VERY VERY Shakespeare Rock Show Gets Two Concert Readings at Gibson-Baldwin Showroom, 3/4

Brooklyn artists Jay Leibowitz (STNJ, TAC, Shakespeare's Who's on First), and Zac Lasher (U-Melt, Brooklyn Sound Lab, Bebe Buell Band), will take the stage with their company of 18 professional performers and musicians in two live concert readings of VERY VERY - an exciting new vision of Shakespeare's As You Like It, re-imagined as a contemporary rock concert, on March 4, 2013. The show, which will get its world premiere in NYC later in 2013, will be presented at The Gibson-Baldwin Showroom and is sponsored by Gibson NYC. Jason King Jones (Olney Theatre, STNJ, TAC), will stage the exclusive event.

Created by Lasher, Leibowitz, and Jones, VERY VERY features 28 original songs adapted from Shakespeare's text in this sexy reinvention of a classic comedy of rebellion, love, freedom, and redemption.

The Gibson-Baldwin Showroom is located at 421 West 54th Street.

Members of the Industry who wish to reserve a seat at the free event can do so easily at VeryVeryRockShow.com. Alternatively, email reservations@veryveryrockshow.com or call (917) 364-3050.

An ambitious and exciting new work, VERY VERY tells the story of Rosalind and Orlando, two young lovers who flee the tyranny of home only to reunite in a sexually charged and confusingly passionate exile. Songs feature a modern rock vocabulary from various genres blended together in Zac Lasher's unique compositional style and Jay Leibowitz's lyrics, which cleverly deconstruct Shakespeare's original text. Quick scenes written in plain and playful stage banter bridge the moments between the music.

VERY VERY has been in development since April of 2012 and will receive its world premiere in NYC later in 2013. Two live concert readings of the show featuring a talented company of 18 musical artists will be held on March 4th, 2013 at the Gibson-Baldwin Showroom in midtown Manhattan.

Jay Leibowitz has been a favorite of The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey since 1999 and has performed in critically acclaimed productions of The Comedy of Errors, The Tempest, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged), Othello, Around The World In Eighty Days, The Grapes of Wrath, Enrico IV, Pericles, Hamlet, Measure for Measure, Romeo and Juliet, That Scoundrel Scapin, A MidWinter Night's Dream, Grapes of Wrath, and Life of Galileo, for which he composed and performed original music. Jay is also a veteran of The Acting Company's 2008 US Tour of The Tempest and Orson Welles' Moby Dick (Rehearsed). Jay directed the 2006 award-winning short film, Coulrophobia, and he is the primary author of Who Doth Inhabit the Primary Position? a YouTube famous sketch also known as Shakespeare's Who's On First, available through Playscripts.com. Jay's first independent solo rock album, Pedestrian Life, was produced by Brooklyn Sound Lab and released in April 2012. Songs from that record were featured in the indie film hit, One Fall, from Compass Entertainment. Jay studied with world-renowned classical voice coach, Kristin Linklater, at Emerson College, where he earned his BFA in Performing Arts.

ZAC LASHER toured the nation from 2003 - 2010 as the keyboardist, lead singer, and principle songwriter for the progressive rock band U-Melt. They released three full-length albums, The Unbelievable Meltdown (2004), The I's Mind (2006), and Perfect World (2009, Harmonized Records), and performed hundreds of shows at premiere music venues and festivals around the country. Since disbanding the group, Zac has functioned as a session player, sideman, producer, arranger, composer, and ghost writer, lending his trademark style to many different projects and artists in New York City. In 2010, he composed the score to the short film A Feline Between Love and Hate, winner of the 48 Hour Film Festival (NYC). Also that year, Zac was tapped by rocker, best-selling author, and celebrity mom, Bebe Buell, to man the keys for her live band and to perform on her latest release, Hard Love (2011, Niji Records). Most recently he has been seen backing up Emin, a Russian pop sensation who's single "Baby Get Higher" is climbing the Billboard charts. Zac earned his BFA from Emerson College, where he studied music and performing arts

JASON KING JONES is currently the Director of Education at the Olney Theatre in Olney, MD, and the Director of The National Players. He's an Artistic Associate at The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, where he has directed critically acclaimed productions of The Comedy of Errors, The Servant of Two Masters, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged), The Merry Wives of Windsor, and The Grouch. Also, Of Mice and Men (National Players); A Number (Whistler in the Dark); Murdering Marlowe (In Actu Theatre); Twelfth Night (Shakespeare Center Los Angeles); The Women of Lockerbie and The Good Daughter (NJ REP); Lysistrata and True West (Michael Chekhov Theatre); A Doctor's Visit (Vital Theatre); The Rainmaker and The Brothers Karamazov (12 Miles West); Antony & Cleopatra (Expanded Arts); and Master Harold ... and the boys (Public Theatre of Kentucky). As a Guest Artist, Jason has directed The Rivals (UAB), Pride and Prejudice (Fairleigh Dickinson), Women of Troy (Purdue), The Caucasian Chalk Circle and A Midsummer Night's Dream (Nebraska Wesleyan). He has taught courses at Boston University, New York's TVI Actor's Studio, Fairleigh Dickinson University, and Missouri State. Jason was the 2004 and 2007 Staff Repertory Director with The Acting Company, and he is a proud graduate of Boston University School of Theatre.

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