Read on for some recent theatre headlines you may have missed in today's news.
Tony Winners Sophie Okonedo and Denis O'Hare Join Cast of Infinite Storm
Four new cast members have been announced for the survival film Infinite Storm starring Naomi Watts, Deadline reports. Tony Award winners Sophie Okonedo (A Raisin in the Sun, The Crucible) and Denis O'Hare (Take Me Out, Assassins), along with screen actors Billy Howle and Parker Sawyers, join Watts in the thriller based on the true story of Pam Bales, who was caught in a blizzard on a solo hike up Mount Washington. Filming begins next week in Europe under the direction of Malgorzata Szumowska.
Wendi Peters to Lead You Are Here for Southwark Playhouse
You Are Here, a musical with a score by Neil Bartram and a book by Brian Hill, will have its U.K. premiere at the Southwark Playhouse for a four-week run beginning April 29. Wendi Peters, best known for her four years as Cilla Battersby-Brown on the ITV soap opera Coronation Street, will star as Diana, a Chicago housewife who, inspired by the astronauts taking that one giant leap, walks out of her suburban life on the night of the 1969 moon landing. Additional casting is to be announced. Tickets are currently being sold for live, in-person socially-distanced performances, with plans to move fully to streaming if necessary. The May 7 performance is currently dedicated only for streaming. For more information on the schedule and ticketing, click here.
Recipients Named for 2021 BOLD Theater Women's Leadership Circle Grant
Vermont's Northern Stage has announced the two new recipients of the BOLD Theater Women's Leadership Circle Grant, funded by the Helen Gurley Brown Foundation. Nataki Garrett, artistic director of Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and Maria Manuela Goyanes, artistic director of Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, have each been awarded $250,000 a year for two years to assist with the advancement of women's leadership roles in theatre through programming and staffing for women+ artists. The circle’s previously announced cohort of recipients are Susan V. Booth of Atlanta's Alliance Theatre, Eileen J. Morris of Houston's The Ensemble Theatre, Sarah Rasmussen of the McCarter Theatre Center, Christina Baldwin of Minneapolis' Jungle Theater, Lisa McNulty of New York's WP Theater, and BOLD founder Carol Dunne of Northern Stage. Since its inception, the program has awarded $3.5 million in grants to women-led theatres. Read more about the BOLD initiative and the grant recipients here.
