11th Hour Theatre Company to Present FIVE POINTS

11th Hour Theatre Company continues its 12th season with its second Next Step Concert Series performance. This time the series features a brand-new musical by three up and coming writers. Five Points, comes to the Next Step Concert Series, November 18-20. Five Points features Music written by Douglas Lyons and Ethan Pakchar, Lyrics by Douglas Lyons, and a Book by Harrison David Rivers. The concert will be at The Arden's Studio Theatre at the Hamilton Family Arts Center. 62 N. Second Street. Tickets cost $19-34 and are available online at www.11thhourtheatrecompany.org or by phone 267-987-9865.

Five Points, a slum neighborhood in Manhattan, serves as home to poor immigrants and free black families. With the Civil War draft stirring tension in the already fractured community, a recently widowed Irish father who will do anything for his son crosses paths with a young black man striving to break through barriers as he seeks fame and fortune.

Five Points is the first of two new works that are part of the Next Step Concert Series this season. It is directed by 11th Hour Co-Founder and Resident Director, Megan Nicole O'Brien. Douglas Lyons and Ethan Pakchar's collaboration began when they met touring on the First National Tour of The Book of Mormon. Lyons was an actor onstage and Pakchar a guitarist in the pit. Lyons is currently on stage as part of the ensemble of Beautiful: The Carole King Musical on Broadway. Packchar is still playing guitar in the tour of The Book of Mormon. Harrison David Rivers is a playwright whose works have been produced around the country.

The cast of Five Points is led by Erin Lamar as Willie Lane and Michael Philip O'Brien as John Diamond. The cast also includes Meredith Beck as Bridget, Julian Brightman as P.T. Barnum, Zachary Chiero as Hype Man, Christian Eason as Cornelius, Darren Michael Hengst as O'Neill, Alina John as Stella, Merci Lyons-Cox as Mariah, Nancie Sanderson as Rona, Paige Smallwood as Pauline, Rob Tucker as Pete and Gentry Williams as Askin/Ensemble.

Ryan Touhey is the Music Director and is in the band. His band includes Nero Catalano and Elisa Money. Melissa Erlick is the Stage Manager. Brad Pouliot is the Sound Designer and Audio Engineer. Angela Coleman is the Lighting Designer.

The Next Step Concert Series is innovative, inspiring, and intimate. New and seldom seen musicals are stripped down to their very essence...good storytelling and incredible music. The rest of the 2016-2017 Next Step Concert Series includes: Road Show by Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman; and Broadcast by Nathan Christensen and Scott Murphy.

Five Points Schedule
Friday, November 18, 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, November 19, 8:00 p.m.
Sunday, November 20, 3:00 p.m.

11th Hour Theatre Company is the only company in Philadelphia dedicated to producing all musicals, all the time. Intimate by design, 11th Hour creates a lasting experience with the audience by producing character-driven musical theatre.

11th Hour produces a broad spectrum of musicals that fill a niche in the diverse Philadelphia theatre landscape: musicals that spark the creativity of artists and the imaginations of audiences. Over the past eleven seasons, they have produced seventeen full-scale musicals, nine of which were Philadelphia premieres. In addition to the World Premiere of their first commission, Field Hockey Hot, the company has contributed to the development of several new musicals beginning with Angst, a ten-minute musical that premiered in the Spark Festival of 2005. 11th Hour produced the American premiere of Austentatious that went on to success at the New York Musical Theatre Festival; and a 29-hour reading of Fantasy Football, the Musical? before its production at New York University. Both Austentatious and Fantasy Football have since been published and are now professionally licensed. In the fall of 2014, 11th Hour partnered with University of the Arts to workshop Persephone Unplugged, a new twist on the classic Greek myth. With support from the Independence Foundation, 11th Hour recently commissioned their second musical from a local writing team, a Civil War-themed project currently titled Something Like a War.

11th Hour has received a total of forty-six Barrymore Award nominations. Their work has been recognized with eight awards, including two consecutive awards for "Outstanding Ensemble in a Musical" (The Bomb-itty of Errors, The World Goes 'Round), and several individual awards for their artists. Founding member Steve Pacek was also the proud recipient of the 2012 F. Otto Haas Award for an Emerging Philadelphia Theatre Artist. In 2013, 11th Hour became the first-ever recipient of the June and Steve Wolfson Award for an Evolving Theater.