MOVE IT, AND IT'S YOURS! and GUMBO Headline 2017 Gretna Mainstreet New Music Theatre Festival

Producers Vatican Lokey* and Edward R. Cox* have announced The Gretna Mainstreet New Music Theatre Festival, April 7th and 8th at the new Gretna Cultural Center for the Arts in Old Gretna, LA.

The Festival, a project that the Messrs. Lokey & Cox have been working on for over six years, presents two brand new musicals over two nights in staged concert readings: Move It, And It's Yours! By Bill Weeden, David Finkle, and Sally Fay, April 7th at 7:30pm; and Gumbo by Brett Macias and New Orleans writer Christina Quintana, April 8th at 8pm.

The two shows are winners of the Mainstreet Musicals annual competition. Established in 1984 by Broadway veteran Timothy Jerome, Mainstreet Musicals takes dozens of applications each year for all-new music theatre scripts and puts them through a rigorous adjudication process with some of Broadway's biggest names, selecting three shows to be sent out across the United States and Canada to be performed in staged readings: minimal sets and costumes, a single piano, and the audience. The actors perform the show with their scripts and scores in hand, bringing the essence of these winning productions to audiences and theatrical producers that otherwise would never have the opportunity to enjoy. Currently, The Gretna Mainstreet New Music Theatre Festival is the latest entry onto the Mainstreet Musicals festival circuit of 20 American and Canadian cities.

For our first year, the GMNMTF will enjoy some of the brightest professional and community talents in the city. Film and television star Lance Nichols* heads the Festival casts alongside AEA actors IDella Johnson*, Ronald Flagge*, Wendy Miklovic*, Soline McLain*, and Donald Lewis*, as well as Big Easy Award winner Michael Sullivan, current Big Easy Award nominee Preston Meche II, and New Orleans stage and music stars Givonna Joseph^ and Aria Mason^ (of OperaCrèole,) Eric "Shoeless" Pollard, Nori Pritchard, Greg Nacozy, Annette Foulkes, Keith Beverly, Nathaniel Jackson, Kebron Woodfin, Evan Autin, and Marigold Pascual. The production manager for the Festival is Stacey Morigeau.

"Move It, And It's Yours!" and "Gumbo" are presented under the auspices of Actors' Equity Association's Members' Project Code.

The Festival is made possible through the generosity of The Post Backstage, NOLA Voice Theatre, and The City of Gretna. Tickets for The Gretna Mainstreet New Music Theatre Festival are $15 each, with all proceeds benefitting the new Gretna Cultural Center for the Arts, 740 4th St., corner of Huey P. Long Avenue in Old Gretna. For tickets, go to shows.gretnacca.com.

( * denotes members of Actors' Equity Association)
( ^ denotes members of the American Guild of Musical Artists)