The Human Race Theatre Announces the Lineup for the 2013 Festival of New Musicals

The Human Race Theatre Company's commitment to the creation of new works takes center stage with its summer Festival of New Musicals. Producing Artistic Director Kevin Moore has selected two works by artists familiar to Human Race audiences to headline the sixth annual event-The Noteworthy Life of Howard Barnes and Guarding Gold Street. The productions perform in The Loft Theatre over the course of the three-day festival, the culmination of a two-week-long workshop process in which writers get the chance to further develop their musicals with the help of professional actors, then see the shows performed in staged readings.

Equal parts satire, romantic comedy and love letter to the American musical, The Noteworthy Life of Howard Barnes is intended for people who love musical theatre, and their spouses who hate it. Howard Barnes is a perfectly average man in his early thirties, until the day that he wakes up to discover that his life has become a musical. Desperate to escape from the show, Howard embarks on a fantastical quest through the realm of musical theatre. With book and lyrics by Christopher Dimond and music by Michael Kooman, ...Howard Barnes is a distinctively different musical than the creative team's 2012 Festival of New Musicals creation, Dani Girl, a drama about a 10-year-old girl suffering from terminal cancer. "When we set out to write The Noteworthy Life of Howard Barnes," say Kooman and Dimond, "our chief goal was to write the funniest show we possibly could. We felt as though the basic concept, a man who hates musicals waking up to discover that his life has become one, had an incredible amount of comic potential. We've been working hard to make sure that we capitalize on that potential in as many hilarious, surprising, and envelope-pushing ways as possible."

With ...Howard Barnes, Kooman and Dimond set out to bridge a long-standing divide among theatre lovers. "One thing that we really enjoy about the premise is that it has allowed us to create a show that is simultaneously aimed at people who are fans of musical theatre, as well as those who aren't," they explain. "Through the main character, a man who knows absolutely nothing about musical theatre, we hope to open the show up to an audience who may be skeptical of the genre, allowing them to laugh at may of the seemingly illogical conventions of musical theatre, and hopefully come away with a slightly increased appreciation of the form."

Commissioned by the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, ...Howard Barnes has become a popular work for development by theatres around the country. It was part of the 2012 Rhinebeck Writers Retreat for a week-long. New York Theatre Workshop presented a reading in April and it will receive another workshop at The Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center earlier in late June/early July before Kooman and Dimond arrive in Dayton for The Race's August festival. The creators hold the theatre and Dayton in high praise, "We had an absolutely amazing experience there last year, working on Dani Girl. The feedback we got was incredibly helpful. The Human Race has truly built a knowledgeable, passionate audience, eager to participate in this very critical juncture of the development process. We're excited for them to help The Noteworthy Life of Howard Barnes take the next step."

Performances of The Noteworthy Life of Howard Barnes are Friday, August 2 at 8:00 p.m. and Saturday, August 3 at 2:00 p.m.

The second selection, Guarding Gold Street is an original musical about an American family growing up, growing old, and growing together created by Human Race Resident Artist Sean Michael Flowers (2009's The Trimble Wars, music director of Ordinary Days and Avenue Q), with book by Sean Michael Flowers and Marya Spring Cordes (director of 2012's Dani Girl and Managing Maxine). When two sisters return to their childhood home to take care of their aging mother, their long-held silence is forced to be broken. Navigating life's changes together, their very different lives-and life choices-are pulled into focus. Told through the eyes of three generations, the story is inspired by actual letters written by American women.

"The show is about who we are," explains Flowers. "The ideas of family, home and the American Dream are with us-whether top-of-mind or bubbling underneath the skin." He challenges the audience, "Ask your friends to define each of these things. I think you'll be surprised." When they began the process of creating a new musical theatre piece from a multi-generational viewpoint, Flowers and Spring Cordes read hundreds of letters, spanning two centuries. "Talking about the major themes that sparked interest, we landed on a family dynamic," says Flowers. "The story grew from there." Guarding Gold Street was previously performed in October 2012 by the Auburn University Theatre Department, where Flowers is a faculty member.

Performances of Guarding Gold Street are Saturday, August 3 at 8:00 p.m. and Sunday, August 4 at 2:00 p.m.

The 2013 Festival of New Musicals is sponsored by the Jesse and Caryl Philips Foundation Fund for the Development of New Works, The Producers' Circle and a grant from the National Alliance for Musical Theatre's National Fund for New Musicals.

All performances are at the Metropolitan Art Center's Loft Theatre, located at 126 North Main Street in downtown Dayton, Ohio. General admission tickets are $15 in advance and $20 at the door for each production and will be available online starting June 4 at www.humanracetheatre.org or by calling Ticket Center Stage at (937) 228-3630, and in person at the Schuster Center box office.

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