Josh Felderstein with the support of the Kurt Vonnegut Trust presents an industry reading of Kurt Vonnegut's Between Time and Timbuktu. With book and lyrics by AnDrew Barrett and music by Ira Antelis and directed by Jeremy Dobrish Kurt Vonnegut's Between Time and Timbuktu will be performed at a by invitation only reading on January 14, 2010.
Characters and stories from
Kurt Vonnegut's best known works - Cats Cradle, Happy Birthday, Wanda June, and The Sirens of Titan (to name a few) have been adapted into an original musical about the power of imagination. It tells the daring story of a man who leaves his comfortable home to seek a life he never got to live.
The cast of the reading of
Kurt Vonnegut's Between Time and Timbuktu includes:
Sandy Binion (Jane Eyre),
Matt Cavenaugh (West Side Story, Grey Gardens),
Robert Cuccioli (Jekyll & Hyde),
Gregg Edelman (Wonderful Town, A Tale of Two Cities),
Will Erat (Godspell),
Anita Gillette (Mr. President, Tony® nominee for Chapter Two),
Brian Hissong (Meet Me In St. Louis),
Jamie LaVerdiere (The Producers), Cassady Leonard (Mary Poppins),
Gerry McIntyre (Once On This Island, Joseph),
William Parry (Gypsy, Sunday In The Park With George), and
Kate Shindle ( Legally Blonde, Cabaret, Miss America 1998.)
AnDrew Barrett (Book and Lyrics)
AnDrew Barrett is a native New Yorker who completed his MFA at the Iowa Playwrights Workshop. Subsequently, he was selected by
The Royal Court Theatre in London as the American playwright for their International Residence for Emerging Playwrights. His play and/or was presented in the New Works Now Festival at The Public Theater in New York. That play was selected as the winner of the
Frank Basille Emerging New Playwright Competition at The Phoenix Theater in Indianapolis, IN. Andrew's play Rainy Days & Mondays was a sold out hit in the 2006 New York International Fringe Festival.
As a librettist, his most recent musical written with his long-time composer/collaborator
Ira Antelis is The Confessions of Julian Po. It was produced by The Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and became a sold out, critical hit at the 2007 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. He garnered a nomination for Best Book for a Musical by the first ever Music Theatre Matters Awards at the Fringe. Previously, the musical was part of the National Alliance for Musical Theatre Festival of New Musicals and was developed at the ASCAP/Disney workshop. Prior to that, he wrote the libretto for In Sarajevo- a rock musical based on stories collected from young survivors of the Bosnia war. It had its world premiere in The Iowa New Play Festival.
Andrew has also worked in TV and film. He was on the writing staff for the Emmy and Golden Globe nominated Showtime series, "Sleeper Cell." Andrew is under contract to write the feature film on the early success of Nijinsky to be produced by
Kim Poster and Regent Films.
Ira Antelis (Music)
Ira Antelis has enjoyed 25 years of success as a composer and a music producer. He has written and produced songs for and worked with a wide array of artists such as
Marc Anthony,
Patti LaBelle,
B.B. King, Lifehouse,
Etta James,
Shawn Colvin, Cheap Trick, and many tribute records for the "House of Blues" label. He composed the music for Disney's 50th anniversary "Remember the Magic," and their millennium celebration "Celebrate the Future." That song was sung by
Enrique Iglesias and Christinia Aguilera at the Super Bowl.
Ira has written three stage musicals with his longtime collaborator
AnDrew Barrettincluding The Confessions of Julian Po and In Sarajevo. These works have been seen and lauded in New York, Chicago and Edinburgh, Scotland.
Jeremy Dobrish (Director)
OFF BROADWAY: JUDAS AND ME (NYMF), SPAIN (MCC), ELECTION DAY (Second Stage). REGIONAL: Barrington Stage, Goodspeed, Hangar, North Shore, NY Stage and Film, O'Neill, Village. Theatreworks USA: CURIOUS GEORGE (writer/director), and PAUL REVERE. FESTIVALS: Fringe, NYMF, SPF. Jeremy has served as an Artistic Associate at Second Stage, and was the Artistic Director of adobe theatre company for 13 years, for which he has written and/or directed over twenty plays. Jeremy's plays include NOTIONS IN MOTION, THE HANDLESS MAIDEN, BLINK OF AN EYE, SUPERPOWERS, ORPHEUS & EURYDICE (all adobe)and EIGHT DAYS (BACKWARDS) (Vineyard). He is on the faculty at the New York Film Academy, and lives in Maplewood with his wife Beth and daughters Clea and Quinn. www.jeremydobrish.com
Kurt Vonnegut
Writer, novelist. Born on November 11, 1922, in Indianapolis, Indiana. Kurt Vonnegut is considered one of the most influential American novelists of the twentieth century. He blended literature with science fiction and humor, the absurd with pointed social commentary. Vonnegut created his own unique world in each of his novels and filled them with unusual characters, such as the alien race known as the Tralfamadorians in Slaughterhouse-Five (1969). After studying at Cornell University from 1940 to 1942, Kurt Vonnegut enlisted the U.S. Army. He was sent by the army to what is now Carnegie Mellon University to study engineering in 1943. The next year, he served in Europe and fought in the Battle of the Bulge. After this battle, Vonnegut was captured and became a prisoner of war. He was in Dresden, Germany, during the Allied firebombing of the city, and saw the complete devastation caused by it. Vonnegut himself only escaped harm because he, along with other POWs, was working in an underground meat locker making vitamins. Soon after his return from the war, Kurt Vonnegut married his high school girlfriend, Jane Marie Cox. The couple had three children. He worked several jobs before his writing career took off, including newspaper reporter, teacher, and public relations employee for General Electric. The Vonneguts also adopted his sister's three children after her death in 1958. Kurt Vonnegut passed away in 2007.
Members of the industry who are interested in attending Kurt Vonnegut's Between Time and Timbuktu should RSVP to TimbuktuRSVP@wasserworld.com
Photo credit: Walter McBride
