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MAINE STATE MUSIC THEATRE NEWS
Maine State Music Theatre’s Executive Director, Steven Peterson, Joins National Committee to Select New Works for Musical Theatre Festival
Maine State Music Theatre’s Executive Director, Steven Peterson, has been named to the Festival for New Works Committee as part of the National Alliance for Musical Theatre’s annual effort to develop, present and promote new works of musical theatre. Peterson’s role is to evaluate recording and script submissions of new musicals and to help determine which new works are presented at the Alliance’s Festival of New Musicals held each fall in New York City.
Since 1989 the National Alliance for Musical Theatre (NAMT) has hosted the Festival of New Musicals, providing a forum for the Alliance’s 150 members to celebrate new musicals being produced and presented by creative and talented people across this country and beyond. Since its inception, the festival has introduced 237 new musicals and 493 new writers from around the world. More the 75% of new works presented at the festival go on to subsequent productions and tours and are printed in publishers’ catalogues and recorded on cast albums.
Peterson’s role on the Festival for New Works Committee is to listen to the hundreds of recordings and to read the accompanying twenty-page script submissions required by the committee to be considered for selection to present the work during the festival. That process continues until mid-March when the committee picks semi-finalists. Peterson then listens to the semi-finalists’ full recordings and reads the full scripts and helps determine the finalists who are given 50 minutes to present part of their work at the festival in front of industry professionals.
“This is an exciting initiative and a great way to encourage the growth and progression of this unique and much-loved art form,” states Peterson. “It’s illuminating to see new musicals. One thing becomes clear: writing a musical that truly hit’s its audience, is hard work. The New Works Festival continues to give us an early glimpse of developing shows that have the potential of ending up on our stage!”
Peterson’s commitment to the Festival for New Works Committee is two to three years. During that time his goals, as outlined by NAMT, are to identify new musicals that are diverse in ethnicity, subject matter, style and concept; to nurture composers, lyricists and book writers and spark new collaborations; and to stimulate networking opportunities between members of the National Alliance for Musical Theatre and other theatre professionals.
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Maine State Music Theatre’s THE WIZ Receives Three Regional Theatre Awards
Maine State Music Theatre is proud to announce that their 2011 production of THE WIZ that played at Pickard Theater in Brunswick last August has been honored with three awards from BroadwayWorld.com’s Regional Theatre Awards. THE WIZ received the awards for Best Choreographer for Mark Stuart, Best Musical Direction for Jason Wetzel and Best Ensemble in a Musical. The voting for the awards took place online by the theatre going public and the winners were announced on BroadwayWorld.com on January 10th.
THE WIZ also received nominations for Best Director for Donna Drake, Best Actress for LaQuet Sharnell who played Dorothy and Best Actor for Eric B. Anthony who played the Scarecrow. MSMT’s Lauren Weintraub and Charis Leos were also nominated for their performances as Annie and Miss Hannigan in MSMT’s 2011 production of ANNIE as well as director Marc Robin. Morgan Smith received a nomination for Best Actress for her hilarious and nerdy performance in MSMT’s season opener last summer THE MARVELOUS WONDERETTES, and MSMT’s XANADU was also nominated in the category of Best Ensemble.
Mark Stuart has choreographed other productions at MSMT over the past seasons including SWING!, JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR and GRAND HOTEL. His choreography in THE WIZ was lauded for its intensity and visual cohesiveness to the story. At one point a group of dancers morphed into a giant tornado, formed from intertwined bodies, and spun with precision uniform movements.
Jason Wetzel has served as musical director for several prior productions at MSMT including CHICAGO, DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS and ALL SHOOK UP. Wetzel is known for creating the prefect balance between the pit orchestra and the voices on stage, allowing each individual artist to shine yet maintaining the integrity of the music as intended by its composer(s).
The cast of THE WIZ included several Broadway veterans like Sharnell and Anthony as well as Bobby Daye, Gwen Stewart, E. Clayton Cornelious, Nikkieli DeMone and Gayle Turner. The ensemble also included great performances by Eric D. Jackson, David Glaspie, Manoly Farrell, Afra Hines, Bree Branker, Allison Semmes, Tamara Young, David Heard, Brittney Mack, David E. Foster, Rashaan James II, A.J. Davis and Jeremiah Haley.
The awards were for all theatres and musical theatre companies in the greater Boston region. Nominations were announced online last fall and the online voting continued until December 31st, 2011. The award categories were broken down between plays and musical theatre and the nominations were separated into the categories of large, medium and small theatres. MSMT was nominated in all categories for large musical theatre.
THE WIZ is an African American telling of the iconic story, “The Wizard of Oz.” It incorporates soul and gospel music as well as other elements of African American culture. Notable songs from the show include “Ease On Down The Road,” “Brand New Day,” and “Home.” The Tony Award-winning musical was inserted into American pop culture in the late 1970s largely because if its success on Broadway and because of the film adaptation starring Dianna Ross and Michael Jackson.
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Maine State Music Theatre Grateful for Foundation Support
Maine State Music Theatre is pleased to announce $43,900 in trust and foundation support that made the recently concluded 2011 season possible. Awards from the A.R. & Mary Louise Tandy Foundation, The Libra Foundation and the Denzler Charitable Trust helped support the theatre’s general operating costs. Funds from the Davis Family Foundation and Fisher Charitable Trust enabled the theatre to perform a much-needed upgrade to their sound system. Generous gifts from Davenport Trust and the Alfred M. Senter Fund made MSMT’s children’s programming possible in 2011. And, the theatre was again selected as a write-in to receive a grant from the Bangor Savings Bank Foundation.
As a non-profit arts and arts education organization, the Maine State Music Theatre is dependent on these types of financial awards, in addition to support from gracious individual donors and corporate sponsors, to make up the difference in the cost of operations not supported by ticket sales. Building impressive sets, costumes, designing lighting and sound, hiring professional actors and musicians with Broadway experience and bringing to Brunswick some of the best directors and choreographers in musical theatre is why MSMT is nationally known and respected. It is also costly to produce Broadway-quality musical theatre and to operate an extensive internship and apprenticeship program that trains the theatre professionals of tomorrow. That is why MSMT is so dependent on and grateful for the ongoing support of these trusts and foundations.
In an attempt to keep ticket prices affordable, the theatre actively seeks financial support from charitable organizations. Maine State Music Theatre is focused on keeping musical theatre accessible to everyone in Maine, regardless of income level. Support from local and national foundations, corporate sponsors and advertisers, as well as municipal and individual support, is integral to filling the budget gap created by keeping ticket prices low and limiting the theatre’s earned income. Therefor, all patrons of MSMT’s mainstage musicals, children’s musicals and special concert events benefit from the supportive relationship these organizations have with MSMT.
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