From the Associated Press.

Procter & Gamble Co., whose sponsorship and production of daytime TV dramas helped coin the term "soap operas," has pulled the plug after 77 years. Instead, the maker of Tide detergent, Ivory soap and Olay skincare is following its customers online with a big push on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.

"The digital media has pretty much exploded," marketing chief Marc Pritchard said in an interview. "It's become very integrated with how we operate, it's become part of the way we do marketing."

The last P&G-produced soap opera, "As The World Turns," went off the air in September. The show was the leading daytime soap for decades, but had lost some two-thirds of its audience at the end.

When the curtain rises on the revival of How to Succeed in Business (Without Really Trying) this coming spring, Michael Park will appear as Bert Bratt in the production according to CBS Soaps in Depth.

Heading the cast will be Daniel Radcliffe of Harry Potter fame in his Broadway debut along with Emmy winner John Larrroquette.  Previews begin on February 26 with the official opening March 27 at the Al Hisrchfeld Theatre.

This will be Micheal's 4th appearance on a Broadway stage having previously appeared in Carousel, Little Me and Smokey Joe's Cafe.

More information as it is available can be found at MichaelParkOnline.net

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An inside look at the new series premiering on NBC Sunday, January 9th at 9/8C.  Jennifer Ferrin appears in the show as Dana Faraday, the wife of Vince Faraday, who becomes The Cape.

Find out more information about the show and Jennifer's role in it at JenniferFerrin.net.

EILEEN FULTON AT DON’T TELL MAMA
ONE NIGHT ONLY
"I REMEMBER…OR AT LEAST I TRY"
Friday, December 17th at 7:00 PM

Eileen Fulton, star of the beloved CBS-TV soap opera, “As The World Turns” is returning for one night only to Don’t Tell Mama on Friday, December 17th at 7:00 PM with a holiday show titled: I Remember… or At Least I Try.  The show will be directed by Diana Basmajian. Bob Goldstone is the Music Director with Tom Hubbard on Bass.

Fulton will add her signature flair to such classic standards as River, Blue Moon, and Stormy Weather, among others. She will also perform a special rendition of Santa Man a song in which she wrote music and lyrics.

The show has a $25 music charge with a two drink minimum. Don’t Tell Mama is located at 343 W. 46th Street, between 8th & 9th Avenues. Reservations are required. Please call (212) 757-0788.

More information from Eileen Fulton on Facebook.

Former As the World Turns writer Susan Dansby interviewed Ellen Dolan about how she got her job on As the World turns.

Ellen Dolan was born and raised in Iowa, earned her BA and MFA degrees in theatre from the University of Iowa. While working toward her Bachelor's degree, she spent a summer studying dramatic arts at the Webber Douglas Academy in London.

Her stage career began in repertory theater with such roles as Katrin in Mother Courage.Other regional productions such as Maggie in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, May in How the Other Half Loves, and Cleya in The Nerd. She was a founding member of the Studio 3 Group, and is currently a member of the Workshop Theatre Group.

Off-Broadway she starred in Sophistry and I Forgive You, Ronald Regan, and has worked in episodic television on such shows as Law and Order SVU.

Ellen joined As the World Turns as policewoman, Margo Hughes, in November 1989, having been asked to consider the part by the late Doug Marland, who was the head writer for the CBS daytime drama.

Off Broadway is giving vampires a go. “Dracula,” the 1927 Hamilton Deane-John L. Balderston play based on Bram Stoker’s novel, which had a hit revival on Broadway in 1977 starring Frank Langella, will have a 13-week run at the Little Shubert Theater starting Dec. 14, with an opening night scheduled for Jan. 5, 2011.

The company will star Michel Altieri in the title role. The cast will also include George Hearn (Abraham Van Helsing), Thora Birch (Lucy Seward), Timothy Jerome (Dr. Seward), Jake Silbermann (Jonathan Harker), and John Buffalo Mailer (Renfield).

Read more about the production at the New York Times.

Welcome: This is a Neighborhood Watch Community  explores the conflict between the power of money and the power of ideas: The Long Island private school that Justin Campbell attends has hired an esteemed English teacher with a famous literary last name. This teacher, who holds very opposite views from Justin's father, quickly becomes Justin's mentor, much to the father’s consternation. This family drama, set in the affluent Montauk community, centers on the power struggle between these two role models, Justin's father, a hedge fund manager with financial power and influence, and Justin's mentor, a man with powerful ideals, and the impact this struggle has on the family and the developing 16 year old that lies between them. Innovative promenade staging brings the audience into the Campbell home and puts theatergoers at the center of the action.

New Jersey Peace Action is hosting its 53rd annual Soup Luncheon on Saturday, Nov. 20 from 11:45 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Bloomfield High School, 160 Broad St. The event is intended to celebrate the strength of grassroots efforts to bring about peace and social and economic justice with a presentation of readings from: "Voices of a People's History of the United States: A Tribute to Howard Zinn."

Dramatic and musical performances of the letters, diaries and speeches in "Voices of a People's History of the United States" are intended to focus on the concept of democracy based on the lives and experiences of ordinary Americans who, through their words and actions, changed history.

One of the readers, Bloomfield resident Peter Parros, has over 20 years of experience as a professional actor and writer.

Television actor Frank Runyeon spent decades on the small screen as a familiar face on popular daytime and prime time series.

He is best known for his seven years as Steve Andropoulos on the CBS soap opera "As the World Turns" opposite actress Meg Ryan, who became his TV wife in 1984. He also spent four years as Father Michael Donnelly on the Emmy Award winning "Santa Barbara," before appearing for a season as tycoon Simon Romero on ABC's "General Hospital" opposite actress Emma Samms.

(Having also played roles as a priest) His "holy roles" were never much of a performance stretch, since he had always wanted to join the seminary to become a Roman Catholic priest.

But his love of the arts and performing was an equally strong life emphasis, despite the challenges he says actors and actresses face in Hollywood, a place where compromised values and morals make the business difficult.

This topic is one of the subjects Runyeon now travels the country discussing with his popular one-man show called "Hollywood vs. Faith."

Read the entire article at nwitimes.com.

More information on Frank's current work at FrankRunyeon.com.

Soap star and stage veteran Austin Peck and Miss New York Claire Buffie will be among the special guest stars at the 100trh performance of Anthony Wilkinson's My Big Gay Italian Wedding, playing at St. Luke's Theatre, on Thursday, November 18.  Following the performance on the 18th, the show will host a reception for theatergoers with Moretti, Peck, Buffie and other members of the company.

Peck is perhaps best known for his portrayal of Brad Snyder on CBS' As The World Turns. In addition, he played Austin Reed on the NBC daytime drama Days of Our Lives. He was recently seen off-Broadway in The Irish Curse

My Big Gay Italian Wedding focuses on two gay men as they plan their wedding and the people around them, including an overbearing Italian mother, a jealous ex-boyfriend, the wedding planner from Hell, and an assortment of family and friends.

Source: Theatermania

On Sept. 17, after 54 years of backstabbing, bitchery and tune-in-tomorrows, “As the World Turns” followed its sister soap “Guiding Light” into an ever-expanding universe of defunct daytime melodrama. In 1990 an average daily soap viewership of 6.5 million could choose among 12 network serials. Today, according to a recent report in Advertising Age, average viewership hovers well below 1.5 million, with six soaps left on the air. When production at the “As the World Turns” studio in Brooklyn halted in June, New York was left with only one soap — “One Life to Live,” on ABC — and hundreds of actors plotting their next real-life story lines.

“It’s the loss of a creative environment as much as a loss of paychecks,” said Trent Dawson, whose hapless, occasionally cross-dressing Henry Coleman gave “As the World Turns” some comic relief and the actor a schedule that allowed him to moonlight at the Baltimore Centerstage theater. Mr. Dawson, 39, is currently appearing in Vaclav Havel’s “Memorandum” at the Beckett Theater, Off Broadway.

Since 1949, when the DuMont network first broadcast the 15-minute daytime serial “A Woman to Remember” from the small basement studio of Wanamaker’s department store in Manhattan, generations of New York actors found in soaps a combination of training, money and camaraderie that isn’t likely to be replaced. In addition to dozens of regular cast members, “As the World Turns” hired as many as 50 extras and day players per week, said Christopher Goutman, the last executive producer of the show.

New York, he said, “will have a lot more actors waiting tables.”

Atlantic Theater Company's double bill branded as The Collection & A Kind of Alaska: Two Plays by Harold Pinter, begins Off-Broadway Nov. 3, marking the troupe's return to a favorite author. Two-time Tony Award nominee Larry Bryggman is among the players.

Larry Bryggman (John Dixon of TV's now-canceled "As the World Turns") returns to Atlantic following appearing in Tom Donaghy's world premiere adaptation of The Cherry Orchard and the world premiere of David Mamet's comedy Romance. Emery returns to Atlantic following starring in the American premiere of Moira Buffini's Gabriel. Henderson was most recently seen Off-Broadway in Sheila Callaghan's Roadkill Confidential. McGrath starred in the musical The Black Rider at Center Theater Group's Ahmanson Theater in Los Angeles, the Barbican Theatre in London, San Francisco's ACT and in Sydney, Australia; and also starred on Broadway in Cabaret as the M.C. Pettie has appeared at Atlantic in Hobson's Choice on Broadway in Butley and Off-Broadway in This and in Dedication or The Stuff of Dreams.

Read the entire article at Playbill.

After an extensive search, Alexandra Chando (Rockville CA) has landed the lead in the ABC Family drama pilot The Lying Game. Additionally. The Lying Game, from Warner Horizon and Alloy, centers on Emma (Chando), a kind-hearted foster kid who finds out she has an identical twin sister, Sutton (also played by Chando) that was adopted by wealthy parents and is seemingly living an ideal life until she goes missing and Emma goes on a quest to find her. Charles Pratt, Jr. is the writer/executive producer on the pilot based on the upcoming novel by Pretty Little Liars author Sara Shepard.

Source: Deadline.com

In The Memorandum, billed as a look at "bureaucracy gone mad," the managing director of an organization discovers that all office communications are suddenly being written in "Ptydepe," a new and impossibly complicated language. He seeks to get a memo translated, taking him through a maddening riot of red tape. The play is said to be inspired by the absurdities of life in communist Eastern Europe.

The cast of The Memorandum includes TACT members Mark Alhadeff (The Cocktail Party, Incident at Vichy), Jeffrey C. Hawkins (Incident at Vichy, The Confidential Clerk), John Plumpis (The Lion King, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels), James Prendergast (Incident at Vichy, The Late Christopher Bean), Lynn Wright (The Elephant Man, As Bees in Honey Drown) and guest artists Nilanjana Bose (TACT debut, 2010 Juilliard graduate), Trent Dawson (TACT debut, "As the World Turns"), Joel Leffert (Freudian Slips) and Kate Levy (On Golden Pond, Well).

Read the entire article at Playbill

More information about this and what else Trent has been involved with can be found at trentdawson.com

The popular soap star and stage veteran talks about appearing in Will Eno's new play, winning the Emmy, and his next gig.

Michael Park spent the last 14 years in Oakdale: the fictional town that was the setting for the now-defunct CBS daytime drama As The World Turns, on which he played Detective Jack Snyder. Now, this TV and Broadway veteran has a new home, Middletown, the setting of Will Eno's play about the residents of a small American town, currently debuting at the Vineyard Theater. Park recently spoke to TheaterMania about this project, the bittersweet ending of his day job, and his plans for the future.

Read the entire interview at Theatermania

Find out much more about this and other theater work Michael has been doing at MichaelParkOnline.net

Fresh from her 2010 Emmy® award win as Carly on As the World Turns, Maura West landed the role of Y&R's returning vixen Diane Jenkins. The petite powerhouse seems set to rock Genoa City residents to the core. Find out about Maura's big east coast/west coast move, her LA connections and leaving Carly behind in her latest interview.

Read the entire interview.

Find out much more about Maura's new role at MauraWestOnline.com

Fan fave and Emmy nominee Terri Colombino is headed to One Life to Live after 12 years as the eternally adorable Katie on As the World Turns. She's been cast as Aubrey Wentworth, the secret sweetheart of Joey Buchanan (Tom Degnan) and will first be seen November 29 while flying to Llanview to meet the parents. The timing of Aubrey's arrival couldn't be worse for lovelorn Kelly Cramer (Gina Tognoni), who is suddenly intent on going after Joey but has no idea he's already taken. TV Guide Magazine spoke with Colombino about her cool new gig and what's sure to be a very hot triangle!

Read the entire interview at TV Guide.

More information about Terri at TerriColombinoFansite.com

Actor Tom Degnan, best known for a small, but integral, role on 'As the World Turns,' has beat out some rumored big name stars to land a plum soap role. Degnan is going to be the new Joey Buchanan on 'One Life to Live,' the same part that Nathan Fillion ('Castle') played with so memorably.

Degnan appeared on 'ATWT' in 2009. He was part of the Tom-Margo story line involving her son, Adam, who was presumed dead in Afghanistan. Adam resurfaced in Oakdale as a character named Riley Morgan, but he was actually Margo's son ... with a new face. Degnan's first airdate on 'OLTL' is tentatively set for November 24.

Source: TVSquad 

Months of wondering who was going to fill the role of Marissa Chandler since All My Children’s decision to let-go of Brittany Allen has come to an end.  Word from the AMC show spokesperson today is that the role has been recast with former As the World Turns star Sarah Glendening who played Lucy on the now defunct CBS soap.

Sarah is on contract and will debut on air on the December 20th episode in the role of Marissa, while Brittany Allen’s last airdate will be December 17th. 

Source: Michael Fairman

Daniel Cosgrove -- fresh off his stint as Chris on As the World Turns -- will be returning to the role that kick-started his career: Scott Chandler. Daniel played Scott from 1996 until 1998, before moving on to shows like Beverly Hills 90210, Dirty Sexy Money, and Guiding Light. Look for Daniel to replace the more recent Scott, Adam Mayfield, starting in December. (Nore recent information indicates his debut will be after the first of the year.)



Source: SoapNet