WQXR's Elliott Forrest and Silent Film Composer Donald Sosin Set for SMALL WORLD Talk at 59E59 Theaters

Broadcaster Elliott Forrest and composer Donald Sosin join the cast and creative team of SMALL WORLD for a post-show conversation following the 8:15 PM performance on Friday, September 22.

Classical and Film Music experts Elliott Forrest (WQXR) and Donald Sosin, one of the foremost silent film composer in the world, join SMALL WORLD playwright Frederick Stroppel, director Joe Brancato, and cast members Stephen D'Ambrose and Mark Shanahan, to discuss the story behind Walt Disney's meeting with Igor Stravinsky, the history of the film Fantasia, and themes brought up in the play.

SMALL WORLD is a "provocative comedy" (The New York Times), that takes audiences behind the scenes of Disney's classic Fantasia, where the visions of two creative giants - Walt Disney and Igor Stravinsky - battle along with the dinosaurs.

Produced by Penguin Rep, SMALL WORLD is running at 59E59 Theaters (59 East 59th Street, between Park and Madison Avenues) through Saturday, October 7. The performance schedule is Tuesday - Thursday at 7:15 PM; Friday at 8:15 PM; Saturday at 2:15 PM & 8:15 PM; and Sunday at 3:15 PM & 7:15 PM. Tickets are $35 ($24.50 for 59E59 Members). To purchase tickets, call Ticket Central at (212) 279-4200 or visit www.59e59.org.

Elliott Forrest is a Peabody Award-winning broadcaster, director, and producer. He is the director of the upcoming PBS TV Special: CONSIDERING Matthew Shepard. He regularly creates symphony concerts: Houston Symphony, LA Philharmonic, The NY Philharmonic, The Philadelphia Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony, Pasadena Pops and the Little Orchestra Society in venues including the Hollywood Bowl and Lincoln Center. He directs an annual staged radio drama of A CHRISTMAS CAROL featuring David Hyde Pierce and F. Murray Abraham. He's hosted more the 60 concerts at Carnegie Hall and is the afternoon host on New York's Classical Music Radio Station 105.9FM WQXR and is the host of the international radio concerts of The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. As a popular orchestra narrator: Saint-Saens' Carnival of the Animals, Peter and the Wolf, Stravinsky's Soldier's Tale and Britten's Young Person's Guide. For 12 years he was on A&E Television as host of Breakfast with the Arts. BA in Theater from the University of Texas, Austin. Visit www.ElliottForrest.com for more.

Donald Sosin is one of the foremost silent film composers in the world, with 46 years of performing for thousands of films at major film festivals and archives, from New York, Telluride, San Francisco and Seattle to Bologna, Moscow, Vienna ,Odessa and Shanghai. A native of Rye, NY, he studied piano from the age of four and composition in Munich, Ann Arbor and Manhattan, and has been accompanying silents at MoMA since first moving to Manhattan in 1973. He has been the staff accompanist for the Film Society of Lincoln Center, the Museum of the Moving Image, and has performed at the Whitney and Guggenheim Museums. He has played at Harvard, Yale, Brown, Columbia, and other college campuses, and lectured on silent film music at the Aspen Institute of Humanistic Studies and the University of Michigan. He often scores films with his wife, singer/lyricist Joanna Seaton, who has performed with Donald all over the US and abroad. They have both led workshops in silent film music for high school and college students. Donald has played in Broadway pits and at the Kennedy Center and has conducted three dozen musicals. His 1,800 or so sheet music arrangements are published by Hal Leonard and Cherry Lane. Commissions include the Chicago Symphony Chorus, Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke's, TCM, Anthology Film Archives, MoMA, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He has written a wide variety of music, from chamber, symphonic and choral pieces to children's theater, dance and music for PBS documentaries and network soap operas. He created piano improvisations for Alexander Payne's forthcoming film Downsizing. His music accompanies over 50 silent films on the Criterion, KinoLorber, Milestone, Flicker Alley and European labels. He and his family live in Lakeville, Connecticut. Go to oldmoviemusic.com for more information.

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