Young Playwrights Festival (1989) - 1989 - Off-Broadway Articles Page 6

After a successful run in Central Park, playing to over 4,000 people, performances resume on Wednesday, June 27 in Rockefeller Park/Battery Park City for New York Classical Theatre's critically acclaimed production of Romeo and Juliet, directed by the company's Founding Artistic Director Stephen Burdman. The production will play this week through June 30, before continuing on to The Battery, Carl Schurz Park, and Brooklyn Bridge Park for performances through July 29. There is no ticketing, and all performances are free and open to the public. Performance schedule can be found at newyorkclassical.org.   

Corkscrew Theater Festival presents Field, Awakening, written by Melis Aker and directed by Tatiana Pandiani. Running July 14-22, Field, Awakening is a political drama set in Turkey in 2016, where a group of high school friends reunites at a soccer field on the evening of an attempted military coup. As the night progresses, the friends unexpectedly find themselves at the center of international strife, and they begin to realize that the Turkey they called home may be rapidly disappearing. Performed by Kieron Anthony, Ayse Babahan, Jamar Brathwaite, Sinan Eczacibasi*, Fahim Hamid*, and Nazli Sarpkaya, Field, Awakening is the second production in the second annual season of Corkscrew Theater Festival, a new summer theater festival that provides early-career artists with a high level of production support.

The second annual Sheen Center Theater Festival takes place June 21 to 24 at The Sheen Center for Thought & Culture (18 Bleecker Street, at the corner of Elizabeth Street, NYC). Celebrating the voices of emerging and established Catholic playwrights in staged reading presentations, this year's full-length plays tell the stories of a young Nuyorican comic book artist seeking his place in the world, a Montreal family struggling with the aftermath of suicide and gun violence, and a pair of Shakespearean widows testing the freedoms and limitations of widowhood. Admission is free. Reservations are required and can be made online at www.sheencenter.org/shows/festival.   

"Packed with young talent…in the risk-taking venture that is summer festival-going, encountering talent you want to see more of is a worthy payoff." - Laura Collins-Hughes,The New York Times

Previews begin this Friday, June 1 for the Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) world premiere production of LOG CABIN, a new play by Pulitzer Prize finalist Jordan Harrison (Marjorie Prime, Maple and Vine, Doris to Darlene at Playwrights; "Orange Is the New Black").  Directed by Tony Award and Obie Award winner Pam MacKinnon (Clybourne Park, The Qualms at Playwrights; Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Parisian Woman), LOG CABIN is the sixth and final production of the theater company's current 2017/2018 Season.  

Artistic Director Darko Tresnjak and Managing Director Michael Stotts have announced playwright Mfoniso Udofia as the 2018 Aetna New Voices Fellow at Hartford Stage.

New York Classical Theatre (Stephen Burdman, Artistic Director), New York City's only all-free professional Off-Broadway theatre company, is pleased to announce a new production of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet to celebrate its 19th Anniversary Season. The production, directed by Mr. Burdman, is the company's first staging of Shakespeare's tale of star-crossed lovers, and will be presented in five New York City parks - Central Park, Rockefeller Park/Battery Park City, The Battery, Carl Schurz Park and Brooklyn Bridge Park - with performances from June 5 through July 29 at 7:00 PM. There is no ticketing, and all performances are free and open to the public. New York Classical Theatre also invites audiences to experience unique behind-the-scenes access to open rehearsals on selected dates for each of the five park stagings. 

Belka Productions, in collaboration with The Maly Drama Theatre and their London presentation of Life and Fate, have partnered with JW3, the London Jewish Cultural Centre, to present two events in conjunction with the show that both explore and celebrate banned writing through the ages.

In celebration of Immigrant Heritage Week, the Immigrant Arts Coalition and Dramatists Guild of America, in collaboration with the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene (NYTF) will present Staging Our Stories, an interactive panel discussion with playwrights, composers, and lyricists on heritage and diversity in theatre. An official partner with the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs, this free event will take place on Friday, April 20th, 1pm in the Dramatists Guild of America's Mary Rodgers Room.

In the blue collar Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn sits a rundown neighborhood institution called The Alamo; the last great American bar. Today, with an aging clientele, the place is fighting to keeps it's doors open and the only hope seems to be the arrival of artist/gentrifiers who are moving into the neighborhood and wanting to adopt the bar as an entertainment hangout. Bay Ridge locals and The Alamo regulars don't want to surrender their bar, much less their neighborhood, to these young neo-carpetbaggers. The Alamo paints a humorous and dramatic portrait of eight working class Bay Ridge natives who always seem to find themselves on the front lines of change in America.

Atlantic Theater Company (Neil Pepe, Artistic Director; Jeffory Lawson, Managing Director) is proud to announce casting for the New York premiere production of The Great Leap, written by Lauren Yee and directed by Taibi Magar.

Following a well-attended and critically-acclaimed inaugural year, Corkscrew Theater Festival returns for a second annual season, running July 9 - August 5 at the Paradise Factory (64 East 4th Street, Manhattan). This summer theater festival provides early-career artists with a high level of production support and features five world premieres and four readings performed in repertory over four weeks. Special attention has been given to theater makers who are developing work through robust and innovative collaborative models.

The Iceman Cometh begins previews tonight at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre. Get to know the cast below as they begin Broadway performances!

TimeLine Theatre Company, acclaimed for presenting plays inspired by history that connect to today's social and political issues, is thrilled to announce its 22nd season and to preview an upcoming partnership with Firebrand Theatre.

An overcapacity audience enthusiastically greeted Scott Elmegreen and Drew Fornarola, the award-winning playwrights of the off-Broadway hit STRAIGHT, at Utah Repertory Theater Company's regional premiere production in Salt Lake City.

Previews begin this Friday, March 16 for the Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) world premiere production of THIS FLAT EARTH, a new play by Lindsey Ferrentino (Ugly Lies the Bone, the current Amy and the Orphans).  Directed by Tony Award winner Rebecca Taichman (Familiar, Stage Kiss, Milk Like Sugar at Playwrights; Indecent), the play is the fourth production of the theater company's 2017/2018 Season.  

Urban Stages (Frances Hill, Founding Artistic Director), will close its 34th season with the New York Premiere of Sean Christopher Lewis's DOGS OF RWANDA, directed by Frances Hill and Peter Napolitano. This limited engagement at Urban Stages (259 West 30th Street), begins performances on Friday, March 9, opens on Monday, March 12 and will run through Saturday, March 31, 2018.

Signature Theatre announces the full cast and creative team for the DC premiere of Annie Baker's John, directed by Signature Theatre Director of New Work Joe Calarco (Signature's The Gulf, Jesus Christ Superstar). Elias and Jenny, a young Brooklyn couple, escape on a much-needed getaway to a cozy bed-and-breakfast in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. However, under the watchful eye of the cheery, if slightly off, innkeeper, a ghost seems to haunt their crumbling relationship. Annie Baker's John was called "so good on so many levels that it casts a unique and brilliant light' by The New Yorker. John will run April 3 - April 29 in Signature Theatre's MAX Theatre.

2Cents Theatre Group's popular 3-day festival of female playwrights is back for year FIVE! We are once again gathering around 100 artists for this one-of-a-kind event, from playwrights to directors to actors and street artists, to celebrate the FEMALE PLAYWRIGHT and ART! The Fest will take place March 9-11 at the Hudson Theatres in Hollywood, right in the heart of Theatre Row and the Los Angeles 99-seat community.

Urban Stages (Frances Hill, Founding Artistic Director), will close its 34th season with the New York Premiere of Sean Christopher Lewis's DOGS OF RWANDA, directed by Frances Hill and Peter Napolitano. This limited engagement at Urban Stages (259 West 30th Street), begins performances on Friday, March 9, opens on Monday, March 12 and will run through Saturday, March 31, 2018. Tickets for are $35 ($25 during previews; $50 on opening and $15 student rush) and may be purchased via OvationTix at www.urbanstages.org or by phone at 1.866.811.4111.

During their John Guare Festival and the World Premiere of Guare's epic Lydie Breeze Trilogy, EgoPo Classic Theater is collaborating with Drexel University's Performing Arts Department for an evening symposium, Future of American Playwriting, Saturday, February 3 at 4 p.m. The panel will feature John Guare and local playwrights Jacqueline Goldfinger, Bruce Graham, and James Ijames. The panel is moderated by Broad Street Review Editor in Chief Wendy Rosenfield. The symposium will be held in the Stein Auditorium in Nesbitt Hall at Drexel University, 3215 Market Street. Tickets cost $10 and are available on www.egopo.org or by phone at 267-273-1414.

Theatre for a New Audience (TFANA; Jeffrey Horowitz, Founding Artistic Director) announces a free post-performance discussion moderated by Pulitzer Prize-winning theatre critic and Negroland: A Memoir author Margo Jefferson in connection with TFANA's world premiere production of Adrienne Kennedy's He Brought Her Heart Back in a Box. The talk, which begins at 8.30 PM is open to all and features director Charlotte Braithwaite and playwrights Lydia Diamond and Jackie Sibblies Drury, follows the January 20 performance of Kennedy's first new play in a decade, which begins at 7:30 that evening, at Polonsky Shakespeare Center (262 Ashland Place, Brooklyn, NY 11217). The discussion will also be streamed live on Theatre for a New Audience's Facebook page. He Brought Her Heart Back in a Box runs January 18-February 11. To reserve a seat to this panel, visit www.tfana.org/heartpanel.

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater will showcase their spectacular artistry, talent, diversity, and range for three performances March 2 4 at Chrysler Hall in Norfolk, Virginia, presented by the Virginia Arts Festival.

Theatre for a New Audience (TFANA; Jeffrey Horowitz, Founding Artistic Director) announces a free post-performance discussion moderated by Pulitzer Prize-winning theatre critic and Negroland: A Memoir author Margo Jefferson in connection with TFANA's world premiere production of Adrienne Kennedy's He Brought Her Heart Back in a Box. The talk, which begins at 8.30 PM is open to all and features director Charlotte Braithwaite and playwrights Lydia Diamond and Jackie Sibblies Drury, follows the January 20 performance of Kennedy's first new play in a decade, which begins at 7:30 that evening, at Polonsky Shakespeare Center (262 Ashland Place, Brooklyn, NY 11217). The discussion will also be streamed live on Theatre for a New Audience's Facebook page. He Brought Her Heart Back in a Box runs January 18-February 11. To reserve a seat to this panel, visit www.tfana.org/heartpanel.

Inspired by the book Flatland by Edwin Abbott and set in the year 2073 in Tierra Plana, a new nation of squares, walls, and all sorts of boxes, Bi will break open the boxes of selective classification and raise the question: What is your 'bi-dentity'?