New Musical ACAPPELLA to Play NYMF

The New York Musical Theatre Festival and Grep Cooper Productions, LLC LLC have announced that Virginia Woodruff (Violet, Leap of Faith, The Color Purple, All Shook Up, Smokey Joe's Cafe), Cheryl A. Freeman (The Who's Tommy , Disney's Hercules), Tyler Hardwick , Anthony Chatmon II , Miche Braden and Darilyn Castillo have joined the cast of ACAPPELLA. Rounding out the company are Katrina R. Dideriksen, Gavyn Pickens, Emily Goglia, Rachel Gavaletz, Janelle McDermoth, Darryl Williams, Alex Koceja and Garrett Turner.

ACAPPELLA, a musical about finding your own voice, conceived by Greg Cooper, with book by Vynnie Meli, music and lyrics by The Acappella Company, direction by Lee Summers and musical direction and arrangements by Evan Feist as an Invited Selection of the 2015 New York Musical Theatre Festival. Performances run Tuesday, July 7 at 7:00 pm, Friday, July 10 at 5:00 pm, Saturday, July 11 at 9:00 pm, Sunday, July 12 at 12:00 pm, Tuesday, July 14 at 1:00 pm at the PTC Performance Space. The NYMF PASS is currently on sale at http://nymf.org/tickets. NYMF Pass holder ticket booking begins June 1st at 11:00 am. Individual tickets go on sale June 15th at 11:00 am. The PTC Performance Space is located at 555 West 42nd Street (between 10th and 11th Avenues on the South Side of 42nd Street). For reservations and information call (212) 352-3101 or visit http://nymf.org/acappella

ACAPPELLA, is a groundbreaking piece of theater melding two exciting art forms together. Musical theatre meets acappella in this romantic musical comedy for all ages. A gospel singer leaves home, going from the 'music of praise' to the 'music that pays'. A jaded roadie rushes him away from an arena full of screaming fans while a forgotten and ignored old man on a street corner belts some beautiful blues just because it feeds his soul. Jeremiah realizes that somewhere along the way, it became more about the money than the music. He goes back - to family, to friends, to the woman he left behind, but can he? Is it love or just nostalgia? He returns to the place where everything is familiar, except that nothing is. He learns that he has to find his own way home. For more information, please visit: www.acappellathemusical.com

Greg Cooper (Producer) is a 28-year veteran of radio and television broadcasting with an extensive background in production, development and management. He has comprehensive experience in multimedia presentations and live event production. Greg has also produced national television commercials and developed syndicated radio programming. Greg began development of the concept for Acappella in late 2003. After relocating to Atlanta in 2011, he connected with award-wining playwright and director Kim Brundidge - who facilitated more intensive work on the project. Greg has an incurable passion for acappella singing, and he is honored to share this life-changing music with the world.

Vynnie Meli (Playwright) first broke the NYMF ice with Plagued - A Love Story (book and lyrics, music by Casey Filiaci). Other productions include Keats In Curlers (Off-Broadway), Chopped Liver In Paradise, September Tenth, Jim Crow And The Rhythm Darlings and Krispy Kremes And Butter Queens. Upcoming are Orbital Debris, a straight two-person rom com, and The Lifespan Of A Fly, a short comic opera. A Eugene O'Neill semi-finalist last year, awards include the Jane Chambers Award, ATHE Award, Essential Theatre Playwriting Award, Metropolitan Atlanta Theatre Award for Best New Work and the Poets & Writers Magazine and the Anna Sosenko Trust grants. With various composers, Vynnie's short comic operas have won the Judges Awards for the Atlanta Opera's 24 Hour Opera Project 3 years in a row. A long-time Atlantan, she's a frequent flyer to musical theater workshops and seminars in NYC and LA with ASCAP, New Musicals, Inc and Commercial Theatre Institute. Vynnie is a member of the Dramatists Guild and Working Title Playwrights.

Lee Summers (Director) is an awarding-winning, multi-talented artist, who has directed shows in numerous New York and regional venues, including for both the NYMF and NAMT Theatre Festivals. Most recently he directed Brian Whitted's What's It All About Miss Dionne, a Dionne Warwick Tribute starring Tony Winners LaChanze and Adriane Lenox. Summers is a published member of the Dramatists Guild; conceiver/co-writer/co-composer/producer of Off-Broadway's From My Hometown (8 AUDELCO nominations); writer of Ella Fitzgerald: First Lady Of Song and many more. He has performed on Broadway (Orig. Dreamgirls); Off-Broadway; Carnegie Hall; on TV and in films. Summers is an alum of Tennessee State University; holds a BA from SUNY Empire State University and is presently an MFA Candidate at NYU/Tisch's Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program. Lee's next directing project is Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in The Sun for Harlem Repertory Theatre.

Evan Feist (Music Director) produces, manages, promotes, writes, and arranges music. He has taught acappella, vocal percussion, composition, and improv workshops throughout the New York tri-state area, and his arrangements and compositions are performed throughout the world. He is in demand as a private vocal coach and several of his students have appeared on American Idol (FOX), The X Factor (FOX), The Voice (NBC), and The Sing Off (NBC).

The production team include scenic design by Kyu Shin and costume design by Janell Berté. Chris Clark is the production stage manager.

The New York Musical Theatre Festival nurtures the creation, production, and public presentation of stylistically, thematically, and culturally diverse new musicals to ensure the future vitality of musical theatre. Now in its twelfth year, the Festival is the largest musical theatre event in America. The preeminent site for launching new musicals and discovering new talent, the Festival provides an affordable platform for artists to mount professional productions that reach their peers, industry leaders, and musical theatre fans. More than 90 Festival shows have gone on to productions on and Off-Broadway, in regional theaters in all 50 states, and in more than 20 countries worldwide. Festival alumni have received a wide array of awards including the Tony Award© and the Pulitzer Prize. In 2013, NYMF received a special Drama Desk Award in recognition of its work "creating and nurturing new musical theatre, ensuring the future of this essential art form." NYMF is the flagship program of National Music Theater Network, Inc., a 501(c) (3) not-for-profit organization. NYMF is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, and from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency.

For more information, please visit: www.nymf.org.