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in-person theatre
The co-world premiere of Benjamin Benne’s Alma is now playing at American Blues Theater in Chicago. Ana Velazquez directs the “heartfelt and complex exploration of the immigrant generation and their first-generation children.”
Jason Kim, Max Vernon, and Helen Park’s KPOP is now in previews on Broadway. Teddy Bergman directs the “multimedia experience that explores the relentless discipline, raw talent, and commercial ambition behind the international sensation.” (Co-conceived with the Woodshed Collective, KPOP originally premiered at Ars Nova in 2017.)
Wise Children’s Wuthering Heights starts performances October 14th at St. Ann’s Warehouse. The theatrical spin on Emily Brontë’s classic novel is adapted and directed by Emma Rice. (The production will also tour to Chicago Shakes and Berkeley Rep next year.)
Jacob Perkins’ The Gold Room runs October 14 - November 5 at HERE. The world premiere following “two middle-aged men as they become wrapped up in a haunting roleplay after a chance sexual encounter” is directed by Gus Heagerty and presented by the performance/media collective i am a slow tide.
August Wilson’s Joe Turner's Come and Gone starts performances October 14th at the Huntington Theatre in Boston. Lili-Anne Brown directs the revival of the second installment of Wilson’s decades-spanning Pittsburgh Cycle, a collection of ten plays chronicling Black American experiences in the 20th century.
Edward Albee’s Seascape runs October 14 - November 13 at the Alley Theatre in Houston. The 1975 Pulitzer-winning drama about “whether we are an evolving species or perhaps a devolving one” is directed by Nathan Winkelstein.
Jenny Koons’ multi-part ritual Home(coming): A Community Parade runs October 14-15 for Long Wharf Theater. The event serves as a farewell to Long Wharf’s soon-to-be-former space and culminates in a block party to celebrate the New Haven theatre’s next chapter as an itinerant company.
Quiara Alegría Hudes’ My Broken Language starts previews October 18th at Signature Theatre in NY. Hudes also directs the world premiere stage adaptation of her 2021 memoir, “colliding monologue, literary reading, music, and movement in its depiction of an author growing up in a Puerto Rican family in Philadelphia.”
Syracuse Stage’s Cold Read Festival of New Plays runs October 18-23. Readings include Craig Thornton’s The High Cost of Heating (directed by Melissa Crespo), Ty Defoe’s Our Words Are Seeds (directed by Joann Yarrow), Jessica Bashline’s Untitled (directed by Margaret Ledford), and Rogelio Martinez’s The National Pastime (directed by Margarett Perry). The weekend also features “a series of panel discussions streamed live online and addressing various topics related to the creation of new work for the stage.”
The Ashland New Play Festival runs October 18–23. Readings include Clarence Coo’s Chapters of a Floating Life (directed by Jennifer Chang), Victor Lesniewski’s The Hunt for Benedetto Montone (directed by Minita Gandhi), Lisa Langford’s The Breakfast at the Bookstore (directed by Donya K. Washington), Novid Parsi’s Remains and Returns (directed by Jackie Apodaca), and Jonathan Spector’s Best Available (directed by Marissa Wolf).
The US premiere of Ivo van Hove’s adaptation of A Little Life runs October 20 - 29 at BAM. The Internationaal Theater Amsterdam production is based on Hanya Yanagihara’s harrowing novel about the complex relationships between four ambitious friends from college through middle age.
The world premiere of Harrison David Rivers’ the bandaged place starts previews October 20th at Roundabout Underground. David Mendizábal directs the 2018 Relentless Award-winning drama about a man repairing his familial relationships as he recovers from abuse and trauma.
digital theatre
Laura Schellhardt’s Shapeshifter premieres October 19th at 7:30pm as part of the virtual reading series Bard at the Gate. Halena S. Kays directs the “contemporary folktale about restricting the agency of women.”
Deborah Yarchun’s Drive streams October 20-26 at the Playwrights’ Center. The play focuses on a “community of truckers in Iowa forced to shift gears when they lose their jobs to self-driving trucks.”
é boylan’s audio musical The Doctor is Dead is now available to stream from Musical Theatre Factory. The seven-part podcast follows a secret society of trans outcasts living underground.
2022-23 season updates
The Old Globe announced its 2023 season. The San Diego theatre will present Mary Zimmerman’s The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, Karen Zacarías’ Destiny of Desire (directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson), The 7 Fingers’ Passengers (directed by Shana Carroll), Alaudin Ullah’s Dishwasher Dreams (directed by Chay Yew), Twelfth Night (directed by Kathleen Marshall), The Merry Wives of Windsor (directed by James Vásquez), and four world premieres: Kemp Powers’ The XIXth (The Nineteenth) (directed by Carl Cofield); José Cruz González’s Under a Baseball Sky (directed by James Vásquez); Keiko Green’s Exotic Deadly: Or the MSG Play (directed by Jesca Prudencio); and Gordon Greenberg and Steve Rosen’s Crime and Punishment, A Comedy.
The Donmar Warehouse announced three upcoming productions. The London theatre will present a revival of Lillian Hellman’s Watch on the Rhine (directed by Ellen McDougall), the world première of Diana Nneka Atuona’s Trouble in Butetown (directed by Tinuke Craig), and the musical Next to Normal (directed by Michael Longhurst).
Steppenwolf’s performance series LookOut announced its winter line-up. Projects include Kara Brody and Amanda Maraist’s new curatorial residency series work around; Tony Kunst’s solo performance Before Winter; Company To X For’s intimate circus show Surface Tension; Corey Smith’s experimental opera LINCOLN IN NEW SALEM; Beyond This Point’s percussion-based piece Dreams, and why not?; Ginger Krebs’ collaborative dance ritual All We Can See from Here; and Jaerin Son’s interdisciplinary puppetry show Dogs or Cats; Augmented Body.
the regional theatre game of thrones
Sarah Benson and Meropi Peponides are leaving Soho Rep at the end of the season. Benson originally joined the company in 2007 as artistic director, while Peponides started as a producer in 2014. (After Soho Rep adopted a shared directorship model in 2019, Benson and Peponides co-led the company with Cynthia Flowers.) The two plan to focus on their individual directing and producing work.
Braden Abraham is the new artistic director of Writers Theatre in Glencoe, IL. Abraham is currently the artistic director of Seattle Rep, where he has held multiple artistic staff positions since 2002.
Justin Waldman is the new artistic director of Two River Theater. Waldman was previously the associate artistic director at the Old Globe for eleven years.