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Legendary theatre artist Athol Fugard returned to the stage for the first time in fifteen years at Long Wharf Theatre, in New Haven, CT, in April for his newest work. The Shadow of the Hummingbird, a charming meditation on the beauty of the world around us, an ailing man in his eighties spends the afternoon with his ten-year-old grandson. The text of the play includes an introductory Prelude by Paula Fourie with extracts from Fugard's unpublished notebooks.
Taking on the question of our country's character and politics in her newest play, In the Wake, Lisa Kron notes: "After 9/11, I was taken aback by the question: "Why us?" "Why not us?" I thought. Why should we be exempted from the kind of random tragedy that happens to people everywhere all the time?...What else was I, along with my community on the left, taking for granted? I wrote the character of Ellen [in In the Wake] as an exploration of this question."
Pulitzer Prize finalist Amy Herzog's "haunting, deeply affecting play" (New York Times) follows Jamie, whose life in Brooklyn seems just fine: a beautiful girlfriend, a burgeoning journalism career and parents who live just far enough away. But when a possible childhood trauma comes to light, lives are thrown into a tailspin. The Great God Pan tells the intimate tale of what is lost and won when a hidden truth is suddenly revealed.
Annie Baker, one of the most celebrated playwrights in the United States, lends her truthful observation and elegant command of the colloquial to Anton Chekhov's despairing masterpiece, Uncle Vanya. A critical hit in its sold-out Off-Broadway premiere, Baker's telling is a refreshingly intimate and modern treatment of a Chekhovian classic.
 Humana Festival 2013: The Complete Plays (Playscripts, Inc.) brings together all nine scripts from the celebrated 37th cycle of world premiere productions staged at Actors Theatre of Louisville. The collection includes Will Eno's Gnit, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' Appropriate, Sarah Ruhl's Two Conversations Overheard on Airplanes and more. Lucy Kirkwood's Chimerica (Nick Hern Books) is "ambitious, sprawling, morally fascinating and as gripping as a good novel" (London Times). This powerful, provocative play about the shifting balance of power between East and West has garnered the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, the Olivier Award for Best New Play, Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Play and Critics' Circle Best New Play Award. Written by Nicolai Khalezin and Natalia Kaliada, devised by Belarus Free Theatre and winner of a 2013 award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the two plays in Trash Cuisine and Minsk 2011 (Oberon Books) have been performed to acclaim around the world. This marks the first publication in a partnership between Belarus Free Theatre and Oberon Books designed to raise the profile of one of the world's bravest and boldest theatre companies.
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The romantic comedy Outside Mullingar received its world premiere on Broadway this winter, starring Debra Messing and Bryan F. O'Byrne and directed by Doug Hughes. The play closed March 16 at Manhattan Theatre Club, but playwright John Patrick Shanley still nabbed a Tony Award nomination for Best Play. Tune into the Tony Awards on June 8 to see if he receives the night's biggest award.
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by John Patrick Shanley
Outside Mullingar is not Shanley's first Tony nomination: The Bronx-born playwright received a Tony Award in 2005 for Doubt, which--fun fact--was also produced by MTC, directed by Doug Hughes and starred Bryan F. O'Byrne, in the role that Philip Seymour Hoffman would later play, and receive an Oscar nomination for, in the 2009 film adaptation.
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The author of Circle Mirror Transformation adds a Pulitzer Prize to her many accolades
"One of the freshest and most talented dramatists to emerge Off Broadway in the past decade" (New York Times), Annie Baker has been awarded the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for
The Flick, an intimate drama about an aimless generation.
The play premiered at Playwrights Horizons in spring 2013, and though dates have not yet confirmed, producer Scott Rudin has announced that he is teaming with Barrow Street Theatre to bring The Flick back to New York City for a commercial run this year.
 One of the most critically lauded playwrights to emerge recently, the Pulitzer marks a distinguished addition to a mantle that already boasts a Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, Horton Foote Legacy Project, two Obie Awards and numerous other honors. The Flick marks the sixth play of Baker's published by TCG, which includes her recent adaptation of Uncle Vanya (see New Titles above) and the 13th Pulitzer Prize for Drama award-winner on the TCG booklist. The play will be available July 1 and can be pre-ordered here.
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The Hallway Trilogy
Thursday, June 12 at 6:00 PM
The Drama Book Shop; New York, NY
 Pulitzer Prize finalist Adam Rapp (Red Light Winter) and special guests will discuss and read from his The Hallway Trilogy, which weaves tales of love, torment and redemption in a trilogy spanning 100 years in a Lower East Side tenement hallway.
For more information:
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Each month, a TCG staff member selects a TCG Books title that holds a special meaning--whether it's a show the staffer performed in, a dog-eared acting resource, a writer that continually inspires or simply a favorite play--and we offer a special 50% discount off that title for the month. For May, Ashley S. Baker, education, research & collective action intern, has selected Plays from the Boom Box Galaxy, edited by Kim Euell with Robert Alexander, and here's why. |
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TCG Titles Currently in Production in May
Into the Woods
by James Lapine and Stephen Sondheim,
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
by August Wilson,
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John Patrick Shanley on the Craft of
The Dramatists Guild
John Patrick Shanley:
"I write a play because I do not want to stay where I am."
Eric Bogosian Launches New
Website Featuring Performances of 100 (Monologues)
by Carey Purcell
Playbill
100monologues.com, inspired by Eric Bogosian's latest published collection,
100 (Monologues), features performances by Sam Rockwell, Jessica Hecht, Stephen Lang, Yul Vasquez and more.
A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder Slays the Competition in the Outer Critics Awards Nominations
by Gordon Cox
Variety
Nominated plays include Outside Mullingar (John Patrick Shanley), The Realistic Joneses (Will Eno), Choir Boy (Tarell Alvin McCraney) and Stage Kiss (Sarah Ruhl).
Playwright Nilo Cruz Talks Writing and Winning Prestigious Greenfield Prize
by Stephanie Hayes
Tampa Bay Times
"The hardest thing is to face the empty page," says Nilo Cruz. "Once you have one sentence, you can build from that sentence. Once you find a voice, you can build."
Lynn Nottage: A playwright made for D.C. audiences rarely sees her work produced here
by Nelson Pressley
The Washington Post
"The difficulty for me is I'm not the next new thing," Lynn Nottage says. "And if you don't have a hit in New York, it's hard to come into a place like D.C."
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