Industry Theatre Newsroom Page 105

The Broadway Green Alliance (BGA) is sponsoring an e-waste drive for the theatre industry and fans on Wednesday, January 16th from 11:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. in Duffy Square. The event is open to all shows, theatres, industry members, and fans.

In many people's lives there is at least one teacher who inspired them, and helped them become who they are today. In our early years, when we are still being formed, they often see in us more than we see in ourselves, more than our families see and, as a result, help us to evolve into who we ultimately become. These inspirational people are not often recognized for the life changing role they have played.

BroadwayCon Industry Day is only three weeks away and tickets are going fast!

The Dramatists Guild Foundation (DGF) announced today that it has received a $2 million commitment from the Seller-Lehrer Family Foundation, Inc. (SLFF). The DGF is an established non-profit organization that fuels the future of American theater by supporting the writers who create it. DGF fosters playwrights, composers, lyricists, and book writers at all stages of their careers. DGF creates educational programs; provides awards, grants, and stipends; offers free space to create new works; and gives emergency aid to writers in need.

This year, to help kick off the basket stuffing, the Foundation invited Broadway stars of the PROM, Michael Potts and Isabelle Mto pack some baskets, meet the volunteers, and play with the toys!

Paciolan has announced the retirement of industry visionary Jack Lucas from WestCoast Entertainment. Justin Kobluk will assume the role of president at WestCoast Entertainment in January 2019. 

President Pam MacKinnon and the Executive Board of Stage Directors and Choreographers (SDC) are pleased to announce that Executive Director Laura Penn's contract has been renewed through 2024. 

A small town. A spunky dreamer. You'll never know if you don't go.

BroadwayHD, the premier streaming service for live theater with more than 270 productions, has signed an agreement with Shochiku Co. Ltd., one of Japan's leading entertainment companies, to introduce premium live theater content to Japan. The agreement covers a variety of shows over a multi-year term. The influx of live theater entertainment will lead to the creation of the Shochiku Broadway Cinema Series, a separate programming offering flagged for BroadwayHD productions. These offerings will be added to Shochiku's current distribution of Met Live content. Release dates and titles will be announced at a later date.

The Drama League (Gabriel Stelian-Shanks, Executive Artistic Director) has announced the theater directors chosen to develop new plays and musicals as part of the 2019 Drama League Artist Residency Program. Public work-in-progress presentations of each residency will be held periodically throughout the year at The Drama League Theater Center, 32 Avenue of the Americas, in Tribeca. Schedules for the presentations, which are open to the public, will be available throughout 2019 at www.dramaleague.org or by calling (212) 244-9494.

An Industry reading of Kevin Ray Johnson's The Unpredictable Times will be presented Monday, January 7th at Broadway's Hudson Theatre in the Dress Circle Lounge.

The top growing current Broadway musicals were The Prom (+5.92%), The Cher Show (+5.81%), King Kong (+2.14%), Once On this Island (+2.05%) and My Fair Lady (+1.91%). The top growing current Broadway plays were To Kill A Mockingbird (+12.74%), The New One (+9.73%), Network (+5.82%), Torch Song (+4.91%) and The Waverly Gallery (+3.49%). The top growing upcoming Broadway productions were Be More Chill (+2.64%), BeetleJuice (+2.21%), Ain't Too Proud (+1.27%), Tootsie The Musical (+0.97%) and Moulin Rouge (+0.60%).

The film version of the multiple Tony award-winning Lincoln Center Theater production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's THE KING AND I: FROM THE LONDON PALLADIUM has become the biggest theatre event in cinemas of 2018 following yesterday's (29 November) screenings around the world. The production is expected to take $2.5m at the box office. In the UK the film reached the number one spot, with more than double the box office of the next film, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald.

THE GAME, a new musical with book and lyrics by Eric Kornfeld and music by John McDaniel, will be presented in a private industry presentation, Thursday, December 6 at 3:30pm and Friday, December 7, 2018 at 11am. Presentations will be held at Pearl Studios.

Producer David Sonenberg is bringing a musical version of his Academy Award winning film 'When We Were Kings', about the now-legendary 1974 Muhammad Ali/George Forman fight held in Zaire, Africa, to the stage. The book for the musical, adapted from the film and written by Shelley Marcus. The songs for the musical are R&B classics from the 1974 Zaire music festival, with the exception of 'Rumble In The Jungle', which was written by The Fugees for the film. A workshop is scheduled for the spring of 2019 with plans for a full stage musical production the following year.

Samuel French, the world's leading publisher and licensor of plays and musicals, launched an all-new e-commerce platform for the US and UK markets in collaboration with Engine Digital, a New York City and Vancouver-based digital consultancy. The new e-commerce platform provides a modern experience for the company's unique customer base that spans Broadway, community theatre, and school productions.

Sam Maher and YesBroadway  have announced the launch of YesBroadway's newest branch: an influencer marketing agency. The company is already making waves in the industry with multiple clients. YesBroadway started two years ago as a media company with one simple goal: get more 25-40 year olds seeing more theater. YesBroadway will continue to accomplish that goal, now via influencer marketing as well.

The Michael Cassel Group announced three senior appointments to support its growing production slate, including major Australian theatrical productions, international touring and concert presentations.

Samuel French has announced the publication and availability of performance rights for Steve Martin's new play, Meteor Shower.

On Tuesday, November 27, various NYC casting offices will participate in COATS FOR MONOLOGUES.

The Broadway Green Alliance (BGA) is sponsoring a textile drive on Wednesday, November 28th from 11:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. in Duffy Square (46th Street between 7th Avenue and Broadway in Times Square). The collection drive is open to all shows, theatres, industry members, and fans in a collaborative effort to make cleaning out your theatre or your closet a greener experience.

Stage Entertainment is one of the world's largest theatre producers and owners, operating 20 theatres and partnering with world-renowned creative talent to produce shows attended by over seven million visitors annually. The company entertains audiences in the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States. Leading titles include Disney's The Lion King and Aladdin, Mamma Mia!, Mary Poppins, Anastasia and Tina: the Tina Turner Musical. Stage Entertainment employs more than 3,000 people worldwide. In the course of the current season, Stage Entertainment will open ten new musical productions including Paramour in Hamburg, a co-production with Cirque du Soleil; the German production of Tina: the Tina Turner Musical as well as the roll-out of Anastasia in Stage Entertainment's network of theatres including Madrid, Stuttgart and The Hague as well as productions planned for Mexico, Japan, Brazil and Australia.

'Before This New Year,' a coming-of-age identity and right-of-first-passage love story by playwright Liana Sonenclar, will play a reading for industry on Monday, November 19th at 7 PM, at the Jerry Orbach Theater at the Theater Center at 210 West 50th Street, and will feature a notable cast. The play is helmed by director Kimberly Loren Eaton, who has been working on the development of the piece with Sonenclar the past several months through her creative development and production company Theatrum Mundi Productions.

RRR Creative, an innovative creative agency focused on entertainment and fashion, and D'Marie Analytics, a leading social media analytics and influencer casting company, have launched The Cast, the first dedicated digital talent agency exclusively representing leading Broadway talent. Members of the agency's star-filled roster celebrated its launch at the W Hotel in Times Square last night.

American fashion Designer and social activist, Kenneth Cole, today announced a partnership with Broadway's new musical comedy, THE PROM, to support human rights of LGBTQI people and equality. The partnership includes a fundraising initiative for the UN Foundation in support of UN Free & Equal - a global public information campaign of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to promote the fair and equal rights of LGBTQI+ people globally.