THE NUTCRACKER Musical Plays the Round House Theatre, Now thru 12/28

Round House Theatre continues its 2014/15 season with a magical, fresh new take on a beloved classic - The Nutcracker, a new holiday musical created by Tommy Rapley, Jake Minton, Phillip Klapperich, and Kevin O'Donnell. Directed by the award-winning Joe Calarco, The Nutcracker makes its area premiere at Round House Theatre from tonight, November 26 thru December 28, 2014. Opening night is Monday, December 1, 2014.

This captivating musical reinvents E.T.A. Hoffman's original tale, turning it into a brand new seasonal classic all ages can enjoy. After the loss of her Marine brother, young Clara's crusade to save her grieving family (with the help of a remarkable nutcracker) comes alive with dazzling theatricality. It weaves together a delightful original score, riveting dialogue, and astonishing puppetry. Full of magic and hope, this contemporary retelling is a heartwarming yet hilarious story that shows the healing power of the imagination. It's as tuneful and fun as it is poignant and touching.

The sparkling cast of DC musical theater favorites includes Evan Casey, Sherri L. Edelen, Mitchell Hébert, Will Gartshore, Vincent Kempski, Lawrence Redmond, Erin Weaver, and Lauren Williams. Members of the cast and artistic team have won a combined 33 Helen Hayes Awards.

Director Joe Calarco feels passionately about the piece. "I had preconceptions about The Nutcracker story before I read this musical version of it. I always saw it as a childlike fantasy. The fact that this version gives the story a very specific context - a family wrestling with the death of a son who has died in war - captivated me immediately. Yes the story is still delightful and buoyant, but the specific story of this family really moved me when I read it. Less than 0.5 percent of the American population currently serves in the military. Compare that to 12 percent during WWII when virtually every American knew someone who was fighting and possibly suffered the loss of someone they knew personally. The US has been at war in Afghanistan for 13 years and we have troops back in Iraq and yet most Americans can turn a blind eye to it because they don't have someone they love directly involved. I think the struggles that our military families face are terribly underrepresented on stage, and this version of The Nutcracker dares to tackle the issue by showing a family facing a terrible darkness, who come through that darkness by embracing hope and joy and love."

This new adaptation of The Nutcracker was written and developed in 2007 by Tommy Rapley, Jake Minton, Phillip Klapperich, and Kevin O'Donnell, company members of Chicago's The House Theatre. The House opened it that year to great acclaim in the Upstairs Theatre at Steppenwolf Theatre. The House has remounted it numerous times since then, with the show becoming a Chicago holiday favorite. The Chicago Tribune has hailed it as "a moving, inclusive, and wholly original version of The Nutcracker," adding "it will bring your family closer together." The Chicago Sun-Times?called it "a riveting reinvention." Round House's production is the first time that this new adaptation of The Nutcracker has been produced and staged by a company other than The House Theatre.

Tickets range in price from $10 to $45 and may be purchased by calling 240.644.1100, by ordering online at www.RoundHouseTheatre.org, or in person at the box office. Round House Theatre is located at 4545 East-West Highway, one block from Wisconsin Avenue and the Bethesda station on Metro's Red Line.

The Nutcracker runs November 26 thru December 28, 2014. Performances are Tuesday through Thursday at 7:30pm, Friday and Saturday at 8pm, with Saturday and Sunday matinees at 3pm. Wednesdays through Fridays offer the best availability. There's a special holiday performance on Monday, December 22 at 7:30pm. Opening night is Monday, December 1, 2014. (Please note that there are no performances on November 27, December 2, 24, and 25.)

"Play It Forward" - free tickets for all High School students in Montgomery County Public Schools: Round House wants to make attending our shows an integral part of a Montgomery County education. To that end, we have a unique program: Play It Forward. In Play It Forward, all High School students in a Montgomery County Public School can reserve a free ticket to the performance of their choice during the 2014/15 Round House Theatre season, including The Nutcracker. For details and information, visit www.roundhousetheatre.org/buy-tickets/play-it-forward/ or call 240.644.1100.

Pay-What-You-Can performances: Wednesday, November 26 at 7:30pm and Saturday, November 29 at 3pm. PWYC tickets go on sale in person at the box office one hour prior to curtain. Cash and exact change only. Limit of 2 tickets per order. PWYC tickets are subject to availability.

Age 30 and Under, Senior Citizens, Military, and Veterans: $20 for side seats and $35 for center seats. Proof of age required.

$10 Tuesday: December 9, 16, and 23 at 7:30pm. Side section seats on those dates are available at the discounted price of $10.

Groups of 10 or more: Call 240.644.1100 for discount information. Flexible subscription packages of three or more plays are also still available.

AUDIENCE EVENTS:

Designer Discussion (with the design team): Wednesday, November 26 at 6:45pm

Director Discussion (with Joe Calarco): Friday, November 28 at 7:15pm

Post-Show Talkbacks: Following all Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday matinee performances

Audio-described performance: Saturday, December 6 at 3pm

Sign-interpreted performance: Saturday, December 20 at 3pm. Reservations for sign interpreting services must be made by December 6.

ARTIST BIOS:

Tommy Rapley (Creator) is a proud Company Member of The House Theatre in Chicago where he regularly directs and choreographs. A member of Actor's Equity Association, he has performed around Chicago on stages such as Drury Lane Oakbrook, The Marriott, The Court, and The Goodman Theatre. Tommy also regularly teaches at Chicago Academy for the Arts and Northwestern University.

Jake Minton (Writer) is from Dallas, Texas where he attended SMU with several fellow House company members. As a playwright Jake has co-authored The Sparrow, Dave DaVinci Saves the Universe, Rose and The Rime, Girls vs. Boys, and The Nutcracker. As an actor he's performed in Death and Harry Houdini, The Valentine Trilogy, Cave With Man, The Boy Detective Fails, The Great and Terrible Wizard of Oz, and The Nutcracker.

Phillip Klapperich (Writer) started The House Theatre, in 2000, with Nathan Allen and Shawn Pfautsch. Phillip was the Executive Director of the company until 2009, and he remains a Company Member. He has written some of The House's most beloved shows, including The Terrible Tragedy of Peter Pan in 2002, The Rocketman was next, in 2004, adapted from stories by Ray Bradbury. The Great and Terrible Wizard of Oz followed in 2005 and was later remounted at Northlight Theatre in Skokie IL. It has also been seen in a handful of high schools. 2007 saw The Nutcracker. In 2010, Phillip co-wrote Wilson Wants it All with Michael Rohd. Phillip has been nominated for three Jeff Awards for his work on The Rocketman, The Nutcracker, and Wilson, winning for Wilson.

Kevin O'Donnell (Composer) A company member at The House Theatre since 2006, Kevin has worked on over 20 House shows dating back to The Rocketman in 2004. His song cycle Ploughed Under: An American Songbook premiered there in Season 11. His work in Chicago theater has earned him 20 Jeff Nominations (9 Awards), and 2 consecutive After Dark Awards (Outstanding Season). In Chicago he has worked with The Hypocrites (Artistic Associate), Steppenwolf, Lookingglass, The Building Stage, Redmoon, Chicago Shakespeare, TimeLine, The Court Theatre, and many others; regionally: A.R.T. (Cambridge, MA); A.C.T. (San Francisco); The Arscht Center (Miami); Kansas City Rep; Stages Rep (Houston); CenterStage (Baltimore); First Stage (Milwaukee); Lambs Players (San Diego); New York: St. Anne's Warehouse, The Cherry Lane, and 59E59. As a musician he has recorded and/or performed with Andrew Bird, Nickel Creek, Jon Rauhouse, Kelly Hogan, David Berkeley, and many others.

Joe Calarco (Director) Joe's Off Broadway credits include the world premieres of Boy and In Transit (Drama Desk nomination Best Director), at Primary Stages, The Burnt Part Boys and Floyd and Clea Under the Western Sky at Playwrights Horizons, the world premieres of The Summer of the Swans and Sarah, Plain and Tall at the Lucille Lortel, the world premiere of The Mistress Cycle for The New York Musical Theatre Festival, the world premiere of Fugitive Songs (Drama Desk Award for Best Musical Revue), and the first New York revival of Bury the Dead and The Memory Show for The Transport Group. He was just nominated for a Drama Desk Award for directing Patrick Barlow's adaptation of A Christmas Carol. Joe is the adaptor/director of Shakespeare's R&J, which ran for a year and earned him a Lucille Lortel Award. He also directed the play's premieres in Chicago (5 Jeff Award nominations including Best Play and Best Director), Washington, D.C. (Helen Hayes Award nominations for Best Play and Best Director), London (Evening Standard Award honorable mention Best Director) and Tokyo. Regionally Joe has won Best Director Barrymore Awards for both Ordinary Days at 11th Hour Theatre Company and The Light in the Piazza at Philadelphia Theatre Company, which garnered a further 6 awards including Best Musical. Other shows at PTC include The Last Five Years (Barrymore Award Best Musical), Elegies (Barrymore nomination Best Director and Best Musical), and M. Butterfly. He is an Artistic Associate at Signature Theatre in Arlington Virginia, where he has directed Assassins (Helen Hayes Award Best Director), the world premiere of Nijinsky's Last Dance (Helen Hayes Awards for Best Director and Best Play), Side Show (Helen Hayes Awards for Best Director and Best Musical), Urinetown (a record breaking 8 Helen Hayes Awards including Best Director and Best Musical), Gypsy (Helen Hayes nominations for Best Director and Best Musical), Elegies: a song cycle (Helen Hayes nomination Best Musical), God of Carnage, the world premiere of Nest, the world premiere of The Boy Detective Fails, and the world premieres of his own plays Walter Cronkite is Dead and In The Absence of Spring which premiered in New York as the inaugural production of Second Stage's New Plays Uptown series under his own direction. Other regional work includes the world premiere of Lincolnesque and The Glass Menagerie at the Old Globe, the world premieres of the musical The Burnt Part Boys, The Memory Show, and The Mysteries of Harris Burdick (also book writer), as well as Kiss Me Kate, Breaking the Code, and Romance in Hard Times at Barrington Stage Company, the world premiere of Short Order Stories for Charter Theatre in Virginia, the world premiere of The Religion Thing at Theater J in Washington, DC, his adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream at The Shakespeare Theatre Company in D.C, and Of Mice and Men and My Fair Lady at the Hangar Theatre. At the O'Neill Musical Theatre Conference he has directed Broadcast, The Toymaker, Sarah, Plain and Tall, In Transit, Picnic at Hanging Rock, and The Shadow Sparrow. He directed Sam I Was as part of the Yale Institute for Musical Theater. He directed Sweeney Todd for Carnegie Mellon University. He directed Twice Charmed: an original twist on the Cinderella story for Disney Creative Entertainment, and his reworking of Ring of Fire: the music of Johnny Cash toured the U.S for over a year. As a playwright, Joe's published works include In The Absence Of Spring (The Best Stage Scenes of 2004), Shakespeare's R&J (Lucille Lortel Award), Walter Cronkite is Dead (world premiere Signature Theatre), and his short plays, Just A Little Sniffle and Parting Gifts. Other adaptations include A Midsummer Nights Dream, which was produced at The Shakespeare Theater Company in D.C. and Antigone Renewed, which had its first workshop at the National Theater in London. His commissioned play A Measure of Cruelty was produced by Mosaic Theater and received a Carbonell Award nomination as Best New Work. He is the book writer for the musicals Golden Gate with composer/lyricist Richard Pearson Thomas (developed at Second Stage and a reading at Lincoln Center) and The Mysteries of Harris Burdick with composer Chris Miller and lyricist Nathan Tysen, which had its West End premiere in conjunction with Mercury Musical Developments in London and its U.S. premier at Barrington Stage Company as part of William Finn's Musical Theatre Lab. He is the book writer for the musical The Last Days of Cleopatra, and he was a contributing book writer of The Audience (Drama Desk Nomination) for The Transport Group. His work for young audiences includes Aladdin (The Hangar Theatre) and My Vacation in Paris, Salat, Civil Wars, Aftershock, Shakespeare, Will, Image is Everything, Revolution, and Hero Worship all for Signature Theatre in Virginia. Upcoming: The musical SCKBSTD with songs by Bruce Hornsby, Home Front: a play with songs with composer/lyricist Adam Gwon, his latest full length play In The Attic, his latest work for young audiences, Empire (working title),to be produced at Signature Theater in the Spring of 2015, and the book for Wolf a theater/dance piece to be produced by Theater Raleigh in North Carolina in January of 2015. He was resident playwright at Expanded Arts for two years and is a member of the Dramatists Guild. Joe is co-artistic director of Breaking Bread Theatre. He served as resident playwright at Expanded Arts, Inc. for two years and as Resident Director at Barrington Stage Company. He has been a Joseph Papp artist in residence at Second Stage, is one of New York Theatre Workshop's "usual suspects," and is a Drama League directing fellow. He sits on the Executive Board of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC). Graduate: Ithaca College.