2013 Yale Institute for Music Theatre Hosts Open Rehearsal Readings Tonight

By: Jun. 15, 2013
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OPEN REHEARSAL READINGS TODAY, JUNE 15-16 The YALE INSTITUTE FOR MUSIC THEATRE (Mark Brokaw, Artistic Director) announces the creative teams and casting for the two original book musicals, The Last Queen of Canaan, with music by Jacob Yandura and book and lyrics by Rebekah Greer Melocik, and Mrs. Hughes, with music and lyrics by Sharon Kenny and book by Janine Nabers, which will be developed in an intensive lab setting in New Haven, June 4-16. The residency culminates with open rehearsal readings of each project, presented as part of the International Festival of Arts & Ideas, today, June 15 and the 16th, 2013.

ABOUT THE 2013 SELECTIONS

THE LAST QUEEN OF CANAAN
Music by Jacob Yandura

Book and Lyrics by Rebekah Greer Melocik

Directed by Mark Brokaw

Music Direction by Matthew Gallagher

Cast: Bonnie Antosh, Ato Blankson-Wood, Erin Davie, Kecia Lewis, Corey Mach, Aaron Ramey, Nicolette Robinson, Melvin Tunstall, Carmen Zilles

Open Rehearsal Readings: June 15 at 1PM, June 16 at 5PM

Kay McKenna (Erin Davie), an eager young writer hired by the WPA, travels to Virginia on a mission to collect narratives from former slaves. In Canaan, she meets Cora Skye (Kecia Lewis), a sharecropper who still farms the land she worked as a slave. Each woman wants nothing more than to forget her past. But, in this deeply haunted and slowly healing South, secrets are unearthed, and past and present collide. The Last Queen of Canaan is a powerful tale of legacy and forgiveness with a rich, gospel-infused score.

Rebekah Greer Melocik (Book and Lyrics) is a proud graduate of NYU's Graduate Musical Theatre Writing program and a current Dramatist Guild Fellow. She is grateful for the opportunities provided to her by the Rhinebeck Writers Retreat, the Johnny Mercer Songwriters Project, CAP 21's Writer's Residency, and Ars Nova's Uncharted Series. Current projects include The Last Queen of Canaan and The Disillusionist, both with Jacob Yandura (music), and a post-capitalist talk show, Burton UnBurtoned. She is a member of the artist collective PVBLIC BATH.

Jacob Yandura (Music) holds a BA in music composition from Kenyon College and an MFA from New York University's Graduate Musical Theatre Writing program. In 2009, his musical Morning's Song premiered at Kenyon College. His current projects include The Last Queen of Canaan and The Disillusionist (both with book and lyrics by Rebekah Greer Melocik). Recognitions and residencies include the 2012-2013 Dramatists Guild Fellowship, the Rhinebeck Writers Retreat, the Johnny Mercer Songwriters Project, Cap21's Writers Residency, and Ars Nova's Uncharted Series. Jacob is a founding member of PVBLIC BATH.

MRS. HUGHES

Music and Lyrics by Sharon Kenny
Book by Janine Nabers

Directed by Kate Whoriskey

Music Direction by Zach Dietz

Cast: Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Monique Bernadette Barbee, Kelli Barrett, Nick Corley, Robert Lenzi, Betsy Morgan, Eric Morris

Open Rehearsal Readings: June 15 at 5PM; June 16 at 1PM

Writer Sylvia Plath (Betsy Morgan) yearns for an identity separate from her famous poet husband TEd Hughes (Robert Lenzi). Assia (Kelli Barrett), his mistress, wants nothing more than to be his wife. As their lives become tangled, each must face the high cost of blindly pursuing love, career, and fame. With an intricate, contemporary score, Mrs. Hughes explores one of the most sensational-and tragic-literary love triangles in history.

Sharon Kenny (Music and Lyrics) A New Jersey native, songwriter Sharon Kenny's solo projects can be heard on iTunes, Pandora, and Spotify. She has performed her original material across the country at venues ranging from Ars Nova to the Kennedy Center and has sold out shows at Joe's Pub, Le Poisson Rouge, and many others. Her songs have been prominently featured in television, with "Hotel Heart" landing at #68 on the iTunes Singer/Songwriter chart. A member of the Johnny Mercer Songwriters Project and a resident at SPACE on Ryder Farm, Sharon wrote the 2012 Williamstown Theatre Festival Fellowship musical Mrs. Hughes with playwright Janine Nabers. www.sharon-kenny.com

Janine Nabers (Book) is a 2012-2013 New York Theatre Workshop Playwriting Fellow. Her plays include Welcome to Jesus, Serial Black Face, Annie Bosh Is Missing,A Swell in the Ground, Juniper, and Jubilee. Janine is currently a member of MCC Playwrights Coalition and the Dorothy Strelsin New American Writer's Group at Primary Stages. She was Page 73's 2011 Playwriting Fellow and is an alumna of Ars Nova Play Group, Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab, The Dramatist Guild Playwriting Fellowship, the MacDowell Colony Fellowship, and the 2010 and 2011 Sundance Theater Labs. Presently Janine is working on commissions from Playwrights Horizons and Berkeley Rep and is a second-year Lila Acheson Wallace Playwriting Fellow at Juilliard.

TICKET INFORMATION

Tickets for each open rehearsal reading are $20 and can be purchased online at www.artidea.org, by phone at (203) 562-5666, and in person at the International Festival of Arts & Ideas Box Office (Shubert Theater, 247 College Street).

YALE INSTITUTE FOR MUSIC THEATRE

Originally established in 2009, the Yale Institute for Music Theatre is a program of Yale School of Drama (James Bundy, Dean) that bridges the gap between training and the professional world for emerging composers, book writers, and lyricists. The Institute seeks distinctive and original music theatre works by emerging composers and writers to be developed in an intensive lab setting. During a two-week summer residency in New Haven, the Institute matches the authors of the selected works with collaborators, including professional directors and music directors, as well as a company of actors and singers that includes professionals from NYC and current Yale students. The residency culminates with open rehearsal readings of each project, presented as part of the International Festival of Arts & Ideas.

Yale's Binger Center for New Theatre provides support for the Institute.



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