Composer and Director Mel Marvin Featured at Shop Talk, March 13

Mel Marvin - theatre composer, director, and head composer of NYU's Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program - will be the guest at the next "Shop Talk" at The Drama Book Shop on Monday, March 13th at 7:30pm.

Host Rozanne Gates will chat with Marvin "about the challenges of putting music on the live stage and working with other directors, actors and writers in New York and around the world," according to press notes.

Marvin received a Tony nomination as a co-author of Tintypes and wrote the music for the Broadway productions of Yentl and Chris Durang's A History of the American Film. He has had 9 shows produced Off-Broadway and has served as composer or director of scores of productions in most of America's major regional theatres, including Hartford Stage Company, Lincoln Center Theatre, Arena Stage, The Guthrie Theatre and the Mark Taper Forum. As a director, his best-known musicals are Elmer Gantry and How the Grinch Stole Christmas, which is headed for Broadway next season. Recent work includes Great Expectations written with author John Jakes, produced by Goodspeed Musicals and two new operas: Guest from the Future, with libretto by Jonathan Levi, commissioned by Nine Circles Chamber Theatre, and Buwalsky, A Road Opera, commissioned by Holland's Opera Spanga. He is Faculty Composer and Director of Production of the Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts.

"Shop Talk" takes place in the Arthur Seelen Theater, downstairs in The Drama Book Shop at 250 W. 40th St., between 7th and 8th avenues. Tickets are only $20, and $10 for students. Complete information and ordering links are available at www.ltblf.org/shoptalk/, as well as the audio archives of previous "Shop Talk programs." In April, a series of "Shop Talk" evenings will become Casting Director Forums in which the details of how actors get cast in good roles will be discussed.