Tony Winner Victoria Clark to Appear in INNER VOICES

PREMIERES, a not-for-profit musical theater development company, proudly announces the world premiere of INNER VOICES: SOLO MUSICALS, three new works created by and starring some of the industry's brightest talents. INNER VOICES will feature librettos by Ellen Fitzhugh, Laura Harrington and Michelle Lowe; scores by Michael John LaChiusa, Jenny Giering and Scott Davenport Richards, the work of directors Jonathan Butterell, Jeremy Dobrish and Jack Cummings III, and performances by Tony Award winner Victoria Clark, Jennifer Damiano (Spring Awakening) and Tony nominee Barbara Walsh (Company). INNER VOICES will begin its limited, 12-performance run on Monday, May 12 at 7:00 p.m. at The Zipper Factory Theater (336 West 37th Street). The press opening is scheduled for Sunday, May 18.

The solo musicals featured in INNER VOICES are:

TRES NIÑAS by Ellen Fitzhugh and Michael John LaChiusa
Directed by Jonathan Butterell
Music Direction by Todd Almond
Starring Victoria Clark
TRES NIÑAS is the musical telling of a white American woman's affecting and being affected by 'The Other" at three stages of her life.

ALICE UNWRAPPED by Laura Harrington and Jenny Giering
Directed by Jeremy Dobrish
Music Direction by Julie McBride
Starring Jennifer Damiano
In ALICE UNWRAPPED, a fifteen year-old girl has big shoes to fill with her dad missing in action, Mom refusing to come out of her bedroom, and a younger sister demanding normalcy - or else.

A THOUSAND WORDS COME TO MIND by Michele Lowe and Scott Davenport Richards

Directed by Jack Cummings III
Music Direction by Jon diPinto
Starring Barbara Walsh
When a mother's legendary silence is broken as she lies dying in a hospital room, her daughter embarks on a journey into the power of the unspoken word.

INNER VOICES has production design by Dane Laffrey.

Tickets to INNER VOICES are $20 and are available by calling 212-352-3101 or online at www.thezipperfactory.com. (PLEASE NOTE: zippertheater.com is no longer a valid address for the venue!)

For in-person purchases, The Zipper Box Office opens one hour prior to all scheduled events.

For more information, please visit www.premieresnyc.org.

BIOGRAPHIES

Victoria Clark (Woman, Tres Niñas) received Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Awards, as well as a Drama League honor for The Light in the Piazza. Her other Broadway credits include Urinetown, Cabaret, Titanic, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, A Grand Night for Singing, Guys and Dolls and Sunday in the Park With George. Other New York credits include Juno, Follies and Bye, Bye Birdie for City Center Encores!, The Agony and the Agony (Vineyard Theatre) and Marathon Dancing. She also starred in the national tours of Les Miserables and Cats, as well as numerous regional productions, including the world premieres of The Light in the Piazza (Joseph Jefferson Award), The Secret Garden, States of Independence, Adventures in the Skin Trade, and Hello, Dolly!, Guys and Dolls, Bells Are Ringing for the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera. Film: M. Night Shyamalan's The Happening, Tim Robbins' Cradle Will Rock. TV: the PBS special "Sweeney Todd in Concert." She also enjoyed a recurring role on Garrison Keillor's "Prairie Home Companion" on Minnesota Public Radio.

Ellen Fitzhugh (Book, Tres Niñas) received Tony and Drama Desk nominations for her work on Grind, originally directed by Harold Prince, a new version of which is scheduled for presentation at the York Theater in June. She received an Emmy nomination for a song from PBS's "Shining Time Station." She collaborated on the title song for MGM's That's Dancing, on songs for Disney's animated feature film The Great Mouse Detective (in which, also, hers was the voice for one of the characters) and, with William Finn, on the songs for two Brave Little Toaster sequels. She has written lyrics for the baseball revue, Diamonds, the lyric for the theme song of Arthur Kopit's play, End of the World, additional lyrics for Anthony Newley's Chaplin and two lyrics for Adam Guettel's Myths and Hymns. Other musicals include Herringbone, originally starring David Rounds and recipient of Chicago's Jefferson Award; Big Blonde, developed initially at Playwrights Horizons and The Public Theater; Paper Moon, presented from Goodspeed to Tokyo; Muscle, with James Lapine and William Finn. Currently in development are Kiki Baby with Lonny Price and Grant Sturiale; Paradise Found, to be directed by Harold Prince/Susan Stroman, based on a Joseph Roth novel, with book by Richard Nelson; an as-yet un-named musical, set in Brazil with music by Georges Bizet and Louis St. Louis with producers Cyma Rubin and Ken Billington. She has written with such diverse composers as William Finn, Larry Grossman, Adam Guettel, Jan Hammer, Walter Edgar Kennon, Henry Mancini, Claibe Richardson, Mary Rodgers, Lalo Schifrin and, posthumously on his part, Marc Blitzstein for the Vineyard Theater's revival of Juno. She has received writing grants from The National Endowment for the Arts and from The Drama League of New York. She was advisor to and teacher of the BMI-Lehman Engel Musical Theater Workshops in NYC and has served on three "New American Works" panels of the NEA.

Michael John LaChiusa (Composer, Tres Niñas) is a composer, lyricist and writer whose credits include – Broadway: The Wild Party (The Public, Tony nominations for Best Musical, Book and Score), Marie Christine (LCT, Tony nominations for Best Score and Best Book of a Musical), and Chronicle of a Death Foretold (LCT, Tony nominations for Best Musical and Book); Off-Broadway: Bernarda Alba (Lincoln Center Theater), See What I Wanna See (The Public Theater), Little Fish (Second Stage), The Petrified Prince (The Public); Hello Again (LCT, Drama Desk nominations for Music, Lyrics and Book) and First Lady Suite; Regional: SEND (who are you? I love you), which premiered at the Houston Grand Opera as part of An Evening With Audra McDonald, The Highest Yellow (Signature Theatre) and Lovers and Friends (Lyric Opera of Chicago), among others. Internationally, he collaborated with Amon Miyamoto on a new musical version of The Nutcracker, which premiered in 2002 in Tokyo. He has created two revues of his works, "la..la…LaChiusa" and Hotel C'est l'Amour. Additionally Mr. LaChiusa himself accompanied an array of female stars singing songs from the LaChiusa catalogue in The Girlie Show, which was performed as a part of the American Songbook Series at Lincoln Center in May 2004. He is the recipient of: a 1993 Obie Award for both his musicals First Lady Suite and Hello, Again; the first Stephen Sondheim Award (1989), the Gilman-Gonzalez-Falla Musical Theatre Award (1995) and the Kleban Foundation Award (1999).

Jonathan Butterell (Director, Tres Niñas). Jonathan's work includes Musical Staging for – Broadway: Light In The Piazza (LCT), Assassins, Fiddler On The Roof, Nine; Off-Broadway: See What I Wanna See (Public Theater), A Man Of No Importance (LTC); London: Company, Habeas Corpus, Nine (Donmar Warehouse). As Co Director - Sweeney Todd (Opera North) Into The Woods (Donmar Warehouse). He has done other work for the Royal National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company and Theatre Project Tokyo. Film: Finding Neverland and Stay.

Todd Almond (Music Director, Tres Niñas) is a playwright, composer and musical director. His musical Girlfriend was one of two musicals selected for development this year at Palo Alto's esteemed TheatreWorks. As a member of MITU, the company-in-residence at New York Theatre Workshop, he composed the music for Ahraihsak, The Odyssey (Juilliard), Moonchild (NYU), and re-conceived/re-orchestrated Hair (Skirball) and Guys and Dolls. Almond's award-winning musical People Like Us was featured at the New York Musical Theatre Festival, as was his concert Todd Almond Loves You. Recently, Almond wrote a short piece for The 24 Hour Musicals that featured Victoria Clark, Cheyenne Jackson and Claudia Shear. With his gang of musicians, Almond performs his original music at New York City's top venues including The Zipper Factory, Joe's Pub, and Ars Nova. He has attended the Sundance Theater Lab and recently received a commission from Yale Rep. for a musical he's writing with playwright Adam Bock. He recently ventured into film-scoring with the independent feature WTC View. He works regularly as a singer with composer Ellen Mandel, as a librettist for composer Paul Damien Hogan, and as a music-director for producer Earl Dax and his "Weimar New York" show at both The Spiegel Tent and Joe's Pub.

Jennifer Damiano (Alice, Alice Unwrapped) is a junior in high school. She started performing at the age of 10 in Community Theatre in Westchester, NY. She began working professionally in NYC when she was 12, performing in The American Girl Revue (original cast) and numerous national commercials/voiceovers. Regional: Oliver! Jenn made her Broadway debut in Spring Awakening as the youngest member of the original cast at the age of 15. She recently starred as 'Natalie' in Second Stage Company's critically acclaimed Next To Normal.

Laura Harrington (Book, Alice Unwrapped) recently received the 2008 Kleban Award for librettist. She is a two-time winner of the Massachusetts Cultural Council Award in playwriting, as well as a two-time winner of the Clauder Competition for best new play in New England for Mercy and Hallowed Ground. Some recent credits include: Crossing Brooklyn (music by Jenny Giering, directed by Jack Cumming III and produced by the Transport Group), which was one of four new musicals selected for the 2007 ASCAP/ Disney Musical Theatre Workshop with Stephen Schwartz, also commissioned and workshopped by Marilyn Plotkins and the Suffolk University Boston Music Theatre Project; Resurrection, commissioned and premiered by Houston Grand Opera (Music: Tod Machover), subsequently produced at Boston Lyric Opera, and available on CD from Albany Records; N (Bonaparte), which premiered in Boston with the Pilgrim Theatre Company at the Boston Center for the Arts and subsequently toured to the KO Festival; Hallowed Ground, which premiered in Boston at Boston Playwrights' Theatre where it won the Boston IRNE Award for Best New Play, and went on to productions at Portland Stage Company, Tulane University, where it won a "Big Easy" Award; Martin Guerre (Music: Roger Ames), commissioned by the Boston Lyric Opera, workshopped at the O'Neill Music Theatre Conference and produced by Hartford Stage Company under the direction of Mark Lamos, where it was nominated for 3 Connecticut Critics Circle Awards, including "Outstanding Musical." Ms. Harrington teaches playwriting at M.I.T and is a frequent guest artist at Tufts, Harvard, (where she was a visiting Briggs Copeland Lecturer) Wellesley, University of Iowa, etc.

Jenny Giering (Composer, Alice Unwrapped) has received the Clifton Artist in Residence at Harvard University, the Dramatists' Guild Jonathan Larson Fellowship, Constance Klinsky Prize from 2econd Stage Theatre Company, a Meet the Composer grant, the Jonathan Larson Performing Arts Foundation Award, and was the composer in residence at Sundance's Ucross Residency. She also received the National Art Song Award and the National Music Theatre Network Director's Choice Award for her musical The Mistress Cycle, written with bookwriter/lyricist Beth Blatt. The Mistress Cycle has received workshops and readings at the Williamstown Theater Festival, Theatreworks/Palo Alto's New Works Festival, Barrington Stage Company, a New York presentation in November 2004, and a sold-out run at the 2005 New York Musical Theatre Festival, both produced by the AWOL Theatre Project, Inc. Currently, it's running to rave reviews at The Apple Tree Theatre in Chicago. Jenny wrote the score for Theaterworks/USA's Island of the Blue Dolphins (book and lyrics by Beth Blatt) which toured for two sold-out seasons, and incidental music for Theatreworks' Arthurian drama Arthur's War by Catherine Filloux. She also wrote the score for The Hotel Carter (book and lyrics by Stephanie Fleischmann), which received a Frederick Loewe Award, and a Cameron Mackintosh Development Award from New Dramatists'. She's working on Princess Caraboo, a new musical with book and lyrics by Marsha Norman, which was developed at the National Musical Theatre Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center and at Theatreworks Palo Alto's Writers' Retreat and New Works Festival. It was subsequently presented at the National Alliance for Musical Theatre's 2005 Festival of New Musicals, and received a workshop production at the Goodspeed Opera House in May 2006, directed by Gary Griffin. Her one-act Still Life (book and lyrics by Emmy-Award winner David Javerbaum) has been produced by the Henlopen Theatre Project, Barrington Stage Company, and had a three-week run at the Bridewell Theatre in London. Jenny holds an AB in Music from Harvard & Radcliffe Colleges, and an MFA in Composition from the Graduate Musical Theater Writing Program at Tisch School for the Arts, New York University. She has appeared on many albums, including PS Classics' release Windflowers: The Songs of Jerome Moross; and her song "I Follow" appears on Audra McDonald's debut release Way Back To Paradise on Elektra/Nonesuch Records. Jenny has just released a solo album, Look for Me, produced by Brendan Milburn of Groovelily, now available at www.jennygiering.com.

Jeremy Dobrish (Director, Alice Unwrapped). Recent Off-Broadway: Spain (MCC), Election Day (Second Stage), Drift (NYMF), In the Wings (Promenade), The Joys of Sex (Variety Arts), The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) (Century). Regional: Sleuth (Hangar), The Girl in the Frame (Goodspeed), Terezin (Village). Theatreworks USA: Curious George (writer/director), and Paul Revere. Jeremy is an Artistic Associate at Second Stage, and was the Artistic Director of Adobe Theatre Company for 13 years, for which he has written and/or directed over twenty plays. Jeremy's plays include Notions in Motion, The Handless Maiden, Blink of an Eye, Superpowers, Orpheus & Eurydice (all adobe) and Eight Days (Backwards) (Vineyard). www.jeremydobrish.com.

Julie McBride (Music Director, Alice Unwrapped). B.M., Piano Performance at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music; M.M in Collaborative Piano with an emphasis in vocal coaching at the Mannes College of Music. Recitalist, Music director and accompanist/ vocal coach at such places as New York City Opera, the Renata Scotto Opera Academy, Centro Studi Lirica, The Discovery Orchestra of New Jersey, Ensemble 212, and several Broadway and Off Broadway productions. Most recently Julie was the associate music director of the new musical Next to Normal at the Second Stage Theatre.

Barbara Walsh (Woman, A Thousand Words Come to Mind) recently appeared as Joanne in the Tony-winning revival of Company (Drama Desk and Drama League nominations). Barbara received Tony and Drama Desk nominations and the Los Angeles Ovation Award for her performance as Trina in Falsettos. Other Broadway credits include Big, Blood Brothers, Rock 'n Roll: the first 5,000 years, Hairspray, and Nine. Barbara also played Mother in the Chicago company of Ragtime. Off-Broadway credits: Normal, Birds of Paradise, Stars in Your Eyes and Forbidden Broadway. Regional credits: A Little Night Music (Desiree--Baltimore's Center Stage), Dinner with Friends (Old Globe), The Sisters Rosensweig (George St.), Some Men (Philadelphia Theatre Company), The Most Happy Fella (Great Lakes), Side by Side (Muny), and A Streetcar Named Desire (Blanche--The Gretna Theatre). Film/television: Life With Mikey, Law & Order, Law & Order: Criminal Intent. She is married to director Jack Cummings III.

Michele Lowe (Book, A Thousand Words Come to Mind) is the author of String of Pearls which received an Outer Critics Circle Award nomination for Outstanding Off-Broadway Play. She is also the author of The Smell of the Kill (Broadway debut), Mezzulah, 1946 (City Theatre) and Backsliding in the Promised Land (Syracuse Stage). She wrote the book and lyrics for the musical Hit the Lights! (Vineyard Theatre). Other plays include Good on Paper and Map of Heaven. Lowe has been commissioned by Denver Center Theatre, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park and Geva Theatre. Her plays have been produced at Primary Stages, Vineyard Theatre, Intiman Theatre, Florida Stage, Reykjavik City Theatre (Iceland) Berkshire Theatre Festival, Asolo, and Cleveland Play House among dozens of others. Her work has been developed at the Eugene O'Neill National Music Theatre Conference, Colorado New Play Summit, New Harmony Project, PlayLabs, New York Stage and Film, Hartford Stage's BRAND: NEW Festival, and the ACT & Hedgebrook Women Playwrights Festival. Her work appears in New Playwrights/The Best Plays of 2005 (Smith & Knaus, 2006). The Best Women's Stage Monologues 2005 (Smith & Knaus, 2006) and Monologues for Women by Women (Heinemann, 2004). Screenplays include The Emergence of Emily Stark and Quitting Texas. She is a member of ASCAP, the Dramatists Guild and a Core Member of the Playwrights' CenteR. Lowe is a graduate of Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. Her play Inana will receive its world premiere at Denver Center Theatre in January 2009.

Scott Davenport Richards' (Composer, A Thousand Words Come to Mind) Charlie Crosses the Nation, A Jazz Opera will be featured in the NYC Opera's VOX festival in May. A Star Across the Ocean, different views of Paris 1965, a work for 4 voices and symphony orchestra was premiered by the MSU Symphony last December featuring Tony Award Winner, Chuck Cooper. Current projects include a musical adaptation of the Jean Shepherd film A Christmas Story (with book by Joe Robinette) and Dance of the Holy Ghosts (a play with music by Marcus Gardley) which premiered at the Yale Repertory Theatre. Other Musical Theatre Works include music for Coyote Goes Salmon Fishing with words by Deborah Brevoort (directed by Molly Smith at Perseverance Theatre/produced by Stuart Ostrow in Houston.) and Sanctuary D. C., a rap musical about the homeless in Washington (Helen Hayes Award nomination.) Works for children include a number of commissions from Theatreworks U. S. A.; Corduroy (music, lyrics, orchestration), Sundiata! The Lion King of Mali (music, lyrics, orchestration), Island of the Blue Dolphins (orchestrations) and Junie B. Jones (orchestration.) As an actor, Mr. Richards originated the role of Sylvester in the original Broadway production of August Wilson's Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and assisted his father, Lloyd Richards in the origination of 3 other Wilson works. Scott D. Richards is a recipient of the Jonathan Larson and the Frederick Loewe awards. He is currently an assistant professor of music/musical theatre at Montclair State University's Cali School of Music, has been a member of the faculty at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts Graduate Musical Theater Writing Program since 1997. From 1995-2005, he was a teaching artist with Lincoln Center Institute where he authored publications for the Heckscher Foundation Research Center on such various subjects as The Blues, Margaret Leng Tan (The Art of the Toy Piano), and The Tangos of Astor Piazzolla. B. A. from Yale University; M. F. A. from NYU Tisch School of the Arts Graduate Musical Theater Writing Program.

Jack Cummings III (Director, A Thousand Words Come to Mind)) currently serves as the Artistic Director of Transport Group, a non-profit theatre company devoted to 20th and 21st century American work. Transport Group credits include the world premiere musicals The Audience (Drama Desk nomination for Outstanding Director), Marcy in the Galaxy, Crossing Brooklyn, and Normal, revivals of The Dark at the Top of the Stairs (starring Obie winner Donna Lynne Champlin and Tony winner Michele Pawk), All The Way Home, Our Town, and First Lady Suite (Drama Desk nomination for Outstanding Musical Revival). He is married to actress Barbara Walsh.

Jon DiPinto (Music Director, A Thousand Words Come to Mind). Credits include: Broadway: Footloose (Associate Conductor), Victor/Victoria. Off-Broadway: Nor'mal and Streakin'! (Musical Director); Miracle Brothers, Summer Of '42, Altar Boyz, The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin and A Man Of No Importance. Regional: Musical director for Songs For A New World, Are We There Yet? and The Honky Tonk Angels. John was recently musical director and conductor for performances of the new jazz/avant-garde opera The Blackamoor Angel at Bard College's Summerscape festival and at Joe's Pub. As an actor John has appeared in Oil City Symphony, Pump Boys and Dinettes, Smoke on the Mountain, and A Day in Hollywood/A Night in The Ukraine.

PREMIERES, a not-for-profit organization founded in 2001, commissions, develops and presents new music theater works in New York. They have presented works by Ed Dixon (Richard Cory), Kim Sherman and Darrah Cloud (Heartland), Noa Ain and Gerard Edery (Song of the Turtledove), Maryrose Wood and Andrew Gerle (The Tutor), Daniel Frederick Levin and Jonathan Portera (To Paint the Earth), Sam Carner and Derek Gregor (Unlock'd), and Lauren Robert (.22 Caliber Mouth). Paulette Haupt, Artistic Director, is the founder and artistic director of the National Music Theater Conference at the O'Neill Theater Center, and a veteran music director and conductor of operas and musicals worldwide. Recently, she conducted Irving Berlin's White Christmas at the Buell Theater with Denver Center for the Performing Arts.