New Jazz Musical FOR THE LAST TIME to Receive Industry Reading This Week

FOR THE LAST TIME is a new jazz musical by celebrated writer/composer Nancy Harrow (Maya The Bee, This Side of Paradise), directed by Will Pomerantz (The Blue Flower) with music direction by Cody Owen Stine, will get an invite-only industry reading on March 13, 2015.

In 1950's New Orleans, four young artists create an Eden of music and art. But the past forces its way into their lives, and an act of passion changes everything. FOR THE LAST TIME is inspired by Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel, The Marble Faun.

Cast for the reading includes: Brittany Campbell (The Civil War), Kim Exum, Jason Samuel (The Wedding Singer), Britton Smith (After Midnight), Anita Welch (Bubble Boy), Reggie D. White, Curtis Wiley (Jersey Boys, Pageant)

NANCY HARROW (playwright/ composer) is an American jazz singer and songwriter. Harrow studied classical piano from age seven, then decided to pursue careers in dancing and singing. She released an album for Candid Records in 1960 (featuring Kenny Burrell, Buck Clayton, Dickie Wells, and Milt Hinton) and one for Atlantic Records in 1962 (featuring John Lewis, Dick Katz, Phil Woods, Jim Hall, Richard Davis, and Connie Kay), then left music to raise a family, returning to a career in music in 1975. Since then she has worked with Katz and Woods again, Clark Terry, Roland Hanna, and Bob Brookmeyer, among others. She has recorded 16 albums, five of them her own inventions (music and lyrics) based on literary subjects-a Willa Cather novel (Lost Lady), a novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne (The Marble Faun), and songs based on the life of F. Scott Fitzgerald (Winter Dreams). The Winter Dreams CD formed the nucleus of This Side of Paradise, a new musical about Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald which ran for 6 weeks in NYC in 2010 at the Theatre at St. Clements. A second production opened April 20, 2013 at the History Theatre in St. Paul, Minnesota and ran until May 19. Two of Harrow's song cycles were based on children's stories: The Adventures of Maya the Bee, by Waldemar Bonsels, ran as a puppet show in NYC for seven years and was translated into Japanese and toured ten cities in Japan for two years; Maya the Bee reopened at the Culture Project in NYC September 29, running until mid-May, 2013. The Cat Who Went to Heaven, based on a story by Elizabeth Coatsworth, had short runs in NYC at the Mercer Street Theater, the Asia Society, and the Harlem School of the Arts. It had 11 performances at the Kennedy Center in the spring of 2011, and will be performed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) from April 8-April 13, 2014.

WILL POMERANTZ (director) has directed and developed new plays and musicals with such theatres American Repertory Theatre, 2nd Stage, The Guthrie, Playwrights Horizons, The Public Theatre, Hartford Stage, New York Theater Workshop, The Signature Theatre, Ensemble Studio Theater, Soho Rep, Culture Project, The Williamstown Theatre Festival, The Studio Theatre, Epic Theatre Ensemble and The Mark Taper Forum. He has directed world premieres by such playwrights as John Guare, David Auburn, Neil LaBute, Craig Lucas, Kia Corthron, David Lindsay-Abaire, Stephen Belber, Noah Haidle, Linda Cho, Kira Obolensky, Russell Davis and Carey Perloff . In addition to his work on new plays, Will has also directed texts by Chekhov, Ibsen, Strindberg, Shakespeare, Shaw and Sophocles.

His production of The Blue Flower, swept all the major awards in the Boston Area, winning both the Elliot Norton and the Independent Reviewers of New England (I.R.N.E.) Awards for Outstanding Production, Outstanding Design, Best Musical of the Year, as well as multiple Best Performance Awards. The New York production, produced by 2nd Stage was listed as one of the 10 Best Productions of the Year by Bloomberg ("The best musical since Spring Awakening"), and was nominated for a Lucille Lortel Award for Best Musical.

His production of The Shape of Things was voted Outstanding Production of the year in Washington, DC and received a Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Performance, as well as being cited as among the year's 10 best by The Washington Post and The Washington Times.

His production of Dai received a Drama Desk nomination for Best Solo Performance and was awarded a Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Solo Performance. He received an OOBR Award for Outstanding Production (for A Tale of Two Cities) and his work has been cited multiple times as Critic's Pick (TimeOutNY) and Voice Choice (The Village Voice).

Will Pomerantz was Director-In-Residence for Culture Project for 6 seasons. Past productions for the company include Tatjana in Color by Julia Jordan, Spring Awakening by Frank Wedekind, Prater Violet (based on the novel by Christopher Isherwood), The 5:48 (based on the short story by John Cheever), A Tale of Two Cities (based on the novel by Charles Dickens), and Social Note: An Evening with Dorothy Parker (staged in the Algonquin Hotel). Will was Associate Director for Culture Poject's U.S. premiere production of Guantanamo: Honor Bound to Defend Freedom.

Will Pomerantz is the first American director ever invited to direct for the National Theatre of Poland, and his production of Cinders by Janusz Glowacki performed as part of their repertory for 4 years. In addition, Will has been the Boris Sagal Fellow in Directing for Williamstown Theatre Festival, Staff Repertory Director for The Acting Company, is an alumnus of the Directors Lab at Lincoln Center, a Usual Suspect at New York Theatre Workshop, and a member of Ensemble Studio Theater.

He has been a guest artist for The Juilliard School (5 seasons), The National Theatre Conservatory at The Denver Center, Bard Summerscape, Purchase College Conservatory Program, The Atlantic Theatre Company School, and Cornell University.

Will is currently Associate Director of Artistic Development for Epic Theatre Ensemble and Associate Artistic Director of Bay Street Theatre.