Michael Spence News

'Frontier Investor is terrific. This book is great for anyone interested in investing in the next frontier. It is also excellent for those who want to understand the growth potential and human consequences for these many diverse countries and their people. It is really brilliant and a tour de force.' -Michael Spence, winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize in Economics

The Stratford Festival's production of THE AENEID, currently playing in repertory at the Studio Theatre, is not your standard version of Virgil's classic epic. Director, Keira Loughran brings an old story into the modern world-and does so to great effect with the World premiere of Maureen Labonte's translation of Oliver Kemeid's unique and inspired version.

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival will open William Shakespeare's Timon of Athens, directed by Amanda Dehnert, on July 31 at 1:30 p.m. in the Angus Bowmer Theatre. Preview performances are offered July 28 and 29. This will be only the fourth time that OSF has presented Timon of Athens in its 81-year history, the last time being in 1997. This also marks OSF's fourth completion of Shakespeare's canon since 1935.

2015 First Night Honoree Martha Wilkinson directs - with musical direction by Tim Fudge, and choreography by Curtis Reid and Lauri Gregoire - the first collaboration from Music City Theatre Collective and Metro Parks Theatre Department of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma!, running at the Centennial Park Bandshell June 17-July 2.

Although the calendar tells us we're still in the spring season, things are quickly heating up in Nashville - theatrically speaking - and theater-goers have a plethora of shows coming up from which to choose, including some summer musicals that are sure to set feet a-tapping and a classic drama that's sure to provoke more thought and discussion than perhaps ever before.

Summertime is here, what with Memorial Day and all that it encompasses, and we can think of no better seasonal activity than taking in some local theater. No matter where you are in the Volunteer State, Tennessee theater companies are ready and willing to help transport you to a different world, another time and place where your life can be is transformed magically on a stage very near you!

Oh, the places you'll go! The Oregon Shakespeare Festival transports audiences to a ghostly Danish castle, dynastic China, and Oz's Emerald City when its outdoor theatre opens the weekend of June 17-19. The Allen Elizabethan Theatre will feature Hamlet, directed by Lisa Peterson; the classic 1970s musical The Wiz, directed by Robert O'Hara; and The Winter's Tale, directed by Desdemona Chiang. The shows will close the weekend of October 14-16.

Known for capturing the duality of strength and grace, Ariel Rivka Dance (ARD) celebrates its ninth season with a special, contemporary dance festival comprising five world premieres by four of today's top choreographers all on one stage. Curated by ARD, this elegant array of diverse dance and live musicians showcases new works by Ariel Grossman of ARD, soloist Elisa King, Heidi Latsky of Heidi Latsky Dance, and Pascal Rioult of RIOULT Dance NY. (Program details are below.)

The Case Western Reserve University/Cleveland Play House MFA (CWRU/CPH MFA) Acting Program will present Mary Zimmerman's METAMORPHOSES in the Helen Rosenfeld Lewis Bialosky Lab Theatre ('The Helen') at Playhouse Square for 10 performances only, tonight, March 16, through Mrach 26, 2016.

The Case Western Reserve University/Cleveland Play House MFA (CWRU/CPH MFA) Acting Program will present Mary Zimmerman's METAMORPHOSES in the Helen Rosenfeld Lewis Bialosky Lab Theatre ('The Helen') at Playhouse Square for 10 performances only, March 16-26, 2016.

BroadwayWorld has exclusive photos from the first rehearsal of the first rehearsal of SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE. The company began rehearsals this morning in Stratford, Ontario.

Cleveland Play House's (CPH) monumental 100th Season continues with the regional premiere of LUNA GALE today. CPH welcomes back film and stage legend Austin Pendleton to direct this contemporary drama that begs the question 'To whom do you belong?' Written by Rebecca Gilman, recipient of the 2015 Roe Green Award, LUNA GALE runs today, February 27 through March 20 in the intimate Allen Theatre.

Cleveland Play House's (CPH) monumental 100th Season continues with the regional premiere of LUNA GALE. CPH welcomes back film and stage legend Austin Pendleton to direct this contemporary drama that begs the question 'To whom do you belong?' Written by Rebecca Gilman, recipient of the 2015 Roe Green Award, LUNA GALE runs February 27 - March 20 in the intimate Allen Theatre.

The new drama SWEAT by Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage (Ruined; By The Way, Meet Vera Stark) comes toArena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater following a critically-acclaimed debut at Oregon Shakespeare Festival as part of a co-commission between the two theaters. The play is directed by Nottage's longtime collaboratorKate Whoriskey and runs January 15-February 21, 2016 in the Kreeger Theater. Check out photos from opening night below!

The new drama SWEAT by Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage (Ruined; By The Way, Meet Vera Stark) comes to Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater following a critically-acclaimed debut at Oregon Shakespeare Festival as part of a co-commission between the two theaters. The play is directed by Nottage's longtime collaborator Kate Whoriskey and runs tonight, January 15, through February 21, 2016 in the Kreeger Theater. The company just kicked off rehearsals, and BroadwayWorld has photos below!

The new drama SWEAT by Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage (Ruined; By The Way, Meet Vera Stark) comes to Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater following a critically-acclaimed debut at Oregon Shakespeare Festival as part of a co-commission between the two theaters. The play is directed by Nottage's longtime collaborator Kate Whoriskey and runs January 15-February 21, 2016 in the Kreeger Theater. The company just kicked off rehearsals, and BroadwayWorld has photos below!

All this yuletide revelry to which I am alluding comes courtesy of BUMT's latest production: Irving Berlin's White Christmas, the onstage updating of the 1954 film version that features a score of the master musician's finest songs as it tells the story of two song-and-dance men and their female counterparts who join together during one particularly mild winter ski season to help save the bacon of an inspiring leader who's played a significant role in their lives. It's a tuneful, feel-good show that's certain to lift your spirits and, as performed by the BUMT cast, reaffirm your faith that the future of musical theater will be thriving for years to come.

The new drama Sweat by Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage (Ruined; By The Way, Meet Vera Stark) comes to Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater following a critically-acclaimed debut at Oregon Shakespeare Festival as part of a co-commission between the two theaters. Hailed by The New York Times as an 'extraordinarily moving drama' that 'brims with the kind of ripe, richly imagined life associated with the work of the great August Wilson,' the play is directed by Nottage's longtime collaborator Kate Whoriskey and runs January 15-February 21, 2016 in the Kreeger Theater.

Tickets to the Stratford Festival's North American premiere of SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE are now on pre-sale.

Co-creators and ONCE cast members Erikka Walsh, Katrina Lenk, and Scott Stangland launch their Seed&Spark campaign for Season One of MISS TERI. The actor/musicians are set to film the remaining episodes in the spring of 2016.