Nashville's Geoffrey Nauffts to Workshop New Musical SWITCHED at Texas State University

Award winning writer Geoffrey Nauffts will workshop his new musical at Texas State University as part of The Harrison/Bowman New Works Commission, funded in part by The Stillwater Foundation. Switched is a new musical with book by Geoffrey Nauffts and music and lyrics by Jonatha Brooke. The workshop will be directed by Tony nominated director Sheryl Kaller.

"I have been so impressed by the talent coming out of the musical theater program at Texas State and cannot wait to utilize the students' considerable skills to help uncover this new musical Jonatha, Sheryl and I are so excited about," said book writer Geoffrey Nauffts. Head of musical theater program Kaitlin Hopkins said " it is an honor to have our students develop new work with such a brilliant creative team, we can't wait to dive in."

Geoffrey Nauffts has worked as an actor on and off Broadway, regionally, and extensively in film and television. As a writer his credits include: Baby Steps, an award-winning short film starring Kathy Bates; Jennifer, a CBS movie of the week, two seasons on ABC's Brothers and Sisters, the Emmy-nominated mini-series Political Animals, and four seasons on ABC's (and now CMT's) country music drama Nashville. He is currently in development on a TV pilot for NBC based on the book Find The Good by Heather Lende. His critically acclaimed play Next Fall received the 2010 Outer Critics Circle's John Gassner Award for Best New American Play and was nominated for a Drama League, Drama Desk, and Tony Award.

Jonatha Brooke has ten solo releases to her credit (and two from her duo, The Story) her most recent endeavor was writing and performing the one-woman musical My Mother Has 4 Noses. Another notable project was 2008's The Works, a collection of songs written after being invited into Woody Guthrie's archives by his daughter. Jonatha combed through previously unseen lyrics of Woody's, edited, pared, and set them to her own new music. Currently Jonatha lives in Minneapolis where she is working on three new musicals.

Sheryl Kaller received a Tony Nomination for Best Director for the Broadway production of Next Fall by Geoffrey Nauffts. She also directed Terence McNally's Tony nominated play Mothers and Sons with Tyne Daly on Broadway. Other recent projects include: Our Town at The Pasadena Playhouse, Sacred Valley by Josh Radnor, Frozen for Disney Creative/Disney Cruise Lines, While I Yet Live by Billy Porter, The White Chip by Sean Daniels, and Choice by Winnie Holzman.

The Switched workshop presentation will be held January 27th, 2018 at 3pm, in The Recital Hall in the Performing Arts Center. A talk back with the creative team will follow the performance, moderated by Jim Price, Head of the award winning MFA Dramatic Writing Program at Texas State.The final presentation will be open to the public at no charge. For reservations visit: www.txstatepresents.com

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