Ubu Roi is a play by French writer Alfred Jarry, then 23 years old. It was first performed in Paris in 1896, by Aurélien Lugné-Poe's Théâtre de l'Œuvre at the Nouveau-Théâtre. The production's single public performance baffled and offended audiences with its unruliness and obscenity. Considered to be a wild, bizarre and comic play, significant for the way it overturns cultural rules, norms and conventions, it is seen by 20th- and 21st-century scholars to have opened the door for what became known as modernism in the 20th century, and as a precursor to Dadaism, Surrealism and the Theatre of the Absurd.
Pere Ubu is an American rock group formed in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1975. The band had a variety of long-term and recurring band members, with singer David Thomas being the only member staying throughout the band's lifetime. They released their debut album The Modern Dance in 1978 and followed with several more LPs before disbanding in 1982. Thomas reformed the group in 1987, continuing to record and tour.
The San Jose Repertory Theatre was the first resident professional theatre company in San Jose, California. It was founded in 1980 by James P. Reber. In 2008, after the demise of the American Musical Theatre of San Jose, the San Jose Rep became the largest non-profit, professional theatre company in the South Bay with an annual operating budget of $5 million. In 2006, it was saved from impending insolvency by a $2 million bailout loan from the city of San Jose; this was later restructured into a long-term loan similar to a mortgage.
Defiant Theatre was a Chicago-based theatre company founded in 1993 by a group of students from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, which included Nick Offerman. The eclectic troupe specialized in productions that emphasized inventive stagecraft, perverse and controversial topics, and skillful stage combat. While the company is highly regarded for original plays such as Action Movie: The Play and Godbaby, Defiant Theatre received notable attention for productions of plays by Caryl Churchill, Alfred Jarry, Sarah Kane, and William Shakespeare. Chicago Magazine named Defiant the "Best Experimental Theatre" in their August 1999 Best of Chicago issue. The company disbanded in 2004.
Craig Lucas is an American playwright, screenwriter, theatre director, musical actor, and film director.
Western Culture is a studio album by English avant-rock group Henry Cow, recorded at Sunrise Studios in Kirchberg, Switzerland in January and July–August 1978. It was their last album and was released on Henry Cow's own private label, Broadcast, in 1979. Later editions appeared on Interzone in the US and Celluloid in France. Only the UK Broadcast pressing used the custom label artwork design.
Infernal Bridegroom Productions (IBP) was a theater company located in Houston, Texas, formed in 1993 and dissolved in 2007. IBP garnered national attention when it was featured on the cover of American Theatre in September, 2002, for its original play, We Have Some Planes, by Brian Jucha, about the events of September 11. The theater's name is taken from a line in one of its first productions, In the Jungle of Cities by Bertolt Brecht. The line reads, "In my dreams I call him my infernal bridegroom." IBP produced over 60 plays, many of them world premieres.
Benjamin Rush "Rusty" Magee was an accomplished comedian, actor and composer/lyricist for theatre, television, film and commercials.
Jeff Calhoun is an American director, choreographer, producer and dancer.
Ubu and the Truth Commission is a South African play by Jane Taylor. It was first produced on 26 May 1997, directed by William Kentridge at The Laboratory in Johannesburg's Market Theatre.
Calamity Jane (A Musical Western) is a stage musical based on the historical figure of frontierswoman Calamity Jane. The non-historical, somewhat farcical plot involves the authentic Calamity Jane's professional associate Wild Bill Hickok, and presents the two as having a contentious relationship that ultimately proves to be a facade for mutually amorous feelings. The Calamity Jane stage musical was an adaption of a 1953 Warner Bros. musical film of the same name that starred Doris Day. First produced in 1961, the stage musical Calamity Jane features six songs not heard in the film. According to Jodie Prenger, star of the Calamity Jane 2014–15 UK tour, the songs added for the stage musical had been written for but not included in the Calamity Jane film ("Love You Dearly" had been used in the 1954 Doris Day musical film Lucky Me).
Neil Berg is an American composer/lyricist best known for the hit off-Broadway musical The Prince and the Pauper, as well as the Award-Winning rock musical "THE 12", and Grumpy Old Men: The Musical. He is the creator and co-producer of Neil Berg's "100 Years of Broadway," a Broadway concert tour, performing over 100 shows a year since 2006. Neil was also one of the lead Producers, and driving force of the Award Winning 2013 Off-Broadway revival of Maltby and Shire's Closer Than Ever, at The York Theater. He studied Piano/musical composition with Walter Ponce, Robert Printz and Sue Peters, and is a product of The BMI Workshop, mentored by Maury Yeston and Skip Kennon. His theater songs are featured in various Hal Leonard's Musical Anthologies.
Ako, or Ako Dachs, is a Japanese actress who is the founding Artistic Director of the Amaterasu Za theatre company. She received a Lucille Lortel Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in 2019.
Viet Rock is a rock musical by Megan Terry that served as inspiration to the musical Hair. A violent denunciation of the American involvement in the Vietnam War, the play was described by its author as a "folk war movie" comprising scenes of disillusionment and protest to the American military presence in Southeast Asia. Viet Rock is widely considered to be the first rock musical written and performed in the United States, as well as the first protest play about Vietnam. Its premiere also marks the first major theatre production in the United States in which actors left the stage to interact directly with the audience.
Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 is a sung-through musical adaptation of a 70-page segment from Leo Tolstoy's 1869 novel War and Peace. The show was written by composer, lyricist, playwright, orchestrator Dave Malloy and originally directed by Rachel Chavkin. It is based on Part 8 of Tolstoy's novel, focusing on Natasha's romance with Anatole and Pierre's search for meaning in his life.
Waitress is a musical with music and lyrics by Sara Bareilles and a book by Jessie Nelson. Based on the 2007 film of the same name, written and directed by Adrienne Shelly, it tells the story of Jenna Hunterson, a baker and waitress in an abusive relationship with her husband, Earl. After Jenna unexpectedly becomes pregnant, she begins an affair with her doctor, Dr. James "Jim" Pomatter. Looking for ways out of her troubles, she sees a pie baking contest and its grand prize as her chance.
Taylor Armstrong Purdee is an American director, actor, screenwriter, and songwriter. He is best known for creating the musical film Killian & the Comeback Kids, as well as for his work preserving the documentary films of Academy Award winning actor/director Lee Grant. He is the first biracial director/star of African American descent to have a fiction film theatrically released in America in the 21st Century.
Annie Dorsen is an American theater director. She is the co-creator and director of the Broadway musical Passing Strange, and her work in "algorithmic theater" includes the plays Hello Hi There, A Piece of Work, and Yesterday Tomorrow. Dorsen has received an Alpert Award in the Arts, a Guggenheim Fellowship and a MacArthur Fellowship.
Andrea Cesyl Macasaet is a Canadian actress and singer. She is best known for originating the role of Anne Boleyn in the Broadway production of Six: The Musical.
