• Casting: Actress for Ensemble
• Open Auditions: Secret Garden
• Stonewall Stories Actors
• There Goes Da Hood

THEATER
• Cry-Baby: The Musical
• The Importance of Being Earnest
• Les Liaisons Dangereuses
• The Eccentricities of a Nightingale
• What's My Line?- Live on Stage
• The Set Up
FILM
• 'Love' Fest
Q&A
• Growing up Munster

INSIDE INK
By John Rowell

OBIE WON KANOBE

There’ll be plenty of stars (of the off- and off-off-Broadway variety) and hopefully no star wars when the winners are announced at the 53rd Annual Village Voice Obie Awards on Monday, May 19, which take place beginning at 8:00 p.m. at Webster Hall.   Now here’s the cool thing: You can watch the Webcast live for the first time ever by logging on to or www.iclips.net. www.villagevoice.com/obiesHosted by downtown favorites Elizabeth Marvel and Bill Camp, the show will also feature a performance from the company of Passing Strange, the rock musical that has become one of this season’s most talked-about transfer hits, thus virtually guaranteeing that the Obies will rock.

I LOVE LUCILLE

Or, more specifically, The Lucille Lortel Awards, which were handed out last week at the Union Square Theater for outstanding achievement off-Broadway. Julie White hosted, and Adding Machine, a huge surprise hit this season, led the evening with four awards, including Outstanding Musical. Other winners included George Packer’s Betrayed (Outstanding Play), David Cromer (Outstanding Director for Adding Machine) and lead actors Joel Hatch (Adding Machine) and Elizabeth Franz (The Piano Teacher), and featured actors Francis Jue (Yellow Face) and Mare Winningham (10 Million Miles). Inside Ink congratulates all the Lortel Award winners.

The Color of Success: Yellow Face nabbed a Lucille Lortel award for acting last week.

GET CRAZY

Crazy is as crazy does at Ars Nova’s A.N.T. Fest ’08, a six-week festival of craziness showcasing fresh material from today’s most daring emerging artists. So Ars Nova is on the prowl for talented performers from all disciplines, who see the future of live entertainment and want the chance to show off their skills — edgy, offbeat, charged performances that tell a story, provoke laughter, blur the boundaries between theater, music and comedy. So if you’ve got it, be sure to flaunt it in the direction of Ars Nova, which is now accepting open submissions that must be postmarked by June 15. (The festival runs October 16-November 24.) Interested performers may download an application form online at www.arsnovanyc.com.

RUN THIS MARATHON

It’s always one of the most eagerly awaited play festivals in town: Ensemble Studio Theatre’s annual festival of new one-act plays, Marathon 2008, which has just begun at E.S.T. (on West 52nd Street) and will continue through June 28. Playwrights, both established and emerging, contributing to this year’s festival include David Auburn, Lewis Black, Michael Feingold, Amy Herzog, Neil LaBute, and Anne Washburn, among others, and, as usual, the shows being offered sound typically unique, provocative and fun.  The marathon actually offers 15 World Premieres of one-act plays in separate evenings, and the three series will run in repertory. Don’t miss it. 

GREAT DANE

Hard to believe, but The Public Theater has not done Hamlet in Central Park for thirty years, and the last time was when hot young actor Sam Waterston played the titular part.  Now Hamlet is back in the park as the lead-off show for this summer’s Shakespeare in the Park summer season. (To follow: Hair.) Michael Stuhlbarg will take on the role of the Danish Prince, and Lauren Ambrose, who was a big hit last summer in Romeo and Juliet, will be Ophelia. And never one to miss a casting opportunity when it presents itself, the Public is bringing back — drum roll, please — Sam Waterston, this time as Polonius. Oskar Eustis directs, and performances begin May 27.  Please note:  there will be no ticket distribution at the Public Theater this summer due to construction, but tickets will be available for distribution at the Delacorte or via a new virtual line opportunity at www.publictheater.org.  Get thee to a ticket booth!   

ADRIFT IN BARNES & NOBLE

“Just look for a dame in a red dress, see? Pretend you don’t know her, but walk right past her, and she’ll hand you a package, see?”  But wait, I’m ahead of myself and getting carried away thinking about Christopher Durang’s Adrift In Macao, the playwright’s madcap musical parody of film noirs that was one of last season’s most delightful shows.  And if you missed it, head on over to the Lincoln Center-area Barnes and Noble next Wednesday, May 14, at 6 p.m. for a free performance from members of the show’s original cast, including Alan Campbell, Will Swenson, Rachel Debenedet, Orville Mendoza and Caitlin Hopkins, all of whom will be on hand, along with Durang and composer Peter Melnick, to perform and sign copies of the original cast CD. Broadway at 66th Street. And tell the guy at the door that “The Ink” sent you. Got that?