John Lloyd Young, Jan Maxwell Will Announce Nominations for Drama Desk Awards

John Lloyd Young and Jan Maxwell will announce nominations for the 58th Drama Desk Awards (www.DramaDeskAwards.com) which will take place 8 pm Sunday, May 19 at The Town Hall (123 W. 43rd St., NYC).

The nominations announcement news conference will be held 11 am Friday, April 26 at 54 Below.

Drama Desk Awards, which are presented annually, honor outstanding achievement by professional theater artists on Broadway, Off-Broadway and Off-Off Broadway. What sets Drama Desk Awards apart is that they are voted on and bestowed by theater critics, journalists, editors and publishers covering theater, “without any vested interest in the results.” For this reason, Drama Desk Awards reflect both enthusiasm for all aspects of New York’s professional theater and a level of erudition and theatrical experience unparalleled in our industry’s other prize-giving organizations.

The awards show will be written by Bill Rosenfield and directed by Jack Cummings III (co-founder and artistic director of Transport Group) and will be webcast live on www.TheaterMania.com. Gretchen Shugart, CEO of TheaterMania.com, which will present the awards ceremony, is managing executive producer of Drama Desk Awards. Robert R. Blume and David S. Stone in association with Renee McCurry are xecutive producers.

The 2012-2013 Drama Desk Nominating Committee is composed of: Barbara Siegel, Chairperson (TalkinBroadway.com and freelance); David Kaufman (author and freelance), Samuel L. Leiter (Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Theatre, Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center), Martha Wade Steketee (urbanexcavations.com; editor and contributor, Chance Magazine), Adrian Wattenmaker (Theater Faculty, Brooklyn College; Director, School of Creative and Performing Arts), and James Wilson (Professor of Theatre, CUNY; co-editor of Journal of American Drama and Theatre).

The 2012-2013 Board of Directors of the Drama Desk is composed of: President Isa Goldberg(Broadwaychannel.com;Theaterlife.com), Vice President Leslie (Hoban) Blake, (Theater Critic/City ARTS-Downtown; Co-Host/TWO on the AISLE, MNN, You Tube), Trasurer and Second Vice President Charles Wright (A+E Networks; Editorial Board, Best Plays Theater Year Book), Secretary Richard Ridge,(BroadwayWorld.com, Backstage with Richard Ridge), Arlene Epstein (South Shore Record/Herald Community Newspapers & LIHerald.com;), Elysa Gardner (USA Today critic/reporter; New York Drama Critics Circle), Randy Gener (American Theatre; New York Theater Wire); John Istel (Freelance Editor and Arts Journalist; Managing Editor, Drama Desk website), David Kaufman (Author and Freelance), William Wolf (wolfentertainmentguide.com; Adjunct professor, NYU), Lauren Yarger (Reflections in the Light; BroadwayWorld.com).

Tired of Winter? Think Summer: Comedy of Errors, Loves Labor's Lost Set for Shakespeare in the Park

Public Theater Presents Comedy of Errors with Jesse Tyler, Hamish Linkater; Musical Loves Labor's Lost Directed by Alex Timbers



Hamish Linklater

Jesse Tyler Ferguson

The Public Theater continuing five decades of free theater in Central Park this summer with Shakespeare at the Delacorte Theater.

The Public’s 2013 free Shakespeare in the Park season will begin on Tuesday, May 28 with The Comedy of Errors, featuring Shakespeare in the Park alumni Jesse Tyler Ferguson (“Modern Family”) as Dromio and Hamish Linklater (“The New Adventures of Old Christine”) as Antipholus. Ferguson and Linklater last performed together in The Winter’s Tale and The Merchant of Venice in 2010 for The Public’s Shakespeare in the Park. Directed by Daniel Sullivan, The Comedy of Errors will run for five weeks through Sunday, June 30.

The second show of the Park season will be a new musical adaptation of Shakespeare’s Love's Labor's Lost, directed by Alex Timbers, who adapts the book, with songs by Michael Friedman. Timbers and Friedman last collaborated on the award-winning musical Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson and Timbers will direct the new David Byrne musical Here Lies Love this spring at The Public’s downtown home at Astor Place. Love'Labor's Lost will begin performances on Tuesday, July 23 and run through Sunday, Aug. 18.

Bank of America sponsors the park series. Free tickets are distributed, two per person, at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park on the day of the show. The Public Theater will again offer free tickets through ourVirtual Ticketing lottery at www.shakespeareinthepark.org on the day of the show.



Art Imitates Life

Here's Some Quick, Cool Marketing. How cool is this?:

NEW YORK -- With the bones of King Richard III having been found beneath an English parking lot, New York's Shakespeare in the Parking Lot (http://shakespeareintheparkinglot.com), a project of The Drillling Company, will present "Richard III," directed by Hamilton Clancy, this summer from Aug. 1 to 17.

Director Hamilton Clancy says, "We have known for a long time that parking lots and Shakespeare were connected. Our intention is to bring Richard III back to life in a parking lot."

Free Shakespeare in the parking lot at Ludlow and Broome Streets on Manhattan's Lower East Side is a New York tradition dating back to 1996. It has been passed down through the years to the Drilling Company, which has produced free Shakespeare there since 2006.

More info on the show: http://shakespeareintheparkinglot.com/.

More info on the discovery of Richard's bones and the battle for them: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/05/world/europe/richard-the-third-bones.html