Shoot the Works! 1931 - Articles Page 5

CoHo Productions presents, WALKING THE WORLD WITH THIS FIRE, a live exhibition at the CoHo Theatre, January 5 – 15, 2022 from 4 – 9 PM PST.

Heigh-Ho, My Merry Rainbow Tribe! Bobby Patrick, your RAINBOW Reviewer here. Putting the silent T in cabareT to bring you all the T!

UTA Artist Space presents The Purpose of Light, a new digital exhibition of photographs by Nigerian-born British photographer and activist Misan Harriman.

“We’re going to need a bigger theatre.” Back in summer 2019, this fascinating behind-the-scenes tale took a bite out of the Edinburgh Festival.

East West Players, in partnership with San Francisco’s EnActe Arts and New York City’s Hypokrit Productions, presents the virtual world premiere of Lavina Jadhwani’s THE SITAYANA (OR HOW TO MAKE AN EXIT) beginning September 25, 2021. Lavina’s updated, upending take on the Hindu epic The Ramayana recounts the story through Sita’s eyes, rather than Ram’s eyes as in the original. Audiences attending the livestreams will be given a choice to one of the three unique incarnations of Sita. Had the chance to pose a few questions to THE SITAYANA’s director Reena Dutt on her history with THE SITAYANA and what she’s been doing the last pandemic months to keep creatively sane.  

Seattle Rep today announced its return to the stage with a full season of must-see live theater in both its remodeled Bagley Wright Theater and intimate Leo K. Theater. The season features productions of Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale, and more! In-person theater productions at Seattle Rep begin in January 2022 and run through June 2022.

The 5th Avenue Theatre announced today the five writing teams representing BIPOC writers of all gender identities, women writers, transgender writers, gender non-conforming writers, and non-binary writers that have been selected to receive a First Draft Commission in the second cycle of its new musical development program, First Draft: Raise Your Voice.

Durango PlayFest today announced the actors who will headline three plays being developed at its new works festival, as well as the directors for each play. The August 5-8 event brings nationally recognized actors, playwrights and directors to Durango to incubate new plays, hold events for the community, and culminate the week with staged readings.

“The Way You Felt” follows Alec’s critically acclaimed 2020 debut studio album, These Two Windows. Generating nearly half-a-billion streams in under a year, it boasts the hit singles “Jesus In LA,” “Oh My God,” and “Mind Is A Prison.”

John McGrath is Artistic Director and Chief Executive of Manchester International Festival [MIF], a worldclass celebration of original work that had marked seven festivals prior to the imminent 2021 cultural celebration that starts July 1. Unfolding over 18 days both indoors and outdoors, both in three dimensions and online, MIF21 wasn't about to let a pandemic stand in the way of its pioneering vision, as McGrath himself explains below. 

The Columbus Symphony Orchestra did a fine job of not making Queen’s A Night At The Opera sound like an actual night at the opera.

LA LAVADORA by RYAN M. LUEVANO has won the first annual Full Circle Players' New Works Play Festival. As the winner he will receive a cash prize and his play will receive a fully staged production as part of the theatre company's 2022 fall season.

LA LAVADORA by RYAN M. LUEVANO has been selected as one of five finalists for Full Circle Players' 2021 New Works Play Festival. The festival will present a virtual reading of the play in May 2021. Two of the five finalists will receive a fully staged performance as part of the theatre company's 2022-2023 season.

When Lorraine Hansberry Theatre announced last September that Bay Area theatre luminary Margo Hall had been appointed as its first female Artistic Director, it felt like a promise of good things to come. Six months later, the venerable company is back up and running full steam ahead with its first staged production since the COVID-19 pandemic began, Erika Dickerson-Despenza’s [hieroglyph], available to stream on-demand March 13th through April 3rd. Hall directed this as a co-production with Lorraine Hansberry Theatre’s long-time collaborator San Francisco Playhouse, and would seem to be the perfect director to bring it to life. Dickerson-Despenza is a Tow Playwright-in-Residence at New York’s Public Theater who centers her writings on Black women’s land legacies and distinct experiences of environmental racism. Telling the raw, honest story of a 13-year-old girl struggling Post-Hurricane Katrina, wrestling with being displaced to a new city while secretly coping with the PTSD of an assault at the Superdome, [hieroglyph] is part of Dickerson-Despenza’s 10-play Katrina cycle focused on the effects of Hurricane Katrina and its state-sanctioned, man-made disaster rippling in & beyond New Orleans. Hall describes the play as “tragically beautiful.” Patrons may support the organization of their choice by purchasing tickets from Lorraine Hansberry Theatre at lhtsf.org or from San Francisco Playhouse at sfplayhouse.org. BroadwayWorld spoke with Hall last week, just as she was preparing to meet her cast in person for the first time after weeks of Zoom rehearsals. Speaking to her, I got the distinct impression of someone who is exactly where she needs to be right now. This may be her first stint as an artistic director, but in so many ways she has been preparing for this role her entire life. Her decades of experience as an actor, director, playwright, professor and activist all coalesce to serve her in her new role. We talked about her hopes to expand Hansberry’s purview, the need to create culturally-specific theatre, and the exigencies of producing theatre and TV (she is also acting in the new “Blindspotting” series!) during Covid times. Throughout our conversation, I was struck by the sheer joy she exudes for making theatre and for finding herself in a place where she can create new opportunities for Black theatre artists.

Cincinnati's favorite theatre photographer, Mikki Schaffner is offering limited portrait sessions at The Carnegie between 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, March 13 and noon to 4 p.m. on Sunday, March 14, 2021

Minnesota’s Theater Mu's first mainstage production since the pandemic lockdown - playwright Susan Soon He Stanton's TODAY IS MY BIRTHDAY  - will be live broadcasted February 5 through February 14, 2021, with video-on-demand available February 15 through February 21, 2021. In support of Theatre Mu, East West Players is including BIRTHDAY in its 55th anniversary season as a part of an East West Passport membership.

The One Million Musicals podcast has found an exciting, innovative, and creative way to bring the world of musicals directly to you, releasing one brand new audio musical per month... with the ultimate vision being to release one million of them!

The Land of Once Upon a Time is all abuzz. Who will create the best song to save the Treasury of Tales?

Today, Mobley releases an exclusive behind-the-scenes of the making of the music video for his recent single, “James Crow.” 

Talking to Khori Dastoor, General Director of Opera San José brings to mind that old quote from Elizabeth Taylor when she was faced with unimaginable adversity, “Now is the time for guts and guile.” Just one year into her tenure as GD, Dastoor is faced with an almost impossible situation due to the Covid pandemic. Out of all the arts, opera, the artform which she has made her life’s work, arguably has the biggest challenges. After all, the act of singing operatically produces enormous amounts of aerosols, the core audience is older and thus especially at risk for Covid, and the population at large may not consider opera to be essential to their lives. Since creating new works is practically impossible, many GD’s are offering a sort of greatest hits of former glories, video snippets from past years that were already in the can. Or maybe something like a “reading” of an old holiday chestnut like Der Rosenkavalier, presented Brady-Bunch style on Zoom. So what does Dastoor do instead? She goes bravely programs a brand-new, beautifully-produced production of Jake Heggie’s Three Decembers, starring no less than world-renowned opera star Susan Graham, alongside two of Opera San José’s super-talented Resident Artists, soprano Maya Kherani and baritone Efraín Solis. This immensely moving chamber work is based on an unpublished play by Terrance  McNally, adapted by librettist Gene Scheer, and tells the story of a family struggling to connect during the early years of the AIDS pandemic. The work premiered in 2008, yet somehow feels more relevant than ever, given the parallels with what we’re all going through today, as evidenced by McNally’s death from Covid earlier this year. The opera is currently available for streaming through the end of December. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit operasj.org. BroadwayWorld spoke with Dastoor shortly after the filming of Three Decembers had been completed. Dastoor was remarkably open and forthcoming about the challenges of the opera world right now, even as her passion for growing the artform burns stronger than ever. We talked about how she managed to produce Three Decembers during Covid, her successful earlier career as a lyric soprano, and the imperative to keep the arts alive during these difficult times. Her responses to my questions were invariably thoughtful, often surprising and not without humor. And, as a rare woman of color leading an opera company, her understanding of the need to open up her artform runs deep. Above all, though, she is just plain fun to talk to - effortlessly engaging, whip-smart, emotionally transparent, and without an ounce of pretension.

As we enter this holiday season together - thankful for the many wonderful things in our lives and looking forward to a bright New Year, the goal at Comedy Works is to keep the laughter alive.  

STONY POINT, NY - NOVEMBER 16, 2020 - 'As theatres remain dark, Penguin Rep remains committed to making art and to connecting with our community,' says founding artistic director Joe Brancato. 'As we grapple with a way to tell stories given the continued closure of theatres, we are inspired by other challenging periods in history when Americans were distant but connected, and excited by the idea of working with different medium.'

The Drama League has announced the formation of its first Directors Council, featuring nationally-renowned directors Daniel Banks, Melia Bensussen, Christopher Burris, Jillian Carucci, Jennifer Chang, Desdemona Chiang, R.J. Cutler, Estefanía Fadul, Raz Golden, Brian Eugenio Herrera, Adam Immerwahr, Gwynn MacDonald, Tony Phelan and more.

In an interview with Deadline, Ryan Murphy spoke about the upcoming Netflix film adaptation of 'The Prom,' producing 'The Boys in the Band,' and his upcoming limited series based around 'A Chorus Line.' 

Marie Cisco is a powerhouse in the theater industry, having worked at The National Black Theatre, The New Black Fest, and was at the center of a national conversation this summer after creating the 'Theatres Not Speaking Out' spreadsheet after the death of George Floyd. We spoke with Marie Cisco about the creation of Cisco & Co. Productions & more.