What a Life - 1938 - Broadway Articles Page 16

Westport Country Playhouse announces its 2018 season, featuring five productions that are big for the soul, according to Artistic Director Mark Lamos. The Connecticut professional theater's lineup includes two comedies, one modern and one classic; a drama; a musical; and a world premiere, running from May 29 through November 17.

Stage and screen star, Patricia Morison died today at the age of 103 at home in Los Angeles of natural causes. A stage icon and legend best known for her starring roles in Cole Porter's Kiss Me Kate and The King & I opposite Yul Brynner, she established an indelible mark in films with a reputation as a the villainous femme fatale with large blue eyes and extremely long, dark hair that made her a favorite of studios and fans alike. 

Centenary Stage Company's critically acclaimed Young Performers Workshop returns with their annual Spring Festival of Shows running May 25 through June 3. These talented young thespians between the ages of 8 and 18 fill the Little Theater with musical theatre favorites including Hello Dolly!, Damn Yankees, Charlotte's Web, and South Pacific.

In 1968, playwright David Edgar was 20 years old. It was also the year of some of the most important and formative events in modern history, including the Paris student revolt, the assassination of Martin Luther King, Enoch Powell's "rivers of blood" speech, and the ongoing war in Vietnam. Trying It On is a new play written and performed by David Edgar, which reflects on the legacy of this momentous year, drawing on first-person interviews with some of the leading political figures of the time, as well as contemporary activists. The performance also marks David's first professional stage performance in this contemplative one-man play.

William Shakespeare'sCoriolanus, a tragedy based on the life of legendary Roman leader Caius Marcius Coriolanus, opens the summer season at Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum on June 2.

UHM Kennedy Theatre presents its 2018/19 season, Let's Play. >From the playfulness of Thing 1 and Thing 2 and The Cat in the Hat to the pranks pulled by Puck in the forests of India to the fun of dance-theatre, Kennedy Theatre's 2018/2019 season is sure to be a good time. So come and play with us!

Centenary Stage Company's critically acclaimed Young Performers Workshop returns with their annual Spring Festival of Shows running May 25 through June 3. These talented young thespians between the ages of 8 and 18 fill the Little Theater with musical theatre favorites including Hello Dolly!, Damn Yankees, Charlotte's Web, and South Pacific.

Celebrity Series of Boston, one of New England's most respected performing arts presenters, has announced a national request for proposals for a new short-term public performance project. Projects submitted through the RFP should conceive the entire city as a canvas for participatory arts activities to promote the Celebrity Series' vision to utilize the performing arts to enrich and transform lives and build better communities.

Dance We Must: Treasures from Jacob's Pillow, 1906-1940 explores the contributions of Jacob's Pillow founder Ted Shawn and the iconic Ruth St. Denis to American modern dance. Gathering over 350 materials, including more than 30 costumes and accessories, over 200 photographs, five original antique costume trunks, and a dozen original artworks from both the Jacob's Pillow Archives and Williams College Special Collections, the exhibition contextualizes the pioneering work of Shawn and St. Denis within the scope of American art history through artifacts that have never been seen before. Dance We Must will be on view at Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA) from June 29 through November 11, 2018. The opening celebration will take place on July 2, featuring performances by Adam H. Weinert and Williams College Artist-in-Residence in Dance Erica Dankmeyer.

Now about to turn thirteen, La MaMa Moves! Dance Festival, the ever-evolving spring fling of dance that exuberantly commandeers the various theaters of La MaMa each year, takes on yet another challenge in 2018. This year's festival showcases nine artists who take the road less travelled, daring to speak out in new and forceful ways about issues that trouble and inspire them: race, gender, religion, exclusion, each using the body to voice concerns in ways words cannot. Eleven companies, nine performances, including five premieres are on the boards. New this year will be two offsite events: panel discussions about artists and cultural identity, and screenings of rarely-seen films. The 2018 festival runs May 10-June 3.

From SOUTH PACIFIC to THE KING AND I to FIDDLER ON THE ROOF and now MY FAIR LADY, director Bartlett Sher has been spending the better part of this young century perfecting his method of mounting ravishing, emotionally stimulating productions of classic 20th Century musicals.

It was just announced by Pulitzer Prize Administrator Dana Canedy that Martyna Majok's COST OF LIVING has officially won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Beautifully written, with minimal sets and moments that suggest the characters are aware of the parts they're playing, this is a wonderful and enduring work of dramatic art - and one that the Milwaukee Repertory Theater carries out with ease. 

Mike McLean leads the national tour of THE SOUND OF MUSIC back to Durham April 20. McLean says the production is bigger and more beautiful than ever.

Theater J, the nation's pre-eminent professional Jewish theater, announces its 2018-2019 season, which will be presented "around town" in top cultural venues throughout the city as the historic Edlavitch DCJCC building undergoes major renovation.  Artistic Director Adam Immerwahr has selected a diverse group of plays including an acclaimed one-woman show with music at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, a new contemporary drama by Anna Ziegler at Arena Stage, a period love story by Lanford Wilson at GALA Hispanic Theatre, and a new adaptation of a Yiddish theater classic at Georgetown University. 

AstonRep Theatre Company is pleased to present FOUR BY TENN - A Tennessee Williams One-Act Festival, featuring four one-act plays by one of the greatest playwrights of the twentieth century. FOUR BY TENN will play March 26 - April 4, 2018 at the new Strawdog Theatre Company, 1802 W. Berenice in Chicago. Tickets are currently available www.astonrep.com. 

Today's Events; Sunday, March 25

Particularly in light of the 2016 documentary I Am Not Your Negro, author and civil rights activist James Baldwin is garnering new attention and appreciation for his astute analyses of race, class, and sexuality in U.S. culture. Our reading group will take up his groundbreaking semi-autobiographical first novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953). Attendees are invited to read this seminal text that brought mid-20th Century African-American literature out of the shadow of Richard Wright while deftly exploring the post-Civil War Great Migration, its southern roots, its religious inflections, and its generational tensions. The suggested edition is the most recent paperback (ISBN 978-0345806543). Traditional New Orleans fare of coffee and beignets at Muriel's Jackson Square with lively discussion to follow led by Festival favorite and Southern literary scholar Gary Richards. Seating is limited to 50 persons; pre-registration is required.

Westport Country Playhouse will host a 2018 Season Kick-off Party on Saturday, April 7, from 5 to 8 p.m., offering a fun atmosphere with food trucks, beer tastings, exhibits, and special ticket discounts. In addition, a "Sneak Peek" of the upcoming season will be hosted by Mark Lamos, Playhouse artistic director, at 6:30 p.m.  The "Sneak Peek" will feature guests representing all of the upcoming productions, including playwrights, directors, and designers. Admission is free and open to the public. 

ENGAGING SHAW begins in England in 1897 in a comfortable cottage in Stratford, England, where Shaw hopes to complete his new play. As he engages in conversation with his friends, the happily married cottage owners, Beatrice and Sidney Webb, we learn Shaw is a notorious flirt and heartbreaker who enjoys romancing women, attracting them to him "like a moth to the flame." But it is soon apparent he is not particularly interested in sex, a fact reflected in his real life where he remained a virgin until his 29th birthday. It's the thrill of the hunt that is the main attraction for Shaw, thoroughly enjoying the effect he has on women as he pursues them, not in the keeping of them. In present-day parlance, he'd be considered a sexist cad. Beatrice sees an opportunity to deflect Shaw's interest in her (and hers in him) by inviting their wealthy benefactor Charlotte to visit, knowing when she meets Shaw, the financially challenged but famous Irish playwright and political activist, that sparks will fly.

Performances for the 2018 Maine Playwrights Festival, the state's most prolific incubator for new plays by local playwrights, have been announced for April 26 through May 5 in Portland. This year's seventeenth annual festival features the world premiere performances of five new plays by Maine playwrights. Public performances will be held at the Studio Theater at Portland Stage (25 Forest Avenue). Tickets and all-festival passes are available now at www.acorn-productions.org.

The Lakewood Playhouse Celebrates Its 80th Anniversary Season with Seven Premier Shows!  All our shows embrace the theatre that we have become, while keeping our eyes towards evolving towards the future!  Season Ticket Renewals are currently underway and will be open to New Season Ticket Buyers on May 25th, 2018!

Emma Rice begins her association with the Old Vic by reviving her version of Brief Encounter. It has recently been performed at the Birmingham Rep (where it first began life 11 years ago) and the Lowry in Salford, but now makes a return to the West End for a run at the Empire Cinema. The screen has been specially adapted to suit a theatre production, with a stage added in for the occasion.

AstonRep Theatre Company is pleased to present FOUR BY TEN - A Tennessee Williams One-Act Festival, featuring four one-act plays by one of the greatest playwrights of the twentieth century. FOUR BY TENN will play March 26 - April 4, 2018 at the new Strawdog Theatre Company, 1802 W. Berenice in Chicago. Tickets are currently available www.astonrep.com. 

Alumnae Theatre Company's 30th annual New Ideas Festival, a three-week, juried celebration of original writing and works-in-progress, takes place from March 7 to 25 in Alumnae's Studio Theatre (70 Berkeley St at Adelaide).