Michelle Mary Schaefer News

Endangered Species theatre Project (ESPtheatre) presents a d/Deaf/hearing integrated production of Twelfth Night or What You Will as its Mainstage Production in the Frederick Shakespeare Festival. 

Hope Summer Repertory Theatre has announced cast and creative for the final show of their critically acclaimed 49th season CHILDREN OF A LESSER GOD by Mark Medoff. 

Hope Summer Repertory Theatre begins rehearsals today for their 2021 outdoor season! The company was established at Hope College in 1972 and is entering their 49th Season after canceling their 2020 season due to COVID-19 and gaining approval from Actors' Equity Association to present live performances this summer.

Shakespeare Theatre Company is extending an invitation to this year's free Virtual Gala titled Shakespeare Everywhere on Saturday, October 3 at 7 p.m. Hosted by STC's Artistic Director Simon Godwin the hour-long event will be a combination of live and recorded performances including performers from 25 countries in a truly worldwide celebration.

Seattle Theater Writers Seattle's theater reviewers circle announces the Winners of Excellence in Seattle theatrical productions. Spanning dozens of theater companies and productions, from large and prominent to small and humble, the Gypsy Rose Lee Awards honor the excellence found across the area.

Seattle's critics' circle announces nominees for the 2020 Gypsy Rose Lee awards celebrating excellence in Seattle theatrical productions.

Join Red Theater for their first production of the 19/20 season: YOU ARE HAPPY by Quebec playwright Rébecca Déraspe. Originally written in French and translated into English by Leanna Brodie, this rapid-fire and poetic production will be performed simultaneously in English and American Sign Language. 

PEELING by Kaite O'Reilly is a deep look into the lives of disabled actors and the issues they face both on and off stage. The three-actor show is a play within the play as we see the actors both in their staged performances and in their interactions between scenes. The show begins with one actor missing the opening cue for places because she is deaf and no thought was given as to how the stage manager would communicate with her. From that initial slam of reality, PEELING pulls no punches as the actors tackle a manifold of issues facing the disabled community.

In the U.S. premiere of playwright Kaite O' Reilly's internationally renowned play peeling, Sound Theatre Company continues staging authentic narratives and breaking new theatrical ground. peeling weaves audio description, sign language, and theatrical spectacle into a no-holds-barred play about representation, women, reproduction, war, and eugenics.

The Filigree Theatre, Austin's independent women-led theatre company, has announced its cast for the Austin Premiere of WHEN WE WERE YOUNG AND UNAFRAID, written by Sarah Treem (The Affair). Starring Linda Bradshaw (Agnes), Ben Gibson (Paul), Allison Paranka (Penny), Laura Ray (Mary Anne) and Michelle Mary Schaefer (Hannah), directed by Jennifer Sturley and produced by Stephanie Moore and Elizabeth V. Newman, the production will run Thursdays through Saturdays at 8pm from February 7-23, 2018 at The Mastrogeorge Theatre (130 Pedernales St).

Tacoma Little Theatre presents the powerful award-winning drama, Children of a Lesser God, directed by Rick Hornor.

Tacoma Little Theatre presents the powerful award-winning drama, Children of a Lesser God, directed by Rick Hornor.

Tacoma Little Theatre presents the powerful award-winning drama, Children of a Lesser God, directed by Rick Hornor. After three years in the Peace Corps, James, a young speech therapist, joins the faculty of a school for the deaf, where he is to teach lip-reading. He meets Sarah, a school dropout, totally deaf from birth, and estranged both from the world of hearing and from those who would compromise to enter that world. Fluent in sign language, James tries, with little success, to help Sarah, but gradually the two fall in love and marry. At first their relationship is a happy and glowing one, as the gulf of silence between them seems to be bridged by their desire to understand each other's needs and feelings, but discord soon develops as Sarah becomes militant for the rights of the deaf and rejects any hint that she is being patronized and pitied.

"In a world so divided by hatred, misunderstanding and distrust, I hope Tribes will show us how we can truly commune, connect and understand each other as a global TRIBE."