Leontyne Mbele-Mbong News

This summer, Free Shakespeare in the Park will become Free Shakespeare at Home as the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival transitions its public theater program to a virtual format. Offering live virtual performances of King Lear is the safest way to continue thirty-eight years of tradition in the face of the current pandemic.

The African-American Shakespeare Company will present Noël Coward's classic Private Lives, directed by Clay David for six performances only this April. This draws their 2019/20 season to a close, a season that has seen the company mount a much-praised Othello, their annual holiday Cinderella, and the dramatic satire The Trial of One Short-Sighted Black Woman vs. Mammy Louise and Safreeta Mae.

BWW Review: BULL IN A CHINA SHOP at Aurora Theatre dramatizes the love letters of early women's rights activist Mary Wooley, President of Mt. Holyoke 1901-1937.

Aurora Theatre Company will add five performances to its run of the Bay Area premiere of  Bryna Turner's BULL IN A CHINA SHOP, directed by Aurora Associate Artistic Director Dawn Monique Williams.

Aurora Theatre Company continues its dynamic 28th season with the Bay Area Premiere of Bryna Turner's BULL IN A CHINA SHOP. Newly appointed Associate Artistic Director Dawn Monique Williams will direct this romantic comedy about bravery and revolution at the height of the women's suffrage movement.

Word for Word and Z Space stage an atmospheric production of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's legendary Rime of the Ancient Mariner  with press nights of Friday and Saturday September 20 & 21 at 8pm running through October 12 (Previews Sept 11-19).

Word for Word and Z Space stage an atmospheric production of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's legendary Rime of the Ancient Mariner  with press nights of Friday and Saturday September 20 & 21 at 8pm running through October 12 (Previews Sept 11-19).  

Word for Word and Z Space stage an atmospheric production of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's legendary Rime of the Ancient Mariner  with press nights of Friday and Saturday September 20 & 21 at 8pm running through October 12 (Previews Sept 11-19).  Considered by some to be a green parable, this epic voyage is a tale of man's crime against nature, with the shooting of the magnificent albatross--and the havoc which nature wreaks in return.  Rime of the Ancient Mariner is directed by Jim Cave and Delia MacDougall with a cast that features Nathaniel Andalis, Lucas Brandt, Robert Ernst*, Darryl V. Jones, Leontyne Mbele-Mbong*, Earl Paus, Charles Shaw Robinson*, Patricia Silver* and Randall Wong. (*member AEA)

Word for Word's 2019 fall season features three events beginning in September with the premiere of an atmospheric production of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's legendary Rime of the Ancient Mariner running September 20- Oct 12 at the ZSpace mainstage.

Playwrights Foundation, the West Coast's premiere launchpad for exceptional emerging playwrights has named the artistic teams, actors and daily schedule for the 2019 Bay Area Playwrights Festival (BAPF). The 2019 Bay Area Playwrights Festival runs July 19-28, 2019 at Potrero Stage at the base of San Francisco's Potrero hill.

Word for Word and Z Space will stage an immersive production of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's legendary Rime of the Ancient Mariner  with a press night of Saturday September 21 at 8pm running through October 12 (Previews Sept 11-15, 18-20) .   Rime of the Ancient Mariner is to be directed by Jim Cave and Delia MacDougall with a cast that features Nathaniel Andalis, Lucas Brandt, Robert Ernst*, Darryl V. Jones, Leontyne Mbele-Mbong*, Earl Paus, Charles Shaw Robinson and Patricia Silver*. (*member AEA)

Closing their 2017/18 Season, African-American Shakespeare Company presents William Shakespeare's RICHARD III for the first time in its 24 year history. A play that explores the Machiavellian rise to power of one of Shakespeare's most fascinating and complex anti-heroes. Kirsten Brandt directs AASC Artistic Director L. Peter Callender as the unapologetic King you love to hate in a play that seems strikingly contemporary and omniscient given its commentary on and fascination with manipulation, power, family, and the right to rule.

Produced for the first time by African-American Shakespeare Company, the production will star the company's Artistic Director, L. Peter Callender as the King "you love to hate," in a role he has played once before in 2003; Director Kirsten Brandt makes her debut with AASC in the same play that marked her professional directorial debut in 2001; in a flip with tradition two male roles-Hastings and Buckingham-will be played by women in a play that freights one of Shakespeare's most memorable and oft-quoted opening lines: Now is the winter of our discontent

Berkeley Repertory Theatre presents Watch on the Rhine, Lillian Hellman's 1940s political thriller about loyalty, family, and sacrifice. The play, directed by Berkeley Rep's associate director Lisa Peterson, begins previews on Thursday, November 30, 2017 and runs through Sunday, January 14, 2018. Individual tickets begin at $30 and can be purchased online at berkeleyrep.org or by phone at 510 647-2949. Press night will be on Monday, December 4.

Following the most well attended season in the company's history, African-American Shakespeare Company (AASC) will expand back to four productions this season, beginning with A Midsummer Night's Dream (fittingly for San Francisco, coming in mid-September when the city's weather is at its warmest and most benevolent), set in the twin-island country of Tobago and Trinidad during Carnival.

Following the most well attended season in the company's history, African-American Shakespeare Company (AASC) will expand back to four productions this season, beginning with A Midsummer Night's Dream (fittingly for San Francisco, coming in mid-September when the city's weather is at its warmest and most benevolent), set in the twin-island country of Tobago and Trinidad during Carnival.

Aurora Theatre Company presents the U.S. Premiere of British playwright Steve Waters'(World Music, The Contingency Plan) hit play, TEMPLE. Aurora Artistic Director Tom Ross (Mud Blue Sky, A Bright New Boise, Edward Albee's A Delicate Balance) helms this thought-provoking new play, featuring Paul Whitworth, Sylvia Burboeck, J. Michael Flynn, Sharon Lockwood, Leontyne Mbele-Mbong, and Mike Ryan. TEMPLE plays April 14 through May 14 at the Aurora Theatre in Berkeley. For tickets and information the public can call (510) 843-4822 or visit auroratheatre.org.

New Conservatory Theatre Center continues its 35th Anniversary celebration in March, proudly presenting the world premiere of Jewelle Gomez's Leaving the Blues, an NCTC commissioned play with music imagining the life of legendary Blues singer-songwriter Alberta Hunter (1895-1984). In the new play by the celebrated Gilda Stories' author, Hunter is backstage preparing for a professional comeback, knowing just how many doors to the past it may open. Spanning 60 years, Leaving the Blues imagines a journey through the public life Hunter led as an African-American musician, the private life she hid as a lesbian, and the ghosts that won't let her forget.

Aurora Theatre Company presents the U.S. Premiere of British playwright Steve Waters' (World Music, The Contingency Plan) hit play, TEMPLE. On October 15, 2011, Occupy London made camp outside St Paul's Cathedral, one of the most famous, beloved, and recognizable institutions in London.

New Conservatory Theatre Center continues its 35th Anniversary celebration in March, proudly presenting the world premiere of Jewelle Gomez's Leaving the Blues, an NCTC commissioned play with music imagining the life of legendary Blues singer-songwriter Alberta Hunter (1895-1984). In the new play by the celebrated Gilda Stories' author, Hunter is backstage preparing for a professional comeback, knowing just how many doors to the past it may open. Spanning 60 years, Leaving the Blues imagines a journey through the public life Hunter led as an African-American musician, the private life she hid as a lesbian, and the ghosts that won't let her forget.