Friday, June 3, 7:30 – 7:50pm
7:30pm // Event Room, 2nd Floor at Woodruff Arts Center
8:00pm // PERFORMANCE OF TRADING PLACES
Join us for a brief pre-show discussion with the writers of TRADING PLACES. This discussion will feature Alan Zachary and Michael Weiner (Composer & Lyricist).
Before Play discussions are free for ticket holders. No RSVP required.
Get tickets for the June 3rd, 8pm performance of TRADING PLACES here.
Alan Zachary & Michael Weiner wrote the score for the Broadway musical comedy FIRST DATE, which premiered at the Longacre Theatre starring Zachary Levi and has subsequently had over two hundred productions around the world. Their stage musical adaptation of Paramount’s TRADING PLACES will have its world premiere at Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre in Spring 2022, directed by Tony Award winner Kenny Leon (book: Thomas Lennon & Robert Ben Garant).
Zachary and Weiner are currently writing the screenplay and songs for an original live-action movie musical for TriStar Pictures (Jason Reed Productions). Additionally, they’re writing a movie musical for Disney+, produced by Suzanne Todd.
The duo contributed the first original song for HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL: THE MUSICAL: THE SERIES (Disney+) and penned all the songs for the critically acclaimed musical episode of ABC’s ONCE UPON A TIME. They’ve also developed pilots, movies and songs for ABC, CW, FOX, Disney Channel, VH1, Nickelodeon and Amazon Studios.
Upcoming stage musicals: 17 AGAIN (dir: Adam Shankman) and 13 GOING ON 30 (dir: Andy Fickman). The team also wrote music and lyrics for a stage musical adaptation of the cult family film SECONDHAND LIONS (book: Rupert Holmes / prod: Warner Brothers Theatre Ventures) which debuted at Seattle’s 5th Avenue Theatre (world premiere recording on Broadway Records).
Zachary & Weiner are recipients of the ASCAP Foundation Richard Rodgers New Horizons Award, presented by Broadway legend Stephen Schwartz.
Featuring Susan V. Booth and Tinashe Kajese-Bolden
Prior to 7:30pm performance
Event Room, 2nd Floor // Woodruff Arts Center
Join us for a brief pre-show discussion with Susan V. Booth and Tinashe Kajese-Bolden, co-directors of Everybody. Before Play discussions are free for ticket holders. No RSVP required. Get tickets for the SEP 8, 7:30pm performance of Everybody.
Susan V. Booth (Jennings Hertz Artistic Director) joined the Alliance Theatre in 2001 and has initiated the Palefsky Collision Project for teens, the Alliance/Kendeda National Graduate Playwriting Competition, the Reiser Atlanta Artists Lab, local producing partnerships and regional collaborative productions, as well as commercial partnerships on projects such as The Prom; Tuck Everlasting; Ghost Brothers of Darkland County; The Color Purple; Bring It On: The Musical; Twyla Tharp’s Come Fly Away; Sister Act: The Musical; Bring in ’da Noise, Bring in ’da Funk; and Jesus Christ Superstar GOSPEL, and has directed world premieres by writers including Pearl Cleage, Janece Shaffer, National Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey, Stephen King, John Mellencamp, and Kristian Bush. As a director, she has worked at such theatres as the Goodman, La Jolla Playhouse, New York Stage and Film, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Northlight Theatre, Victory Gardens, Court Theatre and many others. She holds degrees from Denison and Northwestern universities and was a fellow of the National Critics Institute and the Kemper Foundation. She has held teaching positions at Northwestern, DePaul, and Emory universities. She is a past president of the board of directors for the Theatre Communications Group, the national service organization for the field, is a trustee of Denison University, and a member of the Carter Center’s Board of Councilors. Susan’s leadership is underwritten by the BOLD Theater Women’s Leadership Circle, an initiative to support and promote women’s theater leadership funded by The Helen Gurley Brown Foundation. Susan is married to Max Leventhal and is the proud mother of Moira Rose Leventhal.
Tinashe Kajese-Bolden (Co-Director) Award-Winning Director, Actor, Producer. She is the BOLD Artistic Director Fellow at the Alliance Theater and driven to create stories that celebrate our differences while building community. Tinashe is a Princess Grace 2019 Award Winner for Directing, and Map Fund Award recipient to develop her devised new work ALL SMILES for Theater for the Very Young, centering the experience of children on the Autism Spectrum. Recent theatre directing productions include School Girls (Or the African Mean Girls Play) at Kenny Leon’s True Colors Theatre, Ghost at The Alliance Theater, Native Gardens (Virginia Stage Company), Pipeline(Horizon Theater), Nick’s Flamingo Grill (World Premiere at The Alliance Theatre, Hertz Stage), Eclipsed (Synchronicity Theatre, Best Director Suzi Bass Award). Upcoming projects: Lydia Diamond’s ‘Toni Stone’ at Milwaukee Repertory Theatre and The Alliance Theatre, and Candrice Jone’s ‘Flex’ at Theatrical Outfit for their 2021-22 Season. As a director and actor, she has worked On + Off Broadway, including The Imperial Theatre, Primary Stages, 59E59 Theatre, Classical Theatre of Harlem; and regionally at Yale Rep, Woolly Mammoth Theater Co, Cincinnati Playhouse, The Geva Theatre, CTG’s Kirk Douglas Theatre, among others, as well as recurring roles on TV/Film (Suicide Squad, Marvel’s Hawkeye, CW’s Valor, Dynasty, HBO’s Henrietta Lacks and currently filming Season 2 of Ava Duverney’s Cherish the Day.) She proudly serves on the ARTS-ATL Artist Advisory Council “My mission is the pursuit of what connects our different communities and how we create art that serves that.”
A Christmas Carol – Before Play
Thursday, NOV 15
North Alcove, 2nd Floor // 7:00 PM, prior to 7:30 PM performance
Join us for a pre-show discussion with a member of the creative team of A Christmas Carol. Before Play discussions are free for ticket holders. No RSVP required.
Get tickets for the November 15th, 7:30 PM performance of A Christmas Carol
6:45 – 7:15 PM, prior to 7:30 performance // Rich Theatre, Woodruff Arts Center
Join us for a pre-show discussion with Katori Hall, playwright and director of The Hot Wing King.
Before Play discussions are free for ticket holders. No RSVP required.
Find more information about The Hot Wing King here.
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Katori Hall is a Pulitzer Prize and Olivier Award-winning playwright and television creator/producer hailing from Memphis, Tennessee. A two-time Tony Award nominee, she won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play, The Hot Wing King, which she will soon direct for the first time at Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre in early 2023. She is currently the showrunner and Executive Producer of the Starz drama series, P-Valley, which she adapted from her stage play Pussy Valley. The critically acclaimed and record-breaking series returned for its second season on June 3, 2022. P-Valley was named to countless ‘Best of 2020’ lists for its first season and, among many honors, has received Gotham, Independent Spirit, GLAAD Media, and NAACP Image Award nominations. Katori recently signed an overall deal with Lionsgate Television to continue to develop and produce groundbreaking content across their linear and streaming platforms. For Broadway, she most recently wrote and produced the hit musical, Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, based on the life of the iconic performer, receiving two Tony Award nominations for her work as both playwright for ‘Best Book of a Musical’ and as producer in the ‘Best Musical’ category. For the musical’s acclaimed West End production, she also received an Olivier nomination for ‘Best New Musical.’ Her play The Mountaintop, which vividly reimagines the final night of Martin Luther King Jr.’s life, premiered at Theatre503 in London in 2009, then transferred to the West End, where she won the Olivier Award for Best New Play in 2010. It later opened on Broadway in October 2011 to critical acclaim in a production starring Samuel L. Jackson and Angela Bassett. The Mountaintop will soon premiere at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles from June 6 – July 9, 2023. Katori’s other works include the award-winning Hurt Village, which is currently in development as a feature film; plus Hoodoo Love, Saturday Night/Sunday Morning, WHADDABLOODCLOT!!!, Our Lady of Kibeho, Purple is the Colour of Mourning and The Blood Quilt. She is also the proud recipient of the Susan Smith Blackburn Award, Lark Play Development Center Playwrights of New York (PONY) Fellowship, two Lecompte du Nouy Prizes from Lincoln Center, Fellowship of Southern Writers Bryan Family Award in Drama, NYFA Fellowship, the Columbia University John Jay Award for Distinguished Professional Achievement, National Black Theatre’s August Wilson Playwriting Award and the Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award. Katori is an alumnus of the Sundance Episodic Lab’s inaugural class, as well as the Sundance Screenwriting Lab. She also participated in Ryan Murphy’s Half Foundation Directing Program and directed the award-winning short, Arkabutla. |
7:00 PM, prior to 7:30 performance // Hertz Stage, Woodruff Arts Center
Join us for a pre-show discussion with playwright Stephen Brown, winner of the 2022 Alliance/Kendeda National Graduate Playwriting Competition.
Before Play discussions are free for ticket holders. No RSVP required.
Find more information about The Many Wondrous Realities of Jasmine Starr-Kidd here.
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Stephen Brown (Playwright) is currently a fellow at The Juilliard School’s Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program. His play The Many Wondrous Realities of Jasmine Starr-Kidd won the Alliance/Kendeda Playwriting Competition Award and is currently under option to be adapted into a film. His play Everything Is Super Great was produced at 59E59 Theaters by New Light Theatre Project where it was a TimeOut NY Critic’s Pick. His other work has been developed and received readings by Primary Stages, MCC, Page 73, Ensemble Studio Theatre, The Road Theatre, Barter Theatre, Theatre Lab, and the Aurora Theatre. He’s been a Finalist for the Play Penn Conference, Seven Devil’s Playwrights Conference, the Blue Ink Award, the Neukom Prize, The Aurand Harris Award, and the Working Farm at SPACE on Ryder Farm. He was a member of Youngblood at EST, Page 73’s playwriting group I-73 and has had residencies with the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and SPACE on Ryder Farm. He’s currently developing a TV show based on his pilot Barbara. |
7:00 PM // North Alcove – Second Floor, Woodruff Arts Center
7:30 PM // Performance of Water for Elephants on the Coca-Cola Stage
Join us for a pre-show discussion with Rick Elice, book writer of the musical Water for Elephants.
Before Play discussions are free for ticket holders. No RSVP required.
Find more information about Water for Elephants here.
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Rick Elice (Book) Jersey Boys, Rick’s first Broadway credit, co-authored with Marshall Brickman, won the Tony Award, the Grammy Award and the Olivier Award for Best Musical, and has entered the record books as the twelfth longest-running show in Broadway history. With Marshall Brickman and Andrew Lippa, he wrote The Addams Family, starring Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth. For the past eight years, The Addams Family has topped the list of the most-licensed musicals in North America. Rick’s first play, Peter and the Starcatcher, received nine Tony Award nominations, and won five 2012 Tony Awards. For the past seven years, the play has been among the top ten most-produced plays in North America. Rick also wrote The Cher Show for Broadway, directed by Jason Moore; the world premiere at Paper Mill Playhouse of a new musical, My Very Own British Invasion, directed by Jerry Mitchell; the world premiere at The Old Globe. |
7:00 PM // Pre-Show Discussion on the Hertz Stage
7:30 PM // Performance of English on the Hertz Stage
Join us for a pre-show discussion with the creative team of English.
Before Play discussions are free for ticket holders. No RSVP required.
Find more information about English here.
7:15 PM // Pre-Show Discussion in the Event Room – Second Floor, Memorial Arts Building
8:00 PM // Performance of The Shining on the Coca-Cola Stage
Join us for a pre-show discussion with composer Paul Moravec and librettist Mark Campbell of The Shining. This conversation will be hosted by Tomer Zvulun, General & Artistic Director of The Atlanta Opera.
Before Play discussions are free for ticket holders. No RSVP required.
Find more information about The Shining here.