Joan Stein News

Friends, family, and colleagues will gather on Monday, October 8 at 8:00pm at the Brentwood Theatre in Los Angeles to celebrate the life of Joan Stein. A major force in theatre on both coasts, Stein was producer and/or general manager on over 80 productions during her career of over 30 years. She died on August 3 in Los Angeles of appendiceal cancer. She was 59.

Friends, family, and colleagues will gather on Monday, October 8 at 8:00pm at the Brentwood Theatre in Los Angeles to celebrate the life of Joan Stein.

Looking for a quick roundup of this week's events in the theatre world? Look no further - here are some of the best articles the week had to offer!

Joan Stein, who produced both theatre on the West and East Coasts and television in Los Angeles, died today from appendceal cancer, a family spokesperson announced. She was 59.

Following its successful launch in June 2012, and with expanded programming thanks to funding from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation as part of its Knight Arts Challenge Grant, City Theatre invites playwrights to pack up the laptop and come to Miami, Florida, for the 2nd Annual CityWrights: A Professional Weekend for Playwrights, today, June 14 through June 17, 2012. CityWrights is presented as a program of City Theatre's 17th Annual Summer Shorts Festival. Professional playwrights, early career and emerging playwrights, students, and all writers are welcome to attend.

Hennepin Theatre Trust presents the new theatrical event Standing On Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays, running tonight, May 31-June 16, 2012 at the New Century Theatre. Showcasing funny, heartfelt "mini works" that celebrate the courage to be in a relationship-any relationship, Standing On Ceremony's smart and witty vignettes were penned by playwrights whose credits include two Pulitzer Prizes, four Obies, one Emmy and three Tony nominations. Wendy Knox of Frank Theatre will direct a stellar cast of six Twin Cities actors including Laura Adams, Shawn Hamilton Brown, Aimee K. Bryant, Jim Lichtscheidl and Mark Rhein, with one more actor to be announced soon. With this production, the Trust is working in cooperation with Minnesotans United for All Families, the official statewide campaign working to defeat the constitutional amendment that would exclude gays and lesbians from marriage in Minnesota.

Hennepin Theatre Trust presents the new theatrical event Standing On Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays, running May 31-June 16, 2012 at the New Century Theatre. Showcasing funny, heartfelt "mini works" that celebrate the courage to be in a relationship-any relationship, Standing On Ceremony's smart and witty vignettes were penned by playwrights whose credits include two Pulitzer Prizes, four Obies, one Emmy and three Tony nominations. Wendy Knox of Frank Theatre will direct a stellar cast of six Twin Cities actors including Laura Adams, Shawn Hamilton Brown, Aimee K. Bryant, Jim Lichtscheidl and Mark Rhein, with one more actor to be announced soon. With this production, the Trust is working in cooperation with Minnesotans United for All Families, the official statewide campaign working to defeat the constitutional amendment that would exclude gays and lesbians from marriage in Minnesota.

Following its successful launch in June 2012, and with expanded programming thanks to funding from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation as part of its Knight Arts Challenge Grant, City Theatre invites playwrights to pack up the laptop and come to Miami, Florida, for the 2nd Annual CityWrights: A Professional Weekend for Playwrights, June 14 - 17, 2012. CityWrights is presented as a program of City Theatre's 17th Annual Summer Shorts Festival. Professional playwrights, early career and emerging playwrights, students, and all writers are welcome to attend.

The Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle has announced the winners and special awards for excellence in Los Angeles and Orange County theatre for the year 2011. The 43rd Annual Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards ceremony took place Monday, March 19 at A Noise Within in Pasadena, and was co-hosted by Jason Graae and Lesli Margherita.

The Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle's 43rd Annual Awards Show will take place on Monday, March 19, 2012 at A Noise Within in Pasadena. The show will feature performances from previously-announced hosts Jason Graae (recipient of the 2007 Joel Hirschhorn Award for outstanding achievement in musical theatre) and Lesli Margherita (nominee for Kiss Me, Kate). In addition, the Awards show will feature the Los Angeles premiere performance of My Husband, by Paul Rudnick, a short play added to the New York production of Standing on Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays. Also, Yvette Tucker and Salvatore Vasallo will perform an excerpt from "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue," from On Your Toes, choreographed by this year's Hirschhorn Award recipient, Lee Martino.

The Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle has announced its nominations and special awards for excellence in Los Angeles, Orange County and Ventura County theatre for the year 2011. The 43rd Annual Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards ceremony will take place on Monday, March 19, 2012 at A Noise Within, the acclaimed classical repertory theatre company, in its new 33,000 square-foot, state-of-the-art venue in Pasadena, thanks to the generous donation of A Noise Within's management. The theatre is located on the corner of Foothill Boulevard and Sierra Madre Villa Avenue at 3352 East Foothill Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91107. Tickets are $40, and should be reserved in advance from the LADCC's website, at www.ladramacriticscircle.com. The doors open at 6:30 p.m. for pre-show hors d'oeuvres (with no-host bar), and the show commences at 7:30 p.m.

Producers Joan Stein and Richard Frankel announced today that Standing On Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays will welcome Award-winning comedian Kate Clinton and playwright Paul Rudnick (who is receiving rave reviews for his Standing On Ceremony short plays "My Husband" and "The Gay Agenda") for a post-performance Q&A following the 8:00 PM performance on Wednesday, December 7 at the Minetta Lane Theatre (18 Minetta Lane).

Producers Joan Stein and Richard Frankel announced today that Standing On Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays will welcome Award-winning comedian Kate Clinton and playwright Paul Rudnick (who is receiving rave reviews for his Standing On Ceremony short plays "My Husband" and "The Gay Agenda") for a post-performance Q&A following the 8:00 PM performance on Wednesday, December 7 at the Minetta Lane Theatre (18 Minetta Lane).

Producers Joan Stein and Richard Frankel announced today that the Off Broadway premiere production of Standing On Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays will play its final performance at the Minetta Lane Theatre on Sunday, December 18. The show will have played 7 preview performances and 41 regular performances. The producers then plan to take the play, which opened to an overwhelmingly enthusiastic response from critics and audiences alike on November 13, 2011, to markets where marriage equality is not yet a reality, in an effort to help invigorate audience members in battleground states and raise money for marriage equality organizations.

The Off Broadway production of Standing On Ceremony kicked off its open-ended run on November 7. Conceived by Brian Shnipper and directed by Stuart Ross, Standing On Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays began as a series of benefit events in Los Angeles, taking on a life of their own as an inspiring theatrical evening. The New York cast features Craig Bierko, Mark Consuelos, Polly Draper, Harriet Harris, Beth Leavel and Richard Thomas. The production opened officially last night, November 13, and BroadwayWorld was there!

Joan Stein and Richard Frankel (Producers) announced that the new theatrical event Standing On Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays, which premieres Off Broadway at the Minetta Lane Theatre in NYC this fall, will join with Tectonic Theater Project (Moisés Kaufman, Artistic Director; Greg Reiner, Executive Director) to help take the play's message of marriage equality across the globe.

Standing On Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays, which is now in previews and opens at the Minetta Lane Theatre tonight, November 13, assembles some of America's most illustrious and Award-winning playwrights, including Mo Gaffney, Jordan Harrison, Moisés Kaufman, Neil LaBute, Wendy MacLeod, José Rivera, Paul Rudnick and Doug Wright, all responding to one of the defining issues of our day -- the on-going battle for marriage equality throughout the United States - in a heartfelt, funny and altogether illuminating evening of short plays that celebrates the courage to be in a relationship - any relationship.

Standing on Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays producers Joan Stein and Richard Frankel and Tectonic Theater Project (Moisés Kaufman, Artistic Director; Greg Reiner, Executive Director) have joined forces to present Standing on Ceremony: The National Event, to help take the play's message of equality across the country. For one night only, on Monday, November 7, curtains will rise on Standing On Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays at more than forty theatres and universities in twenty-fives states to raise awareness and funds in support of marriage equality.