Perry-Mansfield New Works Festival Announces Lineup

 The Perry-Mansfield New Works Festival (June Lindenmayer, Executive Director; Andrew Leynse, Artistic Director) has announced the casting for the 2008 summer season of music, dance and theatre at the venerable performing arts camp and school in Steamboat Springs, CO.  The 11th Annual New Works Festival begins workshops and classes June 11th, culminating June 20 - 22 with staged readings of the plays and a special dance presentation.   
 
Now in its 95th year, Perry-Mansfield, founded by Charlotte Perry and Portia Mansfield, is recognized as the oldest continuously operating performing arts school and camp in the nation.
 
The Perry-Mansfield New Works Festival, co-chaired by James Steinberg and Karolynn Lestrud, brings performing arts professionals together in the Rocky Mountains to develop new pieces of drama, musical theater and dance, and to mentor new talent in each medium.  The 2008 New Works Festival welcomes the addition of New York's Atlantic Theater Company to the successful artistic partnership with Actors Theatre of Louisville, Denver Center Theatre Company, and New York's Primary Stages.
 
Andrew Leynse and Primary Stages will bring the new play MAMA HATED DIESELS The Songs and Stories of the American Truck Driver conceived and adapted by Randal Myler (Tony Award nominee for It Ain't Nothin' But The Blues (co-author/director); Outer Critics Circle (Best Director),  Drama Desk and Lortel Award (Best Musical) nominee for Hank Williams Lost Highway), and Dan Wheetman (Tony Award nominee for It Ain't Nothin' But The Blues; Joseph Jefferson Award nominee for Fire On The Mountain).   The play is based on actual interviews with truck drivers and their families and is filled with hard-drivin' traditional trucker tunes.  Under the direction of Mr. Myler, the cast includes Catherine Curtin, John Hutton, Charles Weldon and Michael L. Watford.
 
Marc Masterson and Actors Theatre of Louisville will bring  Wild Blessings -- A Celebration of Wendell Berry, a collage piece from the writings of poet and philosopher Wendell Berry, created by Marc Masterson and Adrien-Alice Hansel.  Directed by Mr. Masterson, the cast features Erica Delaine Bradshaw, Malcom Dalglish, Larry John Meyers, Phil Pickens, and Holly Thuma.
 
Kent Thompson and the Denver Center Theatre Company will bring playwright Rogelio Martinez (Fizz, Learning Curve) to workshop a new play entitled When Tang Met Laika, with the following theme:  In the 1990s Americans and Russians started to work together building the International Space Station.  With more than a half century of hostilities under their space suits, can two old foes start to trust one another again? A play about the Cold War warming up, a space shuttle program finding its purpose as it nears retirement, one very large robotic arm, weightlessness, and a gun.  The cast features Mary Bacon, Romi Dias, Sam Gregory, Doug Langworthy, RAndy Moore, Josh Robinson, Erik Sandvold, and Richard Thieriot, under the direction of Terrence J. Nolen.
 
Neil Pepe and Atlantic Theater Company will bring a new musical  What's That Smell:  The Music of Jacob Sterling  with book & lyrics by David Pittu and music by Randy Redd.  What's That Smell:  The Music of Jacob Sterling is an absurd musical-theater satire featuring songs and stories from the fictitious career of composer/lyricist Jacob Sterling and presented in a cable talk show format.   A rare opportunity to catch up with an artist of questionable gifts as he discusses his inspiration and performs from his stunning repertoire of misbegotten shows.  Written by and starring Mr. Pittu, the show features songs with lyrics by Mr. Pittu and music by Randy Redd.  Co-directed by Neil Pepe and Mr. Pittu, the cast also features Peter Bartlett.
 
This year's guest choreographer is Peter Chu, who will stage and perform in a special dance concert accompanied by four members from his dance company, Jillian Lucy Chu, Stacey Tookey Jimenez, Cindy Salgado, Kevin Tookey, and seven selected Perry-Mansfield dance students.
 
All rehearsals and performances will take place at Perry-Mansfield (40755 Routt County Road 36, Steamboat Springs, CO 80487).  Free open rehearsals will take place June 11 - 20.  
 
Single tickets for each presentation are $15 for performances June 20-22 and will be available for purchase after June 1st.  A special Festival Weekend Ticket Package is available for $65 and includes all staged play readings, dance presentation and festival reception.  For tickets and information, please call 800-430-2787 or 970-879-7125, or visit the website at www.perry-mansfield.org.