Maltz Jupiter Theatre Highlights New Program With ACADEMY Reading

The Maltz Jupiter Theatre highlights its “We Create Art” season campaign with the Emerging Artist Series in Musical Theater Playwriting.  Funding for this new program was granted by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, from the Community Foundation of Palm Beach and Martin Counties, and the Roy A. Hunt Foundation.  Launching the new series will be Academy, which will be performed on Thursday, October 30, 2008 at 6:30pm.  This special “insider’s event” will allow audiences to witness a critical step in the writer’s process; “the reading” presented on stage.

Academy tells the story of a prestigious prep school, where two senior boys make a bet involving an unsuspecting naïve freshman.  But when they Faustian bargain goes too far, they realize their lives will never be the same again.  With a 40-piece youth orchestra under the direction of Palm Beach Music Center and a mass choir under the direction of Young Singers of the Palm Beaches, Academy is a hymn to the journey every boy must traverse from childhood to manhood.

Academy’s book, music and lyrics are written by John Mercurio.  With degrees from the Eastman School of Music and NYU, Mercurio was a member of the BMI Advanced Musical Theatre Workshop. As a recipient of awards from both the Jonathan Larson and the Gilman & Gonzalez-Falla Musical Theater Foundation for his work in musical theatre, Mercurio also had his musical, Myth, developed at the Eugene O’Neil National Music Theater Conference and received the Georgia Holof Award for lyric writing. 

Academy is directed by the Maltz Jupiter Theatre’s Artist Director, Andrew Kato. According to Kato, “This project gives the Maltz Jupiter Theatre an opportunity to work with an exciting writer as well as collaborating with two other Palm Beach County creative youth organizations.”

The Palm Beach Music Center, which is assembling the orchestra, is a community facility to inspire children who have a passion for sharing music.  This nurturing, safe location encompasses cultural diversity by joining musicians from different social economic backgrounds and varied nationalities throughout Palm Beach County.

Under the vocal direction of D. Shawn Berry, Artist Director of The Young Singers of the Palm Beaches, invitations were made to join the chorus for this reading.  The Young Singers of the Palm Beaches is Palm Beach County’s premiere community-based children’s choir.  They are a multi-racial, multi-cultural arts education organization based centrally in West Palm Beach at the Raymond F. Kravis Center for the Performing Arts.

For more information about the reading and the Emerging Artist Series in Musical Theater Playwriting, please call (561) 575-2223 or visit online at www.jupitertheatre.org.

The Maltz Jupiter Theatre is a professional not-for-profit regional theatre dedicated to the performing arts whose mission is to entertain, educate and inspire our community. The Theatre is a member of the prestigious League of Resident Theatres and is located east of U.S. Highway 1 at 1001 East Indiantown Road and State Road A1A in Jupiter.

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