Stephen Schwartz and The ASCAP Foundation to Hold Workshop of New Bubble Boy Musical

Pittsburgh CLO and Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama, in partnership with The ASCAP Foundation and Academy® and Grammy Award® -winning composer/lyricist Stephen Schwartz, are pleased to announce that the new musical, Bubble Boy, has been selected for presentation as part of the Pittsburgh CLO/Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama New Works Program. The program encourages the development and refinement of new works of the American musical theater.

Stephen Schwartz, a Carnegie Mellon University alumnus whose credits include the Broadway smash Wicked, Godspell, Pippin, the Walt Disney films "Pocahontas" and "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," and the DreamWorks film "The Prince of Egypt," will attend the reading of the workshop and run a Master Class for Carnegie Mellon University Drama Students on Friday, October 17.

Scott Schwartz, who directed Broadway's Golda's Balcony and Bat Boy: The Musical, which won a 2001 Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Off-Broadway Musical, will direct the Workshop. On October 3, 2004, Golda's Balcony became the longest-running one-woman show in Broadway history.

The Pittsburgh CLO, under the direction of Executive Producer Van Kaplan, will host the workshop at the Pittsburgh CLO Academy. The workshop will take place October 13-18, 2008, culminating in a staged reading for invited guests at 12 p.m. on Saturday, October 18, in the Helen Wayne Rauh Studio Theater at Carnegie Mellon University.

The project managers for the workshop are Gary Kline, associate professor of musical theater at the Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama and Jason Coll, associate artistic director at Pittsburgh CLO.

Bubble Boy, written by Cinco Paul (book, music, lyrics) and Ken Daurio (book), is the fictional story of Jimmy Livingston, a boy who was born without an immune system. Because of this, he is forced to live in a bubble dome in his bedroom, which leads students at a local high school to nickname him "Bubble Boy." One day, a beautiful girl, Chloe, moves in next door to Jimmy. He is immediately taken with her, and they soon become friends.

Chloe later announces that she is leaving for Niagara Falls to marry Mark, a man who always ridiculed Jimmy. In response, Jimmy decides to build a mobile bubble suit and sneaks off into the night, determined to stop the wedding before it is too late.

A collaborative effort established in 2001, the Pittsburgh CLO/Carnegie Mellon University New Works Program encourages the development and refinement of new works of the American musical theater. By utilizing the resources of both Pittsburgh CLO and Carnegie Mellon University's School of Drama, this program offers a unique opportunity for writers, lyricists, composers, directors and actors from both the academic and professional worlds to collaborate on new musicals. In 2007, Pittsburgh CLO and Carnegie Mellon School of Drama formed a new partnership with The ASCAP Foundation and Stephen Schwartz to augment this important initiative by selecting new works from the participants in the prestigious ASCAP Foundation/Disney Musical Theatre Workshop.