Daniel Beaty News

Hartford Stage Artistic Director Darko Tresnjak and Managing Director Michael Stotts announced today the cast and creative team for Samuel Baum's The Engagement Party, directed by Tresnjak. Zach Appelman, Richard Bekins, Mia Dillon and Beth Riesgraf lead the cast. The world premiere play will perform Thursday, January 10, through Sunday, February 3, 2019.

The Front Porch Arts Collective partners with the Lyric Stage Company to start their second season with BREATH & IMAGINATION, Daniel Beaty's musical about Roland Hayes. First-time director Maurice Emmanuel Parent draws tour de force performance from Davron S. Monroe as the acclaimed African-American opera singer, with strong support from Yewande Odetoyinbo, Doug Gerber, and Nile Scott Hawver.

Breath & Imagination chronicles Roland Hayes's inspirational journey from a Georgia plantation to a singing career that included command performances for kings and queens. Despite his international acclaim, Roland never left behind his complex and loving relationship with his mother, his Angel Mo'. With spirituals and classical music, Breath & Imagination is a compelling musical about one man's determination to become an artist despite seemingly insurmountable odds.   

Over 100 members from 40 different markets attended The Broadway League's Audience Education and Engagement Fall Forum. Emerson College President, Dr. Lee Pelton, was this year's keynote speaker. The two day forum included a number of different topics including The Jimmy Awards, the Broadway Bridges program, program evaluations, technology & streaming and diversity.

Award-winning actor, director, and arts educator Maurice Emmanuel Parent has joined the Boston College Theatre Department as the Rev. J. Donald Monan, S.J. Professor in Theatre Arts for the 2018-2019 academic year. [Jpg of Parent attached.]

National New Play Network (NNPN), the country's alliance of professional theaters that collaborate in innovative ways to develop, produce, and extend the life of new plays, has added three new Core Members: Silk Road Rising (Chicago), Company One (Boston), and City Theatre Company (Pittsburgh). As of the date of this release, NNPN has 114 Members Theaters, comprised of 32 Cores and 82 Associates.

Hartford Stage Artistic Director Darko Tresnjak and Managing Director Michael Stotts today announced the cast and creative team for Make Believe, written by Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle award-winning playwright Bess Wohl. The world premiere play will perform Thursday, September 6, through Sunday, September 30, to open the Tony Award-winning regional theatre's 55th season. Jackson Gay will direct.

Artistic Director Darko Tresnjak and Managing Director Michael Stotts have announced playwright Mfoniso Udofia as the 2018 Aetna New Voices Fellow at Hartford Stage.

World-renowned piano virtuoso Mona Golabek returns to Hartford Stage for a limited engagement of her inspirational show, The Pianist of Willesden Lane. Back by popular demand, The Pianist of Willesden Lane will run Thursday, July 12, through Sunday, July 22, for 13 performances only. Tickets will be available for sale on Saturday, May 19.

National New Play Network, the country's alliance of nonprofit theaters that champions the development, production, and continued life of new plays, celebrates the opening of its 81st Rolling World Premiere (RWP): Nomad Motel by Carla Ching. The Roll kicks off at Member Theaters City Theatre Company (May 18-June 3 in Pittsburgh), followed by Horizon Theatre Company (September 28-October 21 in Atlanta), and Unicorn Theatre (January 23-February 27, 2019 in Kansas City, MO). Nomad Motel was presented at NNPN's 2016 National Showcase of New Plays, hosted by the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of Texas at Austin.

A soulful retelling of L. Frank Baum's beloved The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, The Wiz combines fairy-tale glamour with street smarts to make a classic fantasy sparkle for today.  And our directors and choreographer will bring a blast of New Orleans Creole magic to this production!  Winner of seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical and Best Score, The Wiz ingeniously mixes rock, gospel, soul, and jazz, and features hits like 'Ease on Down the Road,' 'A Brand New Day,' and 'Home.'

ArtsEmerson and partners proudly present the return of Mr. Joy: The Neighborhood Tour, a series of free theatre performances throughout the Boston area of Daniel Beaty's Mr. Joy, a play that explores issues of race and class in America to help us find our common humanity.

Hartford Stage Artistic Director Darko Tresnjak and Managing Director Michael Stotts today announced that Jeeves & Wooster in "Perfect Nonsense," the Olivier Award-winning comedy from brothers David and Robert Goodale, will make its North American premiere at Hartford Stage during the 2018-19 season. Original director Sean Foley will return to stage the show in Hartford.

Hartford Stage will embark upon the final phase of a $14 million, multi-year plan to transform the 50 Church Street theatre's functionality, comfort and accessibility. The remaining renovations, slated to begin at the close of the 2017-18 season, will include a refurbishment of guest artist dressing rooms, fully remodeled green room, and a state-of-the-art costume shop.

Hartford Stage Artistic Director Darko Tresnjak and Managing Director Michael Stotts today announced the line-up of classic, contemporary, thought-provoking and entertaining new work that will comprise the Tony Award-winning regional theatre's 55th season, Tresnjak's final season as Artistic Director.

Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts at Brooklyn College continues its 2017-18 Season at the Kumble Theater at LIU Brooklyn on December 10, 2017 at 3pm with the GRAMMY Award-nominated musicians of Los Pleneros de la 21, presenting their musical celebration of Afro-Puerto Rican Christmas traditions Christmas in El Barrio.

Today, actor, writer and activist, Daniel Beaty, was announced as the new host of Geffen Playhouse's acclaimed arts and entertainment series, Geffen Playhouse Unscripted, exclusively on PodcastOne.

Darko Tresnjak will step down as Hartford Stage's Artistic Director at the conclusion of the 2018-19 season. Tresnjak has served as the Tony Award-winning theatre's artistic leader since 2011. A national search will be conducted to find his replacement.

Due to high ticket demand, Hartford Stage announced today that it is adding four additional performances to the run of Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express, adapted for the stage by Ken Ludwig and directed by Emily Mann. The show now runs through Sunday, March 25. 

Darko Tresnjak, Artistic Director, and Michael Stotts, Managing Director, announced today that Athol Fugard's A Lesson from Aloes, an important work which speaks to the current social and political discord surrounding the issues of nationalism and immigration, will replace Statements After an Arrest Under the Immorality Act as the final play of the 2017-18 season. Tresnjak will direct.