May 2012
Brown Alums Stephen Karam and Liz Hayes nominated for Eliot Norton Award
Boston's 30th annual Elliot Norton Awards, which were presented May 21, included nominations for Liz Hayes in the catogory of Outstanding Performance by an Actress for Love Song, produced by the Orfeo Group.
Also nominated was Stephen Karam's Sons of the Prophet, directed by fellow Brown alum Peter Dubois and produced by the Huntington Theatre.
Brown Alum David Weems' Damascus to have run at Fourth Street Theatre
Brown Alumna Susan Pourfar will be receiving a 2012 Dorothy Loudon Award for Excellence at the Theatre World Awards on Tuesday June 5th for her performance in Tribes.
The Dorothy Loudon Award for Excellence goes to an outstanding Broadway or Off-Broadway performance. Last year the award went to Seth Numrich for his performances in War Horse. The Loudon Award is bestowed by the Dorothy Loudon Foundation in behalf of its namesake actress.
Ben Brantley in The New York Times described Ms. Pourfar's performance in Tribes: "Ms. Pourfar conveys an astonishing progression, physical and emotional, as a woman moving gradually from one auditory plane to another."
MARCH 2012
Brown Alumnus David Walton ('01) to play 'Pete'
in NBC's New Comedy, Bent
Bent, starring Amanda Peet as Alex and David Walton as Pete, is being described as a "smart and charming half-hour comedy [that] is easily one of 2012's most refreshing and charismatic new series."
The show follows Alex, newly divorced after her husband went to jail for insider trading, who is trying to raise her daughter Charlie. When Alex meets Pete, the head of the construction company Alex hires to remodel her home, the chemistry is electric. ET Online says that the "sparks from his blowtorch aren't the only ones flying the minute these two meet."
David Walton is an actor who graduated from Brown University in 2001. He also attended British American Drama Academy and The Actor's Center Summer Conservatory.
January 2012
The Blue Deep, by Brown MFA Alumni Lucy Boyle, to have its World
Premiere at the Williamstown Theatre Festival
The Blue Deep examines the lives of a directionless 26-year old woman named Lila Miller, and herperpetually in-motion mother, Grace. The two share a painful history that,while threatening to drive them permenantly apart, ultimately becomes the only possible path to a reconnection. The role of Grace will be played by longtime Festival member Blythe Danner. Blue Deep was previously featured in a Williamstown reading series, where it had to be moved to a larger venue due to its popularity. Lucy Boyle received both her B.A. and M.F.A at Brown.
January 2012
Eric Grode of the New York Times applauds Chimera, co-created Brown
MFA Alumni Deborah Stein, on its"inventive characterizations"
saying that it "delivers on its ambitious promise"
The New York Times applauds Chimera as a "beguiling physical production" that is "many stories nestled ib its austere, deceptively chilly-seeming frame." Chimera was co-created by Suli Holum and Brown MFA Deborah Stein. Stein is a playwright, producer, director, and lecturer a tht Yale School of Drama. Her work has been produced and developed nationally at Actors’ Theatre of
Louisville, the Theatre @ Boston Court, the Guthrie, Seattle Rep, Stages
Rep, the Women’s Project, the Wilma Theatre, Live Girls!, Bay Area
Playwrights’ Festival, and Theatre Artaud; in New York at the Public
Theatre, Dance Theatre Workshop, and Ars Nova; and internationally in
Poland, Ireland, Edinburgh (the Traverse) and Prague. Her writing is published in Theatre Forum, Play: A Journal of Plays, and The Best American Poetry of 1996.
Deborah is the recipient of the 2010-2011 McKnight Advancement Grant at the Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis, where she was also a two-time Jerome Fellow. Currently, she is a resident artist at HERE, a 2009-2011 Bush Artist Fellow, and a member of New Dramatists.
Chimera continues through Jan. 28 at the Here Arts Center, 145 Avenue of the Americas, at Dominick Street, South Village; (212) 352-3101, www.here.org.
January 2012
Theater Company, FRANK, composed entirely of Brown alums, to produce
A Thought in Three Parts by Wallace Shaw, February 2-5, 2012
A Thought in Three Parts is produced, designed, directed, and acted by members of the new theater company FRANK, an amalgam of Brown University alumni. FRANK includes the following alumni members: Lily Spottiswoode, Lily Garrison, Federico Rodriguez, Max Posner, Evan Smith, Katherine Cooper, Oona Curley, Chloe Paisley, Pete Fallon, and Sarah Tolan-Mee. .
The group spent a couple months "training" together before diving into rehearsals for the play. Training exercises drew on skills learned at Brown in classes with Kim Moore, Connie Crawford, Michelle Bach-Coulibaly, John Emigh, Spencer Golub, and Lowry Marshall. This is truly an ensemble effort of Brown alumni - from the rehearsal room to fundraising to publicity. FRANK’s next project will include work done with Ken Prestininzi.
January 2012
Nelson Ritschel (Ph.D. Theatre '97) to deliver plenary lecture
for the Dublin & International Shaw Society's Conference
University College, Dublin, Ireland
Nelson Ritschel, a professor at Massachussetts Maritime and TAPS graduate, was recently invited to deliver a plenary lecture at the University College, Dublin & International Shaw Society's conference on Shaw and Dublin, scheduled in Dublin in late May.
The plenary invite stemmed directly from Ritschel's new book, Shaw, Synge, Connolly, and Socialist Provocation. In celebration, the University College of Dublin has scheduled a reception and Dublin launch in their historic Belfield House.
The book received its first published review in the December CHOICE, which used the word "superb." The Rock and the John Hay libararies have copies of the book for anyone interested in catching upon Shaw's involvement in militant socialism in Ireland.
January 2012
Max Posner '11 is named the 2012 P73 Playwriting Fellow
Max
will spend his year as Page 73's fellow developing several new plays as
well as participating in Interstate 73 and the Page 73 Summer Residency
at Yale. Former P73 Fellows include Brown University graduates, Krista Knight '06 and Quiara Hudes (MFA '04).
Max Posner's plays include The Thing About Air Travel, The Famished, The War on Safety (published by Playscripts), You Me + The Spiders, and SNORE and other sorts of breathing.
His plays have been staged and developed at Actors Theatre of
Louisville, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Colt Coeur, The Hangar
Theatre, Curious Theatre Company, The Blank Theatre, Young Playwrights
Inc, and Production Workshop. He is the recipient of the Weston Award in Playwriting and the
2011 Heideman Award from Actors Theatre of Louisville. Max was a
finalist for Clubbed Thumb's Biennial Commission, is a member of
Interstate 73, the Page 73 writers group, and is a founding member of
FRANK. He occasionally finds himself onstage (in the original production
of Gregory Moss' punkplay and in FRANK's upcoming production of Wallace Shawn's A Thought in Three Parts). Max
has led playwriting workshops with high schoolers in Nebraska, inmates
in Rhode Island, and youth in Kenya’s Kibera slum. He was born and
raised in Denver and lives in Brooklyn.
November 2011
Alice Tuan (MFA Creative Writing, '97) named the new head of Writing for Performance at California Institute of the Arts
Alice Tuan's plays have been featured for seven seasons at Brown/Trinity Playwrights Rep. She is the author of a wide range of plays, including Last of the Suns (Ma-Yi Theater, Berkeley Repertory Theater), Ikebana (East West Players), Some Asians (Perishable Theater, UMASS Amherst), The Roaring Girle (Foundry Theater), Manilova (New Georges) and Iggy Woo (Brown Playwrights Repertory Theater). During her graduate work at Brown, she created Coastline, a work of Virtual Hypertext Theater, which she directed as her thesis production. It was performed by the Northampton, MA performance troupe Serious Play! at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2005.
October 20, 2011
Christopher Isherwood of The New York Times praises Stephen Karam's '02 Sons of the Prophet as "explosively funny" and "absolutely wonderful"
The play also features Brown alums Jonathan Dent as Vin and is directed by Peter Dubois.
Sons of the Prophet was commissioned by Roundabout Theatre Company, following Karam's hugely acclaimed New York debut as the author of Speech & Debate in 2007 at Roundabout Underground. That successful production of Speech & Debate not only launched the Roundabout Underground program, it also went on to play in over 100 theaters in the United States and Canada. In April 2011, Sons of the Prophet premiered at Huntington Theatre Company (Peter DuBois, Artistic Director; Michael Maso, Managing Director), by special arrangement with Roundabout Theatre Company.
Sons of the Prophet opened on Thursday, October 20, 2011 at the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre / Laura Pels Theatre (111 West 46th Street). Sons of the Prophet will play a limited engagement through December 23, 2011.
Tickets will be available by calling Roundabout Ticket Services at 212-719-1300, at www.roundabouttheatre.org or at the Laura Pels box office.
September 20, 2011
New York Times calls Crane Story from
Jen Silverman '06 "consistently gorgeous"
"From a sensory perspective, Crane Story is consistently gorgeous," according to a recent review in the New York Times.
Inspired by the Japanese legend of the Crane Wife, the story unfolds in the space between worlds as a woman embarks on a quest to save her brother's ghost. Crane Story interweaves puppetry, music and ancient folklore to tell an imaginative, haunting (and humorous) story.
The review goes on to say that "Ms. Silverman’s script percolates with interesting and often daring ideas," and praises in particular the "masterly design team" led by Katherine Kovner '04, artistic director of the Playwrights Realm.
Tickets are available at playwrightsrealm.org.
August, 2011
Christopher Windom directing The Three Times She Knocked for FringeNYC
From the producers behind the upcoming Off-Broadway transfer of Jurassic Parq: The Broadway Musical (FringeNYC '10 Best Overall Production/Musical) comes a psychological thriller about unbridled passion and the destructive potential of sexual obsession. Christopher Windom will direct The Three Times She Knocked, written by A.D. Penedo, August 13-25 at Manhattan Theatre Source. Tickets are available at FringeNYC.org.
Alum Jane Pfitsch in Ten Cents a Dance
According to the New York Times, Ten Cents a Dance is "beautiful." Directed by John Doyle, the show features Brown alumn Jane Pfitsch (below, far left) as one of five women named Miss Jones. "Pretty much everyone is close to perfection here," according to the review.
Ten Cents a dance is playing through August 28, 2011 at the Main Stage, ’62 Center for Theater and Dance, in Williamstown, Mass. For tickets and more information, call 413-597-3400, or go to wtfestival.org.
August 10, 2011
Berkshire Playwrights Lab Presents The Glint, by Matt Hoverman '91
The Glint, a new play by Matt Hoverman '91, will have a free reading at the Berkshire Playwrights Lab on Wednesday, August 10th at 7:30pm at the Mahaiwe. The Glint is the story of Jerry and Chuck, 60 and still clinging to their dreams of success as voice-over pitchmen - and the promise of hot young women. This doesn't sit so well with Chuck's wife, Mary, who may or may not have a terminal illness.
"We have been looking at Matt Hoverman's work for some time now," said Artistic Director Matthew Penn. He has a unique comic style and voice. We all read The Glint and called him the next day to come to the Lab."
Admission is free, but reservations are suggested. For reservations, call The Berkshire Playwrights Lab at 413-528-2544 or the Mahaiwe box office at 413-528-0100.
Matt Hoverman's other plays include Who You See Here (headed for Broadway 2012: Nelle Nugent, producer; Christopher Ashley, director), In Transit (2006 Fringe NYC Best Playwriting Award), "The Student" (2009 Samuel French OOB Short Play Festival Winner),The Audience (co-book writer, 2005 Drama Desk Best New Musical Award Nominee), Christmas Shorts (Naked Angels, SoHo Playhouse, Bricks Theatre, Maples Rep), and Searching for God in Suburbia (Huntington
Theatre's Breaking Ground Festival, Axial Theatre). He was an Edward
Albee Foundation Fellow in 2008. Also an actor, Hoverman has voiced
villains on many cartoons, including Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh! and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
July 27, 2011
"On The Ice," from Cara Marcous '97,
Receives Digital Distribution from Sundance
According to the New York Times, "[t]he nonprofit Sundance Institute on Wednesday unveiled a long-anticipated expansion of its artist services program that allows filmmakers to sell and rent their movies independently via special channels on iTunes, Amazon.com, Hulu, SundanceNow.com and YouTube. Participants retain ownership of their films and can work with one or all of those sites, depending on whether they like the terms that Sundance has negotiated with each of them."
"On the Ice," produced by Cara Marcous '97 and screened during this year's festival, has been announced as one of the first movies to be released within the program. Directed by Andrew Okpeaha MacLean, On the Ice is the story of two teenagers trying to get away with murder on the snow-covered Arctic tundra.
March 2011
Matthew Bauman '10 in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Matthew Bauman '10 makes his Off-Broadway debut this March in the NYC revival of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, playing through April at Peccadillo's Theatre at St. Clements. 
This classic work, hailed by the New York Times as “an inspiration” and “a star of the American musical theater,” features Arthur Schwartz and Dorothy Fields’ finest score – a pastiche of musical comedy, Irish folk songs and Broadway razzle dazzle – and a newly revised book.
For the first time in 60 years, the Peccadillo Theater Company brings to the stage the poignant story of the Nolan family, beginning in 1902 in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. There's Johnny Nolan, a ne'er do well singer with dreams of Broadway glory, his wife, Katie, struggling to make a better life for her family, and 12 year-old Francie, an aspiring writer who relies on her imagination and her love of reading to get through hard times.
Tickets and more information are available at thepeccadillo.com.
March 2011
Nina Daniels '05 in 2011 Sundance Award Winning Film "Pariah"
to Screen in New York
Nina Daniels '05 can be seen in Pariah as Gina (aka Butch Woman) March 26th and March 28th at 
the Museum of Modern Art and the Film Society of Lincoln Center's prestigious 40th Annual New Directors/New Films Series. The film created much buzz since its World Premiere at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival coveting the Excellence in Cinematography Award. Focus Features, which last year acquired The Kids Are All Right, acquired the worldwide rights for Pariah by Dee Rees and exec. produced by Spike Lee. The Museum of Modern Art and the Film Society of Lincoln Center's prestigious 40th Annual New Directors/New Films Series has featured work from the likes of Pedro Almodovar, Spike Lee, John Sayles, Steven Spielberg and Wong Kar Wai.
For tickets and more information visit http://newdirectors.org/film/pariah/
At right: Charles Parnell and Nina Daniels on the set of Pariah.
February 23, 2011
Jessie Austrian '02 to Join Broadway's The Importance of Being Earnest
Jessie Austrian '02 will make her Broadway debut this March 22 as Gwendolyn in The Importance of Being Earnest at American Airlines Theatre. The Roundabout Theatre Company revival of Oscar Wilde's comedy of manners will play through July 3.
For tickets and information, call (212) 719-1300 or visit roundabouttheatre.org.
February 8, 2011
Dan LeFranc's Big Meal Receiving Rave Reviews
Dan LeFranc, graduate of the MFA Playwriting Program and past Visiting Lecturer of Literary Arts, has written what is "[u]nquestionably ... the new play most to see in Chicago so far this year," according to the Chicago Tribune.
The review goes on to say that "[i]n just 80 minutes of stage traffic, Dan LeFranc’s arresting and moving new play The Big Meal serves up more truths about parenting, bereavement, divorce, irritating in-laws, economic stress, marriage and the modern American family than most plays of twice that duration."
The Big Meal has recently been extended through March 20 and is playing at the American Theatre Company. Tickets are now available at actweb.org.
January, 2011
Brown Alums are "Standouts" in The Witch of Edmonton
According to Backstage, "[t]heatergoers with an affinity for Jacobean tragedy are in for a treat" with 
The Witch of Edmonton, playing at Red Bull Theater and the Theatre of St Clement's. The show features two Brown alums: Miriam Silverman '01 and Justin Blanchard MFA. The review praises
"[t]he uniformly excellent 15-person cast," and says that "standouts include Justin Blanchard's properly ambiguous, determined Frank [and] Miriam Silverman's demure yet forceful Winifred."
The Witch of Edmonton plays through February 20th. Tickets are available at redbulltheater.com.
January, 2011
Two Premiers this March for Peter Nachtrieb
Peter Sinn Nachtrieb '97 is about to have a very busy spring with two premiers in the month of March! 
On March 3, see the world premier of Litter: The Story of the Framingham Dodecutuplets. Created for and tailored to the talents of the A.C.T. M.F.A. Program class of 2011,this provocative new play takes a sharp and comic look at the phenomenon of multiple births. The 12 members of the class of 2011 join forces as the Framingham Dodecatuplets, 12 siblings born simultaneously thanks to the wonders of modern science. Together they form a vaudevillian troupe, exploiting the novelty of their situation through song and dance and taking the notion of sibling rivalry - and revelry - to astonishing extremes.
Litter plays March 3 - 19 at the ZEUM Theatre in San Francisco. Check out the ACT site for more information and tickets.
March 24 boasts the world premier of Bob at the Humana Festival for New American Plays at Actors Theatre of Louisville. Bob was born and abandoned in a White Castle bathroom in Louisville, Kentucky. The ensuing rags-to-riches-to-fame-to-fall-to- legacy-to-the-love-of-living-life tale follows Bob on an epic journey in just five acts. Originally commissioned by the South Coast Rep, developed at the Resident Playwrights group at the Playwrights Foundation, continued support with Actors Theatre of Louisville and directed by Sean Daniels, Bob has already won The Stavis Award from the National Theatre Conference.
Bob will run March 24 through April 17 2011 at The Humana Festival of New American Plays at the Actor's Theatre of Louisville.
January, 2011
Brown Alums Abound
Sarah Tolan Mee '09 writes from New York to send an update:
"I had such a great time at Brown and I like to keep in touch. And, as it happens, I have been continuing to work with so many fellow Brown alums - we seek each other out, it seems, and there is so much good will among us.
I have spent several karaoke nights with Matt Bauman, Ellis Rochelson, Julian Cihi, Federico Rodriguez, Brandon Chinn, Jed Resnick, Mike Williams, and last night I saw Oona Curly and Jing Xu at Kym Moore's Jomama Jones (Jing was awesome). I live two blocks away from Patrick Harrison, and we meet frequently to discuss a show we're putting together - hopefully to go into rehearsals this summer.
In October I was in a play development workshop at Clubbed Thumb of a play by Andy Bragen, and this spring I'm going to be in Sarah Ruhl's new play Stage Kiss, which is going to perform at the Goodman in Chicago (I'm getting my equity card!). And at the end of this month, I have tickets to see James Rutherford's Midsummer Nights Dream at Columbia which stars a bunch of alums: Katie Meister, Maggie Perkins, Patrick Harrison, Federico Rodriguez, Pie Hole Productions (which was started at Brown at PW, and includes Alice Winslow, Emily Roberts, Jeff Woods, Tara Ahmadinejad)... I'm probably leaving people out -- oh and Chris Tyler is AD."
Thanks Sarah!
January 14-22, 2011
Lily Spottiswoode's Solo Show at Pico Playhouse
The Meanest Guy That Ever Lived, a play in one act written and performed by Lily Spottiswoode '09, will be playing at the Pico Playhouse this January. Originally created for the TAPS course Solo Performance, Lily has since performed her show at
the Hollywood Fringe Festival and then the Hayworth Theatre in Los Angeles.
A new version of the show, directed by Jenny Sullivan and produced by Jon Gonda, will be at The Pico Playhouse on January 14, 15, 21, and 22, at 8:00pm.
For more info and tickets email TheMeanestGuy@gmail.com, or go to picoplayhouse.com.
January, 2011
Reviewers love Radiate from Daniel Alexander Jones
Jomama Jones: Radiate, the new show from Daniel Alexander Jones '93 and his cousin/creation Jomama Jones, is winning wide praise from critics.
Theatre Mania calls the show an "impressive new work" and what "may well be the feel good show of the year for the downtown crowd." The New Gay says of this "honest, joyful" show: " During the darkest days of the year, I can think of nothing better to do with an evening than to warm your soul by the roaring fireside of Jomama Jones’ Radiate." Backstage says "[D]irector Kym Moore ... never permits the onstage action to flag, and she finds just the right balance between silly poses and heartfelt moments." New York 1' Time Out Theatre Review says that "Jomama Jones is a wonderfully unique creation" and is "directed with panache" by Kym Moore.
Jomama Jones first burst on to the scene in the early 1980's with R&B hits like "Ghetto (In My Mind)" and "Afromatic" - making her an instant fan favorite. She graced the cover of magazines and made the rounds of the hip TV shows of the day (her appearances on Soul Train and Solid Gold are the stuff of legend). She starred in the science fiction cult classic SISTER SOUL AND THE COLONIZERS FROM MARS. But her conflict with the politics of the day led her to renounce her US career and leave the country in pursuit of other dreams. She spent the next several years traveling extensively - both without and within. Radiate is her triumphant return to the US and her fans.
Directed by Gerard Visiting Assistant Professor of Theatre Arts and Performance Studies Kym Moore, with music direction by Bobby Halvorson, Jomama Jones: Radiate features Jomama Jones and her Sweet Peaches. Tickets are now available at sohorep.org.
January, 2011
Two Big Shows by Stephen Karam '02 Coming in 2011
2011 is about to be a big year for Stephen Karam '02.
This March, Karam will see the world premier of his show Sons of the Prophet at the Huntington 
Theatre.
When a prank-gone-wrong in the small town of Nazareth, PA leads to the death of their father, the two brothers struggle with their health, livelihoods, and sanity as a series of unfortunate events spiral into operatic miseries. In an age where most people look to faith, finances, or even modern medicine to solve any unpleasantries in life, Sons of the Prophet takes a brutally funny look at unresolved chronic pain and the many ways we cope with the overwhelming.
Directed by Peter DuBois, Sons of the Prophet will play March 25 – April 24, 2011 at the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA, with fellow Brown alum Jon Dent '09 in the cast. Tickets and more information are available at huntingtontheatre.org.
In November, the opera Dark Sisters will be premiered at the Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College. Dark Sisters is a new opera about one woman's attempt to escape a fundamentalist sect of the Mormon faith. Karam is writing the libretto, with music by Nico Muhly. The show was co-commissioned and will be co-produced by three opera companies: Gotham Chamber Opera, Music-Theatre Group and the Opera Company of Philadelphia. This is Karam's first libretto.
For continuing information on Dark Sisters, visit darksistersopera.org.
January, 2011
I Wish You Love at the Kennedy Center this June
I Wish You Love, written by Dominic Taylor '87, MFA '95, will be playing at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC this June 11-19.
Created in partnership with Penumbra Theatre Company, where Dominic is the Associate Artistic Director, I Wish You Love is made 
possible by the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays.
On television and radio, 1957 America was entertained by the sweet sounds and warm personality of Nat "King" Cole. His carefully manicured image distracted an entire generation of white viewers from the reality of racial violence raging in the streets. Still, he believed that with enough talent and persistence he could be valued for the strength of his character as opposed to the color of his skin. But as storm clouds gathered on the horizon, trouble brewed in the studio where Nat "King" Cole was trying to live his dream.
Tickets to I Wish You Love are now available at kennedy-center.org.
January, 2011
Fiasco's Cymbaline at Theatre for a New Audience this January
This January, Fiasco's Cymbaline will be produced Off-Broadway by Theatre For A New Audience.
Fiasco Theater, whose company is made up entirely of alumni of the Brown/Trinity MFA Graduate Programs, has recently been gaining national attention for their work. The New York Times has called the show "awfully lovable" with a "smashing final 15 minutes."
Cymbaline, directed by Noah Brody '05 and Ben Steinfeld '01 will be playing at the New Victory Theatre, 209 West 42nd Street, from January 13-30, 2011. For tickets, call the New Victory Theatre box office at 646-223-3010 or buy them online at smarttix.com.
December, 2010
Peter Sinn Nachtrieb Awarded Full Stage USA Commission from
National New Play Network
The National New Play Network has chosen Peter Sinn Nachtrieb '97 as the first of five recipeints of Full Stage USA commissions sponsored by New York's New Dramatists. This grant provides $25,000 to the chosen playwrights, along with support and resources at New Dramatists and further financial support toward future production.
"I am honored and excited to receive this opportunity from NNPN and New Dramatists," said Nachtrieb. "I love how this commission not only offers substantial financial support, but also provides abundant resources for the development, collaboration and production of the play. I think it's going to help me create something really awesome."
For more information on the award and on NNPN, visit nnpn.org.
December, 2010
Speech & Debate Has "Stellar Reviews"
at Roundabout Theatre Company's New Roundabout Underground
The Roundabout Underground is a new program from Roundabout Theatre Company designed to showcase new playwrights. According to the Roundabout's Artistic Director Todd Haimes in a recent Playbill article, the mission of the new Roundabout Underground program is "to present the work of only young American playwrights with no major New York productions to their credit; to charge only $20 a ticket; and to support those artists as they grew."
The program was inspired by Speech & Debate, written by Stephen Karam '02. According to Playbill: "Haimes observed that, 'More than most things we do, Underground took off from the beginning.' Speech & Debate got stellar reviews and was extended and, said Haimes, has since gone on to be 'the third most-produced play in America.'"
December 12, 2010
Awesome Collective Performing
at Firehouse 13 in Downtown Providence
Awesome Collective is pleased to present its inaugural performance event, TRANSFIGURATION X 5 on Sunday, December 12, at 4:00pm at Firehouse 13 in Providence, Rhode Island.
Born in Spring 2010, Awesome Collective explores new methods and vocabularies for cross-genre performance and cross-institutional collaboration. In this initial experiment — an artistic game of “telephone” — artists of numerous disciplines divided into collaborative teams. The first group had one week to create a piece of art responding to a fortune cookie. That artwork was presented to the next group, who then had one week to respond with a new work, and so on and so on... resulting in an utterly awesome portmanteau of theatre, performance art, music, film, and puppets.
Awesome Collective is comprised of playwrights, visual artists, performers, musicians, researchers and makers from a variety of local universities and arts organizations. Members are affiliated with Brown University, Rhode Island School of Design, Johnson & Wales, AS220, Perishable Theatre, and Trinity Repertory Company—a list that will keep growing as new collaborative relationships are cultivated.
While the Collective’s long-term goal is to create new works together as well as produce projects initiated by individual members, the focus of this first initiative is simply to introduce artists to one another and provide a platform for experimentation, opening up lines of communication between individuals and institutions. The project’s culmination at Firehouse 13 will provide an opportunity for the community and other interested artists to come together and explore the possibilities of longer and more dynamic collaborations.
TRANSFIGURATION X 5 will feature five wildly different performances that are, like the different artists within the Collective, in conversation with one another. Curated by Joe Waechter, the event will include: "Ornitottero,” a meditation on tension and release, by Blevin Blectum (aka Bevin Kelley), Mia Chung, and Theo Goodell; "semblance," a gestural reflection on the murky articulation of buying in and buying out, by Rob Grace and Adara Meyers; "Réflexions d'un Hédoniste Râleur," a journey through the rantings of a very hungry Frenchman, by Israel Buffardi and Margaret Namulyanga; “Aileron,” a flight, by Kirsten Volness and Rachel Jendrzejewski; and a yet untitled interactive performance by Jacob Richman and Gosia Rymsza-Pawlowska.
TRANSFIGURATION X 5 will be presented on Sunday, December 12 at 4:00pm at Firehouse 13, 41 Central Street, in Providence, Rhode Island. The event is free of charge. For more information, please visit firehouse13.org.
December 7, 2010
Adam Bock '89 Speaking on A Small Fire at The Center
Tuesday, December 7, 2010, Adam Bock '89 will be speaking at The Center 
about his new play, A Small Fire. Center Speakers in collaboration with Playwrights Horizons presents Adam, along with director Trip Cullman and Tony Award winner Michele Pawk, in conversation with Adam Greenfield.
For tickets and more information about this conversation, visit The Center at gaycenter.org.
A Small Fire will be seen at Playwrights Horizons, December 16, 2010 through January 23, 2011. Additional information www.playwrightshorizons.org
December, 2010
On the Ice an Official Selection for 2011 Sundance Film Festival
On the Ice, produced by Cara Marcous '97, has been announced as an officially selection for the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. Directed by Andrew Okpeaha MacLean, On the Ice is the story of two teenagers trying to get away with murder on the snow-covered Arctic tundra.
Find more info about On the Ice and keep up with the filmmakers at the blog, ontheicemovie.blogspot.com.
November, 2010
Stephanie Ansin '94 Receives $100,000 Knight Arts Challenge Grant
for The PlayGround Theatre
Miami Shores, Florida's PlayGround Theatre was recently awarded a $100,000 grant from the from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, as part of its Knight Arts Challenge. The grant is a 
primary funding vehicle for The PlayGround Theatre's world premiere production, The Red Thread. This production, developed from ancient Chinese folktales and rewoven for a contemporary audience by Stephanie Ansin '94 and Fernando Calzadilla, highlights a young woman's heroic efforts to rescue her father's miraculous masterpiece. Her ensuing adventures challenge her mind, body, and spirit, and ultimately bring her true love, inner strength, and a glorious reunion. The Red Thread is geared for children aged eight and older.
The PlayGround Theatre is proud to create high-quality, innovative, theatre for South Florida's children and their families. Founded in 2004 by Artistic Director Stephanie Ansin, the company has produced nine plays that delight, provoke, and inspire audiences of all ages and abilties. Its shows reflect the international flavor of the community and expose audiences to the literature, art, and culture of England, Italy, China, and beyond. The Theatre Inclusion Program ensures that performances are accessible to all children and adults, and workshops, classes, and camps to provide a variety of theatre education opportunities in parks, schools, and hospitals as well as at its own venue.
For more informtion on The PlayGround Theatre or to purchase tickets, call 305-751-9550 or visit www.theplaygroundtheatre.com. Become a fan of PGT on Facebook, or on Twitter @PlayGroundMiami for a behind-the-scenes look at everything happening at the theatre.
December - January,2010
World Premiere of A Small Fire, from Adam Bock '89
A Small Fire, the new play from Adam Bock '89, author of The Drunken City, The Receptionist, and The Thugs, opens this December. A Small Fire is directed by Trip Cullman and featuring Reed Birney, Celia Keenan-Bolger, Michele Pawk, Victor Williams
When a tough-as-nails contractor finds her senses slipping on the brink of her daughter’s wedding, the impact on her family is nothing less than seismic. A Small Fire is a human parable in which unexpected loss leads to an unlikely love story.
December 16 – January 23 at the Playwrights Horizons Mainstage Theatre, at 416 West 42nd St, between 9th & 10th. Tickets now available at playwrightshorizons.org.
December, 2010
Michael & Edie, from Rachel Bonds '05, Opens this December
A boy. A girl. A bookstore. Michael and Edie meet in a mysterious, mixed-up bookstore, where they bury themselves amongst stacks of books in an attempt to flee from the rest of their lives. Aisles turn into secret passages, snow falls from holes in the ceiling, desperate phone calls ring from tin cans, and tea kettles turn into crickets. It's a world full of illusions; illusions that give way to the poignant poetry of being young and a little bit lost in the world.
Michael & Edie is a new play from Rachel Bonds '05, directed by Robert Saenz de Viteri. It will play this December 3-5 at 8pm, December 8-18, Wednesday-Sunday at 8pm, and December 19 at 2pm at the Access Theatre at 380 Broadway in New York City. Tickets are now available at brownpapertickets.com.
September, 2010
Most Performed Plays in America Mostly Contemporary
(and Written by Brown Alums)
When American Theatre Magazine's list of the most-often produced plays in American theatres for the 2009 – 2010 season appeared, Brown playwrights were all over the list - including the #1 and #2 spots. Culturemob.com has an interesting analysis of why this may be.
"American theaters have a pronounced bias in favor of new and newish plays by American authors," according to the Wall Street Journal's Terry Teachout, "especially ones that have high public profiles. (Six of the top 11 plays of the past decade have been produced on Broadway, while five of them won Pulitzer Prizes.) ... New playwrights deserve a chance, and it looks like most of our drama companies are giving it to at least some of them."
boom, by Peter Sinn Nachtrieb '97 was #1 on American Theatre's list, and Speech & Debate, by Stephen Karam '02 was #2.
September-October, 2010
Adam Bock's We Have Always Lived in the Castle at Yale Repertory Theatre
We Have Always Lived in the Castle, the new musical from Brown MFA playwright Adam Bock, is 
playing at the Yale Repertory Theatre through October 9, 2010. According to Variety, "The production mixes the sweet with the deadly, not unlike the arsenic in the sugar bowl that wiped out most of the wealthy Blackwood family."
The show, based on the novel by Shirley Jackson, follows the Constance and Merricat Blackwood. Acquitted of a horrible crime six years ago, Constance lives with her devoted younger sister and their uncle Julian in what was once the home of the richest - and most envied - family in a small New England town. Constance tends to the house and garden while Merricat invents magical charms to protect the surviving Blackwoods from the townspeople’s prying eyes and vicious gossip. But talismans may not be powerful enough to keep the sisters together when their handsome cousin Charles comes to visit.
Tickets are available at yalrep.org.
September, 2010
Orange, Hat & Grace by Greg Moss at Soho Rep
Orange, Hat & Grace, by Brown MFA Playwright Greg Moss, is now
playing at Soho Rep.
In a cabin in the woods, aging Orange finds her orderly life upended by a feral suitor and the reappearance of a figure from her past who's come home for a final visit. Equal parts American gothic and unlikely romance, Orange, Hat & Grace is a funny, fierce and provocative inquiry into our relationship with the natural world. Featuring Reyna de Courcy, Matthew Maher, and Stephanie Roth Haberle.
The New Yorker calls it "a rollicking script." Tickets are available online at sohorep.org or by calling 212-352-3101.
September, 2010
Autobiographical Season for
Isaac Hurwitz's '00
New York Musical Theater Festival
The New York Musical Theatre Festival, founded by Isaac Hurwitz '00, was profiled recently in the New York Times. This year's slate of 30 new musicals tends toward the autobiographical, including Jay Alan Zimmerman's Incredibly Deaf Musical, I Got Fired: A Revenge Musical, and My Mother’s Lesbian Jewish Wiccan Wedding.
“There’s often a random theme that emerges for us after the fact, when we step back and look at each year’s shows and realize that — while we were aiming for maximum diversity — we have a cluster of shows that reflect a similar theme,” Hurwitz was quoted as saying. “But I suppose it’s probably a zeitgeist phenomenon too, that something’s afoot in the culture that inspires a particular trend of shows.”
Tickets and more information are available at nymf.org.
September, 2010
Lynn Nottage Wins 2010 Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award
Lynn Nottage '86 has been named the recipient of the 2010 Steinberg Distinguished Playwright 
Award.
The award honors the artistic achievement of an American playwright whose body of work has made significant contributions to the American theater. The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust was created by Harold Steinberg in 1986 in his name and that of his late wife Miriam. The Trust's primary mission is "to support and promote the American theater as a vital part of our culture by nurturing American playwrights, encouraging the development and production of new American plays, and providing significant support to theater companies across the country."
Oskar Eustis, a committee member and previous Artistic Director at Trinity Rep, wrote of Lynn: "Lynn Nottage has produced a distinguished and exhilarating body of work, plays that consistently demand that we look at the world around us with greater compassion, engagement, and responsibility."
Patrick Harrison Directing His New Show at NY International Fringe Festival
August, 2010
Patrick Harrison '08 will be directing Butterfly, Butterfly, Kill Kill Kill!, a new play which he also wrote, inspired by Seijun Suzuki’s Branded to Kill, at the NY International Fringe Festival this August. The show first premiered in a 15 minute workshop version at the Ontological-Hysteric Theater Incubator, the theater of Brown alumn Richard Foreman '59.
In 1967, Japanese B-movie director Seijun Suzuki was fired by Nikkatsu Studios for turning standard yakuza-flick scripts into avant-garde wonders that combined raw entertainment value with formal experimentation. The studio said his movies “made no money and no sense”. However critics called Suzuki an auteur on par with those of the French and Japanese New Waves. BBKKK! will do to theater what Suzuki did to film! Enter the mad odyssey of a down-on-his-luck assassin destined to become Tokyo’s No. 1 Killer! To achieve the coveted ranking, our hero will have to face down a gauntlet of goons, nymphomaniacs, femme fatales, and the mysterious top killer himself. Featuring monstrous puppets, mystic sex rituals, yellowface assassins, wildly stylized violence, and a live electro-jazz-exotica score!
The cast and crew of Butterfly is positively teeming with alums, including Hillary Dixler '08 (asst. director/stage manager), Adam Scott Mazer '08 (fight choreographer/actor), Dave Harrington '08.5 (composer/musician), Samer Ghadry '07 (musician), Alana Jacoby '08 (lighting design), Jeff Wood '07 (puppet design), and Natalia Fisher '08 (website design). The cast features Harrison, as well as Margaret Odette Perkins '08, Adam Scott Mazer '08, Alexandra Hellquist '08, and Dan Rogers '08.
Find out more about the Festival at NYTimes.com, and don't miss the slideshow. Butterfly, Butterfly, Kill Kill Kill! opens August 13 and runs through the 19th at the First Floor theatre at LA MAMA in New York City. Visit depthcharge.us for a complete list of dates, times, and details. Check out the trailer below, then get your tickets at fringenyc.org.
Aubie Merrylees Performing Feet First at People's Light & Theatre
July 29, 2010
Aubie Merrylees '10 will be performing his solo performance piece Feet First at People's Light & theatre. Merrylees's piece was first developed at Brown as a part of the Solo Performance class. He will be performing on July 29 at 7:00pm on the People's Light Main Stage. Go to peopleslight.org for more information.
Peter Nachtrieb Named a Member of New Dramatists
July 16, 2010
Peter Sinn Nachtrieb '97 was one of eight playwrights recently named as new members of the New Dramatists company. The other newly appointed playwrights include
Annie Baker, Daniel Beaty, Madeleine George, Sibyl Kempson, James McManus, Betty Shamieh and Francine Volpe.
According to playbill.com, these eight writers were selected from a group of 325 applicants who underwent an eight-month evaluation process. Nachtrieb and the other seven playwrights will be in residence with New Dramatists through 2017. Learn more at peternachtrieb.com.
Phoebe Neidhart's Solo Show a Part of Hollywood Fringe
June 17-27, 2010
Phoebe Neidhart '09 will be performing her solo show, Can You Hear Me Now?, at Hudson Theatres as a part of Hollywood Fringe. Phoebe's show is the hilarious and heartfelt story of one woman’s quest to find the meaning of life in the unlikeliest of places: the Los Angeles Department of Motor Vehicles. She first wrote and performed this piece as a part of SoloFest 2009 at Brown University.
Can You Hear Me Now? will play June 19 at 9:30 pm and June 26 at 8:00 pm. Tickets are available at hollywoodfringe.org.
Louis Changchien '06 in Year Zero at Second Stage Uptown
June 2010
Louis Changchien '06 is now appearing in Year Zero at Second Stage Uptown in NYC. Louis is one-fourth of what the New York Times calls an "appealing cast bring[ing] fresh nuances, tempering ... earnestness with unassuming charm."
According to Second Stage: "Vuthy Vichea is a 16-year-old Cambodian American who wears thick glasses, loves hip hop, and plays Dungeons and Dragons. After his mother’s death, Vuthy and his sister Ra struggle to reinvent themselves in Long Beach, California where being different can be deadly. Year Zero is a moving comedic drama about a young generation paving a new future by remembering its past."
Tickets and more information are now available at 2st.com.
Kate Burton '79 in The Grand Manner
June 2010
Kate Burton '79 is appearing now through August 1st at Lincoln Center in The Grand Manner, directed by Mark Lamos, in the the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theatre.
According to Lincoln Center Theatre: "In 1948, playwright A.R. Gurney, then a young boarding school student, traveled to New York where he attended a performance of Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra, going backstage afterwards to meet the production's star, the great stage actress Katharine Cornell, who was dubbed "The First Lady of the American Stage" by the legendary critic Alexander Woollcott. A mix of remembrance and imagination, The Grand Manner is a love letter to this fabled actress and a heartfelt look back at the glorious heyday of the Broadway theatre."
Follow Kate and the show in the Lincoln Center blog. Tickets are available now at ltc.org.
Twelfth Night at Fiasco Theatre Now Playing
June 4,2010
Previews for Twelfth Night, Shakespeare's hilarious and moving exploration of love, music and storms of both the heart and sea, begin June 2nd at Fiasco Theatre in New York City. The show will run through June 20th. Twelfth Night is directed by Noah Brody and Ben Steinfeld and features Annie Purcell, Andy Grotelueschen, Ben Steinfeld, Elizabeth King-Hall, Georgia Cohen, Haas Regen, Noah Brody, and Paul L. Coffey.
Tickets are available now at fiascotheatre.com.
Stephen Karam's Speech & Debate to be Filmed for Big Screen
June, 2010
Stephen Karam '02 will be writing the script for the film adaptation of his play Speech & Debate. The film is to be directed by Dan Harris, writer of such movies as Superman Returns and X2. Speech & Debate played most recently Off-Broadway at Roundabout Underground. It was originally created for the 2006 Brown/ Trinity Playwrights Rep season, directed by Lowry Marshall.
Federico Rodriguez '09 in Jeff Award-Nominated Ghost Sonata
May, 2010
Federico Rodriguez '09 recently opened The Ghost Sonata at Chicago's Oracle Theater. The play is, according to Time Out Chicago, "never less than beautiful to watch."
The play has recently garnered a Jeff Award Nomination for excellence in theatre in Chicago.
The Ghost Sonata runs through June 19 at the Oracle Theatre. Tickets are available at oracletheatre.org.
Sarah Tolan Mee '09 in New Play by Ken Prestininzi
May 17, 2010
Sarah Tolan Mee '09 has just opened Ken Prestininzi's new play, Chaste, at Trap Door theatre in Chicago to great reviews. According to a review in the Chicago Sun-Times, "As Salome, Mee is a genuine find -- with physical, vocal and emotional talent to spare. This is paired with a perfect understanding of her character's alternately quixotic, impulsive, sensual and romantic impulses. A talent to watch."
Sarah writes, "It's been amazing to work with Ken outside of the University, and so cool to be able to expand on a vocabulary I learned as a sophomore at Brown working with Ken for the first time.
I want to thank you again for the wonderful environment you and the entire theater department create for the undergraduates at Brown. I continue to draw on what I learned from your faculty, and hope to continue working with fellow Brown alums. Their generosity, creativity, spontaneity, confidence, and discipline make them the greatest collaborators."
Chaste runs through June 19 at the Trapdoor Theatre in Chicago, IL. Tickets are available at trapdoortheatre.com or by calling (773) 384-0494.
Arianna Zukerman Receives Rave Review for Part in RPO Concert
May 22, 2010
Anna Reguero of the Rochester, NY Democrat and Chronicle called Arianna Zukerman's recent performance with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra one of "the best...vocal soloists I've heard perform choral repertoire with the RPO." Her review went on to add that Arianna "intensified and hushed her high notes on command for stunning shapeliness in phrases."
Arianna was the soprano soloist singing Verdi - Requiem for the RPO from May 20-22, 2010. You can find out more about Arianna and where she will be singing next at ariannazukerman.com.
Dan LeFranc Wins 2010 New York Times Outstanding Playwright Award
April 16, 2010
Dan LeFranc, a graduate of the MFA Playwriting Program at Brown and past Visiting Lecturer of Literary Arts, has been awarded the 2010 New York Times Outstanding Playwright Award for Sixty Miles to Silver Lake. According to Sylviane gold, chairwoman of the award selection committee, "The judges admired the skill with which Mr. LeFranc mapped out two complicated characters in a difficult relationship. We also wanted to honor the theatrical imagination he used to transform an everyday situation — a father-son drive — into a highly dramatic one."
Vincere Opens in New York
March, 2010
A film created with the help of Deborah Belford de Furia '88, an alum now living in Italy, will have its American debut this March in New York City. The film is Vincere, by Italian director Marco Bellocchio. It is about Mussolini's secret wife and son, how Italy was seduced by Mussolini, but how she, Ida, Dalser continued to fight back despite everything. Deborah worked as the story editor, helping the director/writer help focus the story and characters, structure the script, and shape the momentum.
Vincere will be opening at Lincoln Plaza Cinemas and IFC on Friday, March 19th.
Peter Sinn Nachtrieb Featured in American Theatre
March, 2010
Peter Sinn Nachtrieb '97 is featured in an article in the March issue of American Theatre magazine. Nachtrieb is a playwright "known for writing sharp, dark comedies," according to the article. He was able to practice those skills at Brown, where his show boom! first appeared at the Brown/Trinity Playwrights Rep. boom! was produced by over a dozen different theatre groups this past year, making it the most-produced play in America, according to another American Theatre list.
Brown alum actors Rebecca White '00 and Jon Wolanske are also included in this article, for their work with Nachtrieb in Hunter Gatherers and T.I.C. Trenchcoat in Common, respectively. Read the entire article in pdf here.
Brown Alums Featured in Latest Issue of Play
February, 2010
Volume 4 of Play: A Journal of Plays is now available from Paper Theatre, and includes work from quite a few Brown alums.
Play is available online at papertheatre.org or in person at Drama Bookshop, St. Marks Bookshop, and Soho Rep (at shows only) in NYC.
Drew Madden '10 First Teach for America Recruit to Work in Rhode Island
February 1, 2010
Soon-to-be alumni Drew Madden '10 is the first Teach for America recruit to work in the recently expanded Rhode Island program. Madden is graduating with a degree in political science, will be teaching middle-school math for the Teach for America program, and is a indispensable fixture at John Street and in productions here at the department of Theatre Arts and Performance Studies. "I've always been interested in education," the well-rounded Madden said in a recent article in the Providence Journal. "I plan on remaining in education long term, either as a classroom teacher or working in policy."
Two Dudes and a Robot Performing at Second City Theatre
February, 2010
Alums Ellis Martin Rochelson '09, Will Guzzardi, and Will Litton - who performed as Starla and Sons, Brown's first longform improv group, during their time in Providence - are now Two Dudes and a Robot, based in Chicago, Illinois.
Two Dudes will be performing a five-week run of improv shows beginning this February at Donny's Skybox, the experimental stage of Second City Theater. Get more information on tickets and showtimes at secondcity.com or the Two Dudes website, 2dudes1robot.blogspot.com.
Laura Linney '86 in Time Stands Still
January 20, 2010
Laura Linney discusses her newest play, Time Stands Still, and her older work, including a bit of her time at Brown, in a recent New York Times article. It was while she was at Brown where Laura acted in a play written by her father, Romulus Linney - the only time she's done so.
“This is the one opportunity for me to do this because I knew that if I was lucky enough to get out of school and work professionally, that I would not go after any work of my dad’s, for my sake as well as for him,” she is quoted as saying in the article. “I thought while I have the opportunity, I might as well do it here.”
Quincy Tyler Bernstine '96 Acts her "Greatest Roles" for Brown Playwrights
January, 2010
Obie Award-winner Quincy Tyler Bernstine calls her "greatest roles" those she has acted for Brown alumni playwrights: Lynn Nottage '86 and Sarah Ruhl '97 MFA '01.
Bernstine is starring in In the Next Room (or the vibrator play) by Sarah Ruhl '97, '01 MFA. "They write incredible roles for women; that's the main similarity," Bernstine says of Nottage and Ruhl.
Read the full interview with Bernstine in January's Brown Alumni Magazine or online at brownalumnimagzine.com.
Christina Kirk Featured in The People Speak
December 13, 2009
Christina Kirk '93 was recently featured with Josh Brolin in the History Channel's series The People Speak. The video can be viewed on videodetective.com.
According the history.com, The People Speak uses dramatic and musical performances of the letters, diaries and speeches of everyday Americans, giving voice to those who spoke up for social change throughout U.S. history, forging a nation from the bottom up with their insistence on equality and justice. The People Speak is narrated by Howard Zinn and based on his best-selling books, A People's History of the United States and Voices of a People's History of the United States.
Sikumi Now Online
December, 2009
Sikumi (On the Ice), a new short film produced by Cara Marcous '97, is now viewable online at youtube. Be sure to choose HD and full screen for the best viewing experience.
For more information on the film, visit sikumifilm.net.
Two Brown Alums Contribute to The Play That Changed My Life
December, 2009
The Play That Changed My Life, a new collection of essays and interviews edited by Bed Hodges and presented by The American Theatre Wing, features content from two Brown alumni: Sarah Ruhl '97 and Lynn Nottage '86. According to a review in the New York Times, " Ms. Nottage and Ms. Ruhl are among the youngest playwrights included in The Play That Changed My Life, which leans heavily toward esteemed and midcareer writers."
The book is available now at your local bookstore or amazon.com.
Al Basile's Latest CD Getting High Praise
December, 2009
Soul Blue 7, the latest album from Al Basile '70, reached #18 on the Living Blues radio chart and is garnering excellent reviews. Blues Matters writes that Soul Blue 7 is "[a] Blues record of the highest quality. Basile swings like a winner. Hittin’ the Note adds: "When it comes to Al Basile, every one of his seven solo albums is a gripping testament to his far-reaching talents." Get your copy of Soul Blue 7 on Basile's website, albasile.com.
Basile has also recently been nominated for a Blues Music Award as best horn player. This award is given in the spring by the Blues Foundation in Memphis. This is his first nomination for the award. Congratulations Al and good luck!
Brown Alums in Fight Fest at The Brick
December 1-20, 2009
In 1967, Japanese B-movie director Seijun Suzuki was fired by Nikkatsu Studios for turning standard yakuza-flick scripts into frenetic works of cinematic invention that the studio called “incomprehensible." Depth Charge presents a whirlwind theatrical concoction inspired by Suzuki’s accidental masterpiece Branded to Kill, featuring a live jazz score, slapstick action, invented ritual, Japonaiserie, guns, girls, and rice.
Butterfly, Butterfly, Kill Kill Kill! will play Dec 8th at 10pm, Dec 9th at 10:30pm, Dec 12th at 9:30pm, Dec 13th at 7pm as part of FIGHT FEST at The Brick (575 Metropolitan Avenue between Union and Lorimer Street, Brooklyn). Tickets ($12) may be purchased online at www.bricktheater.com or by calling Theatermania at 212-352-3101(212) 868-4444.
PATRICK HARRISON '08 as HANADA
MARGARET ODETTE PERKINS '08 as MISAKO
ADAM SCOTT MAZER '08 as NO.1
ALEXANDRA HELLQUIST '08 as MAMI
IAN PICCO as GOON
DAN ROGERS '08 as GOON
COLIN BAKER as GOON
Written and Directed by PATRICK HARRISON
Assistant Directed by HILLARY DIXLER '08
Music Composed and Performed by DAVID HARRINGTON '08
Video and Film Design by NANCY KWON
Set and Puppetry Design by JEFF WOOD '07
Lighting Design by ALANA JACOBY '08
Additional Writing by IAN PICCO and ANDREW STARNER GS
Musical Performance featuring SAMER GHADRY '07
New Book by Nelson Ritschel to be Published by University Press of Florida
december, 2009
Brown MA and Ph.D Nelson Ritschel's fourth book, Shavian Provocation in Militant Irish Socialism: Shaw, Synge, Connolly, has been accepted by University Press of Florida.
Professor Emeritus Don Wilmeth writes: "This is going to be quite an important and revolutionary book. Nelson also hosted a really good Irish Studies conference at the Mass. Maritime Academy (where he is Associate Professor). I had the pleasure of attending and chaired a round table on Synge in honor of the centenary of his death."
Shavian Provocation will be available for purchase at Amazon and other book sellers.
Adam Cassel to Join National Tour of Hairspray
November 22, 2009
Today is the last performance in Altar Boyz for Adam Cassel '08, and the conclusion of the National Tour. Adam has spent the last year and a half playing Abraham in an opportunity that he has called his "own personal miracle."
Adam leaves Altar Boyz to join the National Tour cast of Hairspray. Tickets available soon.
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Ryan Maxwell Directs I Am My Own Wife at 2nd Story
October, 2009
Ryan Maxwell '02 is back in Rhode Island to direct I Am My Own Wife at the 2nd Story Theatre in Warren. According to 2nd Story, "I Am My Own Wife tells the story of East German transvestite Charlotte von Mahlsdorf who successfully navigated two oppressive twentieth century regimes while openly gay and defiantly in drag. Ed Shea portrays more than thirty characters in this inspirational study of courage and endurance."
Ed Shea, who also directed Ghosts for Sock & Buskin's 1997-98 season, gives "a mesmerizing performance," according to the Providence Journal, and Maxwell "keep[s] the action taut."
I Am My Own Wife opens this weekend and plays through October 25th. For tickets and more information, visit 2ndstorytheatre.com.
Six Brown Grads in Cymbaline at Access Theatre
September 19, 2009
Six actors and one trunk take on 14 roles and innumerable plot twists to create this dynamic, unforgettable, actor-driven, and music-filled production.
Equal parts fairy tale, gallant history, and "Princess Bride," Cymbeline is one of Shakespeare's great Romances. In Augustan England the princess Imogen has married beneath her. Alone after the banishment of her husband, Imogen is beset by the angered King, her wicked stepmother and dolt of a son, as well as a blackguard of a Roman who has bet his fortune against her fidelity. Escaping to rugged Wales dressed as a boy, she meets a group of rustics whose fates are locked with hers. And all the while a Roman invasion draws near...
Cymbaline features Jessie Austrian and Paul Coffey of the Brown/Trinity Playwrights Rep; Noah Brody and Andy Grotelueschen, Trinity MFA actors, and Ben Steinfeld and Emily Young, Brown undergrads and grads. Cymbaline is at the Access Theatre from September 17-October 2, 2009. For tickets and more information, visit fiascotheatre.com.
Blue Marble Ice Cream to be Featured at US Open
September, 2009
Jennie Dundas, former Brown actor and current ice cream proprietress, will be serving her organic ice cream in Louis Armstrong Stadium at the US Open this year. The New York Times, Newsday, and The New York Post are already buzzing about Blue Marble's all-natural, local flavor. Find out how to get some yourself at bluemarbleicecream.com.
Trojan Barbie, from Christine Evans, Wins Trio of Awards
Trojan Barbie, from Christine Evans '00 (MFA) and '08 (PhD) recently won the 2009 Playwrights First "Plays for the 21st Century" Award, as well as the 2009 Rhode Island State Council for the Arts Fellowship in Playwriting/ Screenwriting. These recent honors get added to the 2007 Jane Chambers Award. Trojan Barbie received its world premiere at the American Repertory Theatrein April, 2009. It will be published in Issue #35 of Theatre Forum. Christine is a Briggs-Copeland Lecturer on English at Harvard.
Find out more about Evans at her website, christine-evans-playwright.com.
Anna Ziegler Wins STAGE International Script Competition
August 5, 2008
Anna Ziegler won the STAGE International Script Competition for her show Photograph 51. The STAGE award honors work that explores scienfitic or technological themes. Photograph 51, according to STAGE, asks, "What does a woman have to do to succeed in the world of science? It is 1953 and Dr. Rosalind Franklin, brilliant, passionate and ambitious, pours herself into her work at King's College Lab in London. When fellow scientists Watson and Crick find out about her discoveries in the field of DNA, her work is suddenly not her own - and shortly thereafter they claim credit for a major breakthrough."
See more of Anna's work this summer, when Brown/Trinity Playwrights Rep presents Life Science. Get tickets to Life Science and all of BTPRep's summer shows at brown.edu/btprep.
John Krasinski in "Away We Go"
June 16, 2009
John Krasinski '01 has a career which spans stage, television, and the movies, as outlined in a current article at examiner.com. His latest, in theatres now, is Away We Go, with Maya Rudolph.
New York Times Praises New Show by Cynthia Hopkins
May 27, 2009
“The Success of Failure (or, the Failure of Success)" is the third installment in the trillogy by Cynthia Hopkins '95. The New York Times, in a recent review, calls the show "clever" and "engaging." According to the article, the show, which is a dark personal narrative, has "a blunt, compelling power," but "[f]or all the grimness, there are also moments of grace."
"The Success of Failure" is playing now through June 7th at St Ann's Warehouse in Brooklyn. Get your tickets online at stannswarehouse.org or by calling 718-254-8779.
Blue Marble Wins "Best New Ice Cream in New York"
April 9, 2009
Congratulations to Jennie Dundas and her Brooklyn ice cream shop, Blue Marble, for winning Time Out New York's "Best New Ice Cream" award for 2009! Time Out New York says that "[p]ristine ingredients (fair-trade chocolate, grass-fed organic milk) drew the votes."
Follow the Blue Marble blog here, and to find out where to try it yourself (they're about to open a shop in Rwanda), check out their website at bluemarbleicecream.com.
Pure Shock Value opens at the Exit Theatre
March 2009
The madness, the desperation, the hilarity all begins TONIGHT, as Pure Shock Value opens for business at the Exit Theater. Matt Pelfrey's combo platter of sex, drugs, and Tinseltown lunacy is a few short hours away.
The Player meets Cabin Fever in this tale of 3 friends who prove just how low you have to go to get to the top of the Hollywood foodchain. On the brink of abandoning their dreams to make their feature film, Barking Spiders, a fateful meeting with a mysterious stranger inspires them to give their dreams one last go. Who will make it big? Who will sell their soul? And who will survive the long, dark night? This world premiere runs Thursdays through Sundays 'til March 22.
Tickets are $10-25. Reserve yours now at killingmylobster.com.
"A hilarious pitch-black comedy about fame, its pratfalls, and the absurd lengths to which people will go just to see their name in lights."
--Aaron Sankin, Theatre Bay Area magazine
Speech and Debate in Boston
March 17, 2009
The Lyric Stage Company of Boston will show Stephen Karam's 
Speech and Debate as part of their 2008-2009 season. The show will run March 27 through April 25.
Variety says that Speech and Debate is "bristling with vitality, wicked humor, terrific dialogue, and a direct pipeline into the zeitgeist of contemporary youth."
Tickets range from $25 to $50 and are available by calling the box office at 617.585.5678 and online at www.lyricstage.com.
Praise for Rebecca White in T.I.C.
March 11, 2009
Rebecca White '00 recently completed a widely-praised run of T.I.C. at the The Magic Theatre in San Francisco. Pat Craig, of the Contra Costa Times, called the show "a stunning new play brilliantly directed by Ken Prestininzi and cast with actors playing at the top of their game." George Heyman, of My Cultural Landscape, wrote that "[u]nder Prestininzi's deft direction, the tightly-wired ensemble - anchored by Rebecca White's Kid - does yeoman work in a farce that requires split-second timing.” According to Richard Connema, of Talkin' Broadway, "Rebecca White is astounding as the angry 16-year-old Kid. Her voice and body movements are like a teenager's and she dominates the stage in this fast-paced travesty."
Rebecca has also recently been performing in a new-play program called Playground at Berkeley Rep, and played "Raina" in the workshop of the new musical Sid Arthur at both Playwrights Foundation & TheatreWorks in Palo Alto.
Julia Ahumada Grob in The Lonely Soldier Monologues
March 10, 2009
Julia Ahumada Grob appears in The Lonely Soldier Monologues (Women at War in Iraq), a new show by Helen Benedict at Theatre for the New City. The New York Times calls The Lonely Soldier Monoglogues an "energetically acted example of journalism as theater [that] explores some issues that deserve more attention."
The Lonely Soldier Monologues runs through March 22nd. For more information on the show, visit the website at www.lonelysoldierplay.com. Buy your tickets here.
Miriam Silverman in "marvelous" Dog in the Manger
February 17, 2009
The Washington Post calls Miriam Silverman "fetchingly inscrutable" in her role as the Countess 
Diana in Lope de Vega's Dog in the Manger at the Shakespeare Theatre Company.
A master of Spain's Golden Age, Lope de Vega explores love, fidelity and class with wry humor in The Dog in the Manger. The haughty countess Diana rejects her many aristocratic suitors only to fall in love with her handsome young secretary, Teodoro. To pursue this forbidden love, Diana must sabotage her suitors, deceive her friends and concoct ever-more elaborate schemes. Lope balances high tragedy and low comedy, examining the savage whims of the human heart. Jonathan Munby makes his STC debut directing the East Coast premiere of David Johnston’s translation of this rarely performed classic. Munby, a frequent director with the Royal Shakespeare Company, has been praised for his “high-octane” productions (The Sunday Times).
Dog in the Manger plays through March 29. Get your tickets at shakespearetheatre.org.
Next to Normal on Broadway
February 17, 2009 
Charlie Alterman '96 will be Musical Director to Next to Normal when it comes to Broadway this spring, after time spent Off-Broadway at Second Stage and at Arlington's Arena Stage.
Next to Normal will be playing at the Longacre Theatre. Opening night is April 15.
Tickets will be available through Telecharge.com.
Quincy Tyler Bernstine '96 in Ruined by Lynn Nottage '86
February 16, 2009
Lynn Nottage's Ruined is playing now at the Manhattan Theatre Club. According to the MTC, "this powerful play follows Mama Nadi, a shrewd businesswoman in a land torn apart by civil war. But is she protecting or profiting by the women she shelters? How far will she go to survive? Can a price be placed on a human life?"
For more information and to get tickets, visit the Manhattan Theatre Club's website.
Carmen Gill as Irina in Three Sisters
February 16, 2009
Carmen Gill '02 plays Irina in The Classical Theatre of Harlem's production of Chekhov's Three Sisters.
The show runs through March 8. For more information and to get tickets, visit their website.
Kimberly Ovitz Spring Collection Now in Stores
February 2009
Kimberly Ovitz's new Spring collection is available in stores now. The collection, which is described as "ladies at the country house having a punk party and raiding the stable," is available online at revolveclothing.com, and at any of these stores.
For more information and to see the entire collection, visit kimberlyovitz.com.
Kate Burton '79 and son Morgan Ritchie '10 in The Corn is Green
February 4, 2009
The Boston Globe calls Kate Burton and Morgan Ritchie's work together "a real pleasure to watch" in The Corn is Green, playing now through February 8th at the Huntington in Boston. According to the review, "Burton is charming, intelligent, and spirited as Miss Moffat, while Ritchie burns with a quiet, intense power as Morgan."
For more information and to buy tickets, visit the Huntington.
New York Times Reviews Play Written by Alum Sally Oswald
February 2, 2009
"The reclusive life of an American eccentric is examined in scrupulous, sometimes strange detail in Disfarmer," writes the New York Times in a recent review of the new puppet theatre work with script by alum Sally Oswald. Disfarmer is based on the true story of photographer Mike Disfarmer.
Disfarmer runs through February 8th. For tickets and more information, see the St. Ann's Warehouse website.
New Album from Duncan Sheik
January 27, 2009
Grammy and Tony award winning songwriter and composer Duncan Sheik returns with his new album Whisper House, a collection of songs for a forthcoming theatrical piece. Whisper House marks Sheik's first solo album since 2006 and comes on the heels of the success of Spring Awakening. Earlier this year, Sheik embarked on a nationwide tour featuring original Spring Awakening cast member Lauren Pritchard. On Whisper House, Sheik employs a narrative approach to songwriting, combining elements of the chamber pop that first brought him critical and commercial acclaim. Much like Spring Awakening, which the New York Times praised as a "deft 
blend of straight-up rock, folk and melodic > pop," Whisper House is just as much a pop record as it is a musical theatre composition. Structured as a melodrama, each of the 10 songs on the album weave together to tell the story of a child's grief and spinster's longing as seen through the eyes of the ghosts that haunt the remote, World War II-era Maine lighthouse where they live.
For more information, go to duncansheik.com/whisperhouse/
"Duncan Sheik writes some songs for radio play, others for musical theater, and manages to gain accolades no matter the genre."
- NEW YORK TIMES
"A brilliant singer-songwriter."
- NEW YORKER
Don Wilmeth nominated for Best Actor
Jan 15, 2009 
Congratulations to Don Wilmeth, Professor Emeritus and former Chair of the Theatre, Speech, & Dance department on his nomination for a New Hampshire Theatre Award for Best Actor. Don was nominated for his role of Captain Hook in Peter Pan.
Don has also recently currated an exhibit, Actors on the Early American Stage, at the
Historical Society of Cheshire County. The exhibit
will focus on some of the actors with New Englandconnections whose work captivated the public from the 18th 
century to the early 20th century. The lives and careers of dozens of actors will be told through playbills, posters, letters, photographs, and a variety of other artifacts. The exhibit will include such actors as Fanny Kemble, the Booth family, Lotta Crabtree, Swanzey’s Denman Thompson, and James O’Neill and Maude Adams.
Peter Pan is playing at the Actor's Circle Theatre May 2 - May 20. For more information and to reserve your tickets, visit the Actor's Circle Theatre website.
Actors on the Early American Stage will be open at the Historical Society through April 4th. For more information, visit their website.
T.I.C. by Peter Nachtrieb '97 Opens at Encore Theatre Company
Jan 2, 2009 
Peter Nachtrieb's new play, T.I.C.: Trenchcoat in Common is showing this January 2 - February 1 at the Encore Theatre Company.
From Peter himself:
"This is my teen angst privacy voyeurism exhibitionism play in the form of a girl’s blog about her apartment building that gets a little out of hand.Well, more than a little.Comedy, antics, sex and maybe death ensue! T.I.C.is a jaunty exploration of our modern impulses to expose, to watch, and todocument.Are we living in a world where the ultimate high comes not from an incredible life experience, but from getting a good picture of it?What are we avoiding when hide in our rooms? Ooooo.
Enticing Entertaining Features:
Sex!
Skin!
Sad lonely people!
Identifiable moments!
Situations you never want to witness your father doing!
Sinister plots!
A bad joke about the Mortgage crisis!
Abundant pop culture references!
Lots of music!
More characters than any other full length Peter Nachtrieb play (6! Take that, recession!)!
Tender moments!
Potentially funny, provocative, thoughtful, and entertaining!
The Amazing Team
Directed and ‘turged by Kenneth Prestininzi
Encore Artistic Director Lisa Steindler, James Faerron producing director
Featuring fabulous Bay Area Actors
Arwen Anderson, Anne Darragh, Lance Gardner, Michael Shipley, Liam Vincent, and Rebecca White
Production Team:Angela Nostrand, Evren Odcikin, James Faerron, Sara Huddleston, Heather Basarab, Kaibrina Sky Buck, Jackie Scott, and Zac Jaffee
**SPECIAL DISCOUNT FOR PETER FRIENDS:**
Get 1/2 Off Tickets for Preview Performances on Jan 2,3 and 4(that’s
Enter discount code “PETER” when you buy tickets at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/48836
OR buy in person at the door for those three shows and whisper “Peter”
All Performances at
The Magic Theatre, Fort Mason Center, Building D.San Francisco
**Lots of naughty things happen in T.I.C. You may not want to bring you child unless they are 14+ or so.They probably have seen it already, but you know, for your conscience…
(Oh andT.I.C. was commissioned by Encore Theatre and received generous support from the Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation, the William & Flora Hewlett Foundation, and the TBA New Works Fund.Not to mention Encore’s support from Zellerbach Family Foundation, Phyllis C. Wattis Foundation, Grants for the Arts and the Tournesol Project.I hope they like dirty jokes)
See you there!"
Get your tickets here.
Peter Dubois '97 Directs Becky Shaw, by Gina Gionfriddo
Dec 29, 2008
Brown/Trinity alum Gina Gionfriddo's new play Becky Shaw is "a journey of moral discovery," she says, in this New York Times profile.
Becky Shaw is playing at the Second Stage Theatre through February 1st. Get your tickets here.
Tom Lipinski in A Light Lunch
Dec 20, 2008
Tom Lipinski, former undergraduate actor at Brown, appears at the Flea Theatre through January 25th in A Light Lunch. Read the review in the New York Times.
Get your tickets here.
Jed Resnick in Rent
Don't miss Brown/Trinity alum Jed Resnick in Rent this year. Get your tickets here.
Praise for Speech and Debate, by Stephan Karam '02
Dec 20, 2008 
Two different plays by Stephen Karam made year-end top ten lists in 2008.
Columbinus was named among the 10 favorites of the year for the Chicago-Sun Times.
Speech and Debate made two different year-end top-ten lists. It was named one of the "ten indelible memories" of the year, according to From the Ledge (read the original review here), and was also among the "best theatre of 08," according to Out West Arts.
Don't forget to buy your tickets to see Speech and Debate in Boston this spring at the Lyric in Boston.
Arianna Zukerman Sings in Memorable "Messiah"
Dec 19, 2008
Alum Arianna Zukerman's solos in "Messiah" were called "glowing" in this wonderful review of the performance at the Alys Stephens Center in Alabama.
Learn more about Arianna at her website, www.ariannazukerman.com.
Documentary by Harris Fishman '89 to Premier on HBO
Dec 15, 2008
Don't miss the premier, this Monday, December 15th, of Cat Dancers on HBO. Harris Fishman '89 began working on Cat Dancers seven years ago, after his brother Adam (who raised and trained tigers) introduced him to the man at the center of the story, Ron Holiday.
Cat Dancers is the story of a man, his lover, and his wife. Cat Dancers premiers this Monday, December 15th, at 8pm. Follow the link in the photo below to watch the preview on HBO's website.
Eric Kirchberger '92 Wins Emmy
Dec 2, 2008
Congratulations to alum Eric Kirchberger '92 on his first Emmy! Eric is a voice actor for "Minyanville's World Review with Hoofy and Boo," an online animated financial news show which won its Emmy for Business and Financial Reporting. You can watch all of the episodes of "Minyanville's Word Review" at www.minyanville.com.
Interview with Stephen Karam and Steven Levenson
Nov 25, 2008
Stephen Karam and Steven Levenson discuss playwriting, rewriting, and more in this interview from the Roundabout Blog.
Laura Linney '86 Wins Best Actress Emmy 
September 21, 2009
Congratulations to Laura Linney '86 on her third Emmy win. Laura won her second Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie for her work as Abigail Adams in HBO's John Adams.