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Jamil Jude to Direct Dominique Morisseau’s SKELETON CREW At True Colors Theatre Company

Jamil Jude to Direct Dominique Morisseau's SKELETON CREW At True Colors Theatre Company

Artistic Director Kenny Leon and True Colors Theatre Company present Dominique Morisseau’s Skeleton Crew beginning this February. Part of Morisseau’s The Detroit Project trilogy, Skeleton Crew, is an insightful drama about the value of work to workers and what happens when their livelihoods are threatened by layoffs. Set in 2008’s Great Recession, Skeleton Crew tells the story of factory workers at the last auto stamping plant in Detroit and their uncertainty as rumors of their plant’s imminent closing stir. Jamil Jude True Colors’ Associate Artistic Director, returns to the director’s chair after a successful run of August Wilson’s King Hedley II last spring.

Read the full article from Broadway World here.

Playing on Air Podcast Featuring RULES OF COMEDY by Patricia Cotter

Caroline can’t find anything funny — not her awkward love life, not her jaded standup coach Guy, and definitely not the punchlines she’s been reading in 101 Dirty Jokes. 

Originally produced at the Humana Festival at the Actors Theater of Louisville, Patricia Cotter‘s RULES OF COMEDY is a playful, wry look at the lives of comedians when they dare to go offstage and off script. Directed by Jonathan Bernstein, Cotter’s short comedy stars Louisa Krause (The Flick, Billions, PoA’s Winter Games) and Michael Esper (Trust, The Last Ship, PoA’s Anniversary). After the play, stay tuned for an artist interview about the playwright’s background in comedy, avoiding the pull towards bitterness, and toeing the line with your material.

“Cotter’s script is lush with the knowledge of standup comedy… this play is a scream” – Todd Zeigler, Broadway World Reviews

More about Playing on Air here.

“RADIOMAN,” WRITEN BY JAMES MCMANUS, SHOWS VETERANS THE ROAD HOME IS PASSABLE

radioman at del arte

Radioman will run two weeks in January at the Del Arte Theatre in Blue Lake, CA.

Writings by a Humboldt County Vietnam veteran have inspired a play which not only is being produced locally but may be picked up for a much broader audience.

In 1968, Eureka native, Eric Hollenbeck was drafted and sent to Vietnam. He’s since returned and been at the Blue Ox Millworks for nearly five decades.  However, the road home has not necessarily been smooth nor easily traveled.

In 1992, Hollenbeck wrote a series of poems cleansing his soul of some of the grief and memories that came flooding back that weekend.  Those poems were published as “Uncle Sam’s Tour Guide to Southeast Asia.”

Then, through Hollenbeck’s coincidental friendship with producer Lester Grant, playwright James McManus became involved in 2015; and the theatrical production entitled “Radioman” has emerged from those poems and the stories of younger generations of returning veterans as well.

“Radioman” will be showcased at Del Arte Theatre in Blue Lake for two weeks in January. Hollenbeck says the January performances aren’t “Radioman’s” official premier because producers from larger cities will be at the local production to see the play and may opt to “pick it up.”

Read the full article here.

Emma Stanton Announced as a Premiere Stages at Kean University 2018 Finalist

(UNION, NJ) — Premiere Stages, the professional theatre company in residence at Kean University, has selected its four finalists for the 2018 Premiere Play Festival and will increase its cash awards for honored playwrights by one-third, the theatre announced. Premiere Stages received a record 572 submissions for the festival, an annual competition for unproduced scripts that offers developmental opportunities to playwrights with strong affiliations to New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Delaware.  The 572 submissions marked a 43% jump from 2017, and represented playwrights of all backgrounds and ages. For the first time in the festival’s 14-year history, three of the four finalist scripts selected were requested from synopses submitted by playwrights.

“We are very excited to be developing an eclectic and topical mix of plays as part of the 2018 Play Festival,” stated John J. Wooten, producing artistic director of Premiere Stages. “Interest from playwrights and audiences in the Festival has grown substantially in the past few seasons and we are pleased to feature some impressive writers whose dramatic voices are just starting to emerge.”

No Candy by Emma Stanton, a former recipient of the Princess Grace Playwriting Fellowship and resident playwright at Chicago Dramatists.  Sunday, March 18 at 3:00pm – No Candy by Emma Stanton – A multi-generational community of Bosnian Muslim women copes, both privately and publicly, with the trauma they experienced during the war. Set in a gift shop near the Srebrenica massacre memorial, the play follows how each woman seeks redemption: one dreams of Julie Andrews, one sings grunge music at karaoke bars, one dresses drag in her father’s clothes. No Candy provides a thought-provoking exploration of the persistence of humor, art, and absurdity in an unimaginable time.

All finalists will receive professional readings as part of Premiere’s 14th annual Spring Reading Series (March 15-18), directed by Mr. Wooten and Jessi D. Hill, Literary Team Chair for Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, and will be considered for expanded development in Premiere’s mainstage season. One of the four plays will be selected for an Actors’ Equity Association (AEA) 29-Hour Reading in June, and the most promising play will be awarded a full AEA production as part of Premiere’s 2018 season. All finalists receive cash awards ranging from $750 to $2,500.

Read more about the nominations here.

School Shooting Brings Lessons of ‘Mockingbird’ into Sharp Focus

On the first day of rehearsals for its upcoming production of “Mockingbird,” Nashville Children’s Theatre Executive Artistic Director Ernie Nolan spoke to the cast and crew about the play’s themes of understanding and healing in the wake of school violence. But there’s no way he could have known just how timely that conversation would be, in light of the recent shooting that took place in Parkland, Fla.

“Usually, we tell stories that are very ‘Once upon a time,’” Nolan says. “But ‘Mockingbird’ is so current, so of the moment. It’s shocking to think that we are literally responding to what is happening in our schools right now.”

"Mockingbird With Red Beak" is one of the drawings
“Mockingbird With Red Beak” is one of the drawings by local artist Sarah E. Vaughn featured in “Mockingbird” at Nashville Children’s Theatre. (Photo: Sarah E. Vaughn )

Based on the award-winning book by Kathryn Erskine and adapted for the stage by Julie Jensen, “Mockingbird” centers on Caitlin, an 11-year-old with Asperger’s syndrome, who must navigate the complicated emotions surrounding grief and loss when her older brother is killed in a school shooting.

“For me, this show is really about empathy. It’s about a community responding to violence. But because of the specific difficulties facing our main character, she is quite literally discovering what it means to have empathy. She’s dealing with her own feelings, while trying to understand her father and everyone else searching for closure. It’s such a beautiful story, and I think it really offers an important springboard for conversation for both children and parents.”

Nolan has enlisted a pair of Broadway designers to bring “Mockingbird” to life, including scenic designer Court Watson (“Guys & Dolls,” “The Coast of Utopia,” “Grease!,” “Little Women,” “High Fidelity”) and sound designer Joanna Lynne Staub (“Angels in America,” “The Color Purple,” “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time”).

“It’s been so exciting to work with these amazing artists. We’re really thrilled to have Court and Joanna on board, along with the rest of our incredible cast and design team.”

 

Read the full article from the Tennessean here.