Heidi Blickenstaff, Drew Gehling, Margo Seibert and More Set for Hammond & Gwon's STRING Readings This Week

BroadwayWorld has just learned that Sarah Hammond and Adam Gwon's STRING will receive readings this week at Playwrights Horizons.

The new musical STRING, winner of a 2015 Richard Rodgers Studio Production Award, administered by the American Academy of Arts and Letters, features book by Hammond (Green Girl, Pete the Cat) and music & lyrics by Gwon (Ordinary Days, Old Jews Telling Jokes). Directed by two-time Obie Award winner Lisa Peterson (The Patron Saint of Sea Monsters at PH; An Illiad, Light Shining in Buckingham), the four invitation-only readings will take place this week beginning Thursday, November 19 at Playwrights Horizons (416 West 42nd Street).

The cast for STRING will feature Heidi Blickenstaff ([title of show], the current Something Rotten), Dwelyan David ("Gotham"), Drew Gehling (Jersey Boys, the upcoming Waitress), Keisha Gilles (Dreamgirls national tour), Chasten Harmon (Hair, LES MISERABLES 25th Anniversary Tour), Mallory Hawks (Seussical), Khalid Rivera (The Capeman, Juan Darien), Margo Seibert (Rocky, "Boardwalk Empire"), Thom Sesma (Man of La Mancha, Miss Saigon) and Katie Thompson (Giant, Pump Boys & Dinettes). Musical direction is by Vadim Feichtner.

STRING is a modern-day twist on the story of the three Greek Fates who spin, measure and snip the string of our lives. When the oldest Fate (Ms. Blickenstaff) gets tangled up with a security guard (Mr. Gehling) in the basement of the tallest building in the world, one mistake leads to another (a lost pair of scissors, a kiss, a stolen string), and soon she's breaking her own rules to offer immortality to an ordinary man. Can the fabric of the universe stand a flaw?

ABOUT THE CREATIVE TEAM:

Sarah Hammond (Book) is a playwright and musical theatre writer. Her plays include Green Girl (SPF '08 at The Public), House on Stilts (South Coast Rep Commission), Kudzu (Trustus) and others. Sarah's musicals are String, Barefoot Persephone and Pete the Cat (Theatreworks USA). She has been honored to receive a seven-year New Dramatists residency, the Lippmann Family "New Frontier" Award, Actors Theatre of Louisville's Heideman Award, commissions from Broadway Across America and EST Sloan, and a residency at The Royal National Theatre in London. Her current musical projects are Wind-Up Girl (Ars Nova Uncharted) and Jenny Talks to Aliens (EST Sloan commission). MFAs: U. Iowa and NYU GMTWP.

Adam Gwon (Music and Lyrics). Off-Broadway: Ordinary Days (Roundabout Theatre); Old Jews Telling Jokes (Westside Theatre). Regional: Cloudlands (South Coast Repertory); Cake Off and The Boy Detective Fails (Signature Theatre); Bernice Bobs Her Hair (Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma). His songs have been performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, and more, by such luminaries as Audra McDonald, Kelli O'Hara and Brian d'Arcy James. Honors include the Kleban and Ebb awards, the Second Stage Theatre Donna Perret Rosen Award, the ASCAP Harold Adamson Award and the MAC John Wallowitch Award. Recordings include: Ordinary Days (Ghostlight Records), Audra McDonald's Go Back Home (Nonesuch), The Essential Liz Callaway (Working Girl Records) and Over the Moon: The Broadway Lullaby Album.

Lisa Peterson (Director). Playwrights Horizons: The Patron Saint of Sea Monsters. New York credits include King Liz (Second Stage); An Iliad, written with Denis O'Hare (NYTW, 2012 Obie, Lortel awards, Drama Desk nominations); Shipwrecked, Motherhood Out Loud (Primary Stages); End Days (EST); The Poor Itch (Public Theater); Tight Embrace (Intar); Birdy (Women's Project); The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek, Slavs! (Thinking About the Longstanding Problems of Virtue and Happiness), Traps, The Waves (Drama Desk nominations) and Light Shining in Buckingham by (Obie Award for Directing) (all at NYTW); The Fourth Sister, The Batting Cage (Vineyard); Collected Stories (MTC); The Chemistry of Change (Playwrights Horizons/WPP); Tongue of a Bird (Public); The Square (Public/Ma-Yi); The Model Apartment (Primary Stages); The Scarlet Letter (CSC); and Sueno (MCC). Lisa was the Resident Director at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles from 1995 to 2005 and Associate Director at La Jolla Playhouse from 1992-1995. Lisa has taught as an Adjunct Associate Professor at Columbia University, and taught at NYU/Playwrights Horizons and CalArts. She is a member of Ensemble Studio Theatre and serves on the executive board of the Society of Directors and Choreographers. She received a Bachelor of Arts from Yale College in 1983.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride / WM Photos