YOUR NAME ON MY LIPS to Premiere at Dream Up Festival

Theater for the New City (Crystal Field, Artistic Director) presents the world premiere of the musical Your Name on My Lips, as part the Dream Up Festival, with 10 performances from August 30 to September 18. With book, music & lyrics by composer/writer/physicist Eric Sirota, it is directed by Katharine Pettit (Susan Stroman's SDC Observer on Bullets Over Broadway). The show explores the way love can inspire and sustain us. With a classically influenced driving contemporary score, "Your Name on My Lips" will transport the audience back to when love was earnest, feelings deep, and romance unabashedly unapologetic.

The musical centers on Sam, a young idealistic artist. Sam learned to love by loving Suzanna. Their childhood friendship turned to romance. While their bond has strong roots, for Sam it goes even deeper. Now he must fight to hold on to her, as the materialistic world tries to tug her away. (www.YourNameOnMyLips.com)

Eric Sirota, an established and highly published research scientist (as well as a fellow of the American Physical Society) is also an emerging playwright and composer whose musical theater works have captured the attention of the New York theater community over the last few years. His musical Day of Wrath (based on Frankenstein) was just performed as an official selection of the 2015 NYMF Reading Series in July of 2015.

The show is directed by Katharine Pettit, who was Susan Stroman's SDC Observer on Bullets Over Broadway on Broadway. Recent works include Angel in My Heart (Dir., The Wild Project, York Theater Developmental Reading) and Pumped! (Dir. TRU Voices Reading Series). She also directed the NYMF reading of Sirota's Day of Wrath.

The ensemble cast will feature Alec Lee (as Sam) and Rebbekah Alson (as Suzanna). Musical Director is Ted Arthur; Assistant Director/PSM is Daniel Ricken; Scenic Design is by Tina Pfefferkorn; Lighting Design is by Christopher Weston; and Costume Design is by Derek Robertson.

The scenery will feature the paintings of artist Cara London, whose work is concurrently on display at the Theater for the New City Art Gallery (and who is married to the writer/composer Eric Sirota.)

www.theaterforthenewcity.net

Your Name on My Lips will run from August 30-September 18 at Theater for the New City (155 First Ave.) with performances on August 30 at 5PM, September 2 at 9PM, September 5 at 2PM, September 7 at 6PM, September 8 at 6PM, September 9 at 9PM, September 12 at 5PM, September 16 at 9PM, September 17 at 9PM and September 18 at 6:30PM. Tickets are $20 and can be purchased by phone at 212-254-1109 or online at www.dreamupfestival.org.

The Dream Up Festival 2015 (www.dreamupfestival.org) is presented by Theater for the New City and offers a lineup of wide-ranging and original theatrical visions embracing drama, poetry, music and dance. For the first time, the festival will expand to a new venue and will present a total of 27 shows, 20 at Theater for the New City and seven at the Producers' Club Theaters. The festival is dedicated to new works and opens up TNC to the country at large and to artists from overseas. Its founders feel this is especially needed now in a time of declining donations to the arts, grants not being awarded due to market conditions and arts funding cuts all across the country and abroad. The festival does not seek out traditional theater presented in a traditional way, but rather pushes ideas to the forefront through imaginative presentations so as to challenge audience expectations & make us question our understanding of the way art illuminates the world around us.