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Exclusive: Deadline hears that cameras are rolling on the set of the Amazon MGM Orion Pictures’ feature take of the 3x Obie-winning play, Is God Is with I’m a Virgo‘s Kara Young and Kindred‘s Mallori Johnson playing outcast twin sisters. Also starring are Oscar nominee and 3x Primetime Emmy winner Sterling K. Brown, Kill Bill‘s Vivica A. Fox and Moonlight actress and multi-Grammy nominee Janelle Monáe.

Aleshea Harris is directing from her own script adapted from her 2018 stage play which opened Off Broadway at the Soho Rep. In Is God Is, twin sisters Racine and Anaia have disfiguring burn scars and are eking out a dismal existence in a city that doesn’t feel like home. Though twins, they couldn’t be more different. Racine, whose scars are only on her torso and hands, is the defender, hitting back at their many bullies since childhood. Anaia,...

The American Playwriting Foundation will grant $10,000 each to six Writers Guild of America members who are chosen as the winners in a new playwriting contest.

The grant money, which is given out under the existing program of The Relentless Award, is intended to help WGA writers who are unable to work in TV and film during the strike. The playwrights must be current WGA members and must write a 10-minute play that centers on the theme of picketing or striking. Submissions are open through Sept. 5.

The plays will be performed in a special benefit performance at Theatre Row in New York by a cast including Wayne Brady, Billy Crudup, Vincent D’Onofrio, Gina Gershon, Walton Goggins, Natasha Lyonne, Sam Rockwell, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Liev Schreiber and Yul Vazquez. Five finalists will also be selected and will receive $1,000 each.

The American Playwriting Foundation Foundation, established in honor of Philip Seymour Hoffman, has traditionally...

The staff of Los Angeles Times won a Pulitzer Prize on Monday for its stories that uncovered recordings in which City Council members made racist remarks.

The recordings last year set off a furor at City Hall, leading to the resignation of City Council President Nury Martinez and other civic officials.

The Times‘ Christina House also won a Pulitzer for feature photography for images of a pregnant 22-year-old living on the street.

The Times‘ exposé on the City Council members conversation won in the breaking news category, beating two other finalists: Josh Gerstein, Alex Ward, Peter S. Canellos. Hailey Fuchs and Heidi Przybyla of Politico for their bombshell story on the leaked draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade. The Pulitzer jury moved their entry to breaking news from the national reporting category. The other finalist in the category was the staff of The New York Times for its coverage of...

Onyx Collective on Hulu has ordered the comedy pilot “Deli Boys” from Abdullah Saeed.

The logline for the half-hour project states, “When their convenience-store magnate father suddenly dies, a pair of pampered Pakistani-American brothers lose everything and are forced to reckon with their Baba’s secret life of crime as they attempt to take up his mantle in the underworld.”

The cast includes Asif Ali and Saagar Shaikh in the lead roles, with Alfie Fuller also starring. Ali will play Mir Dar, described as “hardworking, enthusiastic to a fault, and eager to impress his father, Baba, a scrappy immigrant who arrived in the U.S. broke and built an empire from scratch.” Shaikh will play Raj Dar, said to be “a real character, the antithesis of his younger brother Mir. Whereas Mir is a straight-shooter, Raj is a pot-smoking, entitled playboy, an outrageous hipster who wraps his joints in gold...

In our Q&a series Last Call, we get down to the bottom of every last thing with some of our favorite celebs - from the last time they were starstruck to the last song they listened to. This week, KiKi Layne takes our call.

KiKi Layne is booked and busy! The 30-year-old actor currently stars as the live-action lead Ellie in "Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers," alongside Andy Samberg, John Mulaney, Keegan-Michael Key, and Seth Rogen. Despite not watching the original series growing up, she was excited to revive the beloved adventure comedy more than 30 years later.

"It started off as a conversation with [director] Akiva [Schaffer]," Layne tells Popsugar about how she got involved with the project. "They sent me the script, and I just got to talk to him about what his vision was, and I was very excited, just hearing how he really wanted to celebrate animation and...

Nominations for the 37th Annual Lucille Lortel Awards for Outstanding Achievement Off-Broadway were announced April 7, 2022 by Lilli Cooper and Lea DeLaria, stars of Broadway’s “Potus.” The Lortel Awards were created in 1985 to honor outstanding achievement Off-Broadway. The Lucille Lortel Awards are produced by the Off-Broadway League and Lucille Lortel Theatre, with additional support provided by Tdf. Winners will be announced at a ceremony on May 1, at NYU Skirball.

Tony Award hopeful Deirdre O’Connell is the recipient of this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award. She won a Lortel Award for her riveting solo performance in “Dana H.” at the Vineyard Theatre last year. That production transferred to Broadway in the fall.

Acclaimed playwright David Henry Hwang is this year’s Playwrights’ Sidewalk Inductee. His name will be added to a star on the sidewalk outside the Lucille Lortel Theatre on Christopher Street, a permanent monument to Off-Broadway playwrights.

New musicals...

Kimberly Akimbo, Assassins, Prayer for the French Republic and The Chinese Lady were among the Off Broadway productions receiving multiple nominations for this year’s Lucille Lortel Awards for Outstanding Achievement Off Broadway, announced today.

Among the innovations in this year’s 37th Annual Lortel Awards are the first non-gendered performance categories, and the first-ever Lortel for Outstanding Ensemble. In the new Ensemble category, the inaugural nominees are the casts of English, Oratorio For Living Things, and Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992.

Kimberly Akimbo and Oratorio For Living Things scored the most nominations, with six each, while Black No More and On Sugarland received five. Assassins, Prayer for the French Republic and The Chinese Lady each have four nominations.

The awards will be handed out on Sunday, May 1, at NYU Skirball in Manhattan. The Lucille Lortel Awards are produced by the Off-Broadway League and Lucille Lortel Theatre, with additional support provided by Tdf.

Lena Waithe and Rishi Rajani’s development and production company Hillman Grad Productions has announced the return of its mentorship lab which offers support and opportunities to marginalized creatives.

The Hillman Grad Mentorship Lab is an 8-month, tuition-free program that offers mentees the opportunity to enhance their creative skillset through personalized instruction from industry professionals, creating additional pathways to bring more people from diverse backgrounds into the entertainment industry.

As part of the program, mentees will participate in a variety of workshops, educational resources, professional development, and networking opportunities for a cohort of diverse writers, actors, and aspiring creative executives.

Tracks include television writing, screen acting, and executive development, instructed by Carolyn Michelle Smith (co-director of Acting Track), Behzad Dabu (co-director of Acting Track), and Michael Svoboda (director of Writing Track), among others.

Participants will also have the opportunity to work with and directly interact with notable actors, directors, casting directors,...

Applications are now open for Lena Waithe’s Hillman Grad Productions’ second annual mentorship lab, which provides opportunities for Bipoc creatives in TV and film.

The development and production company founded by Waithe and Rishi Rajani is again presenting the Hillman Grad Mentorship Lab, an eight-month tuition-free program focused on helping marginalized storytellers connect, grow and accelerate their entertainment careers.

In its second year, the lab will be spearheaded by program director Lacy Wright and program advisor Justin Riley, who will handle day-to-day operations under the direction of Hillman Grad CEO Waithe, president of TV and film Rajani and chief operating officer Ericka Pittman.

“Since the inception of Hillman Grad, it has been our ultimate goal to break down barriers to entry into Hollywood for new and diverse artists, while also ensuring they are paid for their art,” the Hillman Grad executive team stated.

“The program was built around the...

Updated with Ctg response: Playwright Jeremy O. Harris said Tuesday that he intends to pull his Tony-nominated Slave Play from the upcoming lineup at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles due to the theater company’s dearth of scheduled productions by female playwrights – a scarcity acknowledged by the management of Center Theatre Group, which operates the Taper.

In a tweet that reproduced an email sent to executives of L.A.’s Center Theatre Group, Harris wrote, “As a playwright who holds dear the principles of both inclusion it was a shock to realize that this season was programmed with only 1 woman across all theatres. As an Angeleno and a lover of theatre I think Los Angeles audiences deserve an equitable showing of the playwrights working in the US right now.

“I’ve spoken to my team,” he continues, “and would like to begin the process of removing slave play...

Concord is diving deeper into its IP vault of music and theatrical performance rights to develop movies, TV shows and podcasts through the newly established Concord Originals division.

Sophia Dilley has been promoted to senior vice president to lead the push at Concord Originals from Los Angeles. Dilley told Variety the company plans to be nimble in its dealmaking and aims to work with a range of production and distribution partners, depending on the needs of each project.

Among the properties that Concord is actively developing is a new take on “Flower Drum Song” with Daniel Dae Kim’s 3Ad production banner and Janet Yang Prods. The 1958 Rodgers & Hammerstein musical was adapted as a 1961 movie starring Nancy Kwan, James Shigeta and Miyoshi Umeki. Concord represents the voluminous Rodgers & Hammerstein for theatrical licensing.

“The Bluesman” is conceived as an “elevated genre film” revolving around the life and music of legendary 1930s Mississippi Delta musician Robert Johnson,...

Exclusive: Melissa Saint-Amand (Ozark) is set for a recurring role opposite Rose Rollins and Josh Lucas in Long Slow Exhale, Spectrum Originals’ upcoming drama series from L.A’s Finest‘s Pam Veasey, Anton Cropper and John Dove and Paramount TV Studios. Created by Veasey and to be directed by Cropper, Long Slow Exhale follows J.C. Abernathy (Rollins), the successful head coach of a competitive women’s college basketball team who finds herself in the middle of a potentially career shattering sexual abuse scandal. Sorting through the secrets to unravel the truth, she is forced to make decisions that will affect her, her family and the young female athletes who depend on her. Saint-Amand will play Claire Brockman. Veasey, who serves as showrunner, executive produces with Cropper, Bruna Papandrea and Casey Haver for Made Up Stories and Dove. Saint-Amand’s credits include Netflix’s Ozark and FX’s upcoming anthology series The Premise.

More than 200 theater writers – playwrights, composers, lyricists, librettists – have joined a nationwide letter writing campaign urging the incoming Biden-Harris Administration to prioritize its commitment to an arts community ravaged by Covid-19. Among other goals, many of the letters urge the administration to create a Department and Secretary of Arts & Culture.

Organized by the non-partisan grassroots coalition Be An #ArtsHero in partnership with The Dramatists Guild of America, the “Dear Mr. President and Madam Vice President” campaign asserts that “the Arts are vital to our nation’s soul and our collective humanity, as well as being an essential driver of the economy.”

Among those writing letters: Jeremy O. Harris (Slave Play), Anaïs Mitchell (Hadestown), Heidi Schreck (What The Constitution Means To Me) as well as V (formerly Eve Ensler), Craig Lucas, Theresa Rebeck, Sarah Ruhl, Marsha Norman, Lynn Ahrens, Zakiyyah Alexander, Jaclyn Backhaus, Bekah Brunstetter, Carla Ching, Vichet Chum, Paul Downs Colaizzo,...

Slave Play playwright Jeremy O. Harris will donate a collection of 15 plays by Black playwrights to 53 libraries and community centers across the country, a donation made in lieu of sending Slave Play scripts to Tony Award voters.

O. Harris made the announcement last night on Late Night with Seth Meyers, telling the NBC talk show host that a donation of The Golden Collection has been made in Meyers’ name to his alma mater Northwestern University. The playwright said the donation was made to recognize Meyers’ early and continued support of Slave Play.

The Golden Collection, named for Harris’ grandfather Golden Harris who died two weeks before the playwright learned that Slave Play had been booked at Broadway’s Golden Theatre, was launched in partnership with the Human Rights Campaign. The plays selected for the collection include Les Blancs by Lorraine Hansberry, The Colored Museum by George C. Wolfe, An Octoroon by Branden Jacobs Jenkins,...

Scott Rudin and A24 are teaming up for a feature adaptation of the award-winning play Is God Is.

The critically acclaimed show comes from writer Aleshea Harris and follows twin sisters who are on a revenge journey from the South to the California desert to find (and kill) their father at the request of their ailing mother, who is God. 

Is God Is, which premiered at Soho Rep, has earned four Obie awards, including best play and best director. Harris will adapt her own work for the screen.

Scott Rudin and A24 worked together on last year's awards contender ...

Scott Rudin and A24 are teaming up for a feature adaptation of the award-winning play Is God Is.

The critically acclaimed show comes from writer Aleshea Harris and follows twin sisters who are on a revenge journey from the South to the California desert to find (and kill) their father at the request of their ailing mother, who is God. 

Is God Is, which premiered at Soho Rep, has earned four Obie awards, including best play and best director. Harris will adapt her own work for the screen.

Scott Rudin and A24 worked together on last year's awards contender ...

The American Theatre Wing’s President and CEO Heather Hitchens and The Village Voice President and CEO Peter Barbey revealed the winners of the 63rd Annual Obie Awards Monday night. Rajiv Joseph’s Describe the Night, produced by Atlantic Theater Company, was honored as Best New American Play while Tony Award-nominated and three-time Obie Award-winning actress Kathleen Chalfant received a special Obie Award for Lifetime Achievement.

Hosted by Emmy and Obie-winning actor John Leguizamo, the ceremony was held at Terminal 5 in New York and was live streamed on the official Obie Awards Twitter account. Presenters included Matthew Broderick, Lucy Liu, Oliver Platt, and many others.

The ceremony also included a special performance by Stephen Trask who performed “Wig in a Box” honoring the 20th Anniversary of Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Laura Osnes also performed “What Matters Most” as part of the In Memoriam segment.

Read the complete list of winners below.

Harry Potter and The Cursed Child: Parts One and Two, Angels in America, the Denzel Washington-starrer The Iceman Cometh and the Tina Fey-penned Mean Girls were among the Broadway productions scoring nominations for this year’s New York Drama League awards.

The 2018 Broadway and Off-Broadway nominees were announced in the categories of Outstanding Production of a Play, Outstanding Revival of a Play, Outstanding Production of a Musical, Outstanding Revival of a Musical, and the Distinguished Performance Award. The nominations were announced this morning by Tony Award winners Harriet Harris, Julie White and nominee Christopher Sieber.

The 84th Annual Drama League Awards, the oldest theatrical honors in America, will be held Friday, May 18, 11:30 am at the Marriott Marquis Times Square.

Here is the complete list of nominees:

Outstanding Production Of A Broadway Or Off-broadway Play

Animal

Written by Clare Lizzimore

Directed by Gaye Taylor Upchurch

Atlantic Theater Company...