Vassar Powerhouse's MURDER BALLAD Adds Workshop Performance, 7/29

Due to popular demand Vassar & New York Stage and Film's Powerhouse Theater is adding an additional workshop performance on Sunday, July 29 at 7:30pm of the new indie rock musical Murder Ballad by Julia Jordan & Juliana Nash, directed by Trip Cullman. The cast features Tony nominees Daniel Breaker (Passing Strange; Shrek: The Musical) and Will Swenson (Hair; Priscilla Queen of the Desert) as well as Dee Roscioli (Wicked) and Rebecca Naomi Jones (American Idiot; Passing Strange).

This sexy, explosive new rock musical explores the complications of love, the compromises we make, and the small betrayals that can ultimately undo us. A love triangle gone wrong, Murder Ballad centers on Sara, an Upper West Side mom who seems to have it all, but whose downtown past lingers enticingly and dangerously in front of her.

Murder Ballad is created by composer Juliana Nash, front-woman for the 90's indie rock band Talking to Animals, and award-winning playwright Julia Jordan (Tatjana in Color, Sarah, Plain and Tall). It is directed by Trip Cullman (Lonely, I'm Not; Assistance; A Small Fire). Cullman, a frequent collaborator in the creation of new works at Vassar & New York Stage and Film's Powerhouse Theater, also directed the debuts of A Steady Rain, Lloyd Suh's American Hwangap, The Peterson's Project, and Sweetness among many others. Musical director Justin Levine's Bonfire Night debuted at Powerhouse in 2010 and he was the musical director for Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson. Choreographer Doug Varone is known for his work in theater, opera, and with his own company Doug Varone & Dancers.

Tickets are available online and at the campus box office. Go to powerhouse.vassar.edu or visit the Powerhouse Theater box office on the Vassar College campus (124 Raymond Avenue, Poughkeepsie, NY): (845) 437-5599 or PHTBoxOffice@vassar.edu.

Each summer Vassar & New York Stage and Film's Powerhouse Theater presents new plays and musicals in development, many of which go on to reach wider audiences, including Stephen Karam's Sons of the Prophet (Roundabout Theater); Michael Mayer and Peter Parnell's re-imagining of Lerner & Lowe's On A Clear Day You Can See Forever (St James Theater); Seminar by Theresa Rebeck (Golden Theater); Gabriel Kahane & Seth Bockley's new musical February House (The Public Theater); and Storefront Church, John Patrick Shanley's final installment to his "Church and State" trilogy that began with Doubt (Atlantic Theatre Company). Other projects developed at the Powerhouse include the Tony Award-winning Side Man and Tru; the multi-award-winning Doubt; the groundbreaking Broadway musical American Idiot, and A Steady Rain, produced on Broadway in 2009 with Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig.

The result of a unique collaboration between New York Stage and Film and Vassar College, the Powerhouse program consists of an eight-week residency on the Vassar campus during which more than 250 professional artists and 40 apprentices live and work together to create new theater works.

New York Stage and Film is the not-for-profit company dedicated to both emerging and established artists in the development of new works for theater and film. Since 1985 New York Stage and Film has played a significant role in the development of new plays, provided a home for a diverse group of artists free from critical and commercial pressures and established itself as a vital cultural institution for residents of the Hudson Valley and the New York metropolitan region. For more information, visit www.newyorkstageandfilm.org.

Vassar College is a highly selective, coeducational, independent, residential, liberal arts college founded in 1861. Consistently ranked as one of the country's best liberal arts colleges, Vassar is renowned for its long history of curricular innovation, and for the natural and architectural beauty of its campus. More than 50 academic departments and degree programs - from Anthropology to Cognitive Sciences to Urban Studies - encompass the arts, foreign languages, natural sciences, and social services, and combine to offer a curriculum of more than 1,000 courses. Vassar College is sited in New York's beautiful Hudson Valley in Poughkeepsie, NY. For directions and travel information, go to powerhouse.vassar.edu/visit/.

Martel Musical Workshops (concert readings of works-in-progress)/ In the Vogelstein Center for Drama and Film. Tickets $30. Murder Ballad runs Friday, July 27 and 28 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, July 29 at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.

Photo © Vassar & New York Stage and Film / Buck Lewis Photography.