Broadway Pros Return to the Woods for Second Season of BINGHAM CAMP THEATRE RETREAT

The innovative program dubbed by Seth Rudetsky as "theater camp for Broadway professionals," returns to the tiny bedroom community of Salem, CT for its sophomore retreat next week. Bingham Camp Theatre Retreat (BCTR), a resident theater program aimed at developing new works is set to take place September 14 - 25 at the Bingham Camp.

The centerpiece of this year's retreat is a workshop of "The Family Resemblance," a new musical with book, music and lyrics by Masi Asare. Set in central Pennsylvania around the holidays, "The Family Resemblance" is a semi-autobiographical story of three generations in one cross-cultural family - a white mother, black father, two mixed race daughters, and the spirit of an African American grandmother.

"When everyone in your family looks very different, how can you be sure of who you really are?" asks Asare, whose eclectic score infuses American folk, popular song, West African highlife and Akan classical music.

New York City-based Asare is composer of the secret agent musical "Sympathy Jones," which premiered at the New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF) and now has over 20 productions to date internationally. In 2015, she was honored with the inaugural Billie Burke Ziegfeld Award for a woman composer/lyricist of musical theatre, given by the Ziegfeld Club with mentorship from two Tony Award winning theatre women-composer Jeanine Tesori and producer Daryl Roth.She is an alum of the BMI, ASCAP, and New Dramatists Musical Theatre Workshops, and a past Dramatists Guild Musical Theatre Fellow.

The cast includes Carey ReBecca Brown ("The Sound of Music", "Ragtime"), Donna Bullock ("Ragtime", "City of Angels"), Rheaume Crenshaw ("Amazing Grace"), Laiona Michelle ("Book of Mormon", "Amazing Grace"),Tye Roberson ("Dreamgirls", "Oklahoma!"), Shelley Thomas ("Brooklyn", "Rent", "Zanna Don't") and Ian Way ("Hank Williams: Lost Highway"). Direction is by BCTR's Artistic Director Devanand Janki and Musical Direction is by Mark Fifer.

BCTR is the brainchild of Lucille Lortel Award-winning choreographer Devanand Janki ("Zanna Don't"), who sees BCTR as a homecoming. "I spent my childhood summers at The Bingham Camp," Janki said. "I am thrilled it's now also home for writers, directors and actors to create innovative new works of theatre that celebrate our diversity."

"Diversity" and "non-traditional" are Janki's watchcry for BCTR which he aims to be an oasis free of the distractions from commercial theater for professionals to hone new theatrical works. "In our ever-evolving world, we need more places like BCTR that provide opportunities for artists," Janki said.

The two week-long retreat will also feature a fireside reading of a new play by B.V. Marshall, "The Galilee House" which dramatizes what happens when a small academic argument at a small public university about the restoration of a way station of the Underground Railroad blows all out of proportion. A new Musical Theatre Intensive program for students is also being offered.

"I am very excited that this year BCTR is expanding to include a new educational program that will provide young artists an opportunity to learn though internships, workshops & live performances side by side with Broadway Professionals," Janki added. "I am especially thrilled to collaborate with Masi Asare, a truly unique and brilliant new voice in the American Musical Theatre"

Held at 100 year-old Bingham Camp set in the woods of Salem, CT, BCTR is a rural retreat where theater artists create work that gives voice to under-represented communities onstage. With an emphasis on multi-ethnic participants and bold theatricality, BCTR offers a unique opportunity for theatre-makers to develop new plays and musicals that encourage dialogue between cultures. Each season, participants work on the development of a single new play or musical that culminates in a workshop performance.

BCTR is led by Artistic Director Devanand Janki whose career spans all facets of the performing arts - theatre, opera, ballet and corporate entertainment. Janki began as a performer, appearing in numerous productions including Broadway's "Miss Saigon," "Cats," "The King & I," and "Side Show." For the past 15 years, he has been a freelance director, working regionally and in New York on over 50 shows including "Aladdin," "Junie B. Jones," "Man of La Mancha," "Rent," "The Full Monty" and Off-Broadway's "Zanna Don't" for which he won the Lucille Lortel Award. His passion has always been creating new work for the stage.

For more information, visit www.binghamcamptheatreretreat.org

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