Arena Stage News

Pick a little, talk a little, pick a little, talk a little, cheep, cheep, cheep, talk a lot, pick a little more. Repeat. Multiple times. At increasing speeds. In unison. While dancing, singing, making facial expressions, and flailing your arms about. With any luck, you'll make it through one refrain successfully and get a small glimpse into the seasoned talent of the cast of Arena Stage's The Music Man, playing now through July 22nd, 2012. (more...)

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK: GODSPELL sings Schwartz, Paper Mill preps ONCE ON THIS ISLAND, New Dramtists honor Bernadette, and so much more! (more...)

On May 24, 2012, YPT was honored as one of five finalists for the Washington Post Award for Excellence in Nonprofit Management. During the Best Practices Celebration at the Washington Post offices, YPT was recognized for the organization’s innovative and successful management policies and leadership, and invited to share management best practices with the local nonprofit community. During the award celebration, YPT was specifically recognized for the organization’s collaborative staffing model. (more...)

Drew Brody/The Infinite Monkey Project is thrilled to present the 10-year anniversary production of the “absurdly hilarious” hit comedy, FLUFFY BUNNIES IN A FIELD OF DAISIES, written and directed by Matt Chaffee. FLUFFY BUNNIES IN A FIELD OF DAISIES will open on Thursday, June 7 and continue through Saturday, July 28 at The Arena Stage at Theatre of Arts, 1625 N Las Palmas Ave in Hollywood. (more...)

Philadelphia Theatre Company announces the world premiere of the new musical Stars of David to open its 2012-2013 season this fall. (more...)

Esteban Cruz has had to permanently leave the cast of American Theater Company/About Face's production of RENT for undisclosed personal reasons. As of today, Wednesday, May 23, the role of Angel will be taken over by Eduardo Placer. (more...)

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater’s Artistic Director Molly Smith has announced that this July 2012 D.C.-area arts manager and artist David Snider will become the company’s Director of Artistic Programming. Snider will be leaving Young Playwrights’ Theater (YPT), where he has served since 2005 as producing artistic director and CEO, to bring his multi-faceted, award-winning talents to the artistic team of Arena Stage. (more...)

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater's production of MerEdith Wilson's The Music Man, helmed by Artistic Director Molly Smith, stars Kate Baldwin (Tony Award nominee for Broadway's Finian's Rainbow) as Marian the librarian, joined by Burke Moses (original Gaston in Broadway's Beauty and the Beast) as Harold Hill. The Music Man runs through July 22, 2012 in the Fichandler Stage. BroadwayWorld brings you production shots of Burke Moses and Kate Baldwin in action below! (more...)

Off-Broadway’s The New Group has just announced its 2012-2013 season, featuring three world premiere productions. As the season launch in Fall 2012, Scott Elliott, Artistic Director of The New Group, directs Francine Volpe’s The Good Mother, featuring Gretchen Mol. Jonathan Marc Sherman’s new work Clive arrives in Winter 2013, directed by and featuring Ethan Hawke in the title role. Spring 2013 ushers in the premiere of a new musical at The New Group, Bunty Berman Presents..., by Ayub Khan Din (music, book, lyrics) and Paul Bogaev (music), directed by Scott Elliott. (more...)

Shakespeare Festival St. Louis will present a free production of OTHELLO from 5/25 to 6/17, 2012 at Shakespeare Glen, Forest Park nightly at 8pm with previews 5/23-24. (more...)

American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) Artistic Director Carey Perloff announced today that The Normal Heart, Larry Kramer’s landmark play focusing on the early days of the AIDS crisis in New York City in the 1980s, will open the 2012–13 season this fall, playing Sep 13-Oct 7. (more...)

Baltimore welcomes E. Faye Butler in her all-new act, "What a Difference a Diva Makes". (more...)

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK: SONS OF THE PROPHET wins big at DCC Awards, Town Hall celebrates 1975, THE NORMAL HEART cast preps for tour, and so much more! (more...)

June 11-28, 2012 the international new play festival Zeitgeist: New Playwrights from Austria, Germany and Switzerland brings some of the most sought-after European playwrights and their works to Washington and New York for staged readings with the directors of leading theaters in each city: Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater, the Studio Theatre, and the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, and New York Theatre Workshop, Playwrights Horizons, and Soho Rep in New York City. (more...)

Cleveland Play House will originate a new production of the musical One Night With Janis Joplin based on the musical journey of one of rock ‘n roll’s greatest legends. (more...)

Stage and screen stars Brooke Shields and Richard Chamberlain will take on the iconic roles of Chris MacNeil and Father Merrin in playwright John Pielmeier’s world premiere of The Exorcist at the Geffen Playhouse. Helmed by acclaimed director John Doyle, who won a Tony Award for his striking reimagining of Sweeney Todd, this stage adaptation of William Peter Blatty’s famous 1971 novel transforms the unsettling battles of good versus evil, faith versus fact and ego versus ethos into a uniquely theatrical experience as sophisticated as it is suspenseful. (more...)

According to an Equity Audition notice, the Steppenwolf's production of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf will begin previews on Broadway on September 27, 2012 in anticipation of its previously announced October 13, 2012 opening at a Shubert Theatre to be announced. Pam Mackinnon will continue to helm the project. Jerry Frankel, Jeffrey Richards Susan Q. Gallin and Mary Lu Roffe will produce. (more...)

The Amoralists have announced the World Premiere of The Bad and the Better, written by Derek Ahonen, directed by Obie Award winner Daniel Aukin and featuring The Amoralists acting ensemble. The acclaimed downtown theater company moves uptown for a 6-week Off-Broadway run from June 14 – July 21, 2012 at The Peter Jay Sharp Theater, located at 416 West 42 Street between 9 and 10 Avenues in New York City. Previews begin June 14 for a June 19 opening. (more...)

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater produces the 2011 Tony Award-winning production of Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart, directed by George C. Wolfe. Wolfe, who directed the show’s sold-out Broadway engagement last season, mounts the professional D.C.-area premiere of this production, which features returning Broadway cast members Patrick Breen and Luke MacFarlane, among others. Presented by special arrangement with Daryl Roth, The Normal Heart runs June 8-July 29, 2012 in the Kreeger Theater. (more...)

Berkeley Repertory Theatre announced the cast and creative team for its world premiere of Eve Ensler’s EMOTIONAL CREATURE. This positive and propulsive new show – from the Tony Award-winning playwright, performer, and activist who created The Vagina Monologues – features a choreographer, a composer, four top designers, and an ensemble of talented young women. Directed by Obie Award-winner Jo Bonney, Emotional Creature plays only 36 performances in the Roda Theatre. The limited engagement at Berkeley Rep begins previews on June 14, opens June 22, and runs through July 15. The lead producers of this premiere are Wayne Jordan and Quinn Delaney, Marjorie Randolph, and Jack and Betty Schafer; the executive producer is the Strauch Kulhanjian Family. The development of this production has been supported in part by The Mosse Artistic Development Fund. (more...)