Something exciting happened in Orange County this weekend – and the world of new musical theatre is all the better for it!
Over the weekend of Sept. 18-20, the UC/Irvine Department of Drama presented what is planned to be the first annual New Musical Theatre Festival, with two performances each of the new musicals Aging Out (book and lyrics by Tara Redepenning and Hillary Rollins, music by Darin Goulet) and E-$cape (book & lyrics by Scott Guy, music by Nick DeGregorio).
The Festival, under the helm of Artistic Director Gary Busby, is the result of a partnership between UC/Irvine and the Academy for New Musical Theatre in Los Angeles. The Academy’s professional bookwriters, lyricists, and composers are hard at work on a series of new musicals created specifically for the talents of the UC/Irvine students.
Eli Simon, Chair of UCI’s Drama Department, feels that this partnership is a win-win situation – the UCI students get a chance to create new roles that no one else has ever performed, and get an inside view of how a new musical is created – and the ANMT writers get developmental resources that are almost unheard of in the professional world.
Check out the pictures below – and then watch for one (or both!) of these shows to wind up as full productions in an upcoming UCI season! And keep an eye out for next year’s Festival.
The writing teams (Left: Aging Out; Right: E-$cape) in post-show talk-back sessions with the casts.
UCI Department Chair Eli Simon, ANMT Associate Artistic Director Elise Dewsberry and Executive Director Scott Guy, and UCI Festival Artistic Director Gary Busby
Author: Elise Dewsberry
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR Artistic Director of New Musicals Inc., Elise has been involved in the development of new works for over forty years: as an actor/singer, as a director, as a dramaturge, and as a writer. While living in Toronto, Elise served as the Assistant Artistic Director of the Muskoka Festival; the Co-Ordinator of the festival’s annual Musical Theatre Writer’s Colony, the Associate Dramaturge of the Canadian Stage Company; the Resident Dramaturge of the Smile Theatre Company; and was the co-founder of Toronto’s Script Lab. Elise spent many years touring Canada with Nine Months – a one-woman musical which she commissioned from writers Carl Ritchie and Stephen Woodjetts. Elise and Carl also co-wrote Any Body Home?, which was produced by the Cordova Bay Theatre in Victoria, British Columbia, and published by Dramatic Publishing. Elise joined ANMT as Associate Artistic Director in 2003; joined Founding Artistic Director John Sparks as Co-Artistic Director in 2010; and became Artistic Director of New Musicals Inc. in 2013. Elise is also the author and evaluator of the Book Lab and the Outlining Lab, offered online through www.writingmusicaltheatre.com, and publishes a monthly blog on the craft of musical theatre available at https://nmi.org/elises-video-blog/.