Marianka Swain - Page 45

Four new artists and companies have been selected to join The Point for the next 18 months as Associate Artists. Joining the venue with some fantastically creative ideas and exciting works in development, these new artists have been selected based on their talent, passion and drive for the arts and performance making.

The Metropolitan Opera announced that the acclaimed conductor Yannick Nezet-Seguinwill be the company's new Music Director. The position has previously been held by only two artists in the company's storied 133-year history-James Levine, who after 40 years in the position stepped down at the end of the recently concluded season to become the company's first Music Director Emeritus, and Rafael Kubelik, who held the title briefly in the company's 1973-74 season.

The Ambassador Theatre Group is to produce a brand new stage musical based on the life of the legendary Frank Sinatra, in partnership with Stewart Till and Frank Sinatra Enterprises.  The show, which is planned to open in 2018, will feature a number of timeless hit songs from Sinatra's incredible catalogue of over 1400 tracks recorded during his illustrious career. Script development for the Frank Sinatra musical is planned to start shortly.

This summer, award-winning theatre company Antic Disposition will present a brand new production of Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors in beautiful Gray's Inn Hall in London, the very space where the play was first performed in 1594. The production runs from 20 August to 1 September 2016.

Following their acclaimed, sell-out performances recreating The Band's The Last Waltz concert at the Belgrade in 2011, the Mustard and Blood band return to the B2 auditorium in 2016 with three very special live shows this June.

Agatha Christie's beloved murder mystery THE MOUSETRAP will begin the final leg of its record-breaking, and first ever, UK tour at Glasgow Theatre Royal on 12th September. The tour will then visit Swindon, Cardiff, Wakefield, Perth, Ayr, Edinburgh, Guildford, Birmingham, Tunbridge Wells, Isle of Wight, Derry, Oxford, Carlisle and Aberystwyth.

Following the publication of Charlie Gray's HARRY POTTER AND THE CURSED CHILD portraits, the show has released a behind the scenes video of the character photo shoot. Check it out below!

A casting update is announced today for the world premiere of new musical A Pacifist's Guide to the War on Cancer with book by Bryony Kimmings and Brian Lobel, music by Tom Parkinson and lyrics by Bryony Kimmings. Kimmings directs a cast including Naana Agyei-Ampadu, Amy Booth-Steel, Hal Fowler, Amanda Hadingue, Akiya Henry, Golda Rosheuvel, Rose Shalloo, Gareth Snook and Gary Wood.

CLD - THE REAL LEWIS CARROLL tells the story of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (CLD), the shy young mathematician at Christ Church College who wrote the 'Alice' books as Lewis Carroll. This ultimate Oxford musical, which runs at St Columba's United Reformed Church from Thursday 14th July to Saturday 6th August, uses his absurd 'Alice' characters, text and songs to reveal the tragic story of his love affair with Lorina Liddell - Alice's mother in real life.

Hijinx (Cardiff), in association with Blind Summit (London) and Wales In Edinburgh, are bringing MEET FRED, a snapshot into the life of a potty-mouthed puppet with a feisty personality who fights prejudice every day, to Summerhall for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2016, from 5 to 25 August. NB - Contains strong language and puppet nudity.

Last night Alexi Kaye Campbell's new play, SUNSET AT THE VILLA THALIA, directed by Simon Godwin, had its press night at the National's Dorfman Theatre. The show features design by Hildegard Bechtler, lighting design by Natasha Chivers, music by Michael Bruce, movement by Jonathan Goddard and sound design by Tom Gibbons. The cast includes Christos Callow, Sam Crane, Glykeria Dimou, Elizabeth McGovern, Ben Miles, Pippa Nixon and Eve Polycarpou. 

South London-based theatre company Velvet Trumpet present the grimy, dark, bittersweet and, above all, funny debut play of excitable Welsh playwright Ffion Jones. UGLY LOVELY is at the Old Red Lion Theatre June 28th to July 16th.

In anticipation of its New York presentation with the New York Musical Festival (NYMF) this July, producers Jorge de la Garza and German Cavazos will present a special concert version of the new musical CHILDREN OF SALT, music by Jaime Lozano and book and lyrics by Lauren Epsenhart, with arrangements & orchestrations by Jesus Altamira and Jaime Lozano, musical direction by Geraldine Anello and musical supervision by Zach Dietz.

In a story about friendship, fate and fortitude, two farmhands wander through California's Salinas Valley, leaning on each other to find their way in this powerful adaptation of John Steinbeck's quintessential novel, OF MICE AND MEN. The esteemed Jenny Lord of The Juilliard School will direct Serenbe favorites Daniel Parvis and Blake Burgess, cast as George and Lennie, the iconic duo of witty small guy and loafing giant. View lush Serenbe, transformed to a working farm of the depression-era dustbowl, with live horses wandering about the rustic barn and stark minimalism artfully at play. The bucolic barn setting lends itself to an interpretation that is all about relationships - stripped of material means and in the direst of circumstances, watch as two men overcome seemingly impossible odds to reach their destinies.

The nonprofit AT&T Performing Arts Center and the producers of the RENT 20th Anniversary Tour announced today that single tickets for the upcoming tour engagement in Dallas will go on sale Friday, July 8 at 10 a.m.  RENT 20th Anniversary Tour will perform a limited two week engagement from September 20 through October 2, 2016 at the Winspear Opera House in the Dallas Arts District and is part of the 2016/2017 Broadway Series season.

Students from ten NYC public schools, whose plays will be published by renowned publisher Samuel French, will showcase their original plays and perform them at the Pearl Theatre as part of the LeAp OnStage program, a program created by Learning through an Expanded Arts Program (LeAp). This program provided over 500 underserved and culturally inspired public school students the opportunity to participate in an engaging and comprehensive theater program. Since 2006, LeAp OnStage has transformed the lives of over 5,000 inner-city middle school and high school students, by inspiring youth to actively engage with the arts and opening up college and career opportunities in theater.

First Folio Theatre (Mayslake Peabody Estate, 31st St. & Rt. 83) presents A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM as part of its annual outdoor Shakespeare Under the Stars series, opening Saturday, July 9, 2016 at 8:15 p.m., and running through August 14, 2016 with previews July 6-8. Pack a picnic and experience the Shakespearean classic that the Chicago Sun-Times raves to be "ideal for the sylvan backdrop of Oak Brook's Peabody Estate grounds, [A Midsummer Night's] Dream seems to speak directly to the trees and moonlight." Shakespeare's magical story about the difficulties of love is directed by Jeff Award-nominee Alison C. Vesely and produced by David Rice, author of The Madness of Edgar Allan Poe and composer, adaptor and lyricist of Shakespeare's Cymbeline: A Folk Tale with Music.

Award-winning playwright Torben Betts will be the focus of the first of a series of Tea Time Talks at the Stephen Joseph Theatre.

By popular demand, Gardner & Wife Theatre brings back NUNSENSE - the comedy musical which has broken virtually all Off-Broadway records! Originally produced in the US in 1985, it's had over 5,000 productions worldwide and been performed in more than 20 different languages - and it's still playing now!

Sedos, the City of London's premier amateur theatre company, deal with a highly sensitive legal and moral debate in their summer production of Whose Life Is It Anyway? at the company's resident home, the Bridewell Theatre, on 21-25 June.