Jeff Baron News

Everything around us is chaos & panic & impending disaster, but Ben Harrison is keeping it cool. The debut self-titled album from his band Stutter Steps doesn't spit in the face of death—it gives death a warm hug and invites it inside for a game of Scrabble.

Orange is the New Black mainstay cast member Todd Susman, who plays Harold Bloom, father of series lead Larry Biggs in the Netflix hit, helms the casting of this new drama along with Tony Award nominee Jonathan C. Kaplan, (Falsettos, The Diary of Anne Frank), Opera icon Lawrence Craig (Baz Luhrmann's La Boheme) at Abrons Art Center, 466 Grand St, New York, NY 10002, on Monday, June 15 at 5:30pm.

An historical drama about unlikely relationships forged during a time of international turmoil has been chosen as the winner of the first-ever International Jewish Playwriting Competition: The David and Clare Rosen Memorial Play Contest, presented by National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene. NTYF is the longest consecutively-producing Yiddish Theatre Company and Jewish performing arts organization in the world.

Five plays - one about a young woman's coming of age at the intersection of the Jewish and American communities; one about the friendship between the actor and civil rights activist Paul Robeson and Soviet Jews during WWII; one about a feisty, successful Yiddish actress who fiercely guards her agonizing secrets from a zealous director; one about love and scandal in the 1921 Yiddish Art Theater's production of Ansky's 'The Dybbuk'; and one which takes place during 1945 at the closing of WWII in the Jewish neighborhood of Saratoga Springs known as 'Gut' -- have been chosen as the finalists in first-ever National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene's [NYTF] International David and Clare Rosen Memorial Play Contest.

NYMF's most popular presentation, FABLE will play at Ford Foundation Studio Theatre at The Pershing Square Signature Center Tuesday, July 22 through Sunday, July 27. NYMF has begun adding performances. Today, July 24 at 5:00pm is the first; Sunday, July 27 at 1:00pm is the second; with more to follow. Composer/Lyricist Christopher Anselmo has been selected as a participant in the prestigious 2014 NYMF/ASCAP Musical Songwriting Workshop, which runs in New York from Monday, July 14 through Sunday, July 20. Mr. Anselmo and Mr. Kaufman (Book) have been scooped up by 54 Below (254 West 54 Street) where they will perform their FRIENDSHIP, FABLES AND FUN: A NIGHT WITH CHRIS AND HARRISON for one night only - Today, July 17 at 11:30pm.

NYMF's most popular presentation, FABLE will play at Ford Foundation Studio Theatre at The Pershing Square Signature Center Tuesday, July 22 through Sunday, July 27. NYMF has begun adding performances. Thursday, July 24 at 5:00pm is the first; Sunday, July 27 at 1:00pm is the second; with more to follow. Composer/Lyricist Christopher Anselmo has been selected as a participant in the prestigious 2014 NYMF/ASCAP Musical Songwriting Workshop, which runs in New York from Monday, July 14 through Sunday, July 20. Mr. Anselmo and Mr. Kaufman (Book) have been scooped up by 54 Below (254 West 54 Street) where they will perform their FRIENDSHIP, FABLES AND FUN: A NIGHT WITH CHRIS AND HARRISON for one night only - Thursday, July 17 at 11:30pm.

H. S. Kaufman (Book) and Christopher Anselmo (Music and Lyrics) are twenty year-old artists who have written a highly anticipated and groundbreaking musical about what some might describe as a soul-searching and terrifying milestone in the American culture - High School Graduation.

After a 35-year absence from performing, actor Barry Levine once again takes the stage in Jeff Baron's award-winning play Visiting Mr. Green at Matrix Theatre Company in southwest Detroit November 1 through November 24. 86 year old widower Mr. Green is almost hit by a car driven by young corporate executive Ross Gardiner. Found guilty of reckless driving, Ross is ordered to spend the next six months making weekly visits to Mr. Green. What starts off as a comedy about two people who resent being in the same room together develops into drama, as family secrets are revealed and old wounds are opened. Friday and Saturday performances begin at 8 pm, with Sunday performances at 3 pm. All productions are presented at Matrix Theatre located at 2730 Bagley in the heart of Detroit's Mexicantown. Ticket prices are $20 for general admission and $15 for students and senior citizens (65+) with proper ID. Group rates are available. For further information, and to purchase tickets, call 313 967 0599, or go to www.matrixtheatre.org.

After a 35-year absence from performing, actor Barry Levine once again takes the stage in Jeff Baron's award-winning play Visiting Mr. Green at Matrix Theatre Company in southwest Detroit November 1 through November 24.

Matrix Theatre Company offers an exciting lineup of plays for its 2013-2014 main stage season which include themes on the plight of urban education and unlikely friendships, as well as a story asking probing ethical questions on creative freedom. The season also includes the popular Detroit Dreaming Film Festival which, in its second year, will add an extra day to its weekend programming.

What starts as a comedy about two men who do not want to be in the same room together becomes a gripping and moving drama.

National Jewish Theater, Producing Artistic Director Arnold Mittelman, will present a limited Off-Broadway run of The Soap Myth, by Jeff Cohen, from March 23 - April 22 at theBlack Box Theatre at the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre (111 West 46th Street, between 6th Avenue and Broadway). Directed by Arnold Mittelman, this production will starGreg Mullavey (television's "Marty Hartman") and features Andi Potamkin, Donald Corren, and Dee Pelletier.

Leigh Fondakowski, Founding Member of Tectonic Theatre Project, will teach a three-day intensive workshop on 'Moment Work,' the approach to dramatic creation that has led to the company's award-winning work including Gross Indecency and The Laramie Project. In this workshop, students actively engage with the elements of the stage - exploring lights, sound, costumes, movement, text, architecture and more - to discover their full theatrical potential and the poetry inherent in each element. The workshop culminates in a presentation of the Moments created over the course of the weekend.

Leigh Fondakowski, Founding Member of Tectonic Theatre Project, will teach a three-day intensive workshop on 'Moment Work,' the approach to dramatic creation that has led to the company's award-winning work including Gross Indecency and The Laramie Project. In this workshop, students actively engage with the elements of the stage - exploring lights, sound, costumes, movement, text, architecture and more - to discover their full theatrical potential and the poetry inherent in each element. The workshop culminates in a presentation of the Moments created over the course of the weekend.

National Jewish Theater, Producing Artistic Director Arnold Mittelman, will present a limited Off-Broadway run of The Soap Myth, by Jeff Cohen, from March 23 - April 22 at theBlack Box Theatre at the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre (111 West 46th Street, between 6th Avenue and Broadway). Directed by Arnold Mittelman, this production will starGreg Mullavey (television's "Marty Hartman") and features Andi Potamkin, Donald Corren, and Dee Pelletier.

David Eisner and Avery Saltzman, Co-Artistic Directors of the Harold Green Jewish Theatre Company (HGJTC), present the Toronto premiere of VISITING MR. GREEN by Jeff Baron, at the Jane Mallett Theatre, St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts, from January 28 - February 18, 2012.

Though Bonnie & Clyde closes on Broadway tomorrow, December 30, the story of the infamous duo will live on at Georgia's Aurora Theatre in 2012. Bonnie & Clyde: A Folktale has attracted an impressive creative team for the premiere of this new musical at Aurora Theatre in March 2012. Storied Broadway veteran, award-winning Lonny Price will direct, while the magnificent Josh Rhodes, having worked on the show through development, will choreograph. It is no wonder the project has attracted world-class talent. The musical is the brain child of Broadway stars Hunter Foster and Rick Crom. Aurora Theatre Associate Producer Ann-Carol Pence joins as musical director. She discovered the show while attending the New York Musical Theatre Festival, a place where new shows like Tony Award-winning Next to Normal got their start.

David Eisner and Avery Saltzman, Co-Artistic Directors of the Harold Green Jewish Theatre Company (HGJTC), present the Toronto premiere of VISITING MR. GREEN by Jeff Baron, at the Jane Mallett Theatre, St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts, from January 28 - February 18, 2012.

Bonnie & Clyde: A Folktale has attracted an impressive creative team for the premiere of this new musical at Aurora Theatre in March 2012.

Act II Playhouse is set to present Charles Ludlam's comic masterpiece The Mystery of Irma Vep, directed by Associate Artistic Director Harriet Power. Performances run Oct. 25 - Nov. 19.