Photo Flash: New Line Theatre Presents YEAST NATION

New Line Theatre, "the bad boy of musical theatre," presents the area premiere of YEAST NATION: THE TRIUMPH OF LIFE, the world's first bio-historical musical, a comic political thriller with book and lyrics by Greg Kotis, and music and lyrics by Mark Hollmann, the subversive geniuses behind the award-winning Broadway musical Urinetown, running May 31-June 23, 2018 at the Marcelle Theater in the Grand Center Arts District.

So what is Yeast Nation? Exactly what it sounds like.

It is the year 3,000,458,000 BC. The Earth's surface is a molten mass of volcanic islands and undulating waves. The atmosphere is a choking fog lit by a dim red sun. And the mighty waters of the world are inhabited only by rocks, sand, salt, more rocks, a little silt, and the great society of salt-eating yeasts - yes, yeasts! - the world's very first life form!

These single-cell salt-eaters are the only living creatures on earth, and they're up against a food shortage, a strange new emotion called Love, and the oppression of a tyrannical yeast king. But when the king's son ventures out of the known yeastiverse, the yeasts' story - and ours - is changed forever.

The New York Times, said, "This is the rare satire that knows exactly what it's doing and commits to it." Variety wrote, "Ostensibly, it's about the world's earliest life forms, but it's really a riff on individual human aspiration, love, and theatrical storytelling. While it's an easily recognizable sibling to Urinetown, this show possesses enough uniqueness and consistent cleverness to forge its own path."

The cast of New Line Theatre’s Yeast Nation includes Sarah Dowling (Jan-the-Unnamed), Zachary Allen Farmer (Jan-the-Elder), Larissa White (Jan-the-Sweet), Dominic Dowdy-Windsor (Jan-the Second-Oldest), Grace Langford (Jan-the-Sly), Micheal Lowe (Jan-the-Wise), Keith Thompson (Jan-the-Wretched), Jennelle Gilreath (Jan-the-Famished), Lex Ronan (The New One), Colin Dowd (Jan-the-Youngest), Evan Fornachon, Brittany Kohl Hester, Eleanor Humphrey, and Bradley Rohlf. The show will be directed by Scott Miller and Mike Dowdy-Windsor, with new orchestrations by John Gerdes, music direction by Sarah Nelson, scenic and lighting design by Rob Lippert, costume design by Sarah Porter, and sound design by Ryan Day.

Yeast Nation has been produced at the Perseverance Theatre in Juneau, Alaska, in 2007; at the American Theater Company in Chicago in 2009; at the New York International Fringe Festival in 2011; with Home School Productions in Brooklyn in 2013; at the Ray of Light Theatre in San Francisco in 2014; at Lebanon High School in New Hampshire in 2017; and at the Good Company in Freiburg, Germany in March of this year. The team has continued working on the show.

Metro East native Mark Hollmann grew up in Fairview Heights Illinois, where he graduated from Belleville Township High School East in 1981.

New Line Artistic director Scott Miller saw Urinetown in November 2001, right after it moved to Broadway. He says, "It blew my mind. From the very first song, I felt like someone had written a musicaljust for me." New Line produced Urinetown in 2007. Miller says, "As soon as I read the Yeast Nation script and heard the songs, I knew we had to work on this. It's crazy amounts of fun."

ABOUT NEW LINE THEATRE

New Line Theatre is a professional company dedicated to involving the people of the St. Louis region in the exploration and creation of daring, provocative, socially and politically relevant works of musical theatre. New Line was created back in 1991 at the vanguard of a new wave of nonprofit musical theatre just starting to take hold across the country.

New Line has given birth to several world premiere musicals over the years and has brought back to life several shows that were not well served by their original New York productions.

Altogether, New Line has produced 84 musicals since 1991, and the company has been given its own entry in the Cambridge Guide to American Theatre and the annual Theater World. New Line receives funding from the Regional Arts Commission and the Missouri Arts Council, a state agency.

For other information, visit New Line Theatre's full-service website at www.newlinetheatre.com. All programs are subject to change. New Line's 28th season will include the world premiere of The Zombies of Penzance, La Cage aux Folles, and the new rock musical Be More Chill.

Photo credit: Jill Ritter Lindberg.

Sarah Gene Dowling

Micheal Lowe

The Company of YEAST NATION

Larissa White, Dominic Dowdy-Windsor

Dominic Dowdy-Windsor

Jennelle Gilreath

Grace Langford, Jennelle Gilreath

Zachary Allen Farmer, Dominic Dowdy-Windsor (in back), Micheal Lowe

Larissa White, Dominic Dowdy-Windsor

Grace Langford

Sarah Gene Dowling

Micheal Lowe

Micheal Lowe, Larissa White

Zachary Allen Farmer, Dominic Dowdy-Windsor, Grace Langford

Zachary Allen Farmer, Dominic Dowdy-Windsor

Sarah Gene Dowling

The Company of Yeast Nation

 

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