ND News

In the aftermath of the school shooting in Newtown, Conn., playwright Caridad Svich put out a call to theater artists to submit short plays related to the intensifying debate over gun control. The instructions were rather demanding—not only did the pieces have to be between three and seven minutes long, but they had to be completed and submitted in less than 10 days. "This all happened fairly fast," she said.  Read More

During both 9/11 and the Marathon bombings I have been surrounded by children. In 2001, I was a nanny to four in Newton, and right now I’m a parent to two in Waltham. So after both of these tragedies — and after Newtown, Conn., too — my reaction to the violence has been to focus inward, to maintain calm, to keep up the routine of daily life.  Read More

New Dramatists proudly announces that we will honor entertainment lawyer and New Dramatists Chairman of the Board Seth Gelblum with our 2013 Lifetime Achievement Award at the 64th Annual Spring Luncheon tribute, to be held Tuesday, May 21 at the New York Marriott Marquis. Among those performing tributes will be Tony Award nominee Keith Carradine (Hands on a Hardbody, The Will Rogers Follies) and Tony Award winner Tonya Pinkins (Caroline, or Change; Jelly’s Last Jam). The event co-chairs are Roger Berlind, Roy Furman, and Barry and Fran Weissler.  Read More

I take my title today from that great triumvirate of American philosophers: Moe, Larry, and Curly, known in poststructuralist circles as Les Trois Stooges. With unerring precision they captured the complicated essence of American life—and by extension American theatrical life—in their expert revision of the motto of Alexandre Dumas’ three Musketeers: “One for all and all for one.” To which the incisive Curly added, “And every man for himself.” Yes that’s my subject, the one and the all, for each other and for themselves. In the spirit of the Stooges, I will digress whenever possible, including now, before I get to the point.  Read More

Experimental theater too often gets a bad rap for being dour—weirdness and seriousness in equal measure. But what about humor? That factor may help explain why the plays of Sibyl Kempson, who can be both seriously weird and seriously funny, have gained such a following.  Read More

In the theater, as New Dramatists artistic director Todd London reminds us, the difference between critics and artists is the power of Yes. A critic is the spirit that says No. An artist is the spirit that says Yes.  Read More

Stage, screen and TV veteran Larry Pine will star as the iconic studio founder in the world premiere of Lucas Hnath's play A Public Reading of an Unproduced Screenplay About the Death of Walt Disney next month at New York's Soho Rep.  Read More

Playwrights Tarell Alvin McCraney, Stephen Adly Guirgis, and Naomi Wallace are among nine winners of the Donald Windham-Sandy M. Campbell Literature Prizes, a new award administered by Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscripts Library. Each of the winners will receive $150,000.  Read More

New Dramatists Artistic Director will be the keynote speaker at the 7th annual NoPe - NoPassport Theatre Conference on March 1. Todd's new book The Importance of Staying Earnest: Writings from Inside the American Theatre 1988-2013 is being published by NoPassport Press on Feb 28.  Read More

Current New Dramatists resident playwright Richard Maxwell interviews fellow resident Christina Anderson as her play Hollow Roots runs at New York City's Under the Radar Festival.  Read More

The Wall Street Journal asked 40 New York-based theater artists to anonymously distribute $1 million each in imaginary funds to other local artists, ensembles, theaters and institutions. New Dramatists topped the list of institutions receiving praise.  Read More

How does one stage a chaotic chase scene, a duke-out between good and evil, and the wide-open, anything-goes action-adventure landscape of a kid's imagination - all on the decidedly confining 14- to 28-foot-wide Thrust Stage of Berkeley Repertory Theatre?  Read More

Lincoln Center's LCT3 has announced that Marsha Stephanie Blake, Eisa Davis, Dashiell Eaves, Frank Harts, Robert Hogan, Jenny O'Hara, Carra Patterson, Amanda Quaid, and Victor Williams will be featured in the upcoming Rebecca Taichman directed production of Luck of the Irish.  Read More