The Substance of Fire - 2014 - Off-Broadway Articles Page 5

Are there secrets that should always be kept? In this smart, sharply funny, and sensitive contemporary play, playwright Jon Robin Baitz folds art, politics, and family secrets into a tumultuous drama that pits a liberal middle-aged writer against her conservative parents. Who owns a family's history? There are no easy answers in Other Desert Cities, a 2012 Pulitzer Prize-nominated play, where certainty shifts like sand dunes in the wind.

Are there secrets that should always be kept? In this smart, sharply funny, and sensitive contemporary play, playwright Jon Robin Baitz folds art, politics, and family secrets into a tumultuous drama that pits a liberal middle-aged writer against her conservative parents. Who owns a family's history? There are no easy answers in Other Desert Cities, a 2012 Pulitzer Prize-nominated play, where certainty shifts like sand dunes in the wind.

The Collegiate Chorale announces that Ron Rifkin will join the cast of the US Premiere of Kurt Weill's The Road of Promise on May 6, 2015 at 8pm and May 7, 2015 at 7pm at Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall, 881 7th Avenue, New York, NY 10019.

Williamstown Theatre Festival Artistic Director Mandy Greenfield has announced a New Play Commissioning Program and New Musical Commissioning Program, through which the Festival will commission and develop three to five projects annually from playwrights, composers and collaborative devisers from across the career spectrum. The program launches with inaugural artists Fernanda Coppel (whose new play King Liz premieres this summer at Second Stage), Halley Feiffer (I'm Gonna Pray for You So Hard, which just finished an acclaimed run at the Atlantic Theater Company), and Benjamin Scheuer (creator of the current Off Broadway hit The Lion). Each commission also includes a writing residency at Williamstown Theatre Festival.

Previews begin tomorrow, today, March 20 for the Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) world premiere of IOWA, a new musical play written by Susan Smith Blackburn Prize finalist Jenny Schwartz (God's Ear, Somewhere Fun), music by Todd Almond (Stage Kiss at PH, Kansas City Choir Boy, The Tempest, On the Levee) and lyrics by Mr. Almond and Ms. Schwartz. Directed by two-time Obie Award winner Ken Rus Schmoll (Red Dog Howls, Middletown, What Once We Felt; next season's Antlia Pneumatica at PH), the musical play will be the fifth production of the theater company's 2014/2015 Season.

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.

MCC THEATER has announced the final production of its four-show 2015-16 Main Stage Season, which runs August 2015 through June 2016. Playwright Halley Feiffer (I'm Gonna Pray For You So Hard) will make her MCC Theater debut with her play A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Gynecologic Oncology Unit at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center of New York City. Trip Cullman returns to direct after helming this season's critically acclaimed hit Punk Rock. Full details below. This also marks the reunion of Feiffer and Cullman following their hit production of I'm Gonna Pray For You So Hard at the Atlantic Theater Company in early 2015.

Playwrights Horizons has announced casting for IOWA, the world premiere of a new musical play written by Susan Smith Blackburn Prize finalist Jenny Schwartz (God's Ear, Somewhere Fun), music by Todd Almond (Stage Kiss at PH, Kansas City Choir Boy, The Tempest, On the Levee) and lyrics by Mr. Almond and Ms. Schwartz. Directed by two-time Obie Award winner Ken Rus Schmoll (Red Dog Howls, Middletown, What Once We Felt; next season's just-announced Antlia Pneumatica by Anne Washburn at PH), the musical play will be the fifth production of the theater company's 2014/2015 Season.

Atlantic Theater Company is proud to announce that the world premiere production of Halley Feiffer's play I'm Gonna Pray For You So Hard, directed by Trip Cullman, has been extended an additional two weeks due to high ticket demand following opening last night to critical acclaim.

Atlantic Theater Company presents the world premiere of I'm Gonna Pray For You So Hard by Halley Feiffer, directed by Trip Cullman and starring Reed Birney and Betty Gilpin. I'm Gonna Pray For You So Hard began previews on January 7 and officially opens tonight, January 20, 2015 for a limited engagement through Sunday, February 15, 2015 Off Broadway at Atlantic Stage 2 (330 West 16th Street).

Atlantic Theater Company (Neil Pepe, Artistic Director; Jeffory Lawson, Managing Director) is proud to present the world premiere of I'm Gonna Pray For You So Hard by Halley Feiffer, directed by Trip Cullman and starring Reed Birney and Betty Gilpin. Check out production photos of the show below!

Playwrights Horizons announced today the promotion of the theater company's Director of New Play Development Adam Greenfield to Associate Artistic Director. This is the first major change to the Artistic leadership of the acclaimed organization since Mr. Sanford was promoted from the same associate position to become Artistic Director in 1996.

I am thrilled to announce that Joshua Harmon'sSignificant Other will receive its world premiere this spring at the Laura Pels Theatre directed by Trip Cullman. This is Josh's second production at Roundabout, following the phenomenal success of his first Roundabout production, Bad Jews, which premiered in the Roundabout Underground in 2012 and moved upstairs to the Pels in 2013, where it was honored with numerous Outer Critics Circle and Lucille Lortel Award nominations (as well as a Lortel win for Tracee Chimo).

Atlantic Theater Company presents the world premiere of I'm Gonna Pray For You So Hard by Halley Feiffer, directed by Trip Cullman and starring Reed Birney and Betty Gilpin.

Atlantic Theater Company presents the world premiere of I'm Gonna Pray For You So Hard by Halley Feiffer, directed by Trip Cullman and starring Reed Birney and Betty Gilpin. Check out a first look at rehearsal below!

Partial Comfort Productions (Obie Award winner and Drama Desk nominee A Bright New Boise) kicks off its 12th season with THE WELCOME MAT READING SERIES, a collection of bold and groundbreaking new plays by four of the country's fastest-rising female playwrights.

Theater for the New City (Crystal Field, Executive Director) will present Lesser America's World Premiere of Brian Watkins' (My Daughter Keeps Our Hammer with The Flea) family drama Wyoming, January 15-31 at Theater for the New City (155 1st Avenue between 9th and 10th Street).

Partial Comfort Productions (Obie Award winner and Drama Desk nominee A Bright New Boise) kicks off its 12th season with THE WELCOME MAT READING SERIES, a collection of bold and groundbreaking new plays by four of the country's fastest-rising female playwrights.

Playwrights Horizons' production of POCATELLO, the world premiere of a new play by Obie, Drama Desk and Lortel awards winner and 2014 MacArthur Foundation 'Genius' grantee Samuel D. Hunter (The Whale at PH, The Few, A Bright New Boise), is directed by Davis McCallum (The Whale at PH, The Few, London Wall, A Bright New Boise, Water by the Spoonful). The play is the third production of the theater company's 2014/2015 Season. The production will begin previews tonight, November 21 with an opening night set for Monday, December 15. The limited engagement will play through Sunday evening, January 4, 2015 at Playwrights Horizons' Mainstage Theater (416 West 42nd Street).

Playwrights Horizons' world premiere production of GRAND CONCOURSE, a new play by playwright and two-time Obie Award-winning actress Heidi Schreck (author of There Are No More Big Secrets, Creature, Showtime's 'Nurse Jackie'), opens tonight, November 11, 2014.

Playwrights Horizons today announced several major initiatives that will expand the ways in which theater writers are compensated. As a writer's theater dedicated to the support and development of contemporary American playwrights, composers and lyricists and to the production of their new work, Playwrights Horizons is committed to establishing new standards in compensation that will directly benefit all of its writers and taking a leadership position in responding to the reality that theater writers are among the lowest-compensated creative artists in America.

Atlantic Theater Company (Neil Pepe, Artistic Director; Jeffory Lawson, Managing Director) will present the world premiere of I'm Gonna Pray For You So Hard by Halley Feiffer, directed by Trip Cullman and starring Reed Birney andBetty Gilpin.

Rehearsals begin tomorrow, Tuesday, October 21 for the Playwrights Horizons production of POCATELLO, the world premiere of a new play by Obie, Drama Desk and Lortel awards winner and 2014 MacArthur Foundation 'Genius' grantee Samuel D. Hunter (The Whale at PH, The Few, A Bright New Boise). Directed by Davis McCallum (The Whale at PH, The Few, London Wall, A Bright New Boise, Water by the Spoonful), the play will be the third production of the theater company's 2014/2015 Season.

Previews begin tomorrow, Friday, October 17 at 7:30 PM for the Playwrights Horizons' world premiere production of GRAND CONCOURSE, a new play by playwright and two-time Obie Award-winning actress Heidi Schreck (author of There Are No More Big Secrets, Creature, Showtime's 'Nurse Jackie'). Directed by Kip Fagan (The Revisionist, Asuncion), the play is the second production of the acclaimed theater company's 2014/2015 Season. It follows the critically-acclaimed Bootycandy, a new play written and directed by Robert O'Hara, which concludes its extended run this Sunday evening on the Mainstage.

Playwrights Horizons announced the appointment of Liz Fallon Culp as the institution's new Director of Development. Ms. Culp joins the acclaimed theater company direct from New York Public Radio (WNYC/WQXR), where she served as the Senior Director of Major Gifts and Legacy Giving. She began with the theater company this month, leading its seven-person Development department.