VA Signature Theatre Commissions Work from Tesori for American Music Voices Project

Jeanine Tesori, the composer of SHREK and CAROLINE, OR CHANGE, joins Adam Guettel, Michael John LaChiusa, Ricky Ian Gordon, and Joseph Thalken as a newly commissioned composer for Virginia's Tony Award®-winning Signature Theatre.

The 'American Music Voices Project' (AMVP) at Signature, funded by The Shen Family Foundation (www.shenfamilyfoundation.com), is the largest musical theater commissioning program in the United States with $780,000 awarded directly to artists since the program's founding in 2006. The AMVP supports established writers in the field of musical theater and includes a commitment to produce the commissioned work during Signature's main stage season.

Through an extension of the AMVP, the 'Next Generation' program, Signature is also awarding new commissions to Chris Miller and Scott Davenport Richards, along with special honoree grants to Josh Schmidt and Josh Rosenblum to develop new works for the Theatre. The Next Generation program supports early career composers of the American musical and includes development support.

Signature's Artistic Director Eric Schaeffer stated, "Signature is excited to continue our partnership with The Shen Family Foundation on the American Musical Voices Project. It has proven to be a fertile ground for new musicals and has given composers and writers a home where anything goes. As the largest musical commissioning program in this country, I couldn't be prouder to have this amazing group of composers working with Signature."

Ted and Mary Jo Shen, executive directors of The Shen Family Foundation, said in a statement, "We are thrilled to continue our collaboration with Signature Theatre in the commissioning and development of new musicals by gifted composers who write with exceptionally original voices. While it is exciting to see the total number of full-scale commissions initiated through the AMVP and Next Generation programs rise to 12 since 2006, it is even more gratifying to know that these all will be developed in the extraordinarily nurturing and inspiring creative environment that Eric Schaeffer is so uniquely able to provide for new works."

THE AMERICAN MUSICAL VOICES PROJECT (AMVP)
Founded in May 2006, the American Musical Voices Project demonstrates Signature's commitment to producing full productions of world premiere Musical Theatre Works. Through the AMVP, Musical Theater Composer grants have been awarded to Ricky Ian Gordon, Michael John LaChiusa, Joseph Thalken, Adam Guettel and, now, Jeanine Tesori. Each of the grants includes a commission to create a new full-length musical to be produced at Signature Theatre during its 2009-2013 seasons. Fully-staged musical world premieres through the AMVP have included LaChiusa's Giant in 2009 and Gordon's Sycamore Trees in 2010. Thalken's musical, Wheatley's Folly, will premiere in March 2011 with productions of new musicals by Guettel (Light in the Piazza) and Tesori to follow.

As part of the AMVP, Musical Theater Leadership Awards have been made to four individuals in recognition of their extraordinary influence on and contribution to the advancement of new musical theater: orchestrator Bruce Coughlin, composer Adam Guettel, singer/actress Audra McDonald, and director/musical director/orchestrator Ted Sperling.

In June 2008, the American Musical Voices Project added The Next Generation program. That year emerging composers Matt Conner, Adam Gwon, and Gabriel Kahane each received a commission to write new musicals for Signature Theatre and honorees Peter Foley and Marisa Michelson were given grants for the development of their musical ideas. In 2009, Foley and Michelson received full Next Generation commissions, and Chris Miller and Scott Davenport Richards received honoree grants for the development of future musical ideas.

In July 2009, the Theater launched the '21/24 Signature Lab,' three weeks of rehearsal and performances of Next Generation works. The first summer featured The Hollow by composer Matt Conner and writer Hunter Foster, and The Boy Detective Fails by composer Adam Gwon and writer Joe Meno. This month (July 2010), the 21/24 Lab is providing Next Generation composer Marisa Michelson the opportunity to develop her commissioned work, Tamar and the River. Staged readings will be held at Signature on July 9 and 10.

Jeanine Tesori has written four Tony-nominated scores for Broadway: Twelfth Night at Lincoln Center, Thoroughly Modern Millie (lyrics, Dick Scanlan), Caroline, or Change (lyrics, Tony Kushner), and Shrek the Musical (lyrics, David Lindsay-Abaire). The production of Caroline, or Change at the National Theater in London received the Olivier Award for Best New Musical. Her first off-Broadway musical, Violet, written with Brian Crawley, received the New York Drama Critics Circle Award in 1997. She has been the recipient of many other honors including Drama Desk and Obie awards, and was cited by ASCAP as being the first woman composer to have "two new musicals running concurrently on Broadway." She composed the music for The New York Shakespeare Festival's production of Brecht's Mother Courage, as translated by Tony Kushner, starring Meryl Streep and Kevin Kline. She has written songs for the movie Shrek The Third. Her film scores include Nights in Rodanthe, Winds of Change, Show Business, and Wrestling With Angels. She has composed songs for Disney DVD releases Mulan II, Lilo and Stitch II, and Little Mermaid III. She has produced sixty CDs for Silver-Burdett Ginn's Making Music and the original cast albums for Twelfth Night, Violet, and Caroline, or Change. Tesori, a Barnard graduate, is on the council of the Dramatists Guild. Her next project is a new musical with the playwright Lisa Kron.

Scott Davenport Richards (Composer) MUSICALS/OPERA: A Star Across The Ocean - Paris 1965 (Music/Libretto) New York City Opera VOX 2010 opera lab featuring Chuck Cooper and Darius DeHaas; A Thousand Words Come to Mind (words by Michele Lowe) Inner at The Zipper 2008/Joe's Pub 2009 starring Barbara Walsh; Charlie Crosses the Nation, An Opera in Jazz Idiom -NYC Opera VOX 2008: Dance of the Holy Ghosts by Marcus Gardley (with songs by Gardley and Richards) Yale Rep dir. by Liz Diamond; Coyote Goes Salmon Fishing (words Deborah Brevoort) Perseverance Theatre dir. Molly Smith. FOR CHILDREN: Corduroy and Sundiata! The Lion King of Mali for Theatreworks U.S.A. ACTING: Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (Original Broadway Production). AWARDS: Jonathan Larson, Frederick Loewe, Meet the Composer, American Music Center.

Composer Chris Miller with Nathan Tysen, wrote the musical The Burnt Part Boys, (Mariana Elder, Book), which premiered at Barrington Stage Company in 2006 and just completed a co-production of Vineyard Theatre and Playwrights Horizons. The Miller/Tysen musical, The Mysteries of Harris Burdick based on the book by Chris Van Allsburg with book by Joe Calarco, has been developed at Lincoln Center Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, London's Mercury Musical Developments, Aspen, CO's TheatreMasters and Barrington Stage Company. The Miller and Tysen song cycle, Fugitive Songs, premiered off-Broadway in 2008 and was nominated for a Drama Desk Award (Outstanding Revue).

Miller is a contributing composer to the song cycle Songs From an Unmade Bed produced at the New York Theatre Workshop and recently wrote incidental music for the Two River Theatre Co.'s production of Mary's Wedding. Currently he is collaborating with Tysen on a musical of Tuck Everlasting (Claudia Shear, book) for Broadway Across America/Barry Brown, a commission for Lincoln Center Theatre, and a Playwrights Horizons/TheatreWorks Palo Alto co-commission, in addition to his Next Generation musical at Signature Theatre.

Joshua Rosenblum is a composer, conductor, and pianist with wide-ranging experience in classical, contemporary and theater music. For the theater, Rosenblum wrote the score to the cult hit musical Fermat's Last Tango, which had a critically acclaimed Off-Broadway production at the York Theatre Company, and its European premiere at Teatro da Trindade in Lisbon. Other works for theater include Einstein's Dreams, based on the best-selling novel by Alan Lightman; and Garbo and Me, currently in development. He is also the composer and creator of Bush is Bad, the smash Off-Broadway musical revue, which Variety magazine called "a sensation," and which spawned successful productions in Los Angeles and Minneapolis. Recordings of Rosenblum's instrumental music include Impetuosities-Music of Joshua Rosenblum, and Sundry Notes, both available from Albany Records. As a conductor, Rosenblum has led the orchestras for thirteen Broadway and Off-Broadway shows, with a specialty in flying vehicles (Miss Saigon, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, How the Grinch Stole Christmas).

Josh Schmidt - BROADWAY: Brighton Beach Memoirs (with Fitz Patton) OFF BROADWAY: As Composer/Co-Author - ADD1NG MACH1N3 (Minetta Lane), Whida Peru (59E59); Incidental Scores: When the Rain Stops Falling (Lincoln Center) Fifty Words (MCC Theater). As Sound Designer - Crime and Punishment (59E59), many others. CHICAGO: As Composer/Co-Author A Minister's Wife (Writers Theatre). As Composer/Sound Designer - Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Writers' Theatre (Associate Artist), Northlight Theatre, Next Theatre Company, Seanachai Theatre Company, many others. REGIONAL: Over 100 productions at venues across the country including The Kennedy Center, Ford's Theatre (Washington DC); Seattle Repertory Theatre (WA), Alley Theatre (Houston, TX); Arizona Theater Company (AZ); Cleveland Playhouse (OH), Kansas City Rep (MO); South Coast Repertory (CA); Delaware Theatre Company (DE); 9 Seasons at American Players Theatre (Spring Green, WI) Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Chamber Theatre, First Stage Children's Theatre, Next Act Theatre, Renaissance Theatreworks, Bialystock and Bloom, Theatre X, Milwaukee Shakespeare (Milwaukee, WI); Madison Repertory Theatre, University Theatre (Madison, WI) and many others.

Recipient of the 2009 Regional Theatre Tony Award, Signature Theatre is a non-profit professional theater company in Arlington, Virginia dedicated to producing contemporary musicals and plays, reinventing classic musicals, and developing new work. Under the leadership of co-founder and Artistic Director Eric Schaeffer and Managing Director Maggie Boland, Signature has presented 26 world premiere productions and is renowned for combining Broadway-quality productions with intimate playing spaces.

In addition to the finest talent from the DC metropolitan area and New York, Signature has been home to such theatre luminaries as Chita Rivera, George Hearn, Hunter Foster, Emily Skinner, Marc Kudisch, Judy Kuhn, John Kander and Fred Ebb, Cameron Mackintosh, Terrence McNally, and the company's signature composer, Stephen Sondheim. Since its founding in 1989, Signature has won 70 Helen Hayes Awards for excellence in the Washington, DC region's professional theater and has been honored with 276 nominations.

The company's 21st season begins on August 10 with the musical Chess by the composers of Mamma Mia! and continues through June 12, 2011 with the Washington premiere of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Sunset Boulevard, Yasmina Reza's Tony Award-winning play Art, Side by Side by Sondheim, and the world premieres of Ken Ludwig's A Fox on the Fairway, Joe Calarco's Walter Cronkite Is Dead., and Wheatley's Folly. The Signature Theatre complex is located 5 ½ miles south of DC's Washington Monument, just ten minutes by car (15 minutes in traffic) with free parking.

Signature is partially supported by a grant from the Virginia Commission for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts and by a gift from Arlington County through the Arlington Commission for the Arts and the Cultural Affairs Division of the Department of Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Resources.

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