Helen Cespedes News

Today (November 16) in live streaming: Lillias White sings with Seth Rudetsky, Alice Ripley in concert, and so much more!

Alleyway Theatre announces its first-ever Digital Theatre Festival, running November 6-22, 2020.

Vineyard Theatre has announced a schedule change for Lessons In Survival. To provide more time for single ticket buyers to view performances and to better connect Sunday Community Conversation events and performances, the schedule for the remaining three weeks of programming has been adjusted slightly.

Vineyard Theatre Artistic Directors Douglas Aibel and Sarah Stern have announced the weekly schedule for Lessons In Survival, beginning October 6, and the return of 'The VT Show' on the last Tuesday of each month beginning September 29 at 5:30 pm ET.

Vineyard Theatre has announced the company's upcoming 2020-2021 Season which includes digital and outdoor productions, as well as the reopening when safe to do so of Vineyard Theatre's home at 108 East 15th Street with the return of the award-winning Dana H. by Lucas Hnath and two world premieres from Tori Sampson and David Cale.

Red Bull Theater (Jesse Berger, Artistic Director | Jim Bredeson, Managing Director) today announced the cast for the next offering of their season of REVELATION READINGS, the OBIE Award-winning series: Ana Caro's The Courage To Right A Woman's Wrongs (Valor, agravio y mujer), directed by Melia Bensussen, featuring Helen Cespedes, Kelley Curran, Carson Elrod, Anita Castillo-Halvorssen, Anthony Michael Martinez, Sam Morales, Lorenzo Pisoni, Ryan Quinn, Luis Quintero, and Matthew Saldivar.

Shakespeare Theatre Company has announced casting for Artistic Director SIMON GODWIN's directorial debut at the Theatre-a restaging of his recent acclaimed production of Timon of Athens, a co-production with Theatre for a New Audience (TFANA), produced in association with The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC). Timon of Athens will be onstage at the Michael R. Klein Theatre at the Lansburgh starting February 20 and running until March 22, 2020.

Theatre for a New Audience (TFANA; Jeffrey Horowitz, Founding Artistic Director) presents William Shakespeare's Timon of Athens, a co-production with Shakespeare Theatre Company in association with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Director Simon Godwin (Measure for Measure) returns to TFANA with a reimagining of his vibrant staging of Timon of Athens, which premiered at the Royal Shakespeare Company in 2018 - the first time the play had been staged with a female lead.

Theatre for a New Audience (TFANA, Jeffrey Horowitz, Founding Artistic Director) is pleased to announce a first and final extension of Fefu and Her Friends, one of the most beloved plays of the late, nine-time Obie Award-winning Cuban-American playwright and director María Irene Fornés, 'arguably the most influential American dramatist whose work hasn't become a staple of the mainstream repertoire' (LA Times). Lileana Blain-Cruz, winner of two Obie Awards (Suzan-Lori Parks' The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World and Jackie Sibblies Drury's Marys Seacole) stages the play in her TFANA directing debut, the first Off-Broadway revival of Fefu and Her Friends since American Place Theatre's 1978 staging. Fefu now plays on the Samuel H. Scripps Mainstage at TFANA's home, Polonsky Shakespeare Center (262 Ashland Place, Brooklyn), through December 12, 2019, with four performances added Tuesday, December 10 at 7:30pm, Wednesday, December 11 at 2pm and 7:30pm, Thursday, December 12 at 7:30pm.

Theatre for a New Audience (TFANA; Jeffrey Horowitz, Founding Artistic Director) presents Fefu and Her Friends, one of the most beloved plays of the late, nine-time Obie Award-winning Cuban-American playwright and director María Irene Fornés. Lileana Blain-Cruz, winner of two Obie Awards (Suzan-Lori Parks' The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World and Jackie Sibblies Drury's Marys Seacole) stages the play in her TFANA directing debut, the first Off-Broadway revival of Fefu and Her Friends since American Place Theatre's 1978 staging. Fefu plays on the Samuel H. Scripps Mainstage at TFANA's home, Polonsky Shakespeare Center (262 Ashland Place, Brooklyn), November 16-December 8, 2019.

The Civilians, under the leadership of Founding Artistic Director Steve Cosson and Managing Director Margaret Moll, is proud to announce a series of lively and engaging post-show salons that will follow select performances of Claire Kiechel's Paul Swan is Dead and Gone. Luminaries from the world of arts and letters will speak on various themes relevant to Paul Swan's life and work including his residency in the Carnegie Hall studios, queer performance, and mid-century ideas of camps.

The Civilians, under the leadership of Founding Artistic Director Steve Cosson and Managing Director Margaret Moll, is proud to present the world premiere of Paul Swan is Dead and Gone by Claire Kiechel, a former member of The Civilians' R&D Group where the play was first developed. Directed by Cosson and starring Tony Torn as the real-life Paul Swan, the production marks Kiechel's New York debut and runs April 25 - May 19, with an opening night set for May 1. For an audience of only 30, the intimate and immersive performance takes place at Torn Page (435 West 22nd Street, Manhattan), a salon-style performance space located inside a historic Chelsea townhouse originally purchased by Torn's parents, Geraldine Page and Rip Torn.

Red Bull Theater today announced the cast for the next REVELATION READING, Mike Poulton's (Fortune's Fool, Wolf Hall) Don Carlos by Friedrich Schiller, directed by Mr. Berger: Ron Canada, Helen Cespedes, Celeste Ciulla, Kelley Curran, Sanjit De Silva, Ezra Knight, Sam Lilja, Ismenia Mendes, Patrick Page, Rod Singleton, and Paxton Whitehead.  This will take place on Monday February 25 at 7:30pm at the Lucille Lortel Theatre (121 Christopher Street, between Bleecker and Hudson Streets).

THE AGE OF INNOCENCE at McCarter Theatre feels like a respite from a shameless world. Dripping with elegance and elevated decorum of New York society circa 1870, the play, however, is anything but remote. It seems to speak to the quieter reality most of us still remember-the one waiting for permission to matter once again. Not one of elite social circles, but of contemplation and self-knowledge, even when they hurt.

When is it wrong to love someone? Is love the highest ideal, or is kindness and duty even greater than love? Wharton's Pulitzer Prize winner isromantic and heartbreakingly unsentimental in its portrayal of a rigid society where 'people dreaded scandal more than disease.' 

Red Bull Theater announced the casts for their eighth annual festival, featuring two brand new commissions from Tina Howe and Doug Wright, alongside 6 brand new plays chosen from hundreds of submissions from playwrights across the country.

Passion, scandal, love (both requited and unrequited), and regret are emotions fraught with pain and joy. They are also timeless experiences - as relatable today as they were a hundred years ago. Such is the case with Edith Wharton's THE AGE OF INNOCENCE which has been adapted for the stage by Douglas McGrath and is the latest production from Hartford Stage (in association with the McCarter Theatre Center.) The play, based on Ms. Wharton's Pulitzer Prize winning novel, provides a lavish setting for the tale of one man torn between propriety and passion, and the fixed and proper world of New York society at the end of the 19th century.  

BroadwayWorld has a first look at The Age of Innocence at Hartford Stage! Check out the video below!

Hartford Stage Artistic Director Darko Tresnjakand Managing Director Michael Stotts present the world premiere of The Age of Innocence.

Hartford Stage Artistic Director Darko Tresnjak and Managing Director Michael Stotts announced today the cast and creative team for the world premiere of The Age of Innocence, which will feature four-time Tony Award winner Boyd Gaines and more.