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Kate Chadwick & Josh Freilich's EXCUSE ME! Song Cycle Set for The Playroom Theatre

by BWW News Desk Apr. 19, 2017

NYSP Presents, in conjunction with the University of California, Irvine, will commence performances of EXCUSE ME! on Saturday, April 22, and Monday, April 24, at The Playroom Theatre. Lex Leigh serves as Music Director. Myrona DeLaney directs.

NYSP Presents commissions musical theatre writing teams to create new works for musical theatre actors from UC Irvine's New York Satellite Program. This year's writers - librettist Kate Chadwick and composer Josh Freilich - received video auditions in late January, and then had six weeks to write a 90 minute musical work tailored specifically to and for the talents of the 23 actors, culminating in staged concert performances. This is the first year of NYSP Presents, having produced 10 successful seasons of 4@15: Four New Fifteen-Minute Musicals with director Brian Blythe.

EXCUSE ME! features: Nick Adams, Elise Borgfeldt, Javi Carillo, Haley Chaney, Kristen Daniels, Nicholas Ehlen, Cassie Grilley, Caitlin Harjes, Christine Hinchee, Dani Honeyman, Darius Lack, Tyler Marshall, Rachel Menendez, Mark Metzger, Melissa Musial, Rosemary O'Neill, Krystyna Rodriguez, Melody Rodriguez, Gabriel Sardinas, David Šášik, Victoria Thompson, Amy Tilson-Lumetta, and Abbey Workman.

EXCUSE ME!, with libretto by Kate Chadwick and music by Josh Freilich, is a song cycle that looks at the daily human interactions happening on the streets of New York City. We're rushed here. We're loud and we're mean, but are we really? What happens when we say "Excuse me" to someone? Sometimes we brush it off, but sometimes there are a few minutes that take us by surprise. And isn't that wonderful?

Performances are SATURDAY, APRIL 22, at 3:30PM and MONDAY, APRIL 24, at 7:00PM. Tickets: $10 (general admission) available at the door or online at www.eventbrite.com. Performances at The Playroom Theatre, 151 West 46th Street, 8th Floor.

ABOUT THE WRITERS:

KATE CHADWICK grew up in ballet and theatre (BA in Drama, high-honors in Musical Theatre Performance from University of California, Irvine; Post-Graduate Diploma in Acting from The Oxford School of Drama, UK). In 2015, she graduated from NYU's Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program. She had a showcase of her songs in William Finn's Cabaret series at Barrington Stage in the summer of 2015, a short-opera was performed at Hartford Opera, and she's had her songs performed at Sardi's, 54 Below, The York Theatre and The Laurie Beechman. Member of Actor's Equity and the Dramatists Guild. www.katechadwick.com.

JOSH FREILICH is an NYC-based composer and arranger whose arrangements and compositions have been performed at numerous venues throughout the world in concert and theatrical settings. Composer/orchestrator credits: Turn Out (composer), Carlotta (composer), Color War: The Summer Campy Musical (co-composer), Moving Right Along: The World of Jeff Blumenkrantz (orchestrator), Month Upon a Time (orchestrator), The Star Child (composer), A New Brain (additional arrangements). Additional musical directing credits include: Spelling Bee, Children of Eden and RENT. Workshops include: Up Here w/Alex Timbers and Joshua Bergasse and Once Removed w/Melissa Bell and Graham Russell.