'This Thing Called Love' Gets Workshop This July At Philly Music Theater Works

Recent graduate of the musical theater program at the University of the Arts, Joey Contreras will receive a workshop of his musical This Thing Called Love this July at Philadelphia Music Theater Works. Contreras, a bright-eyed twenty two year old who hails from Northern California, recently had a concert version of This Thing Called Love presented at UArts in May featuring the talents of Natalie Weiss (Wicked), Philip Drennen (Altar Boyz) and various UArts musical theater students and recent alumni. PMTW's Artistic Director, Jeremiah Downes and Resident Music Director, Christopher Ertelt approached Contreras about developing the piece into a cohesive musical with the hope of producing the revised work in the coming year, serving as the first extended run and major production at Philadelphia Music Theater Works.

Artistic Director, Jeremiah Downes has this to say about the project, "Musicals aren't being developed and workshopped in Philadelphia anymore. We hope to change that. We're proud to have brought some of the musical theater's most promising new voices to Philly in the past year and now look forward to shepherding Joey's work out into the musical theater landscape. He's a vibrant, authentic new voice with unyielding potential and promise."

The workshop will feature the talents of local Philadelphia actors under the direction of Artistic Director, Jeremiah Downes and Resident Music Director, Christopher Ertelt. Invited performances will be presented in late July, theater professionals and prospective supporters of the project should inquire by contacting us directly at admin@phillymusictheater.org. For more details, visit www.phillymusictheater.org and to hear clips of Joey's music, visit youtube.com/joeycontrerasmusic.

The Philadelphia Music Theater Works, now in its second year, most recently presented a developmental concert of songs from 2008 Richard Rodgers Award winner, Ryan Scott Oliver, The Ryan Scott Oliver Project. Other productions have included, FRESH: New Musicals. Stripped., a concert of songs from new writers for the musical theater, the scope of which had never been seen before in Philadelphia, and Philly composer Charles Gilbert's Watch the Birdie. For more visit, www.phillymusictheater.org.