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“Bringing together creatives to perform musical theatre”.
Founded in Spring 2014, Night Project Theatre was established to bring together performers, directors and industry creatives to present musical theatre in intimate venues from either new portfolio or those undiscovered gems that
deserve a larger audience.
With the team that brought sell-out performances of I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change and Musical of Musicals (The Musical!) to the Blue Orange Theatre in 2011 and 2013, Night Project Theatre is delighted to be presenting Jason
Robert Brown’s Songs For A New World as its debut production.
Night Project Theatre works with both professional and amateur artists to produce small but beautifully formed theatre in a collaborative environment.
As an independent enterprise we rely on our audience to keep the ‘Project’ going, so thank you for your support. Please keep in touch by following us on Facebook or Twitter, we hope to be announcing exciting new productions for the
2015 season very soon.
A little bit about
www.Facebook.com/nightprojecttheatre
www.Twitter.com/nightproject_MT
19th - 22nd NOVEMBER 2014Music and Lyrics by Jason Robert Brown
A show that sits on the boundary between musical and song cycle, butit is neither; it is an abstract musical, a series of songs all connected by a theme:
“the moment of decision.”
Blue Orange Theatre118 Great Hampton Street, Birmingham, B18 6AD
www.blueorangetheatre.co.uk
Produced by Night Project TheatreMusically Directed by Chris Corcoran
FeaturingKirsty Minchella-Storer, Ian Page, Sarah Riches & Rob Thomas
Lighting Design and Sound by Elliot Smith
Blue Orange Artsin collaboration with the
Originally produced by the WPA Theater, NYC, 1995 (Kyle Renick, Artistic Director)Original orchestration by Brian Besterman and Jason Robert Brown.
This amateur production is presented by arrangement with Josef Weinberger Ltd. on behalf of Music Theatre International of New York.
Jason Robert Brown’s exquisitely crafted song cycle is brought alive by the Night Project Theatre Team. Whether you are transported to the deck of a 1492 Spanish sailing ship or on to a ledge 57 stories above
Fifth Avenue, be prepared to meet a startling array of characters.
“It’s about one moment. It’s about hitting the wall and having to make a choice, or take a stand, or turn around and go back.” JRB
One of the characters in Songs for a New World says “I don’t want to philosophise. I just want to tell a story.” That line describes Songs for a New World perfectly; in fact, the piece tells a whole collection of stories. It’s not a book musical – there is no over-arching plot and no consistent characters throughout the evening. It is a collection of independent scene-songs but it’s also more than that. In a 1998 review in St. Louis’ Riverfront Times, Mike Isaacson wrote, “Songs for a New World is that very rare beast: an abstract musical. There is no specific location other than the natural ambiguity of the human heart and mind.” And yet it has a very strong sense of unity about it. Even though many of these songs were actually written for other projects over the span of several years, this show feels like it was planned as a unified whole
from the beginning.
Every song is essentially about the same thing: those moments in life when everything seems perfect and then suddenly disaster strikes, in the form of the loss of a job, an unexpected pregnancy, the death of a loved one, the end of a marriage, imprisonment, even suicide. But it’s even more about surviving those moments. It’s about the way we regroup and figure out how to survive in a new set of circumstances – a new world – even against seemingly overwhelming odds. These are songs about that new world, a world in which the definitions of family, distance, money, technology, the very nature of human contact is changing every day, a world in which the rules don’t apply as often as they do, a world in which the solutions our parents found don’t work for us, and a world in which today’s answers probably won’t apply tomorrow. For someone who has lost his job or lost a spouse, our everyday world becomes just as
frightening, just as dangerous, just as uncharted as the New World was to Columbus.
You will meet people who find themselves in a new world. Some of them triumph in their new landscapes, some of them don’t. Some of them see their new worlds as dark and foreboding; others see them as a
chance for a new beginning. From a background and analysis by Scott Miller.
A little bit about “But then the earthquake hitsThe bank closes inThen you realise you didn’t know anything.
Nobody told you the best way to steerWhen the wind starts to blow.....”
Opening Sequence: The New World It’s about one momentOn The Deck Of A Spanish Sailing Ship, 1492 Nothing is more powerful than their faithJust One Step On the 57th floorI’m Not Afraid Of Anything He’s afraid to touch her, to love herThe River Won’t Flow He bent for a sip but the river ran dryTransition I
Stars And The Moon When dreams come trueShe Cries There’s a couple of things he’s learnedThe Steam Train The player who thinks what he could have been
Company
Rob & Company
Kirsty
Sarah
Company
Sarah
Kirsty
Ian
Rob & Company
The World Was Dancing Scared of happinessSurabaya-Santa The innevitable lament Christmas Lullaby An unexpected arrivalKing Of The World From bonds he dreamsI’d Give It All For You The second before I jumped I knew where I needed to beTransition II
The Flag maker, 1775 She fights through toil Flying Home Into the arms of GodFinal Transition Hear My Song
Ian & Company
Kirsty
Sarah
Rob
Ian & Sarah
Rob
Kirsty
Rob & Company
Company
Company
Act One Act TwoBy arrangement with Musicscope and Stage
Musicals Limited of New York
SMASHThe music and drama group of
Solihull Methodist Church
Presents the RSC version of
Wednesday - Saturday18th - 21st March 2015
Wednesday-Friday 7:30pmSaturday at 2:00pm and 7:00pm
DOVEHOUSE THEATRELangley Arts Centre, Olton, SolihullSMASH Box Office: 07506 206892
www.solihull-smash.org.uk
Ian is a regular Producer and Performer in the West Midlands. In addition to his work with Night Project Theatre Ian is also co-founder of QU Live, a project that gives a platform to writers of new Musical Theatre in the region. Ian has previously produced I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change and Musical of Musicals (The Musical!) also at the Blue Orange Theatre. On stage he has taken title roles in Sweeney Todd’, Jekyll and Hyde, Jesus Christ Superstar, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast (As the Beast!) and Count of Luxembourg. Most recently Ian sang the role of Sydney Carton in the English premier of Jill Santoriello’s A Tale of Two Cities.
Since winning a school talent show at the age of 8 to performing in the first ever school edition of Les Miserables in 2002 Kirsty has had a need to perform. She trained in performing arts at Stratford upon Avon College and later a musical theatre BA (Hons) at Arden School of Theatre. Straight from drama school Kirsty secured the role of Velma in a UK National Tour of Scooby-Doo. She show-cased music from the new musical Maggie May earlier this year at the QU Cabaret, and has most recently been seen as Lady Frances at Coombe Abbey’s 60’s 70’s 80’s Party Night, in Murder in the Blackout as Muriel Hepplewhite and creating the role of Gurda at the Bavarian [email protected]
Sarah is a singer/songwriter and vocal coach with Audiokings and Pocket Records’ and has worked with several theatrical companies across Birmingham.In 2005 she won the Noele Gordon Most Outstanding Female Performer BFAME Festival award for her role as Sally - Night School (Harold Pinter). Sarah trained in musical theatre performance at Birmingham School of Acting. She has played many principal roles including Debs-Boogie Nights, Jenny -Company, Kate/Lilli-Kiss Me Kate, Polly-Crazy For You, and Calamity-Calamity Jane. She particularly enjoyed playing multiple characters in the 2013 production of “Musical of Musicals (The Musical!)”
Rob has played over 30 principle roles in his career, his favourites have to be Jesus -Jesus Christ Superstar and Mickey-Blood Brothers.Rob has won a variety of awards in his career including The Most Highly Acclaimed Individual Performance at the Barclays Awards in London, for his portrayal of Tony-West Side Story, and the award for Best Actor in a Musical at the BFAME Awards for his portrayal of Kipps-Half a SixpenceRob turned professional in 1998 and worked up and down the country alongside acts such as Jane McDonald, Status Quo and Girls Aloud, to name but a few before retiring last year to tread the boards of his hometown once more.
Ian Page
Kirsty Minchella-Storer
Sarah Riches
Rob Thomas
Elliot has designed the lighting for more than 40 theatrical productions and has worked throughout the West Midlands both as a designer and technical assistant over the last five years. He has worked with particular groups such as SMASH, Centre Stage and SOS on regular occasions.
Most Recent work includes: Journey into Space (Dramarama); Peter Pan (SMASH); Cinderella the Panto (CS); GREASE! (HoE); Musicals-Rock III (RSC); Sitting Pretty (CS) as well as working as technician on Musical of Musicals (The Musical!) in 2013.
Chris’s musical experience started at age 14, playing piano for pantomime! He studied Music at Reading University, majoring in composition, and has played in multifarious bands (jazz, salsa, rock – etc!) across the UK, Europe, Canada and South Africa. A constant presence in Midland theatre ‘pits’ (playing so many shows he has lost track), he has led the band (and company) in award winning shows for Bournville, Stage Door,Arcadians, Applause, RJ/R&A Productions, Argosy, Youth-On Stage, Old Joint Stock, Birmingham Youth Theatre and of course, a series of musicals at Blue Orange Theatre.He is currently in the midst of rehearsing The Addams Family Musical with Knowle MS.Chris is delighted to be working again with Ian and Sarah from Musical Of Musicals (The Musical!) and welcomes Rob and Kirsty to the team. He is very excited to finally get toplay this show (having worn out his original CD!), with possibly one of the most ‘challenging’ piano parts in theatre; relishing the marvellous harmonic twists and turns.Rehearsals have been an absolute joy, thanks to the four marvellous voices you will shortly hear. Rarely does it happen that they match and complement each other so well in this fabulous music. Enjoy!
ElliotSmith
ChrisCorcoran
Bass Player - Adam Gilchrist Percussion Player - Lionel Sallis
9-14 MARCH 2015
0121 704 6962 www.solihullartscomplex.co.uk
TICKETS ON SALE NOW - CALL THE BOX OFFICE ON 0121 704 6962
0121 753 0777 | [email protected]
www.solusceramics.com
Tiles for a new world
Unit 1, Cole River Park
285 Warwick Road
Birmingham B11 2QX
