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Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Tony winner to work on new show here
Brian Yorkey, Tony Award-winning lyricist and author of the Broadway musical “Next To Normal,” will be working on his next show in Dayton.
Through its Musicals in Development program, The Human Race Theatre Company will host Yorkey and co-writers David Spangler and Jerry Taylor in a residency beginning in late September.
The show, “Play It By Heart,” is about a country music star battling her family and the changing music industry.
Human Race executive director Kevin Moore said the show has been produced previously, in Nashville. But members of the creative team have “moved on to other projects. This will be their first chance to get back together to work on the show, with hopes for a production in the near future.”
The Miriam Rosenthal Memorial Trust Fund is major sponsor for Musicals in Development. The Human Race has also received support from the Ohio Arts Council Arts Innovation Program and the Monarch Genesis Fund of The Dayton Foundation.
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Seed planted for new local theater
Former Dayton Playhouse executive director Adam Leigh is launching a new theater company along with his wife, Michelle Leigh.
The Seed Theatre Project will make its debut Nov. 6-7 with the local premiere of “Circumference of a Squirrel,” a one-man play by John Walch. Location will be the first floor of the Excelsior Building at 207 E. Sixth St. in the Oregon District.
Two other first-time local productions — “The Syringa Tree,” by Pamela Gien, and the musical “Floyd Collins,” by Tina Landau and Adam Guettel, will be part of the inaugural season. The fourth title will be the Henrik Ibsen classic “An Enemy of the People.”
Since stepping down at the Playhouse, Leigh, 29, has been working toward a master’s degree from Gonzaga University, has directed in the MAPP musical theater training program at Wright State University and taught theater at Stivers School for the Arts.
Seed grows out of two previous successful Leigh initiatives — Way Off Broadway at Wright State University and the Flip Side series at the Playhouse.
He will serve as executive artistic director. His wife, who is part of the technical and design staff at Town Hall Theatre in Washington Twp., will serve as director of operations/production manager. The couple lives in Kettering.
The new group’s mission will be to “utilize theater as a transformative agent” for individuals and the community, Leigh said.
For more information about the group, contact the directors at (937) 219-7835, adam@seedtheatreproject.org or michelle@seedtheatrreproject.org.
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