Congratulations to Buffalo’s Pam MacKinnon (pictured left), who just received a Tony nomination for her direction of the revival of Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? The production also received four other nominations, including Best Revival and Best Actor for Tracy Letts. Letts is also a playwright, whose credits include the 2008 Pulitzer Prize winner August: Osage County (now playing at the Kavinoky). MacKinnnon was also nominated last year for directing the 2011 Pulitzer Prize winner Clybourne Park. That production won the 2012 Tony Award for Best Play.

Incidentally, Road Less Traveled Productions will present the Western New York premiere of Clybourne Park, November 8-December 1 at 710 Main Theatre. Directed by Scott Behrend, the production will star Matt Witten, Diane Curley, Dave Mitchell, Lisa Vitrano, Barry Williams, Danica Riddick, and Bob Grabowski.

The Jewish Repertory Theatre of WNY will kick off next season in time for Curtain Up! (which this year will be on Friday, September 20) with David Mamet’s A Life in the Theatre, starring Saul Elkin and Steve Copps. The production will be directed by Greg Natale.

The Kavinoky will hold its seventh annual Kavalcade fundraiser on Saturday, May 4 at 7pm at the Saturn Club. Plans are on the way to start next season (September 19-October 5) with the original musical revue The Big Band Theory: When Swing Was King, conceived by Jim Runfola. Directed by Terri George, with musical direction by Mark Vona, the show will feature a 13-piece band and is slated to star John Fredo, Loraine O’Donnell, Debbie Pappas, and Norm Sham.

O’Connell & Company will finish its current season with Nunsense II: The Second Coming (with an all-male cast) and will start next season on September 26 in its new home at the Park School with The Kathy & Mo Show: Parallel Lives, starring Mary Kate O’Connell and Pamela Rose Mangus, directed by Victoria Perez. The season will also include Forever Plaid: Plaid Tidings, The Lady with all the Answers (a play about Ann Landers), and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. There are also plans to have a Sundays at Seven series, and, of course, Diva by Diva on Wednesdays.

Second Generation Theatre was officially launched last Sunday with a fundraiser at Pettibones Grill. As we previously reported, founders Arin Lee Dandes, Kristin Bentley, and Kelly Jakiel Copps (pictured right) will present Sondheim’s Into the Woods June 6-23 at the New Phoenix Theatre on the Park. The large cast will feature seasoned veterans Mary McMahon, Tammy Hayes, Gail Golden, and Loraine O’Donnell as the Witch. (She played Little Red Riding Hood years ago in the Musicalfare production; this time it’s Dandes’s turn.) Directed by Chris Kelly, the show will be choreographed by Bobby Cooke, who will also play the Baker opposite Jenn Stafford’s Baker’s Wife. Disney already has a movie version in the works, starring Johnny Depp and Meryl Streep.

Paul Todaro will play Captain Von Trapp in Artpark’s summer production of The Sound of Music, to be directed by Randall Kramer. The show will also star David Autovino as Franz, Debbie Pappas as Elsa, Maggie Zindle as Mother Abbess, Syndi Starr as Frau Schmidt, and Loraine O’Donnell as Sister Sophia (she played Maria years ago in the Upstage production).

Congratulations to actress extraordinaire Mary Moebius and Mark Sturniolo (pictured below) on their wedding this past April 27.