Otis Sallid & Aaron Jones to Pen New PIED PIPER Musical for Waterwell's Summer Theater Lab

Waterwell announces that Smokey Joe's Cafe conceiver, director-choreographer Otis Sallid, and musician AaRon Jones will create a new musical based on The Pied Piper for their summer program. They join the previously announced Kyra Sedgwick ("The Closer"), Bobby Cannavale("Boardwalk Empire"), Stephen Adly Guirgis (Tony Nominee, The Mother****** with the Hat), Megan Hilty ("Smash"), Lin-Manuel Miranda (In the Heights) and Beau Willimon ("House of Cards") who serve as Master Class Artists for the company's inaugural Summer Theater LaB. Casey McClellen and Kyle Pleasant also join the faculty.

The Waterwell Summer Theater Lab offers dedicated middle and high school students from across the country the opportunity to engage in a focused three-week training program with world-class practitioners in the heart of New York City's fabled Theater District. Over the course of an NYC summer, the artistic community at the Summer Theater Lab will showcase brave new works by some of the American theater's rising voices. They will premiere just steps from Times Square and, through publication, build upon the catalogue of quality age-appropriate material for theaters and schools world-wide.

Otis Sallid's accomplishments as a director and choreographer in theater, television and film are known throughout the entertainment industry includingchoreographing Swing Kids and several films for director Spike Lee. He recently completed shooting Fox Searchlight's feature film, Black Nativity, starring Forest Whitaker, Angela Bassett, Jennifer Hudson and Mary J. Blige.

"Otis is simply one of the most creative, generous, and dynamic theater-makers I know. He's had success across all mediums, worked with some of the world's most celebrated talent and yet still makes the time to mentor young artists. We are so lucky to have an artist of his caliber creating original work with our students," saidVictor Maog, Director of Summer Theater Lab.

Waterwell artistic director Tom Ridgely says, "Otis is exactly the kind of boundary-breaking artist we want our students to be. He writes, directs, choreographs and composes. He tells stories with words, music and movement all at once. A true quadruple threat. And a deeply engaged citizen of the world. He breaks down barriers in art to break down barriers in life. That's what the Summer Theater Lab is all about."

Waterwell is one of the Village Voice's Best Arguments for Devised Theater and creators of GOODBAR and #9, launches its Summer Theater Lab at the Professional Performing Arts School (PPAS) in

Manhattan, under the leadership of Victor Maog, with world-class guest artists from the worlds of theater, television, and film. The program has two sessions: Monday-Friday, July 15-August 3, and August 5-24, 2013. For more information about classes and enrollment, visit www.waterwell.org/summer. Full and partial scholarship are available. The late deadline is extended until June 7th.

Photo via Waterwell