Chuck Smith News

The 4th Annual International Stage It! 10-Minute Play Festival has announced the winners for this year's publication, now in it's fourth volume. The unique competition began with open submissions in October, garnering 346 plays from around the world, and a unique adjudication process. The top 25 plays have been selected for publication in Stage It! 4: 10-Minute Plays. The book is released in conjunction with the Festival weekend, March 20-22, where many of the plays will be produced.

Lil Armstrong. The Woman Behind Louis Armstrong's Success. A Story Worth Telling.

Eclipse Theatre Company announces the recipient of 2020's Eleventh Annual Corona Award: Mary Ann Thebus and Michael and Mona Heath. The Corona Award honors individuals and organizations which play an important role in supporting and nurturing the growth of the Chicago theatre community as well as small- to medium-sized theatres like Eclipse Theatre.

Lil & Louis Armstrong Come to Life in Sarasota

Tantrum Theater, Ohio University's professional theater company, announces an innovative new collaborative partnership with Musical Theatre Factory (MTF), a leading non-profit organization focused on developing bold and inclusive new musicals by early career artists. The first new work from this partnership will be a developmental reading of the new musical Eighty-Sixed by Sam Salmond and Jeremy J. King, with a public performance on January 18, 2020.

Goodman Theatre, now in its 95th season, announces the a?oeLegacy & Promisea?? Education and Engagement luncheon on Wednesday, February 5 featuring Emmy Award-winning and Tony Award-nominated actor Sean Hayes. Hayes joins the Goodman's Walter Director of Education and Engagement Willa J. Taylor and more for this 5th annual event, which celebrates the theater's programs for youth, schools and lifelong learners. Proceeds from the event support these programs, all of which are offered completely FREE of charge to participants and are 100% funded by individual contributions. Event leadership includes Joan Clifford, Immediate Past Chair and Benefit Events Leadership Chair; Patricia Cox, Education and Engagement Trustee Leadership Chair; Kathleen Cowie, Goodman Theatre Trustee and Education and Engagement Committee Chair; and Teri Brown and Lorrayne Weiss, Women's Board Education and Engagement Co-chairs. The event takes place at The Palmer House (17 E. Monroe) at 12noon (registration opens at 11:30am). Tickets start at $250; call 312.443.3811 ext. 220. Proceeds benefit Education and Engagement at the Goodman. Media interested in attending/covering should call 312.443.5151.

Otherworld Theatre presents the fifth annual PARAGON Play Fest,  the world's largest Science Fiction and Fantasy genre play festival November 9-10, 2019. PARAGON Play Fest features 40 Science-Fiction and Fantasy plays performed over 2 days. Collaborating with hundreds of Theatre Artists, locally and internationally to increase exposure for an underserved theatre genre, PARAGON Play Fest has become an annual festival and a unique part of Chicago's diverse cultural landscape. Curated by Otherworld Theatre Company's Literary Manager Elliott Sowards and Artistic Director, Tiffany Keane Schaefer for the fifth year running.  The 40 plays chosen are a small sample of over 600 submissions  from 8 different countries in 3 different continents!. Weekend and Day Pass Tickets are on sale now at www.otherworldtheatre.org 

Otherworld Theatre presents the fifth annual PARAGON Play Fest,  the world's largest Science Fiction and Fantasy genre play festival November 9-10, 2019. PARAGON Play Fest features 40 Science-Fiction and Fantasy plays performed over 2 days. Collaborating with hundreds of Theatre Artists, locally and internationally to increase exposure for an underserved theatre genre, PARAGON Play Fest has become an annual festival and a unique part of Chicago's diverse cultural landscape. Curated by Otherworld Theatre Company's Literary Manager Elliott Sowards and Artistic Director, Tiffany Keane Schaefer for the fifth year running.  The 40 plays chosen are a small sample of over 600 submissions  from 8 different countries in 3 different continents!. Weekend and Day Pass Tickets are on sale now at www.otherworldtheatre.org 

Casting is complete for the two a?oedevelopmental productionsa?? featured in Goodman Theatre's 16th annual New Stages Festivala?"a free celebration of new works by some of the country's finest established and emerging playwrights.

Porchlight Music Theatre announces that Peabody and multi-Emmy award-winning composer Larry Grossman of West Hollywood, California, has joined Porchlight's Advisory Board.Grossman partnered with Porchlight Music Theatre earlier in 2019 with Porchlight's popular music series Porchlight Revisits presenting Minnie's Boys, a 1971 Broadway musical about the early years of the Marx Brothersfeaturing music by Grossman.

In celebration of the 50th anniversary of its founding, Free Street Theater will stage "50 in 50: A City-Wide Theatrical Flash Mob," spanning Chicago's 50 wards to create a remarkable city-wide theatrical production. The company has brought together 10 multidisciplinary theater artists from across Chicago, including its own artists and ensembles, to lead teams of five to seven performers in creating short pieces to be presented as pop-up performances in each of Chicago's 50 wards.

In celebration of the 50th anniversary of its founding, Free Street Theater will stage "50 in 50: A City-Wide Theatrical Flash Mob," spanning Chicago's 50 wards to create a remarkable city-wide theatrical production.

La Jolla Playhouse announced today the appointment of National Disability Theatre (NDT) Co-Executive Directors Talleri A. McRae and Mickey Rowe as the Playhouse's 2019/2020 Artists-in-Residence.

Artistic Director Robert Falls has named Kimberly Senior the newest member of Goodman Theatre's Artistic Collective-ten American theater artists whose work has cemented the theater's international reputation for excellence over three decades. The Collective, which Falls established when he became Artistic Director, currently includes award-winning playwrights, directors and actors: Brian Dennehy, Rebecca Gilman, Henry Godinez, Dael Orlandersmith, Steve Scott, Chuck Smith, Regina Taylor, Henry Wishcamper and Mary Zimmerman.

Chuck Smith, the director of BARBARA RUBIN & THE EXPLODING NY UNDERGROUND is Tom Needham's special guest this Thursday at 6 pm on WUSB's THE SOUNDS OF FILM.

"Not everyone will go home a winner" in Goodman Theatre's world-premiere production of Lottery Day by Ike Holter, which appears through April 28 in the Owen Theatre. Holter concludes his seven-play "Rightlynd Saga"-the first play of which premiered five years ago, and has been hailed as "one of the most significant literary achievements in modern-day Chicago" (Chicago Tribune)-with a raucous theatrical bash, directed by Chicago native Lili-Anne Brown. Commissioned by the Goodman and developed through its New Stages Festival of new plays, Lottery Day takes place in a Rightlynd backyard where new characters and returning characters from the saga come together to create a work about the cost of belonging and the gift of community. Lottery Day appears through April 28 in the Owen Theatre.

Now in its 2nd year, Goodman Theatre selects five Chicagoland elementary schools to participate in the "Disney Musicals in Schools" program--an outreach initiative developed by Disney Theatrical Productions to create sustainable musical theater programs in under-resourced elementary schools. The selected schools include John C. Haines Elementary School (China Town) performing Aladdin KIDS; Jonathan Y. Scammon Elementary School (Logan Square) performing The Lion King KIDS; Richard Yates Elementary School (Humboldt Park) performing Aladdin KIDS; Belmont-Cragin Elementary School (Belmont Cragin) performing The Lion King KIDS; and Gerald Delgado Kanoon Magnet Elementary School (Little Village) performing Aladdin KIDS. Coordinated by Goodman Theatre artists Adrian Azevedo and Anna Gelman, under the leadership of Walter Director of Education and Engagement Willa J. Taylor, the five area public elementary schools received performance rights to a Disney KIDS musical of their choice, at no cost.

Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, To Receive 2019 Corona Award, Monday, January 28, Hosted by Steve Scott

American Blues Theater announces the addition of five new Ensemble members and one new Artistic Affiliate to the Blues family. Joining the Ensemble is director, designer and Associate Producer Elyse Dolan, who directed several works in past Ripped and Blue Ink festivals; designer Jared Gooding, lighting designer of Buddy - The Buddy Holly Story; actor Philip Earl Johnson, who is slated to appear in the upcoming Chicago premiere of Steven Dietz's On Clover Road; director Chuck Smith, director of the recent American Blues production of Pearl Cleage's Flyin' West; and actress and playwright Wandachristine, who won many awards for her solo performance Beauty's Daughter. Actor Zachary Stevenson has been named an Artistic Affiliate. Stevenson recently made his Chicago debut as 'Buddy Holly' in American Blues Theater's Joseph Jefferson Award-winning musical Buddy - the Buddy Holly Story, in which he also won a Jeff Award for Performance in a Musical.