11th Hour Theatre Presents ORDINARY DAYS Thru 12/18

11th Hour Theatre Company continues its season with the Philadelphia Premiere of Adam Gwon's chamber musical, Ordinary Days. For the first time, the company is bringing in an outside director and their choice is Barrymore, Helen Hayes, and Lucille Lortel Award winner Joe Calarco. This will mark the first time audiences in the region have a chance to see work from Adam Gwon, a rising new voice in American musical theater. The show will close December 11th.

The show will run at the Skybox at the Adrienne, 2030 Sansom Street. Tickets cost $15-$30. Tickets and more information are available online at www.11thhourtheatrecompany.org or by phone at (267) 987-9865.

Ordinary Days introduces audiences to four young New Yorkers dealing with day to day life in the city that never sleeps. Jason and Claire are a couple who recently moved in together and struggle with the realities of combining households. Warren seeks his bigger purpose in life, while earning his living housesitting for a jailed artist. Deb is a Type-A grad student who loses her most precious possession--the notebook containing her graduate thesis. As the story unfolds, their lives begin to intertwine in ways these four unique characters never thought possible. This piece is a refreshingly honest and funny musical about making real connections while searching for fulfillment, happiness, love, and cabs. Ordinary Days is an original musical about the struggle to appreciate the simple things in a complex place. With equal doses of humor and poignancy, it celebrates how individuals can impact each other without ever meeting in person.

Joe Calarco returns to Philadelphia to direct this piece. Calarco recently won the Barrymore for Direction of a Musical for Philadelphia Theatre Company's The Light in the Piazza. He has assembled a stellar cast. Whitney Bashor returns to Philadelphia to play Claire. She won the Barrymore for supporting actress in a Musical for The Light in the Piazza. Barrymore Winner and 11th Hour Theatre Company Producing Artistic Director Michael Philip O'Brien plays Jason. Multiple Barrymore Nominee and 11th Hour Artistic Associate Steve Pacek plays Warren and recent Barrymore nominee Alex Keiper plays Deb.

Calarco approached O'Brien and Pacek about doing this piece after seeing the two of them in 11th Hour's production of RENT.

"Adam Gwon the composer of Ordinary Days and I have worked on a few projects together. But, I actually heard the demo for the show before I even really knew him. The show had a very good reputation before it was ever produced. I've always been very moved by the piece, but I didn't ever really think I'd have the opportunity to direct it," said Calarco. "Then last year I went to see 11th Hour's production of RENT where Michael O'Brien and Steve Pacek played the two male principle roles, and after the show I told them that they should do Ordinary Days because they'd be perfect for the two male roles in it. Well, shortly after that they said, ‘Let's do it for 11th Hour.'"

Added Calarco, "Let's just say it's going to be very intimate. It really is a show about all of us, about how we affect each other's lives without even knowing it. You could alter the life of someone sitting right next to you by something you say or do-- a small thing, and it can shift their view of the world without you ever being aware that you were even noticed."

Gwon is a rising voice in American Musical Theatre. He was named one of "50 to Watch" by The Dramatist. He has received the Kleban, Ebb, and Loewe awards for excellence in musical theater writing, and has been hailed "an extremely talented composer and lyricist" who "is seriously going places." (The New York Sun, StageSpace.com) Ordinary Days made its NYC premiere with a sold-out run at Roundabout Theatre Company . The show has been produced around the world, including London's West End, South Coast Repertory, and more. It was selected for the 2008 NAMT Festival of New Musicals. Audra McDonald is currently singing a song from the show on tour.

His other shows include The Boy Detective Fails (with Joe Meno), Cloudlands (with Octavio Solis) and Bernice Bobs Her Hair (with Julia Jordan). His work has been seen and developed at Roundabout Theatre Company, Primary Stages, the York Theatre, Signature Theatre, the Kennedy Center, Ars Nova, New Dramatists, the Johnny Mercer Foundation/American Music Theatre Project, Symphony Space, the Disney/ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshop, Tribeca Performing Arts Center, The Flea Theater, and many others. Gwon's other honors include the ASCAP Harold Adamson award, the MAC John Wallowitch award and commissions from Signature Theatre in Arlington, VA (as part of its American Musical Voices Project: The Next Generation), South Coast Repertory, Broadway Across America, and the EST/Sloan Project. He has been a MacDowell Colony fellow, a musical theater fellow at the Dramatists Guild, and an artist-in-residence at Weston Playhouse. He is a graduate of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, and a member of ASCAP and the Dramatists Guild.

"Bringing in a new artistic voice to 11th Hour was very important to us." O'Brien says. " It was extremely exciting when Joe Calarco approached us about directing for 11th Hour. All of his previous projects in Philadelphia have been extremely well received and he thinks about musical theatre in the same way that 11th Hour approaches a new piece. Although all of his productions are visually stunning and beautiful, it is always the story and characters that are the priority and that excites us!"

Eric Ebbenga, who won the Barrymore for Music Direction for Light in the Piazza, is handling the Music Direction for this Philadelphia premierE. Craig Vetter is designing the set. Dominic Chacon is designing the lights. Lauren Perigard is handling costume design. Mark Valenzuela is creating the sound design for the show and 11th Hour Resident Director Megan Nicole O'Brien is assistant directing the show.

About 11th Hour Theatre Company
11th Hour Theatre Company is a not-for-profit company committed to expanding one of the truly great American art forms...musical theatre. As one of only two companies in the city dedicated to producing musical theatre, 11th Hour focuses on the intimate relationship that forms between artist and audience when music, theatre and dance come together to entertain, educate and inspire.

Ordinary Days
Written by Adam Gwon
Directed by Joe Calarco

Performed at: The Skybox at the Adrienne
2030 Sansom Street

Cast
Claire..................................Whitney Bashor
Deb..........................................Alex Keiper
Jason...........................Michael Philip O'Brien
Warren......................................Steve Pacek

Music Direction.........................Eric Ebbenga
Set Design.................................Craig Vetter
Costume Design.................,...Lauren Perigard
Lighting Design...................... Dominic Chacon
Sound Design.........................Mark Valenzuela
Assistant Director...............Megan Nicole O'Brien

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