Family Musical Tusk to Have Staged Readings in Yonkers and Mamaroneck
By: BWW News Desk May. 18, 2005
The press release describes Tusk as "a universal story of humanity and survival told by a family of elephants taken from their home in the rain forest and forcibly turned into circus performers. The story is told by a company of actors who never become elephants, but humanize the elephants' story as they engage the audience's imagination."
Tusk, which is directed by Steven
Yuhasz, has a book by Steven Billings,
Norman Rea and Yuhasz. The music is by Bryon Sommers (with
additional music by David Salih & Craig Strang). Rea's lyrics are supplemented with those of Billings, who also wrote the original story.
"Tusk tells the story of what the two
young elephants go through growing up. It also deals with important issues faced by everyone today including
threats to the environment and animal protection" explained Rea.
Tusk began with a successful
workshop at Albany's Empire Center for the Performing Arts' (The Egg) 'New Works New
York' program in September, 2003. Tusk was then chosen to be one of eighteen new musicals
presented at the 2004 New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF). The musical was selected from 250
submissions by a jury of theatre luminaries including director Scott
Schwartz (Golda's Room, Wicked), producer Robyn Goodman (Bat Boy, Metamorphoses, Avenue Q), Tony Award winning director/choreographer Kathleen Marshall (Little Shop of Horrors, Wonderful Town) and director Gabriel Barre (Summer of 42, Camille Claudel). Subsequently, Tusk was named one of 'Best
of Festival Top Five Picks'.
To help generate regional productions of the shows (for producers who prefer children's shows to be based on books), the show's creators are now working with writer Janet Pepsin to
create a 'companion book' that can be used as a teaching tool as well as an
entertaining book by itself.
Actors will perform Tusk while holding scripts. While neither reservations or an admission payment is required, a $5 donation is recommended.
The Park Hill Racquet Club is located at 2 Glenbrook Ave., Yonkers, NY, while the Mamaroneck Library is at 135 Prospect
Ave. Mamaroneck, NY.
For more information and directions, visit www.innovativestages.com. For more information on Tusk, visit www.tuskthemusical.com.
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