Connected, a benefit for 4X, will feature company members and several Broadway surprise guests performing the work of Brian Lowdermilk, Lance Horne and more on Sunday, June 19th and Monday, June 20th at 7 PM at The Arthur Seelen Theatre. The benefit evening is intended to support the work, future and fundraising efforts of the new theatre community to become a non-for-profit organization.
In the fall of 2004, actresses Jen Malenke and Johanna McKenzie-Miller launched the New York and Chicago chapters of 4X, "a new artistic initiative and theatre community that strives to nurture and support emerging artists in the city as they muddle through the ins and outs of a career in the theatre." The company describes their mission as wanting "to create a safe environment for artists by artists, to enhance their art without breaking the bank, to grow as a grounded community, to support each other's process, projects and passion and build lifelong relationships, to love the art, to base the business on friendship, to create a place where actors can network without schmoozing, talk about the business, and believe in themselves again."The group holds a free bi-monthly session Monday evenings (that consists of work-time, feed back and group discussions) where actors can work on audition material and/or develop new material. The formula has proved successful; one of 4X's members will make her Broadway debut in Jersey Boysin the fall, another recently booked the national tour of Little Women and another is assistant director of the new open Off-Broadway play, Flight.
Lowdermilk is an on-the-rise composer/lyricist whose shows include The Woman Upstairs, RED, The Unauthorized Biography of Samantha Brown and Battleship Ticonderoga. Horne was recently the vocal arranger for Little Women, was a contributing composer to Songs from an Unmade Bed at the New York Theater Workshop, and worked on the score of The Melting Pot's production of Flight, currently running Off-Broadway at the Lucille Lortel.The Arthur Seelen Theatre is located beneath the Drama Book Shop at 205 West 40th St. (Bet. 7th and 8th Ave.)Tickets, which are priced at $25, can be reserved by calling Smart Tix at 212-868-4444 or booking online at www.smarttix.com. A reception will follow the benefit.
