SDSU Musical Theatre To Workshop MODERN A New Musical

The San Diego State University MFA Musical Theatre Program, under the supervision of Robert Meffe and Stephen Brotebeck, will present a staged reading of the musical Modern. Written by Selda Sahin and Derek Gregor, directed by Shayne Mims, with music direction by Richard Morrison. The presentation will take place Friday, January 31 at 3:30 pm in the Experimental Theatre on the SDSU campus. Admission is free and open to the public.

Featuring Ross Graham, Laura Odette-Sandoval, Emmy Farese, Eliana Payne, Sarah Hernandez, Daman Pacheco, Veenwar Almezory, Hunter Katz, Robert Delpino, Jamie Boyd, Kaivan Ameen, Jackson Wright, and Cat Rojo-Schubert.

Modern follows a group of Amish teenagers on their Rumspringa. The piece has been workshopped at Seattle's Village Theatre, ASCAP/Grow a Show (Lincoln, NE) and the ASCAP Stephen Schwartz workshop in NYC.

Selda Sahin and Derek Gregor are a NYC-based writing team for the stage and screen. They wrote the original songs for the upcoming feature film "American Reject" (their songs are sung by Keala Settle, Angelica Hale, Rebecca Black, Annaleigh Ashford, Juvenile and Billy Ray Cyrus). Their musical "Modern" was developed at The Village Theatre's Festival of New Musicals, the ASCAP/Grow A Show workshop in Lincoln, Nebraska, and the Stephen Schwartz ASCAP Workshop in NYC. Their film GRIND starring Anthony Rapp and Claire Coffee received awards at the NYC Downtown Short Film Festival, SENE Film Festival, Honolulu Rainbow Film Festival, and FilmOut San Diego (among others). Album available on all platforms. Their song "Filling Space" received a single-song publishing contract with Ole in Nashville.