FICTION IN PHOTOGRAPHS to Offer 3 Free Presentations at New World Stages

Janet Brenner and Michael Coco will present Fiction in Photographs, a new musical featuring the music and lyrics of Dan Mills, conceived and directed by Randy Redd, and featuring the photography of Sasha Israel.  Three free presentations, open to the public, will be offered at the New World Stages/Stage 1 (340 West 50^th Street, between 8^th and 9^th Avenues) on Wednesday October 10^th (4pm), Thursday October 11^th (7pm) and Friday October 12^th (7pm).

Fiction in Photographs tells the story of five strangers who find themselves intimately connected when their personal lives are put on public display in a Brooklyn art gallery.  Randy Redd directs a cast that features Sosie Bacon, Cole Burden (Les Miserables), Adam Halpin (Dogfight, Rent), David Mizzoni, and Lauren Pritchard (Spring Awakening). Adam Podd will serve as musical director and Emily Maltby will provide musical staging. 

“While Dan and I were working at Million Dollar Quartet on Broadway I had this idea to take his stunning songs and create an original musical based on his dynamic words and music. In July we presented Fiction In Photographs - In Concert as a benefit for New York-based Sing For Hope. The sold out, spellbound crowd at Tribeca's 92Y and standing ovation fueled our fire. Dan and I are hard at work fine-tuning the show, creating a brand new exciting contemporary musical theater score,” said director and conceiver Randy Redd.  Dan Mills adds, “I never really know where a song is going to end up in the world if it ends up out there at all. So, seeing my music travel from pen & paper to the theater is something that is very exciting for me. Fiction In Photographs has transformed these tunes into something I could have never imagined, and it's surprised me how a collaborative vision can grow into an amazing piece of art.”

Dan Mills is a singer-songwriter, guitarist and actor from Brooklyn. Mills’ eponymous has released 3 full-length albums. As an actor, Dan portrayed Carl Perkins in the Broadway and Off-Broadway casts of Million Dollar Quartet and was featured with his band on NBC's “Smash.” www.danmills.net

Randy Redd made his Broadway debut in Parade and recently appeared as Jerry Lee Lewis in the hit musical Million Dollar Quartet as well as the original casts of The Burnt Part Boys, Some Men, Smoke On The Mountain and Ring Of Fire. He collaborated with David Pittu on the critically acclaimed What's That Smell: The Music Of Jacob Sterling at the Atlantic Theater Company and New World Stages. He has worked as an actor, director and musical director at Manhattan Theater Club, Lincoln Center Theater, Second Stage, the Kennedy Center, Goodspeed, the Geffen Playhouse, the York Theater, the Repertory Theater of St. Louis, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, NY Musical Theater Festival and Abrons Arts Center. Film and TV credits include Beautiful Creatures directed by Richard LaGravenese (2013); After The Storm (winner - Audience Award, Woodstock Film Festival), directed by Hilla Medalia;Kinsey, directed by Bill Condon; and the Tony Awards.

Sasha Israel is a freelance photographer from Phoenix, Arizona. She studied film and photography at Ithaca College and currently is a Brooklyn-based photojournalistic photographer. Her work can be viewed at www.sashaisraelphotography.com

Sosie Bacon is currently a student at Brown University; she's also studied at CAP21. Her credits include the film Loverboyand “The Closer” on TNT.

Cole Burden is back in NYC after a busy year and a half on tour with the 25th Anniversary production of Les Miserables, playing Warner in Legally Blonde at Marriott Lincolnshire, and shooting the film Beautiful Creatures for Alcon Entertainment. Other theatre credits include City Center Encores! Applause, Bonnie and Clyde, Warrior and the Piper (NYMF), Grey Gardens with Hollis Resnick (Philadelphia Theatre Company), Les Miserables (Houston Theater Under the Stars), Evita (Mason Street Warehouse), Red Eye Of Love, Becoming Tennessee (Eugene O’Neill Theater Center). Readings: Yank! directed by David Cromer, Walker and Ewalt’sBromance, Nona Hendryx’s Skindiver. Concert appearances: Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty’s The Human Heart, We Are The Song: After The Storm (Joe’s Pub), “ABC Daytime Salutes Broadway Cares,” The Actors Fund’s Nothing Like A Dame. TV: “As The World Turns,” “30 Rock.” Attended Baldwin-Wallace Conservatory of Music.  www.coleburden.com

Adam Halpin was last seen in Dogfight at Second Stage Theatre. He made his Broadway debut in Glory Days (OBCR on Ghostlight Records) and was in the 2009 Broadway tour of Rent (Gordon) with Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp and also the recent production of Rent Off-Broadway. Other NY credits include workshops/readings of Dogfight, Irma La Douce, Awesomer & Awesomer, White Noise, and three productions with the New York Musical Theatre Festival. Regionally, Adam has been seen at North Shore Music Theatre, Signature Theatre (VA) and Pittsburgh CLO, among others, and is also on the cast recording of A Little Princess (Ghostlight Records).  

David Mizzoni is making his New York debut in Fiction in Photographs. He graduated in May from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, at which he spent four years in the CAP21 Conservatory. In his time there he worked with Tony nominated director Elizabeth Swados, Michael McElroy, and Jerry Dixon on a variety of projects from Sweet Charity to Two Gentlemen of Verona. www.davidmizzoni.com

Lauren Pritchard has been a part of the NYC theater community since 2006 after taking an audition for Spring Awakening in Los Angeles and landing the female supporting role in the show when she was 17, originating the role of Ilse at the Atlantic Theater Company and on Broadway. After the 3 year run finished Lauren moved to London to record her debut album “Wasted in Jackson” for Island Records with Ivor Novello-winning writer/producer Francis "Eg" White. She spent 2 years touring her debut album throughout the UK, Europe, the US and appeared as a guest on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” and “The Conan O'Brien Show.” Lauren returned to Los Angeles in the fall of 2011 to begin working on her second album “Weapon for Saturday" with producer Mark Batson that will be released in the spring of 2013 for Island/Def Jam Records. Lauren has been a part of all of the previous workshops of Fiction in Photographs.

As a director and choreographer, Emily Maltby’s credits include Eastland (Lookingglass Theatre Co.), Call My Name (Smithsonian Folklife Festival), I Am Bradley Manning (Depaul University), Ragtime, and 42nd Street (Northwestern University). She has also worked with the Signature Center, CAP21, Stage Entertainment, and Goodspeed Musicals, among others. Associate member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers and proud graduate of Northwestern University. 

Janet Brenner is an award-winning producer and writer.  With Daryl Roth, Janet produced the original Off-Broadway production of Maltby and Shire’s Closer Than Ever, for which she won the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Production, MAC Award, among others.  She recently produced a gala concert honoring Jason Robert Brown and Georgia Stitt starring Kelli O’Hara and Brian D’Arcy James.  She co-founded Theatre on the Green in Washington, CT, and produced theatrical events starring Stephen Sondheim, Alfred Uhry, James Earl Jones, James Lapine, George Grizzard, Mia Farrow, and Conan O’Brien.  Janet conceived and wrote The ‘60s Project, a new musical, which received productions at CAP21, Trinity Rep, and Goodspeed Musicals.   For three years, Janet served as Assistant and Acting Director of the Opera-Musical Theater Program at the National Endowment for the Arts.  She is a member of the Mentor Program for the Writer’s Guild of America, East, and was appointed President of Young Playwrights, Inc, founded by Stephen Sondheim.  

Michael Coco is the Managing Director at New World Stages, where he previously served as Director of Programming for five years.  For Stage Entertainment, he recently produced the developmental reading of a stage musical version of Anastasia by Lynn Ahrens, Stephen Flaherty, and Terrence McNally, as well as Jackie Hoffman’s A Chanukah Charol. 

To reserve a ticket, please email rsvp@newworldstages.com or call 646-439-2083.

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