Sheridan College’s Canadian Music Theatre Project has enjoyed tremendous success, launching new musicals that are being produced and further developed by leading theatres around the world. The Bachelor of Music Theatre Performance Class of 2016 is now half way through a five week workshop of four new musicals: Senza Luce by Drama Desk Award nominees Neil Bartram and Brian Hill, Atlantis by Australian Helpmann Award nominee Matthew Lee Robinson, 33 1/3 by Dora Award winners Paul Sportelli and Jay Turvey, and Leading Lady by Dora Award winner John Wimbs and Anthony Bastianon.
Forty-five minute readings of each musical will be presented during the second annual Canadian Music Theatre Project Festival, October 8-10, on the main stage at Sheridan College’s Trafalgar Campus in Oakville, Ontario.
The Canadian Music Theatre Project was launched in 2011 and is Canada’s first incubator for the development of new musical theatre works by Canadian and international composers, lyricists and book-writers and serves to create a permanent headquarters for the development of new musicals.
WHEN
October 8 and 9, 7PM
October 10, 1PM and 7PM
TICKETS
https://tickets.sheridancollege.ca
VENUE
Sheridan College, MainStage Theatre
1430 Trafalgar Road
Oakville, ON, L6H 2L1
SENZA LUCE
Music, Lyrics and Musical Direction: Neil Bartram
Book and Direction: Brian Hill
This musical fable tells the story of Senza Luce, a village deep in the mountains of Northern Italy. Hidden from the outside world and shadowed over by the towering peaks of the Italian Alps, the villagers of Senza Luce have lived in perpetual darkness for centuries, never knowing sunlight. When one forward thinking youth devises a brilliant way to bring light to their darkened lives, the village and its citizens are thrown into turmoil.
33 1/3
Book, Music and Lyrics: Jay Turvey and Paul Sportelli
Direction: Andrew Kushnir
Musical Direction: James Smith
33 1/3 is about lying on your bedroom floor in 1974 and listening to records. It’s about the LP as salvation. Jules, a closeted gay teenager and his best friend Jill escape the doldrums of high school in a small-town by listening to the music of Joni Mitchell and her contemporaries. Francis, a rebellious gay man enters their lives, his David Bowie albums tucked under his arm and everything changes. Jules’ father grapples with the coming-out of his son and Jill turns her attention to Victor, a delinquent drummer from a broken home, whom she is tutoring. After a violent New Year’s Eve, Jules makes a decision that changes all their lives. Everything changes, revolves, and evolves at the speed of dreams: 33 1/3.
ATLANTIS
Book, Music and Lyrics: Matthew Lee Robinson
Direction: Richard Ouzounian
Musical Direction: Lily Ling
Atlantis charts the seven days leading up to the destruction of the ancient mythological kingdom. As the heir apparent, Theo, prepares for his ascension to the nation’s governing body, the island’s first ever visitor, Maia, leads the citizens of Atlantis to question their most deeply held beliefs. Following a series of alarming ecological events, Theo takes it upon himself to prove Maia’s innocence, uncover the true meaning behind the island’s ancient mythology and save his people from imminent extinction.
LEADING LADY
Music and Musical Direction: Anthony Bastianon
Book and Lyrics: John Wimbs
Direction: Kelly Robinson
Leading Lady is set against the backdrop of the legend of the accidental making of The Black Crook in 1866 at Niblo’s Garden, the Radio City Music Hall of its time. A French ballet company, stranded in New York with nowhere to perform following a fire at the Academy of Music, joins forces with a failing production of a Faustian melodrama to create an extravagant, long-running musical spectacle that introduced the modern notion of the way audiences think of “Broadway” today. The story is centered on the rebirth of Sallie St. Clair, a once popular actress who transcends her own personal interests to stop the shutdown of a dysfunctional production by inspiring collaboration and innovation, delivering a history-making event. It is a story of transformation and survival, and the privilege of a life in the theatre.
TICKETS
https://tickets.sheridancollege.ca