What would you pay for a miracle? The people of the small town of Painted Post, Massachusetts have got plenty of reasons to believe. It is 1945, and not only has the town lost many of its young men in the war, but now a vision of the Virgin Mary has appeared in the window above the sickbed of a comatose young girl. So what if the girl’s mother charges admission to pray at her bedside and witness the vision? And when the girl suddenly awakens after five years, she is pregnant. Could it be yet another miracle — or just one of her mother’s hoaxes?
This is the starting place for the new musical The Angel of Painted Post, which will kick off the 2011-12 Concert Reading Series for the Academy for New Musical Theatre.
With book by Adrian Bewley, music by Matthew Levine, and lyrics by Richard Castle, The Angel of Painted Post is filled with unconventional characters and universal themes of faith, religion and family. With songs including “Mama’s Little Angel”, “Hey, Mother Mary” and a wacky dream sequence called “The Gospel of Alma”, the piece speaks to the role of faith in a society that has been ravaged by war. Wouldn’t you want to believe in miracles?
This new musical began in ANMT’s Full-Length Curriculum last year, and then won one of only eight coveted spots at Stages Musical Theatre Festival 2011. The actors involved with the development of the piece last season included: Sarah Girard, Christiana Moffa, Will Collyer, Dan Stewart, Stephen Stewart, Dana Shaw, Dina Buglione, Renee Scott, Peter Varvel, Erika Whalen, Ben Ryan, and Jonathan Dinerstein as Music Director.
“This is a dark, provocative, exciting new musical featuring the voices of three very talented writers,” says Artistic Director Elise Dewsberry. “I’m particularly excited because I will be stepping into the complex role of the manipulative mother myself. Roles like this for ‘mature’ women don’t come along all that often, and I look forward to sinking my teeth into it!”
The ANMT Concert Series will continue on February 6, 2012 with Emerald, written by Chris Burgess and Denise Wright from London, England. Emerald won ANMT’s 4th Annual Search for New Musicals, and received a workshop with the Academy Repertory Company in April 2011. The Concert Series will feature a new draft, based on the work which the writers have done since the April workshop.
The concert reading of The Angel of Painted Post will take place on Monday, December 12 at 7:30pm at the Lonny Chapman Theatre on Burbank Blvd., and will feature members of the Academy Repertory Company including Noel Britton, Elise Dewsberry, Evelyn Halus, Christopher Maikish, Sari Rose Poll, Andrea Press, Tedd Szeto, Peter Welkin, and guest Sean Hankinson as “Ben”. ARC Music Director Ross Kalling will be at the piano. Tickets are $10.
ANMT is now accepting applications for the 2011-12 season on their famed Writers’ Workshop.
Check it out at our FREE Workshop Demo on Saturday, August 13th from 6:30 to 9:30pm at The Academy for New Musical Theatre, 5628 Vineland Avenue, North Hollywood.
This collaborative incubator teams different writers every month for specific writing opportunities and feedback sessions. Sessions meet one weekend per month from September through April - followed by the intensive 15 Minute Musical process in which writers create a new 15 minute musical in under a month, and ANMT produces the results.
Can’t make the Workshop Demo? Audit the first sessions in September: Saturday, September 17th from 10am to 2pm and/or Sunday, September 18th from 2pm to 6pm
Full details, schedule, fees, and testimonials available online.
For more info - and to reserve a spot - visit: http://www.anmt.org/workshop/ www.anmt.org academy@anmt.org
ANMT’s Musical Theatre Boot Camp is a summer series of workshops, lectures, and practicums designed to give participants a chance to work quickly over a concentrated six week period. It’s also a great place to check us out before committing to our full curriculum in the fall.
We have new classes starting until early August!
With Available Courses: MUSIC FOR LYRICISTS MAKE A SOCKO MARKETING VIDEO - WITH NO CAMERA! PREPARING YOUR SCORE in FINALE NOTATION HOW DOES A MUSICAL GET FINANCED? LEGAL PERILS, PITFALLS AND TRAPS CONQUER THE INTERNET/SOCIAL MEDIA ACTING THE SONG with Georgia Stitt
For More Information Visit: http://www.anmt.org/bootcamp.asp#
Course Fee: $495 (Early Bird/ANMT Member Fee: $495)
A concentrated version of the full Music Lab curriculum offered as part of ANMT’s Core Curriculum program, with a unit a week instead of a unit a month. (If you’re planning to take the Core program, this course will fulfill your Lab requirement).
Write and format your musical professionally.
Videos, tests, exercises and interactive assignments on the craft of composing for musical theatre, from Columbia College professor Philip Seward. Topics include: Setting a lyric Creating a Piano Arrangement Finding a rhythm in a lyric and using it to develop a melody Creating a lead sheet (chord symbols and melody) Working with a hook Key signatures & accidentals Driving melodically toward theclimax of the song Supporting the melody with a piano accompaniment When to modulate Composing Incidental Music Composing for the music theatre voice (head voice, chest voice, belt, legit, timbre) Formatting a Score: Dynamics, Expressive Markings, Pedaling, Rehearsal Marks, etc. Vamps; safeties; jump cue; out on Formatting voice parts Swing notation Integrating Script and Score
Only during the summer - this online Lab is available for the ANMT Member price of $495.
INSTRUCTOR INFO: Philip Seward lists among his operatic and musical works, NIMUE (premiered 2007 in Edinburgh, Scotland), DOWNTOWN (2007 at Stages Festival in Chicago), SINCERELY YOURS (2003), JUAN PERON’S HAND (2002) at the Northtown Arts Center; HIGH FIDELITY (1998) Chicago Humanities Festival and (1999) Merkin Hall in New York; SPREADING THE NEWS (1998) at North Park University; HANS BRINKER (1994) at Theatre Building Chicago which was also a recipient of several Jeff Citations and an After Dark Award; the youth operas AFRICAN STORIES (2007), A NOTEWORTHY TALE (2002) and STONE SOUP (2001) commissioned by Lyric Opera of Chicago; BLESSING (2003) for the Lira Chamber Chorus; and PSALM 8 (1997) commissioned by the Lyric Opera Chapters. He is currently an Artist-in-Residence at Columbia College Chicago, co-conductor of the Lira Ensemble of Chicago, music director at St. James Presbyterian Church in Chicago, and he has served both as a free-lance conductor and performer for many ensembles, musical shows and operas.
