Rosie's Theater Kids to Sing Original Tunes and More in City Center's THE LOBBY PROJECT Series

The Lobby Project, a series of free pre-performance events presented in conjunction with New York City Center's Encores! Off-Center series (led this summer by producer Helen Handelman and curator Jenny Koons), returns with a line-up of performances and conversations with the artists involved.

In the tradition of the Menken (2016) and Sondheim (2014) Mixtapes, songwriters submitted original songs inspired by Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman's Assassins. The winners, Sebastian Durfee, Taylor Ferrera and Bob Ferrera, Deepali Gupta, and Jess Newman, will present their pieces before three evening performances (Thu, Jul 13 at 6:30 pm; Fri, Jul 14 at 7pm; and Sat, Jul 15 at 7pm) and participate in a nightly panel to discuss their influences and inspirations.

On Wednesday, July 26, at 6:30pm, Ayodele Casel, Helga Davis, and Okwui Okpokwasili will participate in a discussion about their experiences onstage in connection with Kirsten Childs' The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin. Casel will also perform a piece commissioned especially for The Lobby Project. The following evening, Thursday, July 27, at 6:30pm, Kirsten Childs will discuss the legacy of black women artists in America and the contemporary nature of her work.

For Maurice Sendak and Carole King's Really Rosie, The Lobby Project has commissioned original songs from Broadway Bound Kids and Rosie's Theater Kids. Each youth group will perform an opening number about their neighborhood and New York City in 2017. Performances (Wed, Aug 2 at 6pm; Fri, Aug 4 at 6pm; and Sat, Aug 5 at 1 & 6pm) will be followed by a discussion about how the groups created their songs.

The Lobby Project takes place in City Center's Grand Tier lobby one hour before select performances and is free for that evening's ticket holders. Led by Artistic Director Michael Friedman, the popular Encores! Off-Center series returns for its fifth season of landmark Off-Broadway musicals including Assassins, directed by Anne Kauffman (July 12-15); Kirsten Childs' The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin, directed by Robert O'Hara (July 26 & 27); and Carole King and Maurice Sendak's family musical Really Rosie, directed by Leigh Silverman (August 2-5).

Encores! Off-Center was founded in 2013 with the mission of presenting Off?Broadway musicals that pushed creative boundaries when they were first produced. Filtered through the lens of today's artists, these shows are presented not as historical documents but as living, vital works that continue to resonate with audiences. The New York Times has called Encores! Off-Center "a summer theater highlight," with past productions including Violet with Sutton Foster; tick, tick...BOOM! with Lin-Manuel Miranda; A New Brain with Jonathan Groff; Little Shop of Horrors with Ellen Greene and Jake Gyllenhaal; and Runaways with a cast of 25 young performers.

Off-Center reflects City Center's ongoing outreach to new and young audiences. In keeping with this mission, many Off-Center tickets are $25. Tickets can be purchased online at NYCityCenter.org, by calling 212.581.1212, or in person at the City Center Box Office. New York City Center is located at 131 West 55th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues.

New York City Center (Arlene Shuler, President & CEO) has played a defining role in the cultural life of the city since 1943. For 25 years, City Center's Tony-honored Encores! series has been "an essential New York institution" (The New York Times). In 2013, City Center launched the Encores! Off-Center series, which features seminal Off-Broadway musicals filtered through the lens of today's innovative artists. Dance has also been integral to the theater's mission from the start and programs like the annual Fall for Dance Festival remain central to City Center's identity. Home to a roster of renowned national and international companies including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (City Center's Principal Dance Company) and Manhattan Theatre Club, New York City Center was Manhattan's first performing arts center, founded with the mission of making the best in music, theater, and dance accessible to all audiences. That mission continues today through robust education and community engagement programs which bring the performing arts to over 9,000 New York City students each year and the expansion of the theatrical experience to include pre-show talks, master classes, and art exhibitions that offer an up-close look at the work of the great theater and dance artists of our time.