Danai Gurira’s Yale Rep Plays Move To Stages

Several special veteran-themed events will be held in conjunction with the Hartford Stage production of Dan O’Brien’s drama, “The Body of an American.” O’Brien and photojournalist Paul Watson — the real-life versions of the two main characters in the play — will hold a conversation, moderated by Dr. Harold I. Schwartz of Hartford Hospital’s The Institute of Living, on Monday, Jan. 11, at 7:30 p.m. at the theater, 50 Church Street, Hartford.

On Thursday, Jan. 14, at the Mark Twain House & Museum, there’s a panel discussion titled “After War: What Happens Next?” with O’Brien, author Emma Sky (“The Unraveling: High Hopes and Missed Opportunities in Iraq”), Washington Post journalist David Finkel and WNPR’s Lucy Nalpathanchil. There’s also a Veterans Art Foundation gallery exhibit in the theater lobby. “The Body of an American” runs through Jan. 31, then moves on to New York’s Cherry Lane Playhouse.

Gurira Was Here

Two plays by Danai Gurira that were first seen at the Yale Repertory Theatre will begin performances in New York in February. The war play “Eclipsed,” which begins previews Feb. 23 at the John Golden Theatre, will have the same director (Liesl Tommy) and two of the same cast members (Pascale Armand and Zainab Jah) as the 2009 Rep production, plus it will star a notable recent Yale School of Drama grad, Lupita Nyong’o. The family drama “Familiar,” at Playwrights Horizons Feb. 12 through March 27, will have the same director (Rebecca Taichman) and one of the same cast members (Joe Tippett) as the world-premiere Yale Rep production of a year ago.

Go Western, Young Dramatists!

Western Connecticut State University will host the Northeast regional program of the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival Jan. 26-31 in the school’s new Visual and Performing Arts Center. The festival’s been happening since 1969 and is held in eight different regions. Region 1 covers New England and Northeast New York. This is the first time the event has been held at Western. The festival offers numerous prizes and scholarships in a variety of theater disciplines. The 2014 winner of the KCACTF’s Paula Vogel Award in Playwriting went to Jen Silverman, whose new play, “The Moors,” will have its world premiere at the Yale Rep later this month. Besides performances (which include the WCSU Department of Theatre Arts rendition of the musical “Parade,” plus other schools’ productions of “Godspell,” “Almost, Maine,” Sarah Ruhl’s “Eurydice” and Shakespeare’s “Pericles”), the festival features workshops, lectures and networking opportunities for students. Admission to the performances is free, although tickets for the general public are limited. Call 203-837-8486 for more information about seating, or visit kcactf.org to find out more about the festival.

Oh, Mother!

Kecia Lewis, who took over the title role in New York’s Classic Stage Company production of Brecht’s “Mother Courage and Her Children” when Tonya Pinkins abruptly left the production last week due to creative differences with the director, had just been playing a very different sort of mother: the fairy godmother in the first national tour of “Cinderella.” That “Cinderella” tour comes to the Bushnell this week, with Liz McCartney in the godmother role. Lewis also appeared in the 2013 Hartford Stage production of “Breath and Imagination” and in “Ain’t Misbehavin'” at Long Wharf Theatre in 2011.

Political Theater

There’ll be a community reading of Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence” speech Friday, Jan. 15, at noon in front of the Amistad statue outside New Haven City Hall, 165 Church St. The speech, which Dr. King originally delivered at New York City’s Riverside Church in April of 1967, which contains the line, “Somehow this madness must cease,” was controversial for how it related foreign policy decisions to domestic issues such as poverty and civil rights. The reading is sponsored by the Greater New Haven Peace Council. Participants will each read one paragraph. For more information, email u.s.peacecouncil@gmail.com

Elizabeth Swados, R.I.P.

Maverick theater composer Elizabeth Swados died Jan. 5 at age 64. She was best known for the musical “Runaways,” but was responsible for a wide range of envelope-pushing musicals, including the political satire “Rapmaster Ronnie” with Connecticut-based cartoonist Garry Trudeau and an adaptation of Michael Herr’s Vietnam War book, “Dispatches.”