Branden Jacob-Jenkins News

Vineyard Theatre today announced that Clare Barron has been awarded the 2014 Paula Vogel Playwriting Award, presented annually to an emerging playwright of exceptional promise.

'Mad Men' star Vincent Kartheiser and Broadway's Larry Pine (CASA VALENTINA) play Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler, respectively, in BILLY & RAY, Mike Bencivenga's new play -- directed by the legendary director/writer/producer Garry Marshall -- being given its NY premiere this fall at the Vineyard Theatre (108 E. 15 St.), with an official opening tonight, October 20, 2014.

'Mad Men' star Vincent Kartheiser and Broadway's Larry Pine (CASA VALENTINA) will play Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler, respectively, in BILLY & RAY, Mike Bencivenga's new play -- directed by the legendary director/writer/producer Garry Marshall -- being given its NY premiere this fall at the Vineyard Theatre (108 E. 15 St.), with previews scheduled to begin tonight, October 1 prior to an official opening on October 20, it has been announced by Vineyard's Artistic Directors Douglas Aibel and Sarah Stern.

'Mad Men' star Vincent Kartheiser and Broadway's Larry Pine (CASA VALENTINA) will play Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler, respectively, in BILLY & RAY, Mike Bencivenga's new play -- directed by the legendary director/writer/producer Garry Marshall -- being given its NY premiere this fall at the Vineyard Theatre (108 E. 15 St.), with previews scheduled to begin October 1 prior to an official opening on October 20, it has been announced by Vineyard's Artistic Directors Douglas Aibel and Sarah Stern.

The Public Theater (Artistic Director, Oskar Eustis; Executive Director, Patrick Willingham) announced the 10 new playwrights today for the 2014-15 Emerging Writers Group. Now in its fifth cycle, the Emerging Writers Group is an ongoing initiative that targets playwrights at the earliest stages in their career, creating an artistic home, and offering support and resources for a diverse group of up-and-coming playwrights.

On October 31, Joan and George Hornig hosted the launch of the first-ever Sundance Institute Theatre Club: a private dinner for 18 guests at Lafayette in New York with special guests Lisa Kron & Jeanine Tesori, playwrights of the much-raved-about new musical, Fun Home. The Theatre Club features private events showcasing projects supported by the Institute's Theatre Program now on stage in New York.

Artistic Director Steven Atkinson previously announced 18 World and European premiere productions for the sixth annual HighTide Festival in Halesworth, Suffolk, from now thru May 13, 2012. New this year is the Festival Bus, providing return travel from London Liverpool Street to Halesworth for the under 30's for £30, including a ticket to two plays.

Artistic Director Steven Atkinson today announces eighteen World and European premiere productions for the sixth annual HighTide Festival in Halesworth, Suffolk, from May 3 to13 2012.

Back in 2009, The Public Theatre presented Tracy Scott Wilson's ambitious and very capable drama, The Good Negro, a work of fiction with one character obviously meant as a stand-in for DR. Martin Luther King, Jr., which depicted the leaders of the 1960s civil rights movement as everyday human beings with normal flaws, making what they accomplished a greater achievement than if it were done by the demi-gods some would make them out to be.  To that end, the playwright showed the fictional King and his colleagues orchestrating a fight for racial equality by pushing only the most media-friendly images of black people before the press.

When Jerry Herman was pegged by producer Gerard Oestreicher to write the score for a Broadway musical set in the fledgling State of Israel, he was a 28-year-old composer/lyricist mostly known for writing clever lyrics and snazzy tunes for Greenwich Village topical reviews like Nightcap and Parade.  But now, instead of writing for hip, downtown performers like Charles Nelson Reilly and Dody Goodman, he'd be penning a romantic score for opera stars Mimi Benzell and Robert Weede, with special comic relief material for Yiddish Theatre legend Molly Picon.

When we first meet Rita Lyons, she's sitting in a hospital room casually thumbing through a furniture catalogue, asking her husband, Ben, who lies in bed, dying of cancer, to help her come up with ideas for redecorating the living room after he's gone.