THEATRE
The Drama League Announces Season 2 Of "TA(L)KING DIRECTION" Podcast
(NEW YORK, NY) -- The Drama League has announced Season 2 of its digital series, TA(L)KING DIRECTION: The Drama League Podcast. After a successful first season of 25 in-depth interviews addressing the stories and experiences of world-renowned artists during the COVID-19 pandemic, season two will explore the changing state of the theatre industry and its early steps towards re-emergence in 2021, with an all-star lineup of directors, producers, and artists in conversation with the industry's leaders and educators. Since 1916, The Drama League has been at the forefront of the American Theater community, advancing the art form by providing a life-long artistic home for directors and a platform for dialogue with, and between, audiences.
Centenary Stage Company's Young Performers Workshop Opens Registration For 2021 Spring Session
(HACKETTSTOWN, NJ) -- Centenary Stage Company's critically acclaimed Young Performers Workshop is now seeking new and returning applicants for the 2021 Spring Session. The 15-week Spring Session of YPW will run from February 13 through May 30. The deadline to register is Monday, February 8. The session will culminate with live a performance opportunity for the students to be performed in May.
Playwright Aleshea Harris Awarded 2021 Hermitage Greenfield Prize
The Hermitage Artist Retreat (Andy Sandberg, Artistic Director and CEO), in collaboration with the Greenfield Foundation, has selected OBIE-winning playwright Aleshea Harris as the winner of the 2021 Hermitage Greenfield Prize, given this year in the artistic discipline of theater. Harris will receive a six-week residency at the Hermitage and a $30,000 commission for a new work, which will have its first public presentation in Sarasota in 2023 in collaboration with the Hermitage’s presenting partner, Asolo Repertory Theatre (Michael Donald Edwards, Producing Artistic Director).
Hamilton Stage presents "Thanks, Brother" by Jared Kelner
(RAHWAY, NJ) -- The Hamilton Stage at UCPAC presents Thanks, Brother by Jared Kelner for four performances January 22-24. This is a 90-minute 1-act drama that explores the bond of brotherhood and the traumas that shaped the lives of two men. Through their journey, they find love, understanding and acceptance. The production is directed by Mike Burdick and stars James Walsh and Jared Kelner. It is produced by Actor’s Approach Acting Academy.
Premiere Stages Announces 2021 Bauer Boucher Playwriting Award Winners
(UNION, NJ) -- Premiere Stages, the professional theatre company in residence at Kean University, has named current Kean University student Lucien Edme (Class of ’21) and alumnus Megan Hoche (Class of ‘08, ‘10 ) as the winners of the 2021 Bauer Boucher Playwriting Awards, named for longtime donors W. John Bauer and Nancy Boucher. Both winners will receive a cash prize and a one-day developmental reading of their plays with a professional cast and director. This year the readings will be held virtually via Zoom and are free and open to the public. A live Q&A with the playwrights will follow each reading.
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FEATURES
Experience "A Christmas Carol" the Way Dickens Presented It
Few stories connect us to the past the way “A Christmas Carol” does. For more than 175 years, people have enjoyed watching one of the most miserable characters in the history of literature (Ebenezer Scrooge) go through a complete transformation, thanks to the miracle of Christmas. For two weekends in December, Algonquin Arts in Manasquan presents a special one-man version of the classic tale - exactly the way Charles Dickens himself performed it for years.
Playwright Adrienne Kennedy featured in a Virtual Festival at McCarter Theatre
Adrienne Kennedy is an 89-year-old playwright who is fierce, prolific, and considered one of American theatre’s most innovative voices. In 1964, Kennedy won the first of her three Obies for her very first play, Funnyhouse of a Negro. Her most recent play, Etta and Ella on the Upper West Side, will have its public premiere December 12, 2020 as the final presentation in The Work of Adrienne Kennedy: Inspiration & Influence, a festival presented by Princeton’s McCarter Theatre Center in partnership with Washington, D.C.’s Round House Theatre.
Celebrate Halloween With Something Wicked
In a year that has been anything but normal, the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey will provide a semblance of normalcy this week with their annual production of “Something Wicked This Way Comes.” Its a program that mixes classic literature of the macabre and supernatural, eerie ghost stories, and a dash of humor to go along with the chills. This is the 11th straight year for the production, which changes the stories in the show each time.
"Fannie Lou Hamer, Speak on It!" -- Audience are Cheering
Premiere Stages at Kean brings life back to the live theater community with their production of Fannie Lou Hamer, Speak on It! The show is an opportunity to once again experience live theater but do it in a CoVid safe environment. It was thrilling to go out to the grounds of the Liberty Hall Museum which is on the other side of Morris Avenue from where Premiere Stages usually performs. The transformation to outdoor theater was thoughtfully done with remarkable results.
"Rent Control" Opens Fringe Festival at Centenary Stage
“In the year 2000, I moved to New York to be an actor.” So begins “Rent Control,” Evan Zes’ one-man comedy about how an Upper East Side two-bedroom he lucked into the day he arrived in the city changed his life. Only $918 a month, Zes describes finding one of the last rent-controlled apartments in New York as akin to “discovering plutonium.” He then takes the audience on a fast-paced trip through what happened next – a tale replete with shady landlords, comic roommates, and an ill-advised AirBnB scheme that almost derailed his acting career.
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