Francis Kelly News

The Civilians, the award-winning New York-based theatre company, announces the members of its 2013-14 R & D Group. The group's emerging and established artists were selected from over one hundred applicants. The R & D Group is comprised of artists from multiple theatrical disciplines. Each artist or creative team will develop an original work over the season. The artists and projects were selected to represent a range of different strategies for making new work from creative inquiry and research. This diversity of approach helps feed a culture of innovation in the group, making the R & D Group an effective lab of experimentation for the field of investigative theater.

A playful, exuberant and musical adaptation of Gertrude Stein's existential, modernist children's book The World Is Round will be performed this summer at The Mill: Arts, Letters, and Numbers in Averill Park, New York (east of Albany). THE WORLD IS ROUND IS ROUND IS ROUND is a music-theater piece chronicling the adventures of a girl named Rose in her quest to get 'there'-to the top of a mountain. It is adapted and directed by Karin Coonrod with music by Gina Leishman, who Time Out New York called 'one of New York's most versatile composers.' The work will premiere in August 2013 at The Mill before traveling to New York and other cities.

A playful, exuberant and musical adaptation of Gertrude Stein's existential, modernist children's book The World Is Round will be performed this summer at The Mill: Arts, Letters, and Numbers in Averill Park, New York (east of Albany). THE WORLD IS ROUND IS ROUND IS ROUND is a music-theater piece chronicling the adventures of a girl named Rose in her quest to get "there"-to the top of a mountain. It is adapted and directed by Karin Coonrod with music by Gina Leishman, who Time Out New York called "one of New York's most versatile composers." The work will premiere in August 2013 at The Mill before traveling to New York and other cities.

The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center at the Graduate Center, CUNY is pleased to announce the first wave of confirmed participants for PRELUDE.12, the ninth annual PRELUDE festival dedicated to artists at the forefront of contemporary New York City theatre, dance, interdisciplinary and mediatized performance.

Japan Society will present a staged reading of Our Planet by Japan's celebrated young writer Yukio Shiba, directed by OBIE award winner Alec Duffy. As part of Japan Society's Performing Arts Season spanning Fall 2011 through Spring 2012, Our Planet is a presentation of the Society's annual Play Reading Series of contemporary Japanese plays in English translation.

The medieval mystery play will get a 21st century update on December 4th when the Christmas story is brought to life on the streets of New York City through a raucous mix of music, dance, song, and drink.

The medieval mystery play will get a 21st century update on December 4th when the Christmas story is brought to life on the streets of New York City through a raucous mix of music, dance, song, and drink.

FST's Goldstein Cabaret returns to the age of innocence with The Wanderers, developed byRichard Hopkins, Rebecca Langford and Jim Prosser, beginning October 13.

FST's Goldstein Cabaret returns to the age of innocence with The Wanderers, developed byRichard Hopkins, Rebecca Langford and Jim Prosser, beginning October 13.

In 1978, Thomas Babe's A Prayer for My Daughter impacted audiences who were living through the post-Vietnam syndrome. Casual use of drugs, crime and police brutality were rampant. We were in a state of moral decay. In retrospect, it has all gotten progressively worse. So, the intense drama is like holding a mirror up to nature as it'were in 2010, and Crown City Theatre has a surefire audience grabber.

1959 was a heck of a good year for Broadway overtures.  The majestic trumpet fanfare and lowdown bump and grind of Gypsy's is generally regarded as the best in musical theatre, but there was also the rousingly rhythmic curtain-raiser to Fiorello! and, my personal favorite, Philip J. Lang's beautiful interpretation of Bob Merrill's music for Take Me Along, which touches on so many moods of the show while continually building the toe-tapping climax of The catchy title tune.

Variety reports that 'Smoking Bloomberg,' the musical farce that had an Off-Broadway 2006 NYMF run, is being adapted into an animated project.

THE HIROSHIMA PROJECT -- a 4-week cultural event featuring the premieres of American and Japanese plays, an award-winning film documentary, and open forums about the atomic bombings of Hiroshima 60 years later -- will be presented May 8 through 30 at The Ohio Theater (66 Wooster Street) in Manhattan, it has been announced by the co-producers of this world-premiere event, the Off-Broadway theater companies Voice & Vision and Crossing Jamaica Avenue.

Voice & Vision and Crossing Jamaica Avenue present a special 4-week event re-examing 1945 atomic attacks and aftermath THE HIROSHIMA PROJECT Featuring the world premiere of I HAVE BEEN TO HIROSHIMA MON AMOUR, a new American play by Chiori Miyagawa ('America Dreaming'), about finding love amid the ravages of war, directed by Jean Wagner starring Joel de la Fuente ('Law & Order: SVU'), Obie-winner Juliana Francis-Kelly and Sue Jean Kim May 8-30 at The Ohio Theatre (66 Wooster Street)

THE HIROSHIMA PROJECT -- a 4-week cultural event featuring the premieres of American and Japanese plays, an award-winning film documentary, and open forums about the atomic bombings of Hiroshima 60 years later -- will be presented May 8 through 30 at The Ohio Theater (66 Wooster Street) in Manhattan, it has been announced by the co-producers of this world-premiere event, the Off-Broadway theater companies Voice & Vision and Crossing Jamaica Avenue.

Voice & Vision and Crossing Jamaica Avenue present a special 4-week event re-examing 1945 atomic attacks and aftermath THE HIROSHIMA PROJECT Featuring the world premiere of I HAVE BEEN TO HIROSHIMA MON AMOUR, a new American play by Chiori Miyagawa ('America Dreaming'), about finding love amid the ravages of war, directed by Jean Wagner starring Joel de la Fuente ('Law & Order: SVU'), Obie-winner Juliana Francis-Kelly and Sue Jean Kim May 8-30 at The Ohio Theatre (66 Wooster Street)

At last, The National Theater of the United States of America returns to Performance Space 122 with its triumphant educative spectacular CHAUTAUQUA! In its own explosive style and rhythm, the NTUSA uses the historic narrative of the late 19th century adult education movement to explore ever prescient questions about art, education and commerce.

At last, The National Theater of the United States of America returns to Performance Space 122 with its triumphant educative spectacular CHAUTAUQUA! In its own explosive style and rhythm, the NTUSA uses the historic narrative of the late 19th century adult education movement to explore ever prescient questions about art, education and commerce.

Ripe Time has announced that it will present the world premiere of Fire Throws, written and directed by Rachel Dickstein, based on Sophocles's Antigone, beginning Wednesday, February 18, at 8pm at 3LD Art & Technology Center, 80 Greenwich Street at Rector Street. Opening night is set for Sunday, February 22 at 8pm. In Fire Throws a contemporary Antigone challenges her past, re-examining her own story of sacrifice through the kaleidoscopic frenzy of a fever dream. Through video projection, live music, and dance-inspired staging, Fire Throws explodes the classic text into a cutting-edge meditation on desire, drive, and what is at stake in breaking the rules. Fire Throws features two Antigones: the one we know from the original story and the 2400-year-old symbol she has become, looking back on her story and searching for the person inside the icon. Antigone's brazen defense of the sanctity of burial takes a new relevance when staged blocks away from ground zero; and Creon's misguided use and abuse of power is a cautionary tale in a world of divisive politics. Ripe Time uses its signature physical and visual story-telling style to re-invigorate a great classic with a contemporary and relevant energy.

The concert performance of LOVE, NY, the new musical by Robert Rokicki and Michael Ruby, will now play at New World Stages on January 26, 2009 at 8PM. The concert had been set to play at The Zipper Factory until its unexpected closing earlier this week. In addition, Tony Award Nominee Stephanie D'Abruzzo (AVENUE Q) will perform and host the event. Also joining the cast is WICKED's current Boq, Alex Brightman. D'Abruzzo and Brightman join Randy Aaron (DAME EDNA: BACK WITH A VENGEANCE, JUNIE B. JONES), Kevin Massey (TARZAN, BIG RIVER), Brynn O'Malley (WICKED, SUNDAY IN THE PARK), Vanessa Ray (THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTRY SPELLING BEE), and Krysta Rodriguez (IN THE HEIGHTS, SPRING AWAKENING).