Amas Musical Theatre Lab Will Present Staged Readings Of 'MĀYĀ - A New Musical in August

Amas Musical Theatre (Donna Trinkoff, Artistic Producer) and The Amas Musical Theatre Lab will present staged readings of MAYA, a new musical, with book and lyrics Eric Sorrels and book and music by Cheeyang Ng.

Directed by Arpita Mukherjee, with music direction by Mona Seyed-Bolorforosh, the readings will be held on Monday, August 22 at 6pm and Tuesday, August 23 at 2pm & 7pm at Theatre Row - Theatre 2 (410 West 42nd Street).

For reservations, email boxoffice@amasmusical.org. For more information, please call 212-563-2565.

Set in the time of Gandhi's Non-Violent Independence Movement and the waning British Raj, M?Y? tells the story of a female poet's awakening to the political troubles of India.

The cast will include Meetu Chilana (Cirque de Soleil), Max Chlumecky, George Dvorsky (The Scarlet Pimpernell), Deven Kolluri (The Boy Who Danced on Air), Yamuna Meleth (The Office! A Musical Parody), Manu Narayan (Bombay Dreams), and Kuhoo Verma (Fairycakes). Stage Manager is Christine Viega. Movement Consultant is Ruj Vaidya. Casting by Michael Cassara Casting.

"We've been excited about this show for a long time," says Amas Artistic Producer Donna Trinkoff. "It was the recipient of the 2nd Annual Eric H. Weinberger Emerging Librettist, but that was in 2020 and the pandemic put a hold on everything. It was then scheduled for the Amas Dare to Be Different Festival in January 2022, but we were forced to cancel that as well. We are thrilled to be able to help to develop this show at last."

Winner of the 2020 Eric H. Weinberger Emerging Librettist Award, Sponsored by Kermitt Brooks, Steve Sagman, The Dramatist Guild and the Frank Young Fund for New Musicals, a program of National Alliance for Musical Theatre.

MAYA (formerly The Golden Threshold) was originally conceived at the NYU Tisch Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program. It was developed at "Live & In Color" (Devanand Janki, Artistic Director) and then showcased at Millenium State at the Kennedy Center as part of the ASCAP Musical Theatre Week.

These presentations are part of the ongoing Amas Musical Theatre Lab, a development series for writers, lyricists and composers to mount public readings of their new musicals. The Lab is supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature, Actors Equity Association, BMI Foundation, Nancy Friday Foundation, The Princess Grace Foundation, Dubose and Dorothy Heyward foundation, the Lucille Lortel Foundation and through the generous support of many individuals.

Bios

Born and raised in Singapore, Cheeyang Ngis an award-winning singer-songwriter who writes at the intersection of queer, Asian and immigrant stories. They have performed around the world, including Lincoln Center with Carole King and Carnegie Hall with a cappella group Vocalosity and hold an MFA from New York University and a BMus from Berklee College of Music. They are the first Singaporean to headline a concert at Joe's Pub and Millennium Stage at Kennedy Center showcasing their original music and their songs have been performed around New York, including The Duplex and Feinstein's/54 Below. Creator of podcast East Side Story and vocal group The Lunar Collective, they have won multiple vocal awards all across Asia, including Singapore, Taiwan and China. Musicals in development include EASTBOUND (2020 NAMT, Village Theatre) with Khiyon Hursey and MAYA (2021 NAMT, Live & In Color, Hypokrit) with Eric Sorrels. Select credits include: 2021 Princess Grace Award, 2021 Jonathan Larson Grant Finalist, 2019 ASCAP Foundation Lucille & Jack Yellen Award, 2019 New York Musical Festival Commission. www.cheeyang.com. @cheeyangmusic

Eric Sorrels Originally from Tennessee, Eric Sorrels is an award-winning songwriter and librettist. In addition to writing, he spent seven years in New York City as a professional chorister, where he sang with the choirs of St John the Divine, Temple E-Manuel, and many other ensembles. His work has been showcased at the Kennedy Center and in many of NYC's cabaret spaces. Eric's passions intersect with music and health. He's currently back in the South preparing for medical school, but he's grateful to Amas for the chance to return to NYC and continue developing MAYA. BA: UT Knoxville. MFA: NYU. @eric sorrels

Arpita Mukherjee (Director) Arpita Mukherjee is the Artistic Director of Congressional Award-winning Hypokrit Theatre Company and the Festival Chair of Tamasha. Her recent directing credits include Jump by Charly Evon Simpson (APAC), House of Joy by Madhuri Shekar (San Diego Rep) Charly Evon Simpson, Maya by Cheeyang Ng and Eric Sorrels (Pace University New Musical Lab), Anon(ymous) by Naomi Iizuka (Iowa State University), One Way by Ben Bonnema and Christopher Staskel (NAMT), The Golden Threshold by Cheeyang Ng and Eric Sorrels (Live & In Color), Strange Men by Will Snider (PlayPenn 2019), Citizen Scientist by CQ (Barrington Stage Company Playworks Weekend), Vietgone by Qui Nguyen (reading Song Collective), Sense and the City by Kaela Mei-Shing Garvin (4 Flights Up Festival), Reclaiming Our Time: A Concert (MTF at Joe's Pub), Eh Dah? Questions For My Father by Aya Aziz (Next Door @NYTW), and Elements of Change by Divya Mangwani (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, UNICEF). Arpita has developed work at WP Theater, The Public Theater, and Ma-Yi Theatre amongst others. She is a 2019 SDC Denham Fellow and 2019-2020 Sokoloff Creative Arts Fellow. She is a 2018 - 2020 Womens Project Lab Member and a 2018 Eugene O' Neill National Directing Fellow. She is an alumni of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab. Arpita was selected as a 2019 Mabou Mines Resident Artist, a 2019-2020 LMCC Governors Island Artist-in-Residence, and the 2019 Iowa State University Artist-in-Residence. Arpita is currently the book writer for Monsoon Wedding musical.

Mona Seyed-Bolorforosh (Music Direction) is an Iranian-American Conductor, Music Director, Pianist and Orchestrator/Arranger based in New York City. As a 1st generation Iranian-American and classically trained pianist, her work now encompasses numerous genres including Musical Theatre, Classical Music, and World Music. She is a frequent developer of new works, serving as a Music Director and Supervisor on numerous projects. As a conductor and pianist, she has worked on several Broadway and off-Broadway shows including Come From Away (Sub Conductor) and Company (Sub Keys 3). As an orchestrator, her work has been performed by artists like Kristin Chenoweth, Lena Hall and Michael Feinstein at venues including the Met Opera, Carnegie Hall, and more. Recent credits include National Tour: Annie (Music Supervisor), Rodger's And Hammerstein's Cinderella (Keys 3), Broadway: Come From Away, Company, Mean Girls; Off-Broadway: Oratorio For Living Things (2020 cast, Pianist) Out Of Town: Other World - a new musical by Hunter Bell, Jeff Bowen and Ann McNamee (Associate Music Director). She is an alumna of the Berklee College of Music where she studied Classical Composition and Conducting.

Amas Musical Theatre (Donna Trinkoff, Artistic Producer) is a non-profit, multi-ethnic theatrical organization founded in 1968 by Ms. Rosetta LeNoire. Amas ("you love" in Latin) is devoted to the creation, development and professional production of new American musicals, the celebration of cultural equity and minority perspectives, the emergence of new artistic talent, and the training and encouragement of inner-city young people. Amas celebrates its impact in pioneering multi-ethnic casting in the American Theatre and reiterates its commitment to this reflection of our diverse society. In recent years, Amas has emerged as a leading not-for-profit laboratory for new musicals, the most recent being Romeo & Bernadette: A Musical Tale of Verona and Brooklyn, ¡Americano!, Broadway and the Bard, starring Len Cariou and Red Eye of Love, which was awarded the Joseph A. Callaway Award for Outstanding Choreography. Its production of The Other Josh Cohen received six 2013 Drama Desk nominations including Outstanding Musical, a 2013 Lucille Lortel nomination for Outstanding Musical, and a 2013 Off-Broadway Alliance nomination for Best New Musical. Other shows that Amas has developed include A Taste of Chocolate, Triassic Parq, The Countess of Storyville, Distant Thunder, Marry Harry, Me and Miss Monroe, Aesop & Company, Signs of Life, Wanda's World, Shout! The Mod Musical, Lone Star Love, From My Hometown, Zanna, Don't!, 4 Guys Named Jose and Stormy Weather: Reimagining Lena Horne. Amas education programs include the Rosetta LeNoire Musical Theatre Academy, Lens on Live Theatre and in-school theatre arts residencies designed in partnership with elementary, middle, and high schools.