Rough Magic - Articles Page 3

The 23rd Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards was due to take place tomorrow night at the National Concert Hall in Dublin. 

The World Premiere of What I (Don't) Know About Autism makes history tonight, Tuesday 4th of February, as the first-ever 'relaxed performance' staged at Ireland's National Theatre.

American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) announced today the lineup of productions and cabaret performances for the remainder of the 2019-20 season, featuring students from A.C.T.'s Master of Fine Arts (MFA) Program and Young Conservatory (YC). Single tickets for all productions and cabaret performances are on sale now by calling the A.C.T. Box Office at 415.749.2228 or online at act-sf.org/csvshows. Ticket prices are subject to change without notice.

Rough Magic in a co-production with Kilkenny Arts Festival bring a new staging of one of Shakespeare's most romantic comedy dramas, Much Ado About Nothing, on the road this month. This hilarious comedy of gleaming wit and linguistic fervor that gleefully undermines the seriousness of romance, a production which recently premiered at Kilkenny Arts Festival 2019. The play comes to The Everyman, Cork, November 12th and 13th.

One of the joys of reviewing shows is when I am assigned to critique a production at one of our local schools. It is an opportunity for me to watch actors perform simply for the love of theatre. More times than not, the skill of these young actors and quality of the show will rival that of what you would find at one of our local community theatres. a?oeRough Magic,a?? presented by the Booker High School VPA Theatre Department continues the long-standing tradition of excellence in youth theatre here in Sarasota.

A provocative new festival piece, a premiere Australian work, reimagined international and Australian classics and a post-modern masterpiece that rocks the very foundations of theatre itself are just some of the highlights making up State Theatre Company South Australia's 2020 season, the first program from its new artistic director Mitchell Butel.

Studio Theatre's season-opening production of Doubt: A Parable has been extended a second time, closing October 20, 2019. John Patrick Shanley's Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece is directed at Studio by Matt Torney and anchored by Studio mainstay Sarah Marshall. She is joined by Christian Conn (Studio Theatre's Venus in Fur) as Father Flynn, Amelia Pedlow as Sister James, and Tiffany M. Thompson as Mrs. Muller.

Studio Theatre is extending its season-opening production of Doubt: A Parable, adding five performances through October 13, 2019. John Patrick Shanley's masterpiece received the Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize for its compelling interrogation of certitude and scandal within the Catholic Church. Studio's production is directed by the theatre's Associate Artistic Director Matt Torney and is anchored by DC theatre treasure Sarah Marshall, distinguished by having performed at Studio more than any other actor. Joining Marshall are Christian Conn (Studio Theatre's Venus in Fur) as Father Flynn, Amelia Pedlow as Sister James, and Tiffany M. Thompson as Mrs. Muller.

Today's subject Matt Torney is currently the Associate Artistic Director of Studio Theatre. Their excellent current production of Doubt: A Parable is helmed by Torney and plays through October 6th in Studio's Metheny space.

“There's so much to see here at The Everyman this autumn: we like to make sure you, our audience, are spoiled for choice” says Julie Kelleher, Artistic Director of Cork's Everyman Theatre at the announcement of the theatre's programme for the coming months.

The board of trustees for Theatrical Outfit, Atlanta's second-oldest professional theatre, has voted unanimously to name Matt Torney as its new Artistic Director. Torney will succeed current Artistic Director Tom Key in 2020 when Key completes his 25th year at the helm of the downtown theatre. 

This year's Dublin Theatre Festival programme reflects with many contemporary topics - but also reaches beyond, to a poetic enquiry about the times we live in. Over three weeks performances include 10 World Premieres, reimagined classic texts, inspiring international projects from Australia, Belgium Estonia, Portugal, Sweden, the UK and the USA, and an expanded season of Theatre for Children.

A new dark comedy by Trish Harnetiaux (Tin Cat Shoes, How to Get into Buildings) and directed by Olivia Songer (SEEDS Resident Director, Rough Magic Theatre Company) will play The Imra Sandrey Theatre at The Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute (115 East 15th Street) on Thursday May 9, Friday May 10, & Saturday May 11. Harnetiaux is the recipient of The Clifford Odets Ensemble Play Commission, an annual playwriting commission designed to serve large ensembles of emerging actors.

Quantum Theatre presents King Lear, widely regarded as Shakespeare's greatest tragedy, directed by Risher Reddick at Carrie Blast Furnaces National Historic Landmark May 10th - June 2nd.

This month sees the world premiere of Lee Coffey's new play In Our Veins, a Bitter Like Lemon and Abbey Theatre co-production. The production marks the Abbey Theatre début for Lee – a Dublin based playwright, who was a participant in the prestigious Rough Magic SEEDS programme in 2017, on the 2018 New Playwrights Programme at the Lyric Theatre, Belfast and is now one of Six In The Attic, an Irish Theatre Institute initiative to support and promote emerging creative talent. He is a founding member of Bitter Like a Lemon Theatre Company, whose production Leper + Chip has been performed to great acclaim in Ireland and at Edinburgh Fringe Festival, where it was nominated for the Broadway Baby 5 Star Award and the National Student Drama Award for Best Play.

Red Bridge Arts & Traverse Theatre Company's BLACK BEAUTY, a "five-star triumph" (The Guardian), gallops into the Wallis Annenberg Center for Performing Arts with a story of hope, friendship and courage from Friday, April 26 to Sunday, May 5, 2019, in The Wallis's Lovelace Studio Theater. Created by Andy Manley, Andy Cannon and Shona Reppe, this re-telling blends storytelling, music and puppetry, offering fun and adventure for fans of the book, the UK's classic TV show and those brand new to the tale. From the cozy horsebox they call home, Andy and Andy take the bit firmly between their teeth to weave the classic tale, as it has never been seen before. The production, which includes audience engagement, is recommended for families with kids ages 5 and older.

The FSU/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training concludes its season with Shakespeare's classic romantic comedy, As You Like It. The show, which features the entire class of second-years, is directed by Jonathan Epstein and performed outdoors in the stunning Marie Selby Botanical Gardens. The production previews on Tuesday, April 9 at 8pm with a special pay-what-you-can show, offering tickets at whatever price patrons can afford when purchased the day of the performance, at a minimum of $3 per seat. The show officially opens on Wednesday, April 10 at 8pm, and runs through Saturday, April 27.  Performances will run Tuesday through Saturday.

Further casting has been announced for the world premiere of Ivo van Hove's highly anticipated stage production of the 1950 Twentieth Century Fox film All About Eve.

Rough Magic will present the world premiere of James Joyce's seminal novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man in Arthur Riordan's vibrant new stage adaptation brought to life by a dynamic, new, creative ensemble of actors and designers under Ronan Phelan's direction. The play will open at the Everyman, Cork (Oct 22, 23 & 24), following its successful premiere run at Dublin Theatre Festival.

In SING TO ME NOW, playwright Iris Dauterman weaves sardonic humor, poetry, and a deeply contemporary voice to create a comedy about fighting for beauty while the world is falling apart.

Studio Theatre kicks off its 40th Anniversary season by stepping outside its front door as Associate Artistic Director Matt Torney directs Tony Award-winning playwright (Dear Evan Hansen) and Bethesda native Steven Levenson's If I Forget. This observant, political-but-personal family drama set in 2000 centers on the dynamics of a modern Jewish family in DC's Tenleytown neighborhood. Brought together by their elderly father's 75th birthday, the adult children of the Fischer family squabble over what to do with their long-held and now lucrative 14th Street property, igniting debates on religion, politics, and history. The first act opens days after the collapse of the Israel-Palestine Camp David peace talks, and If I Forget considers events of the outside world-and the weight of the turn of a millennium-through a domestic lens, grounding events and issues of the time in personal perspectives, while interrogating what it means to be an American Jew in the twenty-first century.

This year's Dublin Theatre Festival features a seductive selection of new work, including World and European Premieres, fresh versions of classic plays and adventurous international productions created by both renowned artists and emerging voices.

Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) has announced a third and final extension for their acclaimed world premiere production of DANCE NATION, the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize-winning new play by Obie Award winner Clare Barron (You Got Older, I'll Never Love Again). Directed and choreographed by Obie Award winner Lee Sunday Evans (Caught, D Deb Debbie Deborah, A Beautiful Day in November…, [Porto]), the play is the fifth production of the theater company's 2017/2018 Season.

The Public Theater (Artistic Director, Oskar Eustis; Executive Director, Patrick Willingham) will begin previews for a limited eight-week run of the Abbey Theatre and the Royal Court Theatre's acclaimed production of CYPRUS AVENUE on Saturday, June 2. The new play, written by David Ireland and directed by Royal Court Artistic Director Vicky Featherstone, features Stephen Rea, who last performed at The Public in 2008 in Sam Shepard's Kicking a Dead Horse. The run at The Public follows encore engagements at Dublin's Peacock Stage at the Abbey Theatre (April 30-May 19) and the MAC in Belfast (May 23-26). CYPRUS AVENUE will run through Sunday, July 29 in The Public's LuEsther Hall, with an official press opening on Monday, June 25.

Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) has announced a second extension for their acclaimed world premiere production of DANCE NATION, the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize-winning new play by Obie Award winner Clare Barron (You Got Older, I'll Never Love Again). Directed and choreographed by Obie Award winner Lee Sunday Evans (Caught, D Deb Debbie Deborah, A Beautiful Day in November…, [Porto]), the play is the fifth production of the theater company's 2017/2018 Season.