LONG SEASON Reading Held Roy Arias Studio: Studio IV 9/16

The new musical Long Season by Chay Yew and Fabian Obispo will be read Thursday, September 16 at 12pm as part of the Huntington Theatre Company's Breaking Ground reading series. The reading, located at the Roy Arias Studio, is free and open to the public, though reservations are required as seating is extremely limited.

A musical set against the raw beauty of 1920s Alaska, Chay Yew and Fabian Obispo's Long Season follows a pivotal year in the life of a young pinoy, Allos, one of the migrant workers drawn by the promise of a new land. At a factory in Ketchikan, Allos fights to gain the respect of the foreman, the faith of the other workers, and the heart of the foreman's wife. As it captures the fledgling ambition and heart of a group of unionizing workers, Long Season becomes the dangerous, passionate story of a Filipino immigrant in an unforgiving land.

Huntington Artistic Director Peter DuBois commissioned Long Season by writer Chay Yew and composer Fabian Obispo while artistic director of Perseverance Theatre in Juneau, AK. With DuBois as director, the three subsequently developed the piece through workshops at The Public Theater (NY), the George Street Playhouse (NJ), and the Huntington Theatre Company (with support from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation).

Yew is an acclaimed playwright as well as theatre and opera director and helmed the Huntington's 2008 production of Boleros for the Disenchanted. Obispo, composer and sound designer of Boleros, has contributed music to numerous Off Broadway and regional theatre productions.

The cast is led by Broadway performer Telly Leung (Rent, Flower Drum Song, and Pacific Overtures on Broadway), features Jose Llana (The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and Flower Drum Song on Broadway) and Theresa McCarthy (Titanic on Broadway; Saturn Returns and Floyd Collins Off Broadway), and includes Billy Bustamante, Francis Jue, Mel Sargrado Maghuyop, Orville Mendoza, Paolo Montalban, Emily Morales, Nicky Paraiso, George E. Salazar, Chris-Ian Sanchez, and Rodney To.

The Huntington's strong commitment to the development of new plays is supported by the Stanford Calderwood Fund for New American Plays and the Harry Kondoleon Fund, which underwrites the commissioning of emerging and established writers, the Breaking Ground series of new play readings, and full productions of new plays.

Breaking Ground is the Huntington Theatre Company's reading series, a vital part of our new play development program. This series promotes local playwrights and brings national writers into partnership with the Huntington.

Past Breaking Ground plays, including The Atheist by Ronan Noone, Voyeurs de Venus by Lydia R. Diamond, Mauritius by Theresa Rebeck, The Ice Breaker by David Rambo, and Sonia Flew by Melinda Lopez, have appeared at the Huntington and other local theatres, at theatres across the country, and internationally.

"The Huntington has a long established commitment to nurturing playwrights and to developing plays for production," says Director of New Work Lisa Timmel. "The Breaking Ground series is designed to be responsive to the process of the individual creators; we provide work-space, dramaturgical feedback and public hearing of playwrights' work when they need it most. Chay and Fabian took inspiration from the untold story of the countless pinoys that helped build Alaska, and their unshakeable commitment to bringing that story to life is at the heart of this project. Witnessing the astounding growth of this musical over the past two years, their work has been heroic."

The Long Season reading is free and open to the public, though seating is extremely limited. RSVP at huntingtontheatre.org/readings.

Learn more about the Huntington's new work initiatives at huntingtontheatre.org/newwork.

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