On May 4, Boston Playwrights’ Theatre will present Boston Theater Marathon XXVII, featuring 50 ten-minute plays written by 50 New England playwrights, presented by 50 New England theatre companies. 

The Boston Theater Marathon is a “theatre endurance event” that provides a unique showcase and connecting point for New England artists and audiences.  It also provides an impressive demonstration of the depth of what is possible in a ten-minute script.

The event will be divided into five blocks, each featuring ten new plays by New England writers and running approximately 100 minutes. Audience members may purchase tickets for a specific ten-play block (or blocks), or the All-Day Pass offering admission to the full event at a discounted rate. The only break in the new play action will be a Block Party at 5 p.m.

Net proceeds from the Marathon benefit the Theatre Community Benevolent Fund, which “provides no-strings funding to artists in times of catastrophic emergency.” 

For a full list of participants, visit bostonplaywrights.org. 

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Award-winning theater artist Dawn M. Simmons has been named the new artistic director of SpeakEasy Stage Company, effective July 1. Her appointment was announced by SpeakEasy’s Board of Directors following a six-month nationwide search for a successor to founding Artistic Director Paul Daigneault, who has led the company for more than three decades.

Simmons is a prominent director, producer, playwright, administrator, cultural consultant and educator. In 2008 she co-founded her first theater company, New Exhibition Room, which was dedicated to producing provocative, political and affordable theater events. She also served as executive director of the arts service organization StageSource, where she focused on workforce development and sector improvement in New England theater. She also co-founded The Front Porch Arts Collective

In the world of academia, she holds the 2024/25 Monan Professorship in Theatre Arts at Boston College, is an adjunct faculty member at Northeastern University, and has worked with Berklee College of Music, Suffolk University, Brandeis University, and Harvard University.

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Congratulations are in order for Boston stage favorite Kathy St. George, who has been singled out by the Boston Theater Critics Association to receive the 2025 Elliot Norton Prize for Sustained Excellence.  

This year’s awards honoring outstanding achievement in the greater Boston theater community will be presented June 2 at the Huntington Theatre.  The 2025 Nortons (named for venerable theater critic Elliot Norton) will span more than 140 nominations in more than two dozen categories acknowledging actors, directors, designers, choreographers, musicians, and productions. (The award for Sustained Excellence is one of a limited number of honors announced in advance of the ceremonies.)

Acting professionally since 1981, Kathy made her Broadway debut in “Fiddler on the Roof,” starring Herschel Bernardi at Lincoln Center.  A veteran of five national tours and dozens of regional productions, she has toured throughout the United States, Canada, Russia and Japan.  

In the Boston area alone this past year, she has appeared in “A Man of No Importance” at SpeakEasy Stage, Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” at the Majestic Theatre with Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, “Urinetown” and “The Drowsy Chaperone” at the Lyric Stage, “Fiddler on the Roof” at North Shore Music Theatre and a New Year's Eve concert at Greater Boston Stage Company with the Firebird Pops Orchestra. 

The Stoneham native is a former second-grade teacher with a B.S. and M.Ed. in Education from Salem State University. See  ElliotNortonawards.com.

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And finally, belated congratulations to actor, singer and cabaret performer Mary Callanan on being named the 2025 Broadway inductee into The New England Music Hall of Fame. 

Mary's lengthy and impressive resume includes the Broadway productions of "Bandstand,” “Annie” and “Mamma Mia!” Her work in national tours includes “My Fair Lady,” “Bridges of Madison County,” “Big,” “Mamma Mia!” and “The Sound of Music” which toured Asia with Marie Osmond. Other New York and regional shows include “Titanic,” “Fiddler on The Roof,” “Kinky Boots” and “Les Miserables.” 

The Brighton native continues to work locally with Lyric Stage Company, The Gloucester Stage Company, Speakeasy Stage, Ogunquit Playhouse, North Shore Music Theatre and Trinity Rep, among others.

In addition to her stage work, Mary is also an in-demand cabaret artist in New York, Boston and Provincetown. When performing arts venues were shut down during the 2020 pandemic, Mary and Brian Patton, her cabaret partner of more than 30 years, created their own shows by hosting live, weekly zoom performances from Brian’s living room.  Titled, “Tipsy Tuesdays,” the popular virtual evenings of cocktails, show tunes, and the Great American Songbook were accessible to fans via Facebook each week. 

One of her next projects has her appearing in “Always Patsy Cline” at Theater-By-The-Sea in Wakefield, Rhode Island. She will play Louise Seger opposite Megan Lewis Michelson as Cline. Performances begin May 28.