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THEATRE NEWS FOR SAN FRANCISCO BAY THEATRES

Posted by:	Richard Connema 11:47 am EST 11/17/13

The Tony Award®-Winning “Critics’ Pick” Musical Smash to Play San Francisco’s Orpheum Theatre as Part of SHN’s 2014/2015 Season Newsies, the Tony Award-winning “critics’ pick” Broadway musical smash, will play a limited engagement at the SHN Orpheum Theatre in early 2015. NEWSIES is the first show to be announced as part of the SHN 2014-2015 season. Remaining shows and membership on sale details will be announced at a later date. NEWSIES features a Tony Award®-winning score with music by eight-time Academy Award® winner Alan Menken and lyrics by Jack Feldman, with a book by four-time Tony Award® winner Harvey Fierstein. Produced by Disney Theatrical Productions, NEWSIES is directed by Tony®-nominee Jeff Calhoun and choreographed by Christopher Gattelli, who won a 2012 Tony Award® for his work. NEWSIES has consistently exceeded expectations since premiering on Broadway at The Nederlander Theatre in March 2012. Originally transferred to Broadway as a limited engagement of a few dozen performances, the breakout hit is now approaching its 700th performance. In a remarkable demonstration of the breadth of the title’s appeal, ticket orders had arrived from all 50 states within weeks of its first Broadway performance in 2012. Since then, NEWSIES has set and broken seven Nederlander Theatre house records and become the biggest hit of the 2011-12 season. The show received 23 major theatrical nominations – including eight Tony Award® nods – and won Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for Best Score and Best Choreography. One of Broadway’s highest profile hits, it has been featured nationally on “Dancing with the Stars,” “The View,” “Good Morning America,” “Nightline,” “Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade,” and “The CBS Thanksgiving Day Parade.” Included in the best-of year lists for Entertainment Weekly, USA Today, and The Daily News, NEWSIES can be counted one of the most critically-praised shows of recent seasons. Entertainment Weekly raves, “stop the presses! Newsies is an irresistible, high energy winner… a surprise sensation!” Time Out New York calls Newsies, “an invigorating extravaganza! A barnstorming, four-alarm delight,” and The New York Times hails it, “a musical worth singing about,” praising the “terrific songs – buoyant melodies by Alan Menken and rousing lyrics by Jack Feldman – and a sweet, funny, emotionally satisfying book by Harvey Fierstein.” Set in New York City at the turn of the century, NEWSIES is the rousing tale of Jack Kelly, a charismatic newsboy and leader of a ragged band of teenaged ‘newsies,’ who dreams only of a better life far from the hardship of the streets. But when publishing titans Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst raise distribution prices at the newsboys’ expense, Jack finds a cause to fight for and rallies newsies from across the city to strike for what’s right. NEWSIES is inspired by the real-life ‘Newsboy Strike of 1899,’ when newsboy Kid Blink led a band of orphan and runaway newsies on a two-week-long action against Pulitzer, Hearst and other powerful newspaper publishers. The stage version introduces seven brand-new songs by the original team of Menken and Feldman while keeping many of the beloved songs from the film, including ‘Carrying the Banner’, ‘Seize the Day,’ ‘King of New York’ and ‘Santa Fe.’ For more information: https://www.shnsf.com/online/newsies ######################### AMERICAN CONSERVATORY THEATER TO PRESENT GEORGE BERNARD SHAW’S MAJOR BARBARA Coproduced with Theatre Calgary, Major Barbara explores the timely themes of business, philanthropy, family, and morality • January 8 – February 2, 2014 • – After 16 years, George Bernard Shaw returns to the American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) stage in a sumptuous production of one of his most witty and richly invigorating works – Major Barbara. Salvation Army officer Major Barbara gets in an intriguing tangle of morality and religion when her church accepts money from her estranged father-a wealthy armaments manufacturer. If the price of supporting the poor is complicity with the country's most successful gun factory, who has the right to be righteous about saving the poor? Timely and topical, Major Barbara is a devilishly funny satire exploring themes of business, faith, family, and philanthropy. In the wake of highly successful Canadian productions, including No Exit, The Overcoat and Vigil, Major Barbara is co-produced with one of A.C.T.’s favorite Canadian collaborators, Theatre Calgary, which hosted A.C.T.'s visionary Tosca Project during its 2011 tour. Directed by Theatre Calgary Artistic Director Dennis Garnhum, Major Barbara features an international cast of both Canadian and American actors. This is the first staging of Major Barbara during A.C.T.’s tenure at The Geary Theater. Major Barbara runs January 8–February 2, 2014, at A.C.T.’s Geary Theater (415 Geary Street, San Francisco). Press night is Wednesday, January 15, 2014. Tickets ($20 -$140) are on sale now and may be purchased online at act-sf.org or by calling 415.749.2228. Says Carey Perloff, Artistic Director of A.C.T.: "As I was planning the season and wrestling with the enormous ongoing conflicts in this country around guns, violence and money, it suddenly seemed an urgent time to revisit Shaw's visionary Major Barbara! I can think of no other play that so brilliantly explores the uneasy relationship between ill-gotten gains and corporate philanthropy, as Undershaft tries to appease his passionate daughter Barbara by paying for her good deeds with gunpowder profits. It's thrilling that this will be a genuinely international project, as we team up again with the remarkable Theater Calgary and create a company of superb Canadian and American actors to tell this suspenseful, disturbing and often hilarious tale." “I am honoured to be directing this masterpiece that speaks of the passion of faith and the passion of war in strikingly modern terms,” says Garnhum. “I know the audiences at A.C.T. will enjoy the stimulating mix of thought-provoking narrative and insightful humour.” The cast for Major Barbara includes Nemuna Ceesay as Jenny Hill; Kandis Chappell as Lady Britomart Undershaft; Dan Clegg as Bronterre O’Brien Price and Bilton; Jennifer Clement as Mrs. Baines; Tyrell Crews as Charles Lomax; Dean Paul Gibson as Andrew Undershaft; Gretchen Hall as Barbara Undershaft; Dan Hiatt as Peter Shirley and Morrison; Nicholas Pelczar as Adolphus Cusins; Stafford Perry as Stephen Undershaft; Valeri Planche as Rummy Mitchens; Elyse Price as Sarah Undershaft; and Brian Rivera as Bill Walker. The creative team for Major Barbara includes scenic designer Daniel Ostling (Stuck Elevator and Once in a Lifetime at A.C.T.; Clybourne Park on Broadway), costume designer Alex Jaeger (Arcadia and 4000 Miles at A.C.T.; Other Desert Cities at the Mark Taper Forum); lighting designer Alan Brodie (Vigil at A.C.T.; The Merry Wives of Windsor at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival) and sound designer Scott Killian (Sarah, Sarah at Manhattan Theatre Club; The Shaughraun at Seattle Repertory Theatre). #################### This year's Help Is On The Way For the Holidays XII will be one of our best. Featuring Celebrity performers… Bruce Vilanch, Tim Hockenberry,  Jason Brock, Jai Rodriguez, Sharon McNight, Carly Ozard, Shawn Ryan, Kim Nalley, David Gaines, Featuring cast members from THE BOOK OF MORMON (Nat’l. Tour) and AVENUE Q (NCTC). Mon., Dec 9, 2013 - HELP IS ON THE WAY FOR THE HOLIDAYS XIIStar-studded AIDS Benefit Holiday Concert & Gala featuring Celebrity Performers…Bruce Vilanch, Tim Hockenberry, Jason Brock, Jai Rodriguez, Sharon McNight, Carly Ozard, Shawn Ryan, Kim Nalley, David Gaines Featuring cast members from THE BOOK OF MORMON (Nat’l. Tour) and AVENUE Q (NCTC).Monday, Dec. 9, 2013 – 7:30 pm. Tix $50. $100 includes post performance reception with cast. For Tix and info www.helpisontheway.org or call 415/ 273 -1620 ################################### UNIVERSES NAMED RESIDENT ENSEMBLE AT OSF OSF receives $100,000 grant from Ford Foundation to support ensemble’s new work, as well as artistic and educational programming and community-building work Ashland, Ore.—The Oregon Shakespeare Festival is pleased to announce that UNIVERSES will serve as OSF’s first Resident Ensemble, through a $100,000 grant from the Ford Foundation. UNIVERSES, a theatrical collective comprised of Steven Sapp, Mildred Ruiz Sapp, Gamal A. Chasten, and William Ruiz, a.k.a. Ninja, is a national/international ensemble company of multi-disciplined writers and performers who fuse poetry, theater, jazz, hip-hop, politics, down home blues and Spanish boleros to create moving, challenging and entertaining theatrical works. “We are humbled and honored that OSF so warmly welcomes UNIVERSES as Resident Ensemble,” Mildred Ruiz Sapp said, “and that the Ford Foundation so generously continues to support our journey. Our relationship with OSF is invaluable to our Company’s ongoing evolution and we look forward to continuing our creation/development of New Work, as well as inviting communities to dialogue, in this uniquely fertile artistic environment.” OSF and UNIVERSES first began a partnership in 2007 when Steven Sapp participated in a Mixing Texts/Hip-Hop Boot Camp at OSF. In 2009, UNIVERSES was commissioned through the American Revolutions: the United States History Cycle commissioning program, and they set off on a remarkable three-year journey to create Party People, which premiered in OSF’s Thomas Theatre in 2012. In addition, the group performed at OSF’s Green Show, a free performance event occurring from June through October before the evening shows, in 2009, 2010 and 2012. They have also been participants in other events, including featured poets in OSF-sponsored poetry slams. In 2013 Ms. Ruiz Sapp played Madame in The Unfortunates, and Mr. Sapp understudied a number of roles in the same production. In 2014 both actors will appear in The Comedy of Errors, running all season. OSF’s Artistic Director Bill Rauch said, “It is a major honor to have an ensemble of artists of such artistic quality, innovation, integrity and kindness choose to make the Festival their artistic home. Their presence and work gives me hope for the future of the theatre field.” The goals of the residency are to create an artistic home for UNIVERSES over an extended period of 14 months and two consecutive seasons; to seek opportunities for UNIVERSES’ involvement in OSF programming and community-building that benefit both UNIVERSES and OSF; to use the resources of a large and established theatre company to support the work of a smaller ensemble; and to test a model of a company in residence within OSF’s repertory infrastructure. Other activities that will involve UNIVERSES during the residency are: bring work in progress to be read or workshopped by the OSF Black Swan Lab, a non-public venue for new play development; perform in the 2014 Green Shows and in the OSF Presents series, as well as community open mics; understudy and/or perform in the 2014 season; and serve as a resource for audience development, FAIR training, education and development. ######################## PAUL NICHOLSON HONORED WITH TWO AWARDS OSF’s Executive Director Emeritus recognized for his contributions to theatrical arts.— Paul Nicholson, Executive Director Emeritus of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF), has been recognized twice this fall for his contributions to the theatrical arts. In September Nicholson received the American Shakespeare Center's Burbage Award, which honors “a person whose work behind the scenes has advanced the enjoyment of the works of William Shakespeare for the delight and instruction of the world.” In October the Institute of Outdoor Drama—while celebrating its 50th anniversary in Bardstown, Kentucky—presented Nicholson with the Mark R. Sumner Award for his lifetime achievement in the field of international outdoor theatre. “Outdoor theatre is one of the most challenging environments for producing plays and musicals, and the leaders in this field have succeeded in spite of rain, wind and (sometimes) fire,” said Michael Hardy, Director of the Institute of Outdoor Drama. “They are a special breed of artists and managers, and we are proud to salute the best of the best with these awards.” “I am deeply humbled by receiving these two awards as they both reflect the respect of my peers in Theatre,” said Nicholson, and added “We never live our lives so that we can win awards, but they sure are lovely to receive at the end of a long career!” Nicholson retired as OSF’s Executive Director in December 2012 after 33 years with the company and continues to serve as Executive Director Emeritus. He is currently consultant on the design and construction of OSF’s new production building in Talent, Oregon, where he oversees the day-to-day operations and handles construction issues. Nicholson is not the first OSF administrator to receive this pair of awards. OSF’s first executive director, William W. Patton (who served from 1953 to 1995), was honored with the Mark R. Sumner Award in 1995 and with the inaugural Burbage Award in 2008. The American Shakespeare Center, located in Staunton, Virginia, explores the English Renaissance stage and its practices through performance and education. The company’s Burbage Award is named for the famed theatrical Burbage family, which pioneered both the outdoor and indoor theatre of Shakespeare's day and fostered the most successful and enduring of the early modern theatre companies: The King's Men. The Institute of Outdoor Drama (IOD) is a public service agency based in the College of Fine Arts and Communications at East Carolina University. It provides services to organizations that produce theatre in outdoor settings, including historical dramas, Shakespeare festivals, religious dramas, and musicals and plays. The institute established the Mark R. Sumner Award in 1990 to honor its director emeritus’ lifetime contribution to the field of outdoor drama. ############################# CROWDED FIRE THEATER’S 2014 SEASON - THREE BOLD PREMIERES BYAMELIA ROPER, ADITI BRENNAN KAPIL AND CHRISTOPHER CHENAT THICK HOUSE IN SAN FRANCISCO SHE RODE HORSES LIKE THE STOCK EXCHANGE by Amelia Roper March 20-April 12 (Press Opening March 24) BRAHMAN/I: A One-Hijra Stand-Up Comedy Show by Aditi Brennan Kapil June 5-28 (Press Opening June 9) THE LATE WEDDING by Christopher Chen Sept 18-October 11 (Press Opening Sept 22) Thick House 1695 18th St, San Francisco Crowded Fire Theater (CFT) announces three bold new plays in their 2014 Season by playwrights Amelia Roper, Aditi Brennan Kapil and Christopher Chen. “Our 2014 season brings a beautiful, sophisticated and at times humorous look at the intricacies around love and loss…” states CFT Artistic Director Marissa Wolf, “Each play views the world through a lens of intimate relationships. Filled with fresh humor and searing longing, the 2014 line up offers three distinct, startling new plays.” CFT’s 2014 season begins with the World Premiere of Amelia Roper’s She Rode Horses Like the Stock Exchange, (March 20 - April 12-opens March 24) an absurdly funny and terrifying ride through downsized, foreclosed America. The Australian playwright, Amelia Roper, is a bright new voice in the American theater, currently writing for Yale Rep and for the 2014 Humana Festival. This Premiere marks the first production of Roper’s to appear in the Bay Area. In June, the season features Aditi Brennan Kapil with her West Coast Premiere of Brahman/i: A One-Hijra Stand-Up Comedy Show (June 5-28-opens June 9) that hilariously takes on history, mythology, and high school through the lens of an intersex boy/girl tethered by neither gender nor culture, wildly curious and inventive in his/her examination of both. The season concludes with the nationally recognized Christopher Chen, known for his use of structure and metatheatricality (The Hundred Flowers Project), he returns with a new CFT commissioned World Premiere, The Late Wedding (Sep. 18-October 11-opens Sept 22). Inspired by the writings of Italian fabulist novelist Italo Calvino, Chen and his unreliable narrators take us on a luminous journey of the soul. The Matchbox: Commissioning and Developing New Plays Matchbox Readings: December 1, 2, 8, 9 The Matchbox: Commissioning and Developing New Plays grew out of CFT's need to bolster playwrights’ revision processes in order to strengthen the scripts before rehearsals for the professional productions began. The Matchbox programming includes three different initiatives, including Commissions, in-house Workshops, and slots in the annual Matchbox Readings Series -- public staged readings of plays in development. Recent Crowded Fire Commissions through the Matchbox and first seen in the Matchbox Readings Series include The Hundred Flowers Project by Christopher Chen and The Taming by Lauren Gunderson. The 2014 Matchbox Reading Series will take on four surprising new plays, including a co-commission by Geetha Reddy with Playwrights Foundation.

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