Playwright Lynn Nottage Wins Her 2nd Pulitzer Prize for SWEAT

The 2017 Pulitzer Prizes were announced yesterday, including three awards -- for international reporting on Vladimir Putin and Russia's criminal tactics to wield influence in other countries, C. J. Chivers' feature writing about a Viet Nam vet caught up in the legal system, and freelance photographer Daniel Berehulak's breaking news photography of a Chicago mother and son -- to The New York Times; a Pulitzer in national reporting to David A. Fahrenthold of The Washington Post for his stories on Donald Trump's shady use of his own charities; an award to the New York Daily News and ProPublica in the public service category for Sarah Ryley's stories on eviction abuses; and an editorial writing prize to Art Cullen of the tiny Storm Lake Gazette in Storm Lake, Iowa.

Theatre critic Hilton Als of The New Yorker was also singled out for his "bold and original reviews," including his pieces on bullies and pop psychology in Dear Evan Hansen, two looks at the "maddening sexist, racist, restless, complicated, and important dramas" of Eugene O'Neill, and "Gay Reflections, Onstage" in four very different theatrical pieces.When congratulating Als on his prize, The New Yorker's twitter account linked to a beautiful musing he wrote on the movie Moonlight, showcasing the lyrical style and deft analysis that characterizes Als' writing.

On the "Letters, Drama & Music" side of the Pulitzer equation, Colson Whitehead won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for The Underground Railroad, "a smart melding of realism and allegory that combines the violence of slavery and the drama of escape in a myth that speaks to contemporary America." Whitehead's National Book Award winning novel creates a physical railway, with tracks and tunnels underneath American soil, taking former slave Cora from state to state, from one abomination to the next, one step ahead of dangerous slave catchers, as she tries to escape to both metaphorical and actual freedom.

And in my favorite category, Drama, Lynn Nottage, who happens to be one of my favorite playwrights, has won her second Pulitzer Prize, this time for Sweat, her "nuanced yet powerful drama that reminds audiences of the stacked deck still facing workers searching for the American dream." Nottage is the first woman playwright to receive the Pulitzer twice.

Lynn Nottage

Sweat was commissioned by the Oregon Shakespeare Festival as part of its United States History Cycle. After the Oregon production and a run at Arena Stage in Washington DC, Sweat moved to New York's Public Theater, where it was popular enough to be extended three times. The accolades the play received, including the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, earned Nottage her first trip to Broadway at the same time Paula Vogel, another Pulitzer winner, made it with her play Indecent. Plays written by female playwrights on Broadway are enough of a rarity that The New York Times interviewed both Nottage and Vogel about the phenomenon.

The Public Theater production of Sweat, directed by Kate Whoriskey, moved to Broadway's Studio 54, where it opened in previews March 4, 2017. Its official opening was March 26.

For more information on all of this year's Pulitzer Prize winners, check out the Pulitzer site here.

Finalists Announced for Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award

The American Theatre Critics Association has announced the six finalist plays for this year's Harold and Mimi Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award. This award recognizes the playwrights whose scripts were deemed the best among plays that premiered professionally outside New York City during the previous year.

This 2016 finalists are Steven Dietz for Bloomsday, Samuel D. Hunter for Clarkston, Jen Silverman for The Dangerous House of Pretty Mbane, Jonathan Norton for Mississippi Goddamn, Lynn Nottage for Sweat, and Qui Nguyen for Vietgone. ATCA offers more detail on the plays:

BLOOMSDAY by Steven Dietz

"Tender, beautiful, and heartbreaking," said one panelist about Dietz's tale of four – well, actually two – characters meeting on the streets of Dublin. A brief encounter between Cathleen, a guide on a tour of locations from James Joyce's Ulysses, and Robbie, an American who never read the book, is complicated and enhanced by visits from their 35-years-later selves. Yes, we've all seen what-might-have-been stories on stage, but in the words of other panelists, this "artful and elegant," "lovely and thoughtful" play with its "slightly supernatural sparkle" had an ending that's "a genuine epiphany."

Bloomsday premiered at ACT Theatre in Seattle.

CLARKSTON by Samuel D. Hunter

"Deftly entwining a love story with a classic tale," according to one panelist, Clarkston, set in a nondescript town in eastern Washington, "expresses the sorrows and yearnings of working class people who have heavy burdens and few options." It's about the bridging of a divide between a pair of Costco employees, one seriously ill. Although one is a distant relationship of Meriwether Lewis, these two are on very different journeys of discovery in this story that is "told simply with no razzmatazz, just quiet power and characters you care about," a panelist commented.

Clarkston premiered at Dallas Theater Center.

THE DANGEROUS HOUSE OF PRETTY MBANE by Jen Silverman

A soccer star is drawn back home in search of her lover, who runs a safe house for women, in this "smart, stunning, excellent" play. It is, according to one panelist, "an illuminating political play that uses memorable, flawed characters to tell a powerful and personal story." Another added that the play is "an assured, fascinating window into the abuse of women in South Africa, but also much more – a lyrical love story, a probe of how media can help and hurt when drawing attention to violence, the conundrum of deciding whether to live in a foreign country where you can be safe and prosper or remain at your own peril in your tumultuous native land."

The Dangerous House of Pretty Mbane premiered at Philadelphia's InterAct Theatre.

MISSISSIPPI GODDAMN by Jonathan Norton

Norton takes us to the house next door to Civil Rights leader Medgar Evers in this drama about a family making tough decisions in a tumultuous time. "He may have used Nina Simone's song as his title, but the play's content isn't borrowed at all," one panelist commented. Others added that the "fast-moving, dramatic, and revelatory" play with a "truly explosive, molten core" includes "nothing PC or sentimental." The play has, according to another, "a raw quality that actually benefits the tense 'desperate hours' scenario of neighbors and families divided by the insidious pressures of racism."

Mississippi Goddamn premiered at the South Dallas Cultural Center.

SWEAT by Lynn Nottage

Disappearing jobs impact a group of friends in a play that features "great storytelling" with "a rich gallery of characters" and "a compelling story arc," according to panelists. In the great tradition of bar-set plays, “One could say Sweat is about the ways the national economy is shifting away from manufacturing jobs. One could also say it's about parents and children, about how skin color separates in ways we can't/don't often articulate, and about how business decisions made by unseen people in power can destroy lives." It's "an extraordinary play" that "grabs at the beginning and packs a wallop in the end."

Sweat premiered at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

VIETGONE by Qui Nguyen

"A sexy comedy about culture-shocked, grieving Vietnamese refugees who fled to the U.S. after the fall of Saigon? Where everyone is really speaking Vietnamese, but we're hearing it as slangy, cheeky English? I marveled at what this playwright was bringing off," commented one panelist about Vietgone, a very entertaining, fresh tale that slyly reveals its darker contours." Others noted that the play offers "a vivid, specific voice, a wonderful sense of humor and compelling stakes" and that Nguyen "does great things with fine sensibility, language and structure, along with the right mix of lunacy" in style that "is as fresh as the content."

Vietgone premiered at South Coast Repertory.

The top award of $25,000 and two citations of $7,500 each will be presented April 9th at Actors Theatre of Louisville during the Humana Festival of New American Plays. With that $40,000 pool of prizes, the Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award is the largest national new play award program.

ATCA has honored new plays produced at regional theaters outside New York City since 1977, with the idea that plays performed in New York are eligible for many more awards than those produced regionally, and a spotlight should be given to those plays in the latter group. No play is eligible for the Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award if it has gone on to a New York production within the award year. Since 2000, the award has been generously funded by the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust.

Last year the top prize went to Rebecca Gilman for her play Luna Gale. with citations to Lucas Hnath for The Christians and Nathan Alan Davis for Dontrell, Who Kissed the Sea. Previous recipients include Adrienne Kennedy, Craig Lucas, Arthur Miller, Marsha Norman, Robert Schenkkan, August Wilson and Lanford Wilson. For a list of all the winners and citation recipients from 1997 to 2014, click here.

Playwright Lynn Nottage Wins 2016 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for SWEAT

Playwright Lynn Nottage, represented on area stages with last fall's Intimate Apparel at Heartland Theatre, By the Way, Meet Vera Stark the previous year at Illinois State University, and New Route Theatre's productions of Fabulation, or the Re-Education of Ondine, has won this year's Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for her play Sweat.

Sweat was co-commissioned by the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and Washington DC's Arena Stage. It involves a group of friends in Reading, Pennysylvania, America's poorest town, a place where the factory jobs that built the town are disappearing and once-mighty unions are now powerless to protect anybody. When rumors of layoffs at the plant begin, the bonds of friendship and the larger sense of community begin to break into pieces.

In his New York Times review of the Oregon production, Charles Isherwood said, "From first moments to last, this compassionate but cleareyed play throbs with heartfelt life, with characters as complicated as any you’ll encounter at the theater today, and with a nifty ticking time bomb of a plot. That the people onstage are middle-class or lower-middle-class folks — too rarely given ample time on American stages — makes the play all the more vital a contribution to contemporary drama."

Nottage's plays have been performed all over the world, with a production of Ruined in Brazil just last month. She is the recipient of a MacArthur "Genius" Grant Fellowship and she has won the Pulitzer Prize (for her play Ruined), the ATCA/Steinberg New Play Award (Intimate Apparel), as well as multiple Obies and Drama Desk Awards, and she was a finalist for the Blackburn Prize in 1998 (Mud, River, Stone) and 2009 (Ruined). Like many playwrights, she also teaches; she is a member of the faculty at the Yale School of Drama and an Associate Professor in the Theatre Department at Columbia School of the Arts.

The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize was established in 1978 to recognize women who have written works of outstanding quality for the English-speaking theatre. It is awarded annually, with a $25,000 prize to the winner, a possible Special Commendation of $10,000, and other finalists awarded $5,000 each. The winner also receives a signed and numbered Willem de Kooning print (seen at right) which was created especially for the Susan Smith Blackburn award.

The Blackburn Prize site describes the process this way: "Each year, a specified list of professional theatres throughout the English-speaking world is invited to submit plays for consideration."

They add, "Our permanent list of Finalists, numbering well over 300 plays, has become an important resource for theatres interested in new work. As a direct result of being Finalists, many playwrights have received productions, grants and public recognition. The Prize has motivated women to write for the theatre, and has also fostered the interchange of plays between the United States and Britain, Ireland and other English-speaking countries. It has anticipated later recognition. Eight Finalists have subsequently won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize is now firmly established as a highly regarded international competition. There is every indication that it will continue to grow."

This year's finalists included Americans Sarah Burgess for her play Dry Powder; Rachel Cusk for Medea; Sarah DeLappe for The Wolves, Dominique Morisseau for Skeleton Crew; and Suzan-Lori Parks for Father Comes Home From the Wars (Parts 1, 2 and 3), along with British playwrights Sam Holcroft for Rules for Living, Anna Jordan for Yen, and Bea Roberts for And Then Come the Nightjars; and Irish playwright Noni Stapleton for Charolais.

Lynn Nottage's INTIMATE APPAREL Opens Tomorrow at Heartland

If you saw By the Way, Meet Vera Stark last year at Illinois State University, you know that playwright Lynn Nottage + director Don LaCasse + actor Faith Servant adds up to some fine theatre. The team is back, this time at Heartland Theatre, with Intimate Apparel, a different kind of Nottage play.

Nottage won the Pulitzer Prize, for Ruined, her emotional and dramatic look at women abused and "ruined" by war in the Congo, plus a Guggenheim fellowship and a MacArthur "genius" grant, along with a host of other awards and fellowships. Her voice as a playwright is distinctive but also versatile, ranging from the Alice Down the Rabbit Hole modern-day stylings of Fabulation, or the Re-Education of Undine, produced locally by New Route Theatre; Crumbs from the Table of Joy, a family drama set in the 1950s that has been compared to The Glass Menagerie and A Raisin in the Sun; the afore-mentioned Vera Stark, a fun and irreverent look at what it meant to be black and talented in Old Hollywood; and Intimate Apparel, probably her most-produced play, which focuses on an African-American woman in a different historical period.

Intimate Apparel's Off-Broadway production at the Roundabout Theatre starred Viola Davis and took home Obie, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for Davis, with another Outer Critics Circle win for the play itself, an Obie for Derek McLane's set, Lucille Lortel Awards for set and costumes, and a half dozen nominations in other categories.

Its action is set in 1905, a time when a talented seamstress like Esther -- more of an artist than a tradeswoman when it comes to the beautiful lingerie she creates -- can scratch out a small place for herself in New York City, even as she cruises past the far side of 30 unmarried and on her own. Yes, the lace and silk confections she sews are popular with both sides of the street, with white society ladies and juke-joint African-American women alike. But Esther wants more than dressing up other people in sexy underthings. She wants love, romance, intimacy... Maybe even the respectable marriage her landlady keeps pushing.

In Nottage's script, Esther comes into contact with people outside her own small circle, from a sympathetic fabric merchant who happens to be an Orthodox Jew, an African-American prostitute, a wealthy white woman trapped in a stultifying marriage, and a pen pal halfway across the world. The pen pal, a working man in Barbados who's worked on the Panama Canal, is the source of much of Intimate Apparel's drama. Is he the man Esther sees in his letters? Can he be what she needs?

For director Don LaCasse, Faith Servant, a third-year MFA candidate in acting at ISU, will take on Esther. Servant played the glamorous maid-turned-actress Vera Stark last year; Esther Mills is more real, less sparkly, but definitely a showcase for an actress. The rest of the cast is equally strong, with some of Bloomington-Normal's best actors, including Fania Bourn, seen last year in New Route Theatre's powerful production of The Mountaintop; Rhys Lovell, Heartland's Artistic Director who can always be counted on for first-rate performances; Elante Richardson, seen on stage at ISU in Happy Endings and Day of Absence; Jennifer Rusk, who made a vivid impression in Community Players' Hairspray and as Eliza Esque with Illinois Voices Theatre; and Megan Tennis, who went from ISU's Pride and Prejudice last spring to Brighton Beach Memoirs a few months ago.

Rusk will portray Mrs. Dickson, Esther's respectable landlady and confidante, with Bourn as Mayme, a prostitute who buys garments from Esther, Tennis as Mrs. Van Buren, Mayme's society counterpart, Lovell as Mr. Marks, the Jewish merchant, and Richardson as George, the mystery man from Barbados.

Intimate Apparel is a beautiful play -- a real standout even on Lynn Nottage's outstanding resume -- and its issues of aspiration, longing and loneliness should resonate with almost everyone. If you'd like to read more about Nottage, try this piece in The Guardian or this Interval interview. 

Intimate Apparel opens tomorrow night at Heartland Theatre with a special 7:30 pm "Pay What You Can Preview," followed by evening performances on November 6 and 7; 12, 13 and 14; and 19, 20 and 21; and matinees at 2 pm on November 15 and 22. For reservation information, click here. For a list of performance dates and times, click here.

Celebrating the Year of the Female Playwright in B-N in 2014

There has been a lot of controversy about the lack of representation for female playwrights on American stages. I don't know if it was on purpose or just a happy accident, but Bloomington-Normal knocked it out of the park when it came to showcasing the work of female playwrights in 2014. From The Diary of Anne Frank back in January to Falling by Deanna Jent, which closed just before Thanksgiving, from stories told in ten minutes to one acts and full-length plays, we had a chance to see -- right here in Bloomington-Normal -- 21 different plays written by women, two plays co-written by women, and three musicals with music, lyrics or books written or co-written by women.

Last spring, Illinois State University gave us Diana Son's Stop Kiss, directed by Leah Cassella for Westhoff Theatre, followed by Exonerated, a "true crime" documentary piece written by Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen and directed by Cyndee Brown, and Mrs. Packard, a look at a particularly dark moment in women's history written by Emily Mann and directed by Vanessa Stalling for ISU's Center for the Performing Arts.

This fall, ISU came back with In the Next Room (or the Vibrator Play) by Sarah Ruhl, directed by David Ian Lee for the CPA, with an amazing set design by Jen Kazmierczak; Water by the Spoonful, Quiara Alegria Hudes's 2012 Pulitzer Prize winner, directed by Cassella in Westhoff; and By the Way, Meet Vera Stark, from Lynn Nottage, another Pulitzer winner, directed by Don LaCasse for the CPA.

Over at Heartland, the April play was Iron, by Scottish playwright Rona Munro, a searing look at a daughter trying to reconnect with the mother she can't remember, a mother who is in prison for killing Dad fifteen years ago. Claire BonEnfant, Nancy Halper and Brigitte Viellieu-Davis won slots in Heartland's 10-Minute Play Festival, while Lori Matthews and Pamela Devon Lovell wrote winning one-acts produced as New Plays from the Heartland. And this fall, Heartland staged Julia Cho's The Language Archive, directed by Kathleen Kirk, and Deanna Jent's Falling, directed by Lori Adams, who had also directed the play in its St. Louis premiere and its off-Broadway transfer. Jent's intensely personal play was a shot right to the heart of playgoers.

New Route Theatre continued its mission to showcase underrepresented voices by bringing back The Mountaintop, Katori Hall's play about the last night in the life of Martin Luther King, and then offering Johnna Adams' mother/teacher showdown Gidion's Knot; Full Bloom, a reunion play by Leola Bellamy, Erica Thurman's Flashbacks; and Walking with My Ancestors, a journey into the past told in song, dance and the spoken word, written by ISU professor Ama Oforiwaa Aduonu.

Community Players brought us The Diary of Anne Frank, an adaptation of Anne's own words for the stage originally written by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett and updated by Wendy Kesselman; the musical 9 to 5, with music and lyrics by Dolly Parton and book by Patricia Resnick, and Shrek: The Musical, with music by Jeanine Tesori and lyrics and book by David Lindsay-Abaire.

Illinois Wesleyan University offered 12 Ophelias by Caridad Svich and The Drowsy Chaperone, a delightful 1920s musical spoof with music and lyrics co-written by Lisa Lambert and Greg Morrison.

The newest theatrical venture in town, the bar plays called Sticky in the Sticks, also featured work by women, in the tradition of Sticky founder Libby Emmons. The Normal version of Sticky gave us pieces by Emmons herself as well as Jeanine Jones in its December show.

All in all, it was a very good year.  More than two dozen different women with very different voices, all represented on stages in our home town.

The work isn't done, of course. It seems unlikely this will happen two years in a row, let alone three or four. But for now, for Bloomington-Normal in 2014, we can congratulate ourselves on quietly, happily getting it done. Here's to moe of the same in 2015!

A Playwright and a Movie Star in Normal: BY THE WAY, MEET VERA STARK at ISU

By the Way, Meet Vera Stark, opening tomorrow night at Illinois State University's Center for the Performing Arts, is part of a pleasantly female-playwright-centric season launched this fall by ISU's Department of Theatre and Dance. With Sarah Ruhl and Quiara Alegria Hudes already represented this season with In the Next Room (or the Vibrator Play) and Water by the Spoonful, putting Lynn Nottage and By the Way, Meet Vera Stark on the bill seems like a perfect progression.

In case you're keeping track, Ruhl was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for The Clean House in 2005 and again for In the Next Room in 2010, and Hudes was a Pulitzer finalist for Elliot, a Soldier's Fugue in 2007 and for the the book she co-wrote with Lin-Manuel Miranda for the musical In the Heights in 2009, picking up the win for Water by the Spoonful in 2012. Nottage edged out Hudes in 2009, taking home the coveted Pulitzer for Ruined. Ruhl and Nottage have also been awarded MacArthur Fellowships (sometimes called Genius Grants), Ruhl owns a Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, and Nottage took home a Guggenheim Fellowship. What's interesting about the pile of hardware is not that it was accumulated by female playwrights, but that the body of work it represents is so eclectic, combining comedy and drama with issues of war, family, gender, sexuality, love, career and ambition.

By the Way, Meet Vera Stark is satirical, amusing piece, looking into the mysterious history of a black actress in Old Hollywood. While she dreams of breaking into the movies in the early 30s, Vera is employed as a ladies' maid by a neurotic diva named Gloria Mitchell who has the reputation of being "America's Little Sweetie Pie." When a role (as a slave) is available in a melodrama where Gloria is playing a quintessential Southern belle, Vera jumps at the chance to get on screen. Yes, it's a slave. But it's a slave with lines. And even in a small role, Vera stands out. In fact, she is incandescent and unforgettable on screen, whether or not she is limited to the maids and mammy roles available to someone like her.

Vera achieves a certain level of stardom, but her story isn't happily-ever-after. By the 70s, she has disappeared from the screen, leaving a panel of scholars in Meet Vera Stark's second act to debate what happened to her and what kind of footnote to movie history she represents.

Don LaCasse directs Vera Stark for ISU, with MFA actress Faith Servant as Vera, Mary DeWitt as Gloria Mitchell, Brianna Haskell and Gabrielle Lott-Rogers as Vera's wannabe actress friends, Dan Machalinski and Wesley Tilford as major players in the film industry, and La'Mar Hawkins as a romantic interest. When the action jumps forward, Haskell, Hawkins, Lott-Rogers, Machalinski and Tilford play the academics and TV talking heads putting together the pieces that make up the real and the imagined Vera Stark.

Playwright Lynn Nottage is coming to Illinois State University as part of this Vera Stark experience. Nottage will speak to students and audience members after the November 8 evening performance and before the Sunday matinee on the 9th. Click here to see the details of Nottage's visit.

By the Way, Meet Vera Stark opens November 6 with a 7:30 pm curtain, with evening performances on November 7, 8, 12, 13, 14 and 15, and a 2 pm matinee on November 9. For more information, click here. For ticket info, try this page.

November Openings, November Shows

There are certain days of the year when everybody wants to schedule everything, all on the same day. November 6 is one of those days. Four different shows bow on the 6th, all (I'm guessing) to fit their complete runs in before Thanksgiving. The good news it that you have a lot to choose from if you are so inclined. The bad news is that you will probably miss something good every time you choose something else.

Alphabetically, the first show of the cluster opening on the 6th is Illinois State University's By the Way, Meet Vera Stark, a thought-provoking comedy about a black actress in Old Hollywood, when performers like Vera and her friends were stuck playing maids and mammies, no matter how often they stole scenes or dominated the screen.Vera Stark comes from Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Lynn Nottage, who is coming to Illinois State University this weekend to talk to students and audience members after the November 8 evening performance and before the Sunday matinee on the 9th. Click here to see the details of Nottage's visit. The play itself jumps from Vera as an aspiring actress and real-life maid in the 1930s, her path to screen fame, and then her disappearance. In Act II, we see a TV panel put together to solve the mystery of whatever happened to... Vera Stark is directed for ISU's Center for the Performing Arts by Don LaCasse and stars MFA actress Faith Servant in the title role. You'll have eight chances to catch Vera between November 6 and 15.

The second contender on November 6 is Heartland Theatre's riveting family drama Falling, Deanna Jent's semi-autobiographical look inside a family struggling to keep up with the demands of a severely autistic son. Jent is an IWU alum and she, too, will be visiting Bloomington-Normal. We don't often get playwrights here, so two in two weeks is pretty remarkable. Jent is the Artistic Director of St. Louis's Mustard Seed Theatre, where Falling premiered. From there, the show, with director Lori Adams and scenic designer John Stark on board, moved off-Broadway, to New York's Minetta Lane Theater, where it played to sold-out audiences and garnered a host of Drama Desk nominations. Adams is back at the helm for Heartland Theatre, with a cast that includes Karen Hazen and Rhys Lovell as Tami and Bill Martin, parents of big-and-getting-bigger Josh, played by Daniel Esquivel. Ashley Pruitt plays little sis Lisa, while Ann B. White, as grandmother Sue Martin, upsets the family applecart when she arrives for a visit. While Jent is in town November 15 to 17, she will visit the IWU campus, answer questions and share the inside scoop on Falling at Heartland after the Saturday, November 15 evening performance and the Sunday, November 16 matinee, and watch a reading of her new play, Bloodlines, also at Heartland, on Sunday night at 7:30 pm.

During the run of the show, Heartland has scheduled short "postscripts" after almost every performance, with Julie Calmes of AutonomyWorks and Kim Williamson of Circles Behavior Consultation Services first up on the 6th. For the full schedule of talkbacks and discussions, check here.

We're halfway through the 6th! Let's celebrate with Rent, that musical callback to the late 90s, about Bohemian youth in the Village who want to make art in the midst of conflict with landlords, addiction and HIV/AIDS. Brett Cottone directs a cast of about 20, with Sean Stevens and Samantha Bettis at the top of the card as star-crossed lovers Roger and Mimi. Rent's preview on the 6th is followed by performance November 7 to 9, 13 to 16 and 20 to 23.

New Route Theatre officially christens its new space at 814 Jersey Avenue in Normal with the world premiere of Walking With My Ancestors by Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum, directed by Kim Pereira and featuring Leola Bellamy, John Bowen, Jajwannica Johnson, Cynthia Senefianso-Amedoda and Claron Sharrieff along with Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum herself. Email new.route.theatre@gmail.com or call 309-827-7330 to reserve a ticket to this exploration of the African-American journey in America told through song, dance and the spoken word.

The new film Birdman, starring Michael Keaton as a formerly famous action/super hero, comes to Champaign's Art Theater Co-op on November 7th. The Art goes to 11 with one of my favorite movies, This Is Spinal Tap, showing on November 14, and another fabulous piece of filmmaking, Stanley Kubrick's war film, Paths of Glory, on the 17th. They'll finish up the month with another new film, The Theory of Everything, starring Eddie Redmayne as Stephen Hawking, showing on November 28.

The Ides of March, a "powerhouse rock and roll band" known primarily for their hit song Vehicle, will take you anywhere you want to go, as long as it's the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts on November 15. I have two connections to this band. Some iteration of it (or perhaps a tribute band to it) played at my prom in 1974. And I once worked with the brother of Ides band member Larry Millas. Does that make me one degree of separation from the Ides of March? Or none?

Illinois Wesleyan University School of Theatre Arts enters November sweeps with the Broadway musical Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, beginning November 18 at McPherson Theatre. The madcap musical, with book by Jeffrey Lane and music and lyrics by David Yazbeck, is based on the Pedro Almodovar movie about women in Madrid being driven crazy by the men in their lives. On Broadway, Women on the Verge starred Sherie Rene Scott, Patti LuPone, Laura Benanti and Brian Stokes Mitchell, with the score, LuPone and Benanti nominated for Tony Awards. The show was nominated for eight Drama Desk Awards, with Benanti taking home the hardware. That's the Broadway Playbill you see at left. Watch for Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown at IWU from November 18 to 23.

What's Ahead on ISU Stages in 2014-15

Illinois State University's Department of Theatre and Dance has announced what will be on stage in the Fall of 2014 and Spring of 2015. And it's an ambitious and intriguing lineup, with lots of new work, lots of female playwrights, and lots of roles for actors of color.

The first play on the schedule will be Sarah Ruhl's funny, provocative take on women, sexuality, and the birth of the vibrator in the 19th century. In the Next Room (or The Vibrator Play) will be directed for ISU's Center for the Performing Arts by David Ian Lee, an MFA director who earned rave reviews for his production of Perestroika last semester. The Vibrator Play was originally directed by Les Waters, the current Artistic Director at Actors Theatre of Louisville, for Berkeley Rep in California; Waters then took the play to Broadway with a production that starred Laura Benanti and Michael Cerveris and earned Tony nominations for the play, David Zinn's Victorian costume design, and featured actress Maria Dizzia. The play was also a nominee for the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Lynn Nottage, the playwright behind By the Way, Meet Vera Stark, also slated for the CPA this Fall, is no stranger to the Pulitzer Prize. Her play, Ruined, was the 2009 winner of that prestigious prize. Vera Stark is more humorous and more lively than Ruined, telling the story of an African-American woman who works as a maid for a Hollywood diva. But then Vera gets a role on screen as a maid -- the maid to her boss's Southern belle in some epic historical romance film -- and the fact that her sparkling performance upstages everybody does not go unnoticed. She had a career. She had suitors. She went to the best parties. So what happened to Vera Stark? Nottage's play is irreverent and a little wacky, and it will serve as the Crossroads production for the season. Don LaCasse is on tap to direct the ISU version of By the Way, Meet Vera Stark.

And here's that Pulitzer word again. The third play on ISU's schedule is a Pulitzer winner from yet another female playwright. Water by the Spoonful is Quiara Alegría Hudes's second play in a three-play series about a soldier named Elliot who has issues when he comes back to the U.S. The first play, Elliot, a Soldier's Fugue, was nominated for a Pulitzer in 2007, while the third Elliot play, The Happiest Song Plays Last, premiered at Chicago's Goodman Theatre last year. Elliot, his cousin, his biological mother and an online circle of recovering addicts populate Water by the Spoonful, a lyrical, innovative play about connections, guilt and forgiveness. Third-year MFA candidate Leah Cassella will direct Water by the Spoonful in Westhoff Theatre.

Going from Quiara Alegría Hudes to Noel Coward is quite a jump. Although Illinois Wesleyan just did Hay Fever last semester, ISU director Sonja Moser is going to go for her own take on the Coward classic. Instead of Spoonful's disconnected cyberworld of 2012, Hay Fever is all about the 1920s during a weekend at an eccentric family's country house. Tennis, anyone? It's lighter than air, fizzy and charming. What in the world will Moser do with it? I guess we'll find out next Fall in Westhoff Theatre!

The last piece of the 2014 puzzle is the annual Fall Dance Concert, under the direction of Sara Semonis, Artistic Director of Illinois Dance Theatre.

As we move into 2015, ISU assistant professor Duane Boutté will bring the Kander and Ebb musical Cabaret, based on the Joe van Druten play I Am a Camera, itself based on Christopher Isherwood's autobiographical novel Goodbye to Berlin, to the Center for the Performing Arts. The original Broadway Cabaret and its decadent view of life in Berlin in the 1930s won eight Tony Awards back in 1967, including Best Musical, Best Composer and Lyricist for John Kander and Fred Ebb, Best Director for Hal Prince and Best Featured Actor for Joel Grey, who played the seedy, scary Emcee. Grey reprised his role and won an Oscar for his role in the 1972 movie directed by Bob Fosse, a film that took home eight Oscars, including Best Director and Best Actress for Liza Minnelli. That's Liza at the top of the heap in the movie poster shown here.

Moving back in time and somewhere in the neighborhood of a thousand miles to the east, Anton Chekhov's The Seagull will take the stage at the CPA later in the Spring semester. The Seagull was written in 1895 and its first production was a famous flop. But Stanislavski's 1898 production for the Moscow Art Theatre turned it into a sensation. It's about the interaction and complications between and among a fading actress named Arkadina, her lover Trigorin, who is a writer; her would-be playwright son Treplev; and a young woman named Nina, as well as various other characters who live on the country estate owned by Arkadina's brother Sorin. The Seagull was last performed at Illinois State University as part of the 2004-05 season. This time out, Lori Adams, who heads up the Acting program at ISU, will direct.

Second-year MFA director Jonathan Hunt Sell will twist and (gender-bend) Moliere's classic comedy The School for Wives for Westhoff Theatre, giving Moliere the "Drag and Breeches" treatment with men playing the female roles and women playing the male ones. So the gents will be in dresses -- fancy 17th century French couture -- and the ladies will be in breeches. That should upend and refresh this tale of a creepy guy named Arnolphe and his attempts to keep his innocent ward, Agnes, cooped up and stupid so she won't fall in love and he can marry her himself.

Sell's colleague Jessika Malone, the other second-year MFA candidate in directing, also looks outside the U.S. for her play. She has chosen Selkie: Between Land and Sea, a mystical, mythical Scottish piece by Laurie Brooks, for her Spring production in Westhoff. The legend of the selkie is a cross between a mermaid story and the Swan Princess, with a girl who becomes a seal when in the sea, but a woman when on land. Laurie Brooks has also written a book version of her story, simply called Selkie Girl, and that's the image you see here.

All the details on Illinois State University's schedule will appear here and here once the current season is finished. 

New Route Announces Provocative New Season

New Route Theatre has announced a line-up of ambitious and provocative shows for their 2013-14 season. Artistic Director Don Shandrow sent out the list this morning, including work by four Pulitzer Prize winners and one local playwright. Plays range from the well-known, like August Wilson's Fences and Lynn Nottage's Ruined, both Pulitzer Prize winners, to new work like F2M from Patricia Wettig and Hostage, written by Illinois State University Professor Kim Pereira.

Here's what you'll see coming from New Route beginning this May:

Dael Orlandersmith

The Gimmick by Dael Orlandersmith
May 10-19
Directed by Don Shandrow
This moving play, by the Pulitzer Prize winning playwright of Yellowman, tells the story of Alexis, an intelligent girl whose life is complicated by her alcoholic mother and impoverished neighborhood. Only a librarian with a love of words can open a window of hope for Alexis, hope for something beyond the world of “gimmicks” that plague her neighborhood.

Patricia Wettig

F2M by Patricia Wettig
June 13-22
Directed by Irene Taylor
Parker, a transgender freshman college student, is confronted by his parents during an unexpected visit. This new play by Patricia Wettig, primarily recognized for her acting roles in "30 Something" and "Brothers and Sisters," is a funny and poignant look at identity, parenting and making choices.

Lynn Nottage

Ruined by Lynn Nottage
August 2-11
Directed by Don Shandrow
This 2009 Pulitzer Prize winning play is a powerful portrayal of the triumph of human spirit in a war-torn country. Guided by music and the rhythm of life in the Congo, Ruined transports us to Mama Nadi’s bar, a small town refuge where intimacy comes at a price. This remarkable story is rich with humor, hope and humanity as it expertly navigates relationships, politics and the resiliency of the female spirit.

Kim Pereira

Hostage by Kim Pereira
September 12-21
Directed by Heidi Harris
An American journalist is captured by an Arab in the Middle East. What starts as a stereotypical situation takes a few unexpected turns as both men are forced to confront some difficult truths about themselves and each other... and the strange roles they will play in each other's lives. A Semi-finalist for the O'Neill Center National Playwrights Conference.

August Wilson

Fences by August Wilson
November 1-10
Directed by Kim Pereira
The 1950s ushered in a new era for blacks in America. The complex rhythms of be-bop and cool jazz reflected a changing country in which African-Americans began to stake a claim. Fences is the story of Troy Maxson, a baseball player trapped between two worlds -- not just between blacks and whites but between his frustration of the past and his suspicion of the future.

Quiara Alegría Hudes

Elliot, a Soldier's Fugue by Quiara Alegría Hudes
February 14-23
This 2007 Pulitzer Prize Finalist in Drama tells the interwoven story of four Puerto Rican family members who represent three generations of military service. Elliot, the son, returns home a wounded hero from Iraq, While on leave, Elliot learns the stories of his father and grandfather who served in Korea and Vietnam before him. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution called the play "A lush and evocative tone poem about the way the landscape of the soul is transformed by war."

New Route's shows are performed at the YWCA of McLean County, located at 1201 North Hershey Road in Bloomington. Friday and Saturday performances are scheduled for 7:30 pm, with Sunday matinees at 2:30 pm. You may reserve tickets in advance by e-mailing new.route.theatre@gmail.com or by calling 309-827-7330. For more information about New Route and its new season, check out their Facebook page.

The Return of Fabulous "Fabulation" -- This Week at New Route Theatre

Lynn Nottage's play "Fabulation, or the Re-education of Undine" comes back to New Route Theatre at the Bloomington YWCA this week, and there's all kinds of fun stuff out there in Internet Land to prepare the way.

As you may recall, New Route offered "Fabulation" a little more than a year ago as part of its One Shot Deal series at the Eaton Gallery. With limited space and few technical frills, director Gregory D. Hicks and his cast did a very credible job with the material, telling the story of one high-achieving African-American woman brought down by some double-dealing and her own ego. Forced to go back home and mend some fences, Undine (real name: Sharona Watkins) finds the real person under all the pretense, but it's not an easy trip down this particular rabbit hole.

This time out, actress Melissa James Shrader appears as Undine, with a supporting cast that includes Leola Bellamy, Jennifer Cirillo, Corey Hardin, Gabrielle Loft-Rogers, John D. Poling, Miles Spann and Skylar Tempel, with Jennifer Rusk acting as stage manager. New Route Artistic Director Don Shandrow is the producer, which means he is, as always, looking out for the big picture.

Shandrow and Hicks both appear in this video piece about "Fabulation," with cast members talking about their roles and their thoughts on the play in this one, Shandrow giving some info about "Fabulation" from a producer's perspective here, and director/actor Hicks back with Rusk, his stage manager, in yet another behind-the-scenes video, as he talks about how he came to be involved and she discusses her own role with the project.

New Route Theatre is "a multi-racial and multi-cultural theater company that produces new as well as established works that explore the nature of the human spirit in the context of ethical, political, and social choices," with a mission "to do professional quality theatre using a broad spectrum of artists who represent the community in all of its diversity."

"Fabulation" certainly aims for the bull's eye on those targets, as Nottage's script examines the human heart and mind and more specifically, the heart and mind of one female member of the African-American community as she grapples with her choices, good and bad. We see how she tries to reconcile her aspirations with a sense of love and connection, how she fits into the scheme of 21st Century America as a smart, talented, ambitious, pretty darn unlucky woman. Undine is a fascinating character, and Jamelle Robinson did a great job with the character back in July 2011. I can already tell from the videos linked above that Melissa James Shrader will be creating a slightly different Undine/Sharon. Equally fascinating, smart, talented, ambitious and unlucky, you can bet, but still... With the different tones and layers that a new actress automatically brings to the role.

Shrader and Co. are part of that "broad spectrum of artists" the New Route mission refers to, and by doing "Fabulation" twice, they get to include more actors and broaden their spectrum even more. I believe that Corey Hardin and Miles Spann are the only acting holdovers from the first production, which means new shadings almost all around.

"Fabulation, or the Re-Education of Undine" opens August 31 in the New Route space tucked into the Bloomington YWCA. Performances continue September 1, 7 and 8 at 7:30 pm, and September 2 and 9 at 2:30 pm.

Auditions for "Fabulation" June 4-6

Gregory D. Hicks, who will be directing Lynn Nottage's "Fabulation, or the Re-Education of Undine" for New Route Theatre, has announced that he will be holding auditions for roles in the show on June 4th, 5th and 6th from 6 to 10 pm at the YWCA theater space New Route is now calling its own.

Hicks previously directed the one-night workshop production of the play New Route produced in July of 2011. That production had limited space for scenery or lights, but it still clicked in all the right places and showcased the style and the message in Nottage's funny, sad, pointed script. With more resources and an expanded run, the new "Fabulation," scheduled for performances on August 31, September 1, 2, 7, 8 and 9, should be even better.

"Fabulation" involves one Undine (birth name: Sharona) who has chucked every connection to her old life in the projects as she climbed the ladder to success. But now the Fates (and a cheating, stealing boyfriend) have pulled the ladder out from under her, and Undine has to figure out who Sharona was before she can be a new, stronger, better Undine. She needs a re-education. And life is going to hand her one whether she wants it or not.

Nottage is a Pulitzer-Prize winning playwright whose work is smart, stylish, emotionally grounded, psychologically rich and quite powerful. Her plays leave an indelible mark on your psyche, and you'll be thinking about the issues she raises -- love, romance, self-worth, ambition, identity -- long after you leave the theater.

Hicks says he is looking for 4 men and 5 women to play roles ranging from Undine herself to various family members and people Undine meets along her route from hot-shot PR woman to out-of-work and out-of-luck nobody. That includes inmates, support group folks, co-workers, lowly bureaucrats, rappers, doctors, judges, and Undine's wily, heroin-addicted grandma.

Hicks plans a rehearsal schedule that will begin on June 18th at 6 pm with a tour of the new YWCA facility, two nights of read-throughs, and the beginnings of character work. After two nights to get acclimated, he will begin rehearsal schedule five nights a week starting June 25th.

For more information, click here or here for the "Fabulation" audition pages on Facebook.

New Route Broadens Its Horizons

New Route Theatre and Artistic Director Don Shandrow have created a niche for themselves in local theatrical pursuits as "a multi-racial and multi-cultural theater company that produces new as well as established works that explore the nature of the human spirit in the context of ethical, political, and social choices." The multi-racial and multi-cultural aspect has allowed them to use performers we might not otherwise see on area stages, and to produce works, like Lynn Nottage's "Fabulation; or the Re-Education of Undine," which New Route took on last year, that might get overlooked when local theater companies choose their seasons.

As New Route has so far pursued their goals, they've performed "One Shot Deal" performances -- one night only, in other words -- at the Eaton Gallery in downtown Bloomington. That has meant a very intimate space and limited resources in terms of sets and scenery, as well as where and how the audience fits into the picture.

But this year, New Route has expanded its horizons, moving into a new performance space at the Bloomington YWCA on Hershey Road. The first show in the new space began last week, and continues tonight through Sunday. That first production is Irene Taylor's "Suppos'd to," a one-woman show Taylor wrote to reflect on "the emotional toll of caring and care-giving."

Taylor performed the show as a "One Shot Deal" with New Route last year, and that workshopping aspect (going from the gallery to the "main stage," from one performance to six, spread out over two weeks) is part of the growth arc Shandrow is pursuing with his company.

To get a better idea of how this all came about, I posed a few questions to Don Shandrow.

 Hi, Don! Tell me about the space you're using at the YWCA. Have they done theater or performances there before?

The space at the YWCA is an approximately 1100 square foot room, with orange walls and hardwood floor, that was used as a fitness room. This is the first time that it will be used as a theater or performance space. Because it’s an open space with a ceiling grid, it will allow us to use the theater in different configurations. Eventually we'll paint the room and it will become a more neutral space.

The question you might be asking here is “why a partnership with the YWCA?” The answer to that question has to do with the mission statements and purposes of each organization. We mesh perfectly. I initially approached Jane Chamberlain, the CEO of the YWCA, about the possibility of some kind of joint project about a year ago and it was this summer that I presented her with a season for 2012-2013. We appreciate the encouragement we’ve received from Jane and the assistance from the staff. They’ve made us feel like part of the YWCA family.

New Route Theatre all comes down to our mission statement. I present the mission statement before each show, I remind the NRT Artistic Advisory Board (affectionately called the New Routers) at every meeting, and share the mission statement with anyone who’s interested. The mission statement is what makes us unique and compels us to present material by predominately minority and women playwrights.

My concern is to build an audience that reflects the diversity of this community. I’m attempting to do that by; first, bringing together an advisory board for NRT that reflects the community. Second, by bringing together a company of performers that believe in what we want to accomplish. Third, by presenting material that expresses, with a unique voice, the universal human condition and that we are all one.

We have an ambitious season this year and a committed core of people who share the vision of creating Central Illinois' only multi-racial and multi-cultural theater company. We are planning even more surprises for our 2013-2014 season.

Had you been looking for a more permanent space where you could do more than one night? And were you thinking when you did the One Shot Deals that they would function as sort of workshops for more fully staged performances? 

Our goal, from the first meeting I had with the advisory board, was to find a permanent space for multiple performances. I’m convinced that the timing of everything we are doing is right and everything seems to be falling into place.

The “One Shot Deal Series,” in 2011, served a slightly different purpose than it does now. When I met with Herb Eaton and we decided on the one show per month for 12 months…it was to serve four purposes. 1. To introduce people to NRT on a donation only basis. 2. To create talk in the community about the theater company that was doing a show a month (even if was just for them to say that we were crazy). 3. To create a body of work that people could look at and know that we were serious about meeting our mission statement. 4. To bring together a group of people, audience and theater artists, who felt a sense of ownership in NRT. The first year was to launch the company.

An unintended consequence that I saw early on was that it was also a workshop for trying out material, directors and actors. The “One Shot Deal Series” is a place where we could try out material to fully stage and it continues to serve that purpose. The “One Shot Deal Series” will continue to be held at the Eaton Gallery but will be limited to four productions a year.

The YWCA is now our home and the location of our Main Stage full run season. You have the 2012-2013 Season…it’s a set season and all of the rights have been secured.

Purely as an audience member, I'm hoping you'll do Lynn Nottage's "Ruined" or "Meet Vera Stark" sometime in the future. She's won a Guggenheim Fellowship, a MacArthur Genius Grant and a Pulitzer Prize (for "Ruined"), and yet your "Fabulation" was the only time I've seen Nottage performed in Bloomington-Normal.

Lynn Nottage’s works fit the NRT mission statement perfectly. For our 2013-2014 season we are considering “Ruined.” There is a Nigerian IWU theater major who is part of the NRT Company. She has performed in several of our productions in the past and would be a perfect choice to play Sophie. So I do see more Nottage in our future as well as many other playwrights whose works I’m excited about.

A Look at New Route's New Space

New Route's Main Stage season continues with "Suppos'd to" tonight, tomorrow night and Sunday at the YWCA, 1201 North Hershey Road, Bloomington. "Suppos'd to" stars Irene Taylor and is directed by Don Shandrow.

Next up will be "The Ladies: a Musical Love Letter," a musical revue featuring the songs of iconic African-American female vocalists. "The Ladies" was conceived and directed by Phil Shaw and features Jennifer Rusk singing with David Shields at the piano and Myles Singleton on trumpet. "The Ladies" will be performed June 15-17 and 22-24.

"Fabulation, or the Re-Education of Undine" comes back August 31, with performances continuing on September 1-2 and 7-9. "Fabulation," which deals with the downward spiral of a successful, snobby professional woman who has all but erased any memory of where she came from, is the work of award-winning playwright Lynn Nottage; it stars Jamelle Robinson and is directed by Gregory D. Hicks for New Route Theatre.

"Sunset Limited," a play by Cormac McCarthy, is next on the schedule, running October 5-7 and 12-14.  Phil Shaw will direct this story of a black man who saves the life of a white man who tried to end it all by throwing himself in front of a train. Guilt, responsibility, faith and humanity are just some of the issues these two men grapple with in this combination novel/play/rumination.

Ian Mairs' "Our David" fills the last slot in 2012, with performances November 30, December 1-2 and 7-9. Bridgette Richard directs "Our David" for World AIDS Day, as it involves a tense relationship between neighbors, one a widow who has lived in the same Florida home for absolute ever, and the other a gay man from New York who's moved to Florida in the wake of losing everyone he loved to AIDS. The David in the title is the nude statue by Michelangelo, and the object that brings these two bereaved neighbors together.

Opening 2013 for New Route is Katori Hall's "The Mountaintop," which traces the last night in the life of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. Don Shandrow directs performances from February 1-3 and 8-10. The 2009 London production of "The Mountaintop" won Katori Hall the Olivier Award for Best New Play, making her the first black female playwright ever to win that award. "The Mountaintop" hit Broadway in September of last year, with Samuel L. Jackson as Reverend King and Angela Bassett as Camae.

Keep on eye on this page for all that's new with New Route.

Coming Up: Something Wild at the Goodman in 2012-13

It's time for Chicago theaters to announce their new seasons, with Steppenwolf first out of the gate a few days ago. I previewed Steppenwolf's 2012-13 season here, but today we'll be looking at the Goodman Theatre, which has announced an ambitious and exciting slate of shows falling under the theme "Expect Something Wild."

The Goodman has two theaters -- the larger, more grand Albert, which seats 856, and the smaller Owen Theatre, which has room for 468 -- which means they have several subscription plans, allowing you to do all eight shows in both theaters, or pick one or the other. There will be five mainstage shows in the Albert Theatre, and three more intimate shows scheduled in the Owen.

First up is Tennessee Williams' "Sweet Bird of Youth," directed by "visionary wunderkind" David Cromer for the Albert. Cromer was born in Skokie, Illinois, and he has a pile of Jefferson Awards for his work in Chicago, plus he earned a Lucille Lortel and an Obie in 2009 for his well-received (and dramatically different) direction of "Our Town." This is his first trip to the Goodman.

"Sweet Bird of Youth" is a Williams classic, with unforgettable characters like Princess Kosmonopolis, the aging screen goddess whose career is crumbling, and young, handsome gigolo Chance Wayne, who makes a big mistake when he brings his new girlfriend, the Princess, to his hometown in Mississippi, where he  comes up hard against his old girlfriend Heavenly and her powerful family."Sweet Bird of Youth" is scheduled for September 15 to October 28 in the Albert Theatre.

Next is "Black N Blue Boys," subtitled "Broken Men," by Dael Orlandersmith, set for September 29 to October 28 in the Owen. The play is described as "an explosive narrative that uncovers the darkest corners of humanity—and shatters our notions about predators and their victims." Orlandersmith was a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn prize in 1999 with "The Gimmick" -- she won that award in 2003 and was a finalist for the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for "Yellowman."

Jon Robin Baitz's "Other Desert Cities," a smart family drama about a woman who has written a memoir revealing a long-buried family secret to the world, will play in the Albert from January 12 to February 17, 2013. "Desert Cities" was a hit at Lincoln Center last year, with a follow-up Broadway production. Ben Brantley reviewed it for the New York Times, including this major compliment: "Built with gleaming dialogue, tantalizing hints of a dangerous mystery and a structural care that brings to mind the heyday of Lillian Hellman, 'Cities' has the appeal of a Broadway hit from another age."

Christopher Shinn's "Teddy Ferrara" is up next in the Owen. Shinn is another Pulitzer Prize finalist, and his new play seems ripped from the headlines, about a gay college student whose world is turned upside-down by a campus tragedy. "Teddy Ferrara" will play February 2 to March 3, 2013.

The last play in the Owen is "The Happiest Song Plays Last," by Quiara Alegría Hudes, opening April 13 and running till May 12, 2013. Hudes was nominated for a Tony for the book of "In the Heights," but she goes farther afield with "The Happiest Song," setting the action in North Philadelphia and a town in the nation of Jordan. The first is the home of a community volunteer trying to help the needy, while the latter is the location of her cousin, an Iraq War vet, as he tries his hand as an action movie star. "The Happiest Song Plays Last" was part of the 2011 National Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center.

The most interesting play for me on the Goodman's schedule is Lynn Nottage's "Meet Vera Stark," which takes a look at Hollywood during its "golden" years when black actresses could play only maids. In the play, Vera Stark really is a maid, to a star known as "America's little sweetie pie," while Vera tries to hunt down her own dreams for stardom in her spare time. She makes a bit of a splash in the small roles available to her, which doesn't go over well with "America's little sweetie pie." And then the play leaps forward to the 1970s and then 2003, as film scholars try to figure out what happened to this mysterious actress who jumped off the screen way back when. Nottage is a fabulous writer, the Hollywood premise is fascinating, and I can't wait till "Meet Vera Stark" hits the spotlight in the Albert Theatre April 27 to June 2, 2013.

And the last play of the season will be Mary Zimmerman's take on "The Jungle Book," based on the 1967 Disney movie. It will feature Zimmerman's trademark stage magic, mixing songs, dance, lights, costumes and whatever else she comes up with to create stunning visuals. The Goodman is calling "The Jungle Book" the theatrical event of the season, and if it's anything like Zimmerman's other work, it will be that and more.

"The Jungle Book" will swing by the Albert Theatre June 22 to July 28, 2013.

They will add one other show, to be announced later, to its Albert schedule, presumably to fit sometime in the November/December area. Stay tuned for that announcement.

In the meantime, peruse the descriptions of the other seven shows at the Goodman website, and be sure to look closely at the "Expect Something Wild" banner, which has "The Jungle Book" written all over it in the coolest possible way.