30 DAYS OF NYMF: Day 17- Shelter

Book and Lyrics by Brittany Bullen
Music by Brittany Bullen and Newell Bullen

Hello, Latoya Rhodes here writing to you from the very hot desert of Salt Lake City, Utah! I am playing Jeanine in the cast of Shelter, and I'm thrilled to tell you about my show playing at the PTC Performance Space on July 26-29th.

Shelter is about a woman named Jeanine who is determined to be "part of the solution." She hopes to make a difference in the lives of the residents at a Philadelphia women's shelter. However, she is faced with the challenge of counseling those women who think that she is another counselor already looking to quit. Through these struggles and challenges, Jeanine confronts her own troubled past and realizes that although these women need her, she needs them more. It's a contemporary pop/rock musical filled with laughter, romance, tears, and above all hope!

Shelter is not a typical "happy" musical. I feel that Brittany and Newell Bullen took a different path with Shelter. It could have been a musical where the characters join hands to sing Kumbaya, realizing that we can solve all troubles by uniting as sisters!! However, the show is not that. Shelter says "Yes, bad things can happen to good people," and that not all issues can be solved by the end of a musical number.

I hope when the audience leaves the theater they will see the world a little differently when it comes to homelessness, or people who are struggling to live the "pursuit of happiness". I hope that they will see others as human beings, and that we all have a "resolution" we seek to accomplish in our lifetime. That HOPE, above all, "will make us free."

To buy tickets or to learn more about Shelter go to www.nymf.org/shelter or call 212-352-3101