Actors Equity Association names new Executive Director

February 2007

Actors’ Equity Association (Equity) announced the appointment of John P. Connolly as Executive Director, effective March 19, 2007. Mr. Connolly joins Equity directly from his position as National President of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA). In his new role, Connolly will direct the collective bargaining process for more than 30 national and regional contracts, oversee the Union’s finances and supervise Equity’s large professional staff...

January 2007

Anthony Barilla, artistic director of Infernal Bridegroom Productions, has announced that he will be leaving the organization at the end of April, 2007. Barilla will be moving to Kosovo to join his wife, Emily Patterson, who works as a Human Rights Officer for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. They will be based in Mitrovica, a town still struggling with ethnic tensions between nationalist extremists on both sides of the conflict. Patterson has been based in Mitrovica since August of 2006. Barilla joined IBP in 1998 as associate director/production manager, and was promoted to artistic director in 2003 following the departure of IBP’s founding artistic director, Jason Nodler...

January 29, 2007

The 36th Annual Theater Hall of Fame, which honors lifetime achievement in the theatre, will be inducting artists at a ceremony in the Gershwin Theatre. The M.C. for the night will be none other than Houston's own Tony award winner Phylicia Rashad. The evening will honor actors Patti LuPone, George Hearn and Elizabeth Wilson; playwright Brian Friel; and designers Willa Kim and Eugene Lee. Playwrights Wendy Wasserstein and August Wilson will be inducted posthumously...

Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird Replaces the Previously Announced Terms of Endearment

January 2007

To Kill a Mockingbird will replace the previously scheduled adaptation of Larry McMurtry’s Terms of Endearment as the fourth play on the Hubbard Stage during the Alley’s Sixtieth Anniversary season. Terms of Endearment, a new play, in development with Hartford Stage Company, has been postponed indefinitely. Linda Gray, remembered most often for her portrayal of “Sue Ellen” in the long running television hit “Dallas,” was to take on the role of Aurora with Hartford Stage Artistic Director (and Alley Theatre Associate) Michael Wilson directing...

Stages Repertory Theatre Board names Kenn McLaughlin Producing Artistic Director

December 2006

After ten years of artistic acclaim for his leadership of Stages Repertory Theatre, Artistic Director Rob Bundy announced today that he will not return to Stages Repertory Theatre following his year-long leave of absence. Mr. Bundy will pursue a freelance directing career based in New York where he maintains a home. Kenn McLaughlin, Stages' current Managing Director, will continue performing the producing duties previously held by Bundy and will immediately assume the role of Producing Artistic Director of Stages...

In its first major grant announcement of fiscal year 2007, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) announced today that it will award $19.4 million to fund 848 grants. The Arts Endowment will distribute $19,486,750 in this round of FY 2007 funding to nonprofit national, regional, state, and local organizations across the country, funding Access to Artistic Excellence grants as well as Literature Fellowships for individuals...

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