Glenda Jackson News

Independent Shakespeare Co. (ISC), producers of the Griffith Park Free Shakespeare Festival, presents A CHRISTMAS CAROL WITH CHARLES DICKENS.

The Geffen Playhouse presents Independent Shakespeare Co.'s production of A Christmas Carol with Charles Dickens, featuring David Melville as Charles Dickens, adapted by David Melville and Melissa Chalsma and directed by Melissa Chalsma. A Christmas Carol will have a single performance on Monday, December 1 at 7:00pm in the Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater at the Geffen Playhouse.

The Geffen Playhouse production of The Gospel According to Thomas Jefferson, Charles Dickens and Count Leo Tolstoy: Discord, is extending again, now through December 7. The production, in the Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater at the Geffen Playhouse, is written by Scott Carter, executive producer and writer for Bill Maher's Politically Incorrect and Real Time.

The Geffen Playhouse production of The Gospel According to Thomas Jefferson, Charles Dickens and Count Leo Tolstoy: Discord, is now performing at the Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater at the Geffen Playhouse. Written by Scott Carter, executive producer and writer for Bill Maher's Politically Incorrect and Real Time, this whip-smart philosophical comedy features Larry Cedar (Deadwood, PBS's Square One TV), David Melville (Travel Channel Lawrence of America, film Ironclad) and Armin Shimerman (Quark on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Associate Artistic Director at The Antaeus Company) and will be again helmed by director, Matt August (Broadway How the Grinch Stole Christmas). Due to popular demand, the production has extended now through November 23.

The Geffen Playhouse announces its production of The Gospel According to Thomas Jefferson, Charles Dickens and Count Leo Tolstoy: Discord. Written by Scott Carter, executive producer and writer for Bill Maher's Politically Incorrect and Real Time, this whip-smart philosophical comedy features Larry Cedar (Deadwood, PBS's Square One TV), David Melville (Travel Channel Lawrence of America, film Ironclad) and Armin Shimerman (Quark on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Associate Artistic Director at The Antaeus Company) and will be again helmed by director, Matt August (Broadway How the Grinch Stole Christmas). Discord began previews on October 7 with the press opening tonight, October 15. The closing date is currently scheduled for November 16.

The Geffen Playhouse announces its production of The Gospel According to Thomas Jefferson, Charles Dickens and Count Leo Tolstoy: Discord. Written by Scott Carter, executive producer and writer for Bill Maher's Politically Incorrect and Real Time, this whip-smart philosophical comedy features Larry Cedar (Deadwood, PBS's Square One TV), David Melville (Travel Channel Lawrence of America, film Ironclad) and Armin Shimerman (Quark on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Associate Artistic Director at The Antaeus Company) and will be again helmed by director, Matt August (Broadway How the Grinch Stole Christmas). Discord begins previews tonight, October 7 with the press opening on October 15. The closing date is currently scheduled for November 16.

The Geffen Playhouse announces its production of The Gospel According to Thomas Jefferson, Charles Dickens and Count Leo Tolstoy: Discord. Written by Scott Carter, executive producer and writer for Bill Maher's Politically Incorrect and Real Time, this whip-smart philosophical comedy features Larry Cedar (Deadwood, PBS's Square One TV), David Melville (Travel Channel Lawrence of America, film Ironclad) and Armin Shimerman (Quark on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Associate Artistic Director at The Antaeus Company) and will be again helmed by director, Matt August (Broadway How the Grinch Stole Christmas). Discord begins previews on October 7 with the press opening on October 15. The closing date is currently scheduled for November 16.

On the night of 28th May 1984 the best-loved comedian this country has ever produced died suddenly from a heart attack. Four years previously on Christmas Day 1977 The Morecambe and Wise Christmas Special attracted 28 million viewers - half the entire population of the UK at the time. In the thirty years since Eric Morecambe's untimely death his popularity has not waned. With numerous tribute programmes, TV re-runs and DVD releases, his work, as one half of Britain's most popular double act ever, has been kept alive and introduced to a whole new generation of fans. In 2014 to mark the thirtieth anniversary of Morecambe's passing a brand new production of the Olivier award winning West End play that celebrates the life of the man who played all the right notes but not necessarily in the right order, embarks on a major national tour.

Today we are shining a spotlight on one of the most respected and revered stage and screen stars of the last several decades who is known the world over for not only his stirring and commanding dramatic performances and touching and rib-tickling comedies on film, but also for his iconic roles on the stage playing Shakespeare, performing in straight drama and also musicals - and, perhaps, beloved most of all for his essaying of Captain Von Trapp in the celebrated Robert Wise film adaptation of Rodgers & Hammerstein's Tony Award-winning THE SOUND OF MUSIC - the elegant, graceful and eminently gifted Christopher Plummer.

The concept of existence or philosophy as it is formally known has long been in the collective minds of humanity throughout the ages. And throughout the centuries, great minds such as Confucius, Socrates and Rene Descartes have contributed much to the collective human wisdom. In the 'Origin of the Centered Self?' author Glenda Jackson wishes to contribute her own thoughts and ideas in the age old search for the truth.

TACT/The Actors Company Theatre (Scott Alan Evans, Cynthia Harris and Jenn Thompson, Co-Artistic Directors), the critically-acclaimed company 'dedicated to presenting neglected or rarely produced plays of literary merit,' and named 'Company of the Year' by Terry Teachout of The Wall Street Journal, is pleased to announce the cast and creative team for Beyond Therapy, the hilarious comedy by Christopher Durang, the modern master of the outrageous and absurd (and recipient of the 2013 'Best Play' Tony Award for Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike). The spring production of the company's 21st Season directed by TACT Co-Artistic Director Scott Alan Evans will begin performances at Theatre Row'sBeckett Theatre (410 West 42nd Street - between 9th & 10th Avenues) on Tuesday, March 11, 2014. Opening night is set for Tuesday, March 25 at 7:30 p.m. Performances will continue through April 19, 2014.

On the night of 28th May 1984 the best-loved comedian this country has ever produced died suddenly from a heart attack. Four years previously on Christmas Day 1977 The Morecambe and Wise Christmas Special attracted 28 million viewers - half the entire population of the UK at the time. In the thirty years since Eric Morecambe's untimely death his popularity has not waned. With numerous tribute programmes, TV re-runs and DVD releases, his work, as one half of Britain's most popular double act ever, has been kept alive and introduced to a whole new generation of fans. In 2014 to mark the thirtieth anniversary of Morecambe's passing a brand new production of the Olivier award winning West End play that celebrates the life of the man who played all the right notes but not necessarily in the right order, embarks on a major national tour.

Gary Naylor sees a music / comedy / performance art version of Oedipus Rex - oh yes he does!

Patrick will play a special One Night Only performance on Friday, September 27th, 2013 @ 8pm at Spirit Studio (3711 Evans Street Silverlake, CA 90027). Tickets are $15 and available at robertpatrick.brownpapertickets.com.

Gary Naylor enjoys a disastrous play about a disastrous play.

If you haven't had the chance to catch up on your theater news, look no further than today's recap of all things theater - exclusive features, interviews, reviews and more! - around the Broadway World for the week of April 15!

Today we are concluding our two-part look at the life and career of legendary stage and screen icon Christopher Plummer by focusing on some of the finest films, television and filmed stage performances of his career thus far, as we anticipate the nationwide release of his newest stage and screen venture, the cinematic presentation of his recent turn as Prospero at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Des McAnuff's THE TEMPEST, presented by Fathom-equipped movie theaters on June 13, followed by a Q&A with Plummer. From his stage debut in the late-1940s through to his spectacular screen career begun with Sidney Lumet's STAGE STRUCK in 1958, in this career-spanning clip collection we will be sampling many of the most memorable and most notable projects from a rich resume ranging from almost every major male role in the canon of Shakespeare - AS YOU LIKE IT to THE WINTER'S TALE - to the work of Lilian Hellman, Bertolt Brecht, Henrik Ibsen, Anton Chekhov and Peter Shaffer to Rodgers & Hammerstein's THE SOUND OF MUSIC on film to the Tony Award-winning Anthony Burgess musical adaptation of CYRANO onstage, to TV's THE THORN BIRDS and ON GOLDEN POND all the way to last year's double-header of brilliance in both David Fincher's THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGTON TATTOO and BEGINNERS, the latter being the part for which Plummer finally received a Best Actor Academy Award. Of course, besides his well-earned Oscar, Plummer has amassed many other top honors over the course of his sixty-year-career, as well - two Tony Awards (for CYRANO, a musical, and BARRYMORE, a two-person mostly monologue); a Golden Globe; two Emmy Awards; a SAG Award; a Genie; the list goes on and on… as does Christopher Plummer's reputable and riveting career.

Today we are shining a light on one of the most respected and revered stage and screen stars of the last several decades who is known the world over for not only his stirring and commanding dramatic performances and touching and rib-tickling comedies on film, but also for his iconic roles on the stage playing Shakespeare, and, perhaps most of all, for his essaying of Captain Von Trapp in the celebrated Robert Wise film adaptation of Rodgers & Hammerstein's Tony Award-winning THE SOUND OF MUSIC - the elegant, graceful and eminently gifted Christopher Plummer. Looking back at a career spanning nearly seven decades, today we will focus on Plummer's most important and most fondly remembered roles to date - ranging from Sidney Lumet's STAGE STRUCK in 1958 to his Shakespeare stage work, THE SOUND OF MUSIC, THE RETURN OF THE PINK PANTHER, TV's THE THORN BIRDS, and, of course, his Academy Award-winning turn in last year's BEGINNERS - with a look ahead to the exceptionally enticing new Fathom in-cinema presentation of Des McAnuff's Stratford Shakespeare Festival production of THE TEMPEST starring Plummer as Prospero, in movie theaters nationwide on June 14 - what the 83-year-old actor has promised will be his final Shakespeare performance onstage. So, if there were ever a time to take a look back at one of the most remarkable Broadway/Hollywood crossover stars of the last century or the current one as he reaches yet another peek in a career populated with many highs, now is certainly the time! After all, as the oldest Oscar-winner to date, a midsummer night's dream has evidently quite quickly turned to a winter's tale - but with sound and fury signifying much, as we will see.

ZOE CALDWELL has been entertaining audiences as a cold-hearted Upper East Side matron in David Adjmi's intimateElective Affinitives. Meanwhile she has been seen as an affectionate grandmother in Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, one of this year's Academy Award nominees for Best Picture. Caldwell has earned four Tony Awards, most recently as Maria Callas in Terrence McNally's Master Class. She has portrayed such heroines as Lady Macbeth and Medea, not to mention Lillian Hellman and Miss Jean Brodie, and she has worked with such legends as Dame Judith Anderson, Dame Edith Evans, Sir Tyrone Guthrie, Charles Laughton, and Paul Robeson. She has also directed stars such as Eileen Atkins, Glenda Jackson, James Earl Jones, Christopher Plummer, and Vanessa Redgrave. Caldwell is now writing a sequel to I Will Be Cleopatra, a memoir about her early years in Australia, and she'll share a few highlights from her most memorable encounters with Shakespeare with President of the Shakespeare Guild, JOHN ANDREWS, OBE. and answer questions from the audience.

ZOE CALDWELL has been entertaining audiences as a cold-hearted Upper East Side matron in David Adjmi's intimateElective Affinitives. Meanwhile she has been seen as an affectionate grandmother in Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, one of this year's Academy Award nominees for Best Picture. Caldwell has earned four Tony Awards, most recently as Maria Callas in Terrence McNally's Master Class. She has portrayed such heroines as Lady Macbeth and Medea, not to mention Lillian Hellman and Miss Jean Brodie, and she has worked with such legends as Dame Judith Anderson, Dame Edith Evans, Sir Tyrone Guthrie, Charles Laughton, and Paul Robeson. She has also directed stars such as Eileen Atkins, Glenda Jackson, James Earl Jones, Christopher Plummer, and Vanessa Redgrave. Caldwell is now writing a sequel to I Will Be Cleopatra, a memoir about her early years in Australia, and she'll share a few highlights from her most memorable encounters with Shakespeare with President of the Shakespeare Guild, JOHN ANDREWS, OBE. and answer questions from the audience.