Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela's award winning-book, the apartheid regime's most notorious assassin and head of its death squad, Eugene de Kock (played by Matthew Marsh), sits opposite psychologist Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela (played Noma Dumezweni) in Pretoria Central Prison in 1997. Gobodo-Madikizela is a member of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission determined to understand his actions. She questions de Kock, who is sentenced to two life terms plus 212 years for crimes against humanity, murder, conspiracy to murder, attempted murder, assault, kidnapping, illegal possession of firearms, and fraud.

Entering its seventh season in 2015-16, CONTACT!, the Philharmonic's new-music series, will extend its reach across New York City through a new partnership with National Sawdust (formerly Original Music Workshop), a new, non-profit, state-of-the-art music venue opening in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in October 2015.

In this taut 2013 theatrical adaptation of Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela's award winning-book, the apartheid regime's most notorious assassin and head of its death squad, Eugene de Kock (played by Matthew Marsh), sits opposite psychologist Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela (played Noma Dumezweni) in Pretoria Central Prison in 1997. Gobodo-Madikizela is a member of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission determined to understand his actions. She questions de Kock, who is sentenced to two life terms plus 212 years for crimes against humanity, murder, conspiracy to murder, attempted murder, assault, kidnapping, illegal possession of firearms, and fraud.