Kathleen Marshall Will Direct SHAME Musical, Based On The Scarlet Letter

Art Lab (Meg Fofonoff, Executive Producer) just announced the development of a new musical, shAme, written by Mark Governor, based on Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlett Letter. Tony Award Winner Kathleen Marshall is set to direct.

shAme will feature music direction by David O, casting by Jim Carnahan and general management by Nathan Gehan/5EE. Additional creative team members and a production schedule will be announced at a later date. Art Lab/Meg Fofonoff is producing and funding the development of the piece.

This original and evocative sung-through adaptation of The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic tale of Hester Pryne and the aftermath of her public punishment for sin, features an eclectic mix of contemporary music styles including rock, pop, folk, roots and soul. Although shAme remains true to the novel and takes place in the same time and Puritanical New England setting, the edgy costume and production design, inventive staging and diverse casting combined with the contemporary score connects the story to our current times, and the resonance to current events and the "Me Too" movement is strong and profoundly moving.

Mark Governor (Writer/Composer) is a composer for 20 feature films and documentaries, including "Pet Sematary 2","Notes From Underground", his collaboration with Iggy Pop on "The Brave"(directed by Johnny Depp) and the DVD special editions of "The Hobbit" and "Lord of the Rings" trilogies. Mark's songs and compositions have been featured in over 200 television series and specials including "The Daily Show", "Brooklyn 99", "Friends" ,"Spongebob Squarepants", "No Reservations", and in feature films "Nebraska", "Sweet November", "The Crash Pad", "Downsizing" . As a songwriter and record producer, he has worked with many artists including Billy Preston, Grant Lee Phillips, Concrete Blonde, Kristian Bush (Sugarland), Jade Jackson, Carmen Rizzo and Lolo. Mark's musical "shAme" has had productions in Los Angeles, Boston and Berlin, and his Latin themed dance theater work "Possession: The Legend of El Rojo" (an international collaboration) is currently in development. In 2017, Mark's live score to the cult silent film classic "The Unknown" opened the Carmel Film Festival. Mark has received commissions for ten dance pieces from Modern Dance companies in California, and he was the subject of a video documentary on his controversial anti-war dance composition, "Peace By Piece", which won an Emmy award in 1993. His collaboration with director / choreographer Janet Roston of "Gatsby Redux" premiered at Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles in 2018.

Kathleen Marshall (Director). Broadway credits include In Transit; Nice Work If You Can Get It; Anything Goes; The Pajama Game; Wonderful Town; Living on Love; Grease; Little Shop of Horrors; Follies; Seussical; Kiss Me, Kate; 1776; and Swinging on a Star. Select Off-Broadway and regional: Two Gentlemen of Verona (NYSF); Saturday Night (Second Stage); Love's Labor's Lost (Old Globe); My Paris (Long Wharf); Ever After (Paper Mill); Diner (Signature Theatre); The Unsinkable Molly Brown (Denver Center Theatre); The Band Wagon, I'm Getting My Act Together..., Bells are Ringing, Carnival and Babes in Arms (City Center Encores!). TV: "Once Upon a Mattress," "The Music Man" (Emmy nomination) and "2 Broke Girls." She has received three Tony Awards (out of nine nominations), three Drama Desk Awards, three Outer Critics Circle Awards, the Astaire Award, the George Abbott Award, the Smith College Medal (her alma mater) and the Pennsylvania Governor's Award for the Arts. She is a member of the Executive Board of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society.

Meg Fofonoff (Producer) Ms. Fofonoff founded and served as executive producer of Fiddlehead Theatre Company (FTC) from 1993-2016. FTC, a professional, award-winning entity, produced plays and musicals in Boston and beyond. FTC was also dedicated to serving Boston's surrounding communities by educating children of all abilities and backgrounds in the theater arts. Ms. Fofonoff helmed Fiddlehead's journey from its own 1927 vaudeville house to Boston's Strand Theatre and then finally to Boston's Shubert Theatre, where its production of Show Boat won the IRNE and Elliot Norton Awards for Best Musical. Ms. Fofonoff moved on to a new chapter establishing Art Lab, a producer of commercial theater as well as art/ theater/science events. Art Lab has produced several art/science theatrical events with the renowned Marine Biological Laboratories in Woods Hole, MA, and is a producer on the Tony Award-winning The Cher Show, Head Over Heels, Come From Away (London), It Happened in Key West (London), and the Broadway-bound Marie (directed and choreographed by Susan Stroman with music and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty). Art Lab's newest project is the development of shAme, a musical based on Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, where she plays the role of lead producer. Art Lab is a member of the Broadway League, The Drama League, and NAMT. Ms. Fofonoff is a member of The League of Professional Theatre Women, as well as a board member of The Drama League and the Marine Biological Laboratories.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride / WM Photos