TriArts Sharon Playhouse Announces 2011 Readings and Concerts

TriArts Sharon Playhouse (Sharon, CT) is pleased to announce their 2011 New Works Readings and Concerts. Artistic Director John Simpkins oversees the summer series and has announced readings of two new musicals, as well as concerts by Drama Desk nominated Joe Iconis (Bloodsong of Love, Things to Ruin) and alumni of the NYU Tisch Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program.

Saturday, June 25 at 2pm brings eighteen alumni and several faculty from the NYU Graduate Music Theatre Writing Program (Sarah Schlesinger, Chair) to TriArts. The concert - which will be performed again the following day at the Berkshire Playwrights Lab - is the culmination of a weeklong writing intensive for the composers and writers. These emerging musical theatre artists will talk briefly about their new work as well as present material from their very latest musicals. Alumni of the esteemed NYU program include Winnie Holzman (book for Wicked), George C. Wolfe (Tony Award winning director and bookwriter), Rachel Sheinkin (Tony winning bookwriter of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee), and many others. Admission is free; performance is on the TriArts main stage.

Wednesday, June 29 will feature Sally Wilfert and Michael Winther in a reading of When We Met at TriArts' Bok Gallery. The musical has music/ lyrics by Julianne Wick Davis, book by Dan Collins, and is based on an original concept by Julianne Wick Davis, Sally Wilfert, and Michael Winther. Admission is $5. Authors state: Are there soul-mates after 40? Henry and Maggie are two comfortably single, middle-aged adults who meet on a comically disastrous and obligatory blind date; which they safely assume to be their last. However, a second chance encounter throws all their certainty into question. In a world that pits theory against faith, When We Met explores how a Quantum Physicist and a Pet Psychic struggle to understand one of the greatest intangibles of all: love.

Whiskey Songs: A Night with Joe Iconis and Family will play two shows on Saturday, July 30 (5pm and 8pm). The evening will feature Joe and his merry band of musical theater hooligans performing classic Iconis tunes, as well as a couple brand new songs. Stories of loners and losers, tales of suburbia and beyond, explosions of fear and exultation. A high energy celebration of theater, family, and, well, whiskey. Singalongs will abound, drinks will flow, hearts will burst. The cast includes Eric William Morris (White Noise, Bloodsong of Love), Lance Rubin (Things to Ruin), Badia Farha (We the People: America Rocks!), and Molly Hager. Admission is $30. John Simpkins directs.

Michael Winther returns to TriArts and will be joined by Farah Alvin and Catherine Cox for a reading of the new musical Loving Leo on Wednesday, August 10. Admission is $5. The show features book and lyrics by Sara Cooper and Music by Zachary Redler. Writers bill the piece as "A childless middle-aged couple (Lena and David) has lived comfortably in their one-bedroom apartment in the Bronx for their entire marriage. But after the death of Lena's mother, the couple takes in Lena's distant stepfather Leo, and suddenly the little cracks in their marriage become huge, gaping holes."

The 2011 Summer Season at TriArts features 42nd Street (June 23-July 10), Rent (July 15-24), and Hairspray (August 4-21). TriArts Sharon Playhouse (Alice Bemand, Executive Director; Michael Berkeley and John Simpkins, Artistic Directors) is a not-for-profit theatre, located in Litchfield County, Sharon, CT, at the foot of the Berkshires. In addition to producing mainstage musicals and many special events each summer season, TriArts also offers a summer youth theatre program, workshops and readings of new musicals, concerts, and special events throughout the year in its Bok Gallery. For more information on TriArts Sharon Playhouse, please visit www.triarts.net or call 860-364-SHOW (7469).

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