Jason Robert Brown Masterclass Held At Pasadena Playhouse Today

On Saturday, November 26, Tony Award©-Winning Composer Jason Robert Brown will appear in a masterclass to the students of the Pasadena Musical Theatre Program (Ryan Scott Oliver, Artistic Director). The event is presented by the Pasadena Musical Theatre and is hosted by the Pasadena Playhouse. Time is 2pm-5pm.

As the first project as part of a collaboration of the Pasadena Musical Theatre Program (PMTP) and the Pasadena Playhouse, ten singers will perform for the writer at the Carrie Hamilton Theatre, located on the second floor of The Playhouse. The event is open to the public, and audience members can expect to hear a bit about Brown's past career as well as what he's working on now, plus insightful critique on the young artist's performances.

Jason Robert Brown has been hailed as "one of Broadway's smartest and most sophisticated songwriters since Stephen Sondheim" (Philadelphia Inquirer), and his "extraordinary, jubilant theater music" (Chicago Tribune) has been heard all over the world, whether in one of the hundreds of productions of his musicals every year or in his own incendiary live performances. The New York Times refers to Jason as "a leading member of a new generation of composers who embody high hopes for the American musical." Jason is the composer and lyricist of the musical, "The Last Five Years," which was cited as one of Time Magazine's 10 Best of 2001 and won Drama Desk Awards for Best Music and Best Lyrics. Jason won a 1999 Tony Award for his score to "Parade", a musical written with Alfred Uhry and directed by Harold Prince, which premiered at Lincoln Center Theatre in December 1998, and subsequently won both the Drama Desk and New York Drama Critics' Circle Awards for Best New Musical. "Parade" was also presented on a national tour in 2000, which Jason conducted. Jason's first musical, "Songs for a New World," a theatrical song cycle directed by Daisy Prince, played Off-Broadway at the WPA Theatre in the fall of 1995, and has since been seen in more than two hundred productions around the world. Jason's musical, "13," written with Dan Elish and directed by Todd Graff, premiered to rave reviews at Los Angeles's Mark Taper Forum. Jason is the winner of the 2002 Kleban Award for Outstanding Lyrics and the 1996 Gilman & Gonzalez-Falla Foundation Award for Musical Theatre. Jason's songs, including the cabaret standard "Stars and the Moon," have been performed and recorded by Audra McDonald, Betty Buckley, Karen Akers, Renée Fleming, Philip Quast, Jon Hendricks and many others.

Now in its seventeenth year, THE PASADENA MUSICAL THEATRE PROGRAM is a unique nonprofit performing arts training organization where students in grades 4-12, regardless of economic situation, are encouraged to embrace musical theatre as a method of self-exploration to enhance their personal growth and professionalism. We believe that children learn best when they are encouraged by theatre professionals who love what they do and do what they love. And, most of all, we value the individuality, diversity, and talent levels of all of our students. One way we encourage student diversity is by waiving registration fees for students participating in federal assistance programs, including those receiving free or reduced-price school lunches. During 2011, PMTP provided fee waivers for approximately 30 percent of our performers, and arranged no-cost lunches for all students. Community engagement is a high priority for Pasadena Musical Theatre Program. Groups of inner-city grade-school children, many of whom have never seen a live musical theatre production, along with audience groups from local service clubs and senior centers, attend PMTP shows free of charge.

Information about the Pasadena Playhouse and PMTP collaboration will be announced soon.

Find out more about PMTP by phone (323) 250-3150 or at www.pasadenamusicaltheatre.org, including how to get tickets to our events and to enroll in our programs, and "like us" at www.facebook.com/pasadenamusicaltheatre where you can see new media updated regularly.

The Carrie Hamilton Theatre is located upstairs at the Pasadena Playhouse at 39 S. El Molino Avenue, Pasadena CA 91101.

All performer slots are filled, but audience tickets ($25.00) may be purchased directly at the PMTP website: www.pasadenamusicaltheatre.org. The black box theatre has a very limited capacity, so prospective ticket buyers are encouraged to purchase quickly.

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