Bruce A. Young News

As the world commemorates William Shakespeare's 459th birthday this April, Chicago Shakespeare Theater will celebrate the Bard with multiple events throughout the month. The Theater will honor the legacy of Founding Artistic Director Barbara Gaines with the Spirit of Shakespeare Award, which will be presented at a fundraising event at the Theater's home on Navy Pier on Monday, April 24, 2023.

In her final production as Chicago Shakespeare Theater artistic director, Barbara Gaines stages Shakespeare’s riotous The Comedy of Errors, imprinting her legacy of inventive and captivating interpretations of the Bard’s work for today’s audiences. Go inisde reheartsals with newly released photos and video of the company in action!

Mixed Blood Theatre presents the World Premiere of ANIMATE by Ken LaZebnik, performed at Como Park Zoo and Conservatory, September 17-26, 2021.

Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Robert Schenkkan has adapted the drama, 'The Investigation: A Search for the Truth in Ten Acts' from former special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's report.  This edited 80-minute version focuses primarily on Mueller's findings around whether President Trump obstructed justice. Artistic Directors and theatrical talent from throughout the Twin Cities are donating their time and imagination to bring this report alive.  The event is free and open to all.  Come participate in the shaping of our country's future.

Agatha Christie, the a?oeQueen of Mystery.a?? The numbers speak for themselves: best-selling novelist of all time (more than two billion sold), most-translated author (more than 100 languages), and author of the world's longest running play (THE MOUSETRAP has played in the West End since the year Queen Elizabeth II took the throne). Christie originated countless murder mystery tropes, and her formidable talent for weaving intricate plots shines in AND THEN THERE WERE NONE, her best-selling novel and the world's best-selling mystery. Adapted for the stage by the author herself in 1943, the iconic thriller is now playing at Drury Lane Theatre in an intriguing new production directed by Jessica Fisch.

Asolo Brings A Realistic Look at the Demise of Small Town America in Lynn Nottage's Pulitzer Prize Winning SWEAT

Asolo Repertory Theatre proudly presents the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Drama winner and Tony nominee for Best Play: SWEAT, penned by one of today's foremost playwrights, two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner Lynn Nottage. Directed by Nicole A. Watson, this poignant new drama humanizes the U.S. labor crisis and its impact on Reading, Pennsylvania. SWEAT previews February 6 and 7, opens February 8 and runs through April 13 in rotating repertory in the Mertz Theatre, located in the FSU Center for the Performing Arts. 

As usual, Mixed Blood Theatre is doing something pretty remarkable right now. They're presenting three plays in rep, all written by young black men. Under the umbrella 'Prescient Harbingers' (meaning: 'having or showing knowledge of events before they take place;' 'a person or thing that announces or signals the approach of another'), these three brilliant plays explore what it means to be a black man in America, directly or indirectly (one is even subtitled BEING BLACK FOR DUMMIES), along with commenting on race relations in America and more generally on modern life in America. Young black men are dying at an alarming rate, and these are voices we need to listen to if we ever hope to understand the problem so that we can stop it from happening. If you are a young black man, I can only imagine how validating it must feel to see these voices and these stories on stage. If you're not, I encourage you to go see one, two, or preferably all three of these plays with an open mind and an open heart. Listen, hear, laugh, cry, be disturbed, get angry, join the movement for justice and equality.

MATILDA may be losing some of its appeal as a children's story, especially when Children's Theatre of Charlotte makes it more realistic than the national tour that came to town just two years ago.

Playwright Aleshea Harris' play IS GOD IS, receiving just its second production at Minneapolis' Mixed Blood Theatre, is a revenge play. More than that, it's a revenge fantasy. Filled with the kind of vengeance that we don't resort to in real life because we're civilized people, but it sure is fun to think about. When you hear of a man who does horrible things to his wife and/or children, or even worse, experience it first hand, there's a part of the primal brain that wants to deliver an eye for an eye. This play is the cathartic fulfillment of those desires. It reminds me of the Dixie Chicks' song 'Goodbye Earl,' in which two friends conspire to kill the abusive husband of one of them. Critics cried - you're advocating violence and murder, how horrible! No - it's fiction, art, fantasy, metaphor, seeing an evil someone get what they deserve, if only in our imagination. Such is IS GOD IS, tenfold, in all its horrific yet somehow satisfying violence to avenge great hurts against one's self and loved ones.

Christopher Boone, a young man on the autism spectrum, sets out to investigate the bizarre death of a neighbor's dog, setting into motion a series of events that expose far greater mysteries.

Jean Mellor, a Queens, New York-based artist, has completed his new book 'Trapped But Free at Heart': an introspective and humbling story of a young black man who bites off more than he can chew and ends up at the mercy of a maniacal woman.

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival will open Quiara Alegria Hudes's The Happiest Song Plays Last, directed by Shishir Kurup tonight, July 11 in the Thomas Theatre. Preview performances are July 7, 9 and 10.

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival will open Quiara Alegria Hudes's The Happiest Song Plays Last, directed by Shishir Kurup, July 11 in the Thomas Theatre. Preview performances are July 7, 9 and 10.

It may take a few minutes for a viewer to get his bearings within the world of WATER BY THE SPOONFUL. The canvas laid out by playwright Quiara Alegria Hudes stretches from Puerto Rico to San Diego, from Philadelphia to Japan. Characters go by their chatroom handles, and their relationships to each other - even among family members who meet face to face - are complicated and are not immediately made clear.

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival will open Quiara Alegria Hudes's Water by the Spoonful, directed by Shishir Kurup, March 30 in the Thomas Theatre. Preview performances are tonight, March 26, March 28 and 29.

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival will open Quiara Alegria Hudes's Water by the Spoonful, directed by Shishir Kurup, March 30 in the Thomas Theatre. Preview performances are March 26, 28 and 29.

The Tony Award-winning Oregon Shakespeare Festival's 2014 preview performances begin tonight, February 14, and the season will open Friday night, February 21 in the Angus Bowmer Theatre with Shakespeare's The Tempest (director, Tony Taccone). On Saturday, Lorraine Hansberry's The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window (Juliette Carrillo) takes the stage, as does the classic Marx Brothers musical The Cocoanuts (David Ivers), and Sunday afternoon Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors (Kent Gash) opens in the Thomas Theatre.

The Tony Award-winning Oregon Shakespeare Festival's 2014 preview performances begin February 14, and the season will open Friday night, February 21 in the Angus Bowmer Theatre with Shakespeare's The Tempest (director, Tony Taccone). On Saturday, Lorraine Hansberry's The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window (Juliette Carrillo) takes the stage, as does the classic Marx Brothers musical The Cocoanuts (David Ivers), and Sunday afternoon Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors (Kent Gash) opens in the Thomas Theatre.