Works & Process Presents The Glimmerglass Festival: BLUE by Jeanine Tesori and Tazewell Thompson

Works & Process, the performing arts series at the Guggenheim, presents The Glimmerglass Festival: Blue by Jeanine Tesori and Tazewell Thompsonon Monday, February 11, 2019 at 7:30pm.

Blue centers on the hopes and fears of a young black couple as they raise a son in 21st-century America. Prior to the world premiere, Glimmerglass Festival artistic and general director Francesca Zambello moderates a discussion with the work's creators, Jeanine Tesori and Tazewell Thompson, with members of the cast performing highlights from this new opera.

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Lead funding for Works & Process is provided by The Florence Gould Foundation, The Christian Humann Foundation, Mertz-Gilmore Foundation, Stavros Niarchos Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and the Evelyn Sharp Foundation, with public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts and New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

Jeanine Tesori won the Tony Award for Best Original Score with Lisa Kron for the musical Fun Home, which is currently playing on Broadway. She has also written Tony-nominated scores for 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 Theatre in London received the Olivier Award for Best New Musical. Her 1997 Off-Broadway musical Violet (lyrics, Brian Crawley) opened on Broadway in 2014 and garnered four Tony nominations, including Best Musical Revival. Opera: A Blizzard on Marblehead Neck (libretto, Tony Kushner; Glimmerglass) and The Lion, The Unicorn, and Me (libretto, J. D. McClatchy, Kennedy Center). Music for plays: Mother Courage (dir. George C. Wolfe, with Meryl Streep and Kevin Kline), John Guare's A Free Man of Color (Lincoln Center Theater, dir. George C. Wolfe), and Romeo and Juliet (Delacorte Gala). Film scores: Nights in Rodanthe, Every Day, and You're Not You. Ms. Tesori is a member of the Dramatists Guild and was cited by the ASCAP as the first female composer to have two new musicals running concurrently on Broadway. She is the founding artistic director of Encores! Off-Center at New York City Center, and is a lecturer in music at Yale University. Most of all, she is the proud parent of Siena Rafter, a senior at LaGuardia High School for the Arts.

Tazewell Thompson is a playwright and director whose productions have been seen in Europe, Asia, Africa, Canada and the U.S. He has led over 85 productions (including world and American premieres, 24+ for Arena Stage, including last fall's acclaimed A Raisin in the Sun, and seven for The Glimmerglass Festival). An award winning playwright, he's been commissioned by Lincoln Center Theater, Arena Stage, South Coast Rep and People's Light and Theatre Company. His Porgy and Bess, broadcast on Live From Lincoln Center, received EMMY nominations for Best Classical Production and Best Director. For Washington National Opera he directed Philip Glass' Appomattox and Lost in the Stars; the latter originated in a co-production between Cape Town Opera and Glimmerglass to widespread recognition.

The Glimmerglass Festival is a professional, non-profit arts organization producing new productions of opera and musical theater every July and August in Cooperstown, New York. Mainstage productions are complemented by events with renowned personalities from literature to Broadway with a focus to produce thought-provoking programs that illuminate the organization's mission to inspire dialogue around social values. The company is also a training ground for future professionals through its renowned Young Artists Program and Summer Internship Program. In 2019, the Festival presents new productions of Hammerstein's Show Boat, Verdi's La traviata, Corigliano's The Ghosts of Versailles and the world premiere of Jeanine Tesori and Tazewell Thompson's Blue. For more information, visit www.glimmerglass.org.

Works & Process at the Guggenheim
Described by The New York Times as "an exceptional opportunity to understand something of the creative process," for over 34 years and in over 500 productions, New Yorkers have been able to see, hear, and meet the most acclaimed artists in the world, in an intimate setting unlike any other. Works & Process, the performing arts series at the Guggenheim, has championed new works and offered audiences unprecedented access to generations of leading creators and performers. Most performances take place in the Guggenheim's intimate Frank Lloyd Wright-designed 285-seat Peter B. Lewis Theater. In 2017, Works & Process established a new residency and commissioning program, inviting artists to create new works, made in and for the iconic Guggenheim rotunda. worksandprocess.org.