Lisa Banes News

The Acting Company has announced the return of The Louanna O. Carlin & John MacDonald Reading Series with Kia Corthron’s Sam’s Coming, which will receive a public reading on Monday, April 18 at 7:30 PM at The Mainstage Theater (416 West 42nd Street).

The NYPD has made an arrest in the tragic hit and run incident that took the life of actress Lisa Banes on June 4.

Today's top stories: Watch the new music video from Christy Altomare, The Avett Brothers perform the title song from their new musical Swept Away, and more!

Banes was on her way to meet her wife for a dinner party at a friend's home near Lincoln Center when someone on a scooter or motor bike hit her and then fled. Police say that Banes was in the crosswalk and had the right of way.

Stage and screen actress Lisa Banes is currently in critical condition after a hit-and-run accident in New York City this week. Banes, 65, was on her way to meet her wife for a dinner party at a friend's home near Lincoln Center on Friday evening when someone on a scooter or motor bike hit her and then fled.

Manhattan Theatre Club has announced the premiere of a special new adaptation of The Niceties written directly for the virtual stage by Eleanor Burgess and directed by Kimberly Senior, streaming on demand from Thursday, May 27 through Sunday, June 13 only in association with The Huntington.

The Acting Company today announces they will celebrate the holiday season with a virtual benefit performance of songs, readings, holiday traditions, and hijinks that will feature alumni and friends of the company.

The Acting Company (Ian Belknap, Artistic Director; Margot Harley, Founder) today announces they will celebrate the holiday season with a virtual benefit performance of songs, readings, holiday traditions, and hijinks that will feature alumni and friends of the company. 

Neil Simon's classical farce, Rumors runs June 14-29 at Arena Dinner Theatre. The play, directed by Jordan Plohr, will conclude Arena Dinner Theatre's 2018-19 season.

Directed with finesse by Kimberly Senior, THE NICETIES features Lisa Banes as the liberal, white professor Janine, and Jordan Boatman as the ambitious young black student Zoe, who become involved in a polite clash of perspectives that quickly explodes into an urgent and dangerous debate threatening to ruin both their lives. We first meet the two opinionated and obviously brilliant women in Janine's somewhat cramped office, with its slanted ceiling (thanks to scenic designer Cameron Anderson) indicating her top floor status in the department. Posters of great political leaders from all sides, including George Washington, Lech Wa??sa, Nelson Mandela, Emiliano Zapata, and female Suffragettes, adorn her office walls with books about other leaders and revolutionaries scattered around the place. Certainly, all appearances indicate Jeanine is the type of open-minded teacher every student would want to instruct them about American History. Right?

BroadwayWorld presents a comprehensive weekly roundup of regional stories around our Broadway World, which include videos, editor spotlights, regional reviews and more. This week, we feature Jenn Colella in PETER PAN, Patti LuPone, DEAR EVAN HANSEN London, and More!

At an elite East Coast university, an ambitious young black student (Jordan Boatman) and her esteemed white professor (Lisa Banes) meet to discuss a paper the college junior is writing about the American Revolution. They're both liberal. They're both women. They're both brilliant. But very quickly, discussions of grammar and Google turn to race and reputation, and before they know it, they're in dangerous territory neither of them had foreseen - and facing stunning implications that can't be undone, threatening to ruin both their lives.

Playwright Eleanor Burgess' latest work THE NICETIES receives its west coast premiere at the Geffen Playhouse beginning April 9, 2019. THE NICETIES charts the escalating series of calm-to-volatile discourses between a university college professor and her brilliant student on history, race and reputation. Eleanor, a Huntington Playwright Fellow, carved out some time to answer a few of my inquisitive inquiries on her writing processes, while touching on some of her professional milestones.

Global Creatures' Broadway-bound Moulin Rouge and the Huntington Theatre Company's production of Man in the Ring were the big winners at the 23rd Annual IRNE Awards, as the two productions garnered a dozen awards between them. Moulin Rouge took home seven awards, including Best Musical, New Musical and Director in the Large Stage category, and Man in the Ring was honored with five, including the Best Play, Director, and Actor awards. Moonbox Productions' Cabaret earned a half-dozen awards, including Best Musical, and Best Director and Choreography awards for its director, Rachel Bertone.  Lauren Patten of JAGGED LITTLE PILL took home the award for Best Supporting Actress for a Large Company.

At an elite East Coast university, an ambitious young black student (Jordan Boatman) and her esteemed white professor (Lisa Banes) meet to discuss a paper the college junior is writing about the American Revolution. They're both liberal. They're both women. They're both brilliant. But very quickly, discussions of grammar and Google turn to race and reputation, and before they know it, they're in dangerous territory neither of them had foreseen - and facing stunning implications that can't be undone, threatening to ruin both their lives.

The Independent Reviewers of New England (IRNE) today announced the nominees for the 23rd Annual IRNE Awards, which honor the best of the previous year's actors, directors, choreographers, designers and companies across the full spectrum of large, mid-size and fringe theater companies. Moulin Rouge!, a new musical produced by Global Creatures, and An American in Paris, produced by the Ogunquit Playhouse, led with 12 and 11 nominations, respectively, in the Large Stage Musical Category. The Huntington Theatre led all companies with 31 nominations across seven productions, including 11 for Man in the Ring, the story of six-time world champion prizefighter Emile Griffith.

Geffen Playhouse will present the West Coast premiere of The Niceties, it was announced today, written by Eleanor Burgess (Chill, Start Down) and directed by Kimberly Senior (Disgraced, Career Suicide). This world premiere production of The Niceties is currently running at McCarter Theatre Center in New Jersey, and replaces Antigone on the Geffen Playhouse 2018/2019 season lineup.

After sparking thousands of conversations about race, history, and power in Boston and New York, the world-premiere production of Eleanor Burgess' The Niceties will run at McCarter Theatre Center from January 11 through February 10. Directed byKimberly Senior (Disgraced on Broadway), The Niceties features Lisa Banes and Jordan Boatman as a white professor and a black student involved in a polite clash of perspectives which quickly explodes into an urgent and dangerous debate threatening to ruin both their lives. "Scintillating," raves Peter Marks in The Washington Post. "The story of America, it seems, is destined to be wrestled over to the bitter end."

Manhattan Theatre Club's world premiere of India Pale Ale, written by Jaclyn Backhaus and directed by Will Davis, and New York premiere of The Niceties, written by Eleanor Burgess and directed by Kimberly Senior, are now playing their final two weeks of performances. Both plays must close on Sunday, November 18th atMTC's New York City Center - Stage I and Stage II (131 West 55th Street).

"You're more afraid of looking like a racist than you are of being a racist," an African-American college student surmises when her white professor reacts with panic when it becomes clear that she intends to go public on social media with the content of the conversation they just had.