Robert Ramirez News

The Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival's Professional Company production of The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice is now in rehearsals. Shakespeare's powerfully relevant tragedy comes to Notre Dame in a compelling and contemporary new staging, set in a world torn apart by jealousy, mistrust, and racial strife ? a world not unlike our own. Othello cast & company members are now available for media interviews between July 31 ? August 3, 2018; Othello opens August 14, with 15 performances through August 26.

The Guthrie Theater presents West Side Story. Directed by Haj, this major revival of a timeless classic will play June 16 - August 26, 2018, on the Wurtele Thrust Stage. Single tickets for West Side Story start at $15 for preview performances (June 16-21) and are on sale now through the Box Office at 612.377.2224, 877.44.STAGE (toll-free), 612.225.6244 (group sales) and online at guthrietheater.org.

The Guthrie Theater presents West Side Story. Directed by Haj, this major revival of a timeless classic will play June 16 - August 26, 2018, on the Wurtele Thrust Stage. Single tickets for West Side Story start at $15 for preview performances (June 16-21) and are on sale now through the Box Office at 612.377.2224, 877.44.STAGE (toll-free), 612.225.6244 (group sales) and online at guthrietheater.org.

The Guthrie Theater presents West Side Story. Directed by Haj, this major revival of a timeless classic will play June 16 - August 26, 2018, on the Wurtele Thrust Stage. Single tickets for West Side Story start at $15 for preview performances (June 16-21) and are on sale now through the Box Office at 612.377.2224, 877.44.STAGE (toll-free), 612.225.6244 (group sales) and online at guthrietheater.org.

The Guthrie Theater (Joseph Haj, artistic director) proudly announced the cast and creative team for the theater's summer musical, West Side Story. Directed by Haj, this major revival of a timeless classic will play June 16 - August 26, 2018, on the Wurtele Thrust Stage. Single tickets for West Side Story start at $15 for preview performances (June 16-21) and are on sale now through the Box Office at 612.377.2224, 877.44.STAGE (toll-free), 612.225.6244 (group sales) and online at guthrietheater.org.

The Guthrie Theater (Joseph Haj, artistic director) proudly announced the cast and creative team for the theater's summer musical, West Side Story. Directed by Haj, this major revival of a timeless classic will play June 16 - August 26, 2018, on the Wurtele Thrust Stage. Single tickets for West Side Story start at $15 for preview performances (June 16-21) and are on sale now through the Box Office at 612.377.2224, 877.44.STAGE (toll-free), 612.225.6244 (group sales) and online at guthrietheater.org.

The 11:11, a new performance venue in the heart of West Hollywood, will officially open its doors on Saturday, June 2, at 8pm. The theatre's debut entertainment event, Good Vibes Live, will feature music, comedy, magic, dance, and art.

The Guthrie Theater (Joseph Haj, artistic director) proudly announced the cast and creative team for the theater's summer musical, West Side Story. Directed by Haj, this major revival of a timeless classic will play June 16 - August 26, 2018, on the Wurtele Thrust Stage. Single tickets for West Side Story start at $15 for preview performances (June 16-21) and are on sale now through the Box Office at 612.377.2224, 877.44.STAGE (toll-free), 612.225.6244 (group sales) and online at guthrietheater.org.

The Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival (NDSF) has announced the casting for its upcoming production of The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice. The flagship production of the 2018 season, Othello will feature stage & screen veteran Esau Pritchett in the title role, with celebrated stage actor Robert Ramirez returning to the NDSF stage as Iago, and featuring Delaney Feener as Desdemona, Maggie Kettering as Emilia, and Paul Hurley as Roderigo. Actors will be available for on- or off-camera interviews on July 31, 2018.

The Tony Award-winning Oregon Shakespeare Festival will launch its 83nd year with preview performances beginning on February 16. The 2018 season officially kicks off Friday night, February 23, in the Angus Bowmer Theatre with Shakespeare's Othello (director, Bill Rauch). On Saturday afternoon, Shakespeare's Henry V (director, Rosa Joshi) opens in the Thomas Theatre, and the West Coast premiere of Kate Hamill's adaptation of Jane Austen's novel Sense and Sensibility (director, Hana S. Sharif) opens that evening in the Angus Bowmer Theatre. On Sunday afternoon, Karen Zacarias's Destiny of Desire (director, Jose Luis Valenzuela) will be staged in the Angus Bowmer Theatre.

Arthur Miller's THE CRUCIBLE is powerful, infuriating and heartbreaking, and the UT Department of Theatre and Dance does a mighty job of doing his script justice.

Austin Shakespeare continues its 34 year tradition of bringing free Shakespeare to Zilker Park with an hilarious take on THE COMEDY OF ERRORS.

It's been a long time since I've used the phrase 'must see'. I intentionally use it on rare occasion so it doesn't lose it's meaning and become a trite 'catch phrase'. I want it to signify my whole hearted and highest endorsement of a theatrical production. Dezart Performs current production of  Bruce Norris' Pulitzer Prize winning play, Clybourne Park, is a MUST SEE theatrical production. It is the finest piece of ensemble acting that I have seen in the desert in four years, in both our community-based and professional companies. 

Dezart Performs will present the uproariously funny black comedy, Clybourne Park, a 2012 Tony Award-winning play written by Bruce Norris with a two-weekend engagement January 13-22, 2017 at the Pearl McManus Theater, located at the Historic Palm Springs Woman's Club. As described by The Washington Post during the 2011-12 season of the Seattle Repertory production, the play 'applies a modern twist to the issues of race and housing and aspirations for a better life….and is one of its feistiest, funniest evenings in years.'

Coeurage Theatre Company, LA's Pay What You Want Company, has announced the extension and re-opening of Urinetown: The Musical. With music by Mark Hollmann, lyrics by Hollmann and Greg Kotis, book by Kotis, musical direction by Gregory Nabours, and directed by Kari Hayter, the extended run will begin on Friday, January 6 at 8pm and continue through February 25 at the Historic Lankershim Arts Center.

On the heels of 'Casa Valentina,' its enormously successful first production of the season, Dezart Performs will present the uproariously funny black comedy, Clybourne Park, a play written as a spin-off to Lorraine Hansberry's 1959 classic play A Raisin in the Sun which focuses on cultural and racial issues in a Chicago community. As described by The Washington Post during the 2011-12 season of the Seattle Repertory production, the play 'applies a modern twist to the issues of race and housing and aspirations for a better life….and is one of its feistiest, funniest evenings in years.' Clybourne Park has received multiple prestigious awards including the 2012 Tony Award for Best Play and the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Coeurage Theatre Company, LA's Pay What You Want Company, has announced the final production of its seventh season, three-time Tony Award-winner Urinetown: The Musical. With music by Mark Hollmann, lyrics by Hollmann and Greg Kotis, book by Kotis, musical direction by Gregory Nabours, and directed by Kari Hayter, there will be one preview performance on November 4 at 8pm and opening is set for Saturday, November 5 at 8pm. Urinetown: The Musical will play through December 3 at the Historic Lankershim Arts Center. 

'Tale as old as time' nails the complex simplicity of Beauty and the Beast the quintessential story of true love, the most difficult to obtain and sustain.  Disney's adaptation of the fairy tale with its sweepingly imaginative spectacle won over even the hardest of hearts. The animated film was such a tremendous hit in 1991 that it was adapted for the stage in 1994 with new songs by Tim Rice added to the Academy Award-winning movie score by deceased Howard Ashman. It ran worldwide until 2007 and proves undoubtedly that fairy tales retain a popularity that never dies... and that the story  translates beautifully to the stage with vibrant actors recreating all the animated figures.. This new production by 3-D Theatricals of Beauty and the Beast, which closed Sunday at the Redondo Performing Arts Center, was every bit as joyful and elegant as the original. I cannot say enough about T. J. Dawson's fabulous direction and casting and Mela Hoyt-Heydon's spectacular costumes that were built completely from scratch by 3-D Theatricals.

Tale as old as time, true as it can be. Disney's Beauty and the Beast, the smash hit Broadway musical, opened at the Los Angeles Ovation Award- winning 3-D Theatricals Co. of Orange County, CA. Performances will be presented at both Fullerton's historic Plummer Auditorium, Feb 5 - 21; and the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center February 26 - 28, 2016. Official "press" openings in Fullerton and Redondo Beach will be Saturday, February 6 and Saturday, February 27 respectively. The production is directed by 3DT Executive Producer and Artistic Director T.J. Dawson, with Choreography by Billy Sprague, Jr. Julie Lamoureux serves as Musical Director and Conductor.  Check out the photos from opening night below!

Leave it to the creative folks over at 3-D Theatricals, Orange County's award-winning Broadway-caliber theatrical company, to be the entity responsible for this splendid new regional production of DISNEY's BEAUTY AND THE BEAST---the 1994 stage adaptation of the studio's gorgeous Academy Award-winning 1991 animated film that features music by Alan Menken, and lyrics by the late Howard Ashman and Tim Rice. 3DT's rather complex mounting---directed by 3-DT co-founder and artistic director TJ Dawson---is a marvelously-enchanting reboot, even despite the myriad of unfortunate opening night technical gaffes and (almost) forgotten/missed lines of dialogue that occasionally interrupted some of the wonderment. Of course, surely the kinks will be ironed out for the remainder of its scheduled run at the Plummer Auditorium in Fullerton through February 21 (which will then transfer for a weekend of shows at the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center from February 26-28).