Contemporary Stage News

The Drama League has announced its 2019 Fall Series, including new play readings, open rehearsals, master workshops and conversations with America's leading stage directors, to be held at The Drama League Theater Center

Celebrating 66th seasons, The Naples Players welcomes patrons to The Great Gatsby opening October 2, 2019.

The 66th Season of The Naples Players (TNP) is in full swing with individual tickets going on sale to the public beginning Tuesday, September 3, 2019, at the Box Office and online

To stage the beloved cultural icon that is THE WIZARD OF OZ offers any theatre company a herculean challenge: one which requires stretching the imagination to the limits to create a universe where reality is redefined and fantasy is fulfilled. In short, it demands stunning stagecraft and brilliant artistic vision. And it is just that kind of theatrical magic which Maine State Music Theatre's new production co- directed by Marc Robin and Curt Dale Clark boldly and beautifully realizes.

International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) returns to NYU Skirball following its critically acclaimed, sold-out run of the whisper opera in 2018, with Soundlines, two premieres by composer and MacArthur Fellow George Lewis, on October 18 and 19 at 7:30 pm at NYU Skirball. The program features the NYC premiere of Soundlines: A Dreaming Track, a spoken-word musical journey; and the U.S. premiere of P. Multitudinis, a sound environment featuring seven ensembles.

Playwright Lynn Nottage matters.  Winner of a MacArthur 'genius' grant, she's also been named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time Magazine in 2019.  She's the only woman to win two Pulitzer Prizes for drama (for RUINED in 2009 and SWEAT in 2017). Nottage calls FLOYD'S her 'side hustle' to SWEAT.  Commissioned by the Guthrie, it had its world premiere there this past weekend.

Theatre Communications Group (TCG) is pleased to announce the publication of Getting Off: Lee Breuer on Performance with Stephen Nunns.

The Peace Center has added four high-energy acrobatic and dance performances to the schedule.

Over the past 14 years the Seattle International Dance Festival (SIDF) has grown to three weeks of events and performances. This year's festival has attracted dance artists from Seattle, the United States and as far away as Benin/West Africa, Italy, Germany, Ireland and India. The festival kicks off on June 7th with an opening party and SHUFFLE; by Saturday June 8th the performances and activities hit full speed.

New Theatre from Spain presents the works of Spanish contemporary artists who defy the boundaries between disciplines, featuring a performance of the piece Kaspar Hausser by company LaPh rmaco and a creative workshop 'Listen, Breathe, Nourish: Dramaturgias In Situ' by playwright and director Marc Caellas, as well as a new piece by choreographer and dancer Luz Arcas. The event will feature an installation of screenings curated by doctoral students of the Theatre and Performance Department and the Department of Latin American, Iberian, and Latino Cultures (LAILAC) at The Graduate Center, CUNY including works by Ang lica Liddell, Sara Molina, Marc Caellas, and companies La Tristura, La Ph rmaco, El conde de Torrefiel and V rtebro. Positioned at the avant-garde of contemporary stage practices, these artists combine elements from theatre, dance, performance art, and visual arts, blurring the limits of playwriting and performing, and challenging the status of the text as the center of the theatrical experience.

In her comprehensive and insightful book Contemporary Women Stage Directors, Paulette Marty attempts to answer a pivotal question: 'How does gender influence the work of women directors?'

Everything's coming up roses this spring at The Contemporary Theater Company! The company will perform the classic musical Gypsy April 12 - May 11.

First Stage concludes its 2018/19 mainstage season with a sparkling new adaptation of TINKER BELL, written by playwright Patrick Flynn and based on the works of Sir J.M. Barrie. This family-friendly adventure brings to the stage characters audiences know and love - Peter Pan, Wendy, the Lost Boys and Captain Hook - but told all from the unique perspective of the feisty fairy, Tinker Bell. With over a dozen different puppets, original music and even some potent fairy dust, Milwaukee families will get to experience theater magic at its best. The world of Neverland will come to life in the Todd Wehr Theater like it has never been seen before! Audience members young and old won't want to miss taking this fantastic voyage in TINKER BELL.

 Organized by the McNay Art Museum and drawn from the renowned Tobin Collection of Theatre Arts, America on Stage celebrates the vision of the nation's 20th- and 21st-century master designers on stages across the U.S. and around the world.

A tumbling commotion of musicians and acrobats collide in an explosive collaboration of contemporary circus and music from the English Baroque. With guest artist, soprano JANE SHELDON.

There's something for everyone in the Phoenix region's growing and robust world of theatre - from upstart to established companies, from black box to dinner theatre and theatre-in-the-round, from edgy and provocative to classics and family-friendly shows, from Broadway-inspired musicals to comedy and drama. Nonprofit theatre companies are leading the way in ensuring that Valley of the Sun audiences have as vital and diverse a selection of quality offerings as possible.

Announcing the world premiere of the Mount Auburn Plays, two series of site-specific plays created by Mount Auburn Cemetery's first Playwright Artist-in-Residence, Patrick Gabridge. Over the past two years Gabridge, an award-winning Boston playwright, has researched the stunning landscape and history of America's first garden Cemetery and 175-acre arboretum in the heart of Cambridge, MA, culminating in 10 brand new short plays to premiere as two sets of 5 unique plays each: The Nature Plays premiere June 1-9, 2019, highlighting the rich natural environment of Mount Auburn, and The America Plays premiere September 14-22, 2019, bringing to life just a few of the historic personalities resting eternally on the grounds and whose vision still resonate strongly in our American culture today. Each series will have 8 performances over the course of two weekends. Presented in partnership with Plays in Place.

Syracuse Stage has once again brought a creative and entertaining play to its audience. This time around it is Kate Hamill's modern take on the Jane Austen 1813 classic novel Pride and Prejudice. Hamill's creative and comedic Pride and Prejudice is certainly not what you might expect. The high energy comedic production is full of wonderful surprises under the impressive direction of Jason O'Connell.

Syracuse Stage presents Kate Hamill's "Pride and Prejudice," a contemporary take on Jane Austen's classic that's full of surprises, March 20 through April 7, at the Syracuse Stage / SU Theatre Complex, 820 E. Genesee St., Syracuse.

A backyard border dispute between Washington, D.C., neighbors leads to spirited comedy in the contemporary satire "Native Gardens" at Syracuse Stage Feb. 13 through March 3.