OPEN THE DARK DOOR Comes To NYMF

Banned in Russia, David LeFort Nugent brings his next show, Open the Dark Door, to The New York Musical Theatre Festival

October 8th at 8pm
Oct. 10th at 1pm
Oct. 12th at 5pm & 9pm
Oct 15th at 8pm
Oct 17th at 9pm

In 2006, Yale graduate David LeFort Nugent's Ugo's Last Dance was banned in Russia. A Russian producer and fan of Nugent's work translated the play into Russia's native tongue for submission to an arts festival.. The show flew through the approval process, but when the producers read the script, a meager couple of weeks before opening, they cancelled all the performances, citing that the play's themes wouldn't resonate with Russian audiences. According to an unofficial source, though, the true fear was that Nugent's exploration of religion in the piece was simply too controversial to bring to the Russian stage.

This year Nugent brings his new indie rock musical, Open the Dark Door, to The New York Musical Theatre Festival. Open the Dark Door confronts the American justice system with singing freaks, a two-faced judge and mystery-meat hot dogs. Nugent's fictional Mortland, USA is good, clean town with an unusual, but highly effective way of keeping its streets clean. Its functional Death House sends public offenders to their doom, keeping Mortland residents safe.

Nugent's show isn't obvious though. The intertwining histories of Mortland families and the current conflicts bring out a slew of questionable crimes - premarital sex and homosexuality are dealt with as heinously as homicide. With the recent controversies over torture and capital punishment this show promises to ruffle some feathers. When asked for his thoughts on the matter Nugent replied, "I can't think of a better way to hit people in their guts and their hearts and blow open a conversation about important national issues than with the American Musical."

As for Nugent's work, Tad Wise of the Woodstock Times, "[Nugent] can soar like Tom Stoppard, or fall out of a pick-up truck, drunk, like Sam Shepard, whom he most resembles."

The show proudly features Paul Kandel (Tommy, Titanic, Superstar), Mary Ellen Ashley (original cast, Annie Get Your Gun), Andrew McGinn (Coast of Utopia) and Laura Jordan (Cry Baby). Also appearing in the show are Alex Emanuel, Paul Louis Lessard, Ryan Hilliard, Kendal Hartse, Jake Loewenthal, Bennett Pologe, and Patrick Jude.

Open the Dark Door's team is comprised of Zane Philistrom (Set Designer), Scott Bolmon (Lighting Designer), Emily Robhelz (Costume Designer), Ted Pallas (Sound Designer), Mary Madsen (Choreographer), Kris Kukal (Musical Director), Lisa Timmel (Dramaturg), Halo Askew Entertainment (General Manager), Gloria Yetterberg (Production Stage Manager).

Directed by Susanna Gellert. Music performed by The Middle Eight, acclaimed indie-rock band.

Starring:

Mary Ellen Ashley, Alex Emanuel, Kendal Hartse, Ryan Hilliard, Laura Jordan, Patrick Jude, Paul Kandel, Paul Louis Lessard, Jake Loewenthal, Andrew McGinn, Bennett Pologe

Venue: American Theater of Actors, Chernuchin Theater, 254 West 55th Street, 2nd Floor, New York , NY

Tickets: www.nymf.org/openthedarkdoor

Bios:

David LeFort Nugent is a NYC-based playwright, composer and artistic director of The Academy. Recent productions include the New York premier of Ugo's Last Dance (Foundry Theatre/God Machine) and The Dark Wood (Woodstock Fringe). Current projects include Olivia, a new musical commissioned by New Sounds Theatre, and Open the Dark Door, an indie-rock musical commissioned by the Stratford Festival of Canada. Mr. Nugent has led playwriting workshops for disabled veterans at The National Theatre Workshop of the Handicapped, mentored and taught young playwrights at the Stratford Festival of Canada, the Dwight Edgewood Project and the Florida State Thespian Festival, and is a guest lecturer on musical theatre at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He holds an MFA in Playwriting from the Yale School of Drama and a BFA in Acting from the University of Alberta.

Susanna Gellert most recently directed Visiting Day by Andy Bragen for the Sewanee Writers' Conference. Other recent projects include Fugue States at PS 122, You Can't Take It With You at the University of Rochester, The Boss in the Satin Kimono at the New York International Fringe Festival, The Duchess of Malfi at the FSU/Asolo Conservatory, and Marat/Sade at The Fisher Center for Performing Arts at Bard College. New York directing credits include The Lacy Project for Soho Think Tank's Ice Factory ‘07 at the Ohio Theater, adaptations of Tamburlaine the Great and Valkyrie for Target Margin Theater's Laboratory, Match and L'Interieur at the American Living Room, as well as workshops at the Lark, EST, and NYU. Chicago directing credits include The Winter's Tale, The Bathhouse, Electra, and Joe Whyte's Nebraskoblivion. Yale School of Drama:The Duchess of Malfi, The Lacy Project, Measure for Measure, The Shoemaker's Prodigious Wife, and Devil Caught Rope. Yale Cabaret: Request Concert, Tuesdays and Sundays, and Two Rooms. She is a recipient of SDCF's Sir John Gielgud Fellowship and the Julian Milton Kaufman Memorial Prize. Susanna is a graduate of Yale School of Drama and The University of Chicago.

For tickets and more visit www.nymf.org/openthedarkdoor.

The New York Musical Theatre Festival, now in its sixth year, has premiered more than 175 new musicals since 2004. The largest musical theatre event in America, NYMF has been hailed as "the Sundance of Musical Theatre," and is widely regarded as the key source for new material and talent discovery. NYMF is the flagship program of National Music Theater Network, Inc., a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. NYMF 2009 is presented in association with BroadwayWorld..com, Production Resource Group and TheaterMania.com, and is supported by Back Stage, Barnes & Noble Booksellers, BroadwayBox.com, BroadwayInsider.com, Broadway.TV, Clear Channel Spectacolor, DFD-TV, Frank & Camille's Fine Pianos, King Displays, Manhattan Movement & Arts Center, New World Stages, NASDAQ OMX, Next Magazine, PMD Promotions, Queerty.com, Reuters, Sweet Caroline's, Tekserve, TheMenEvent.com, The Tank, and Times Square Squared.. Major supporters include The ASCAP Foundation, BMI Foundation, Inc., The Broadway League, The BWF Foundation, The Nathan Cummings Foundation with the support and encouragement of Jamie Mayer, The Charlie & Jane Fink Charitable Fund, The Rodgers & Hammerstein Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, and The Theater League. NYMF is supported, in part, by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council. NYMF's programs are made possible with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency. NYMF Memberships, which combine charitable contributions with valuable, flexible ticket packages and perks like early seating, and tickets to individual events are available for purchase at (212) 352-3101 or www.nymf..org.