ADDING MACHINE's Loewith & Schmidt to Visit Speak Easy Stage, 3/14 & 3/21

 

Jason Loewith and Joshua Schmidt, the creators of the hit Off-Broadway musical ADDING MACHINE: A MUSICAL, will be in Boston in March to visit SpeakEasy Stage and attend a performance of the New England premiere production of their show.

Co-librettist Jason Loewith will take audience questions following the matinee this Sunday, March 14th at 3PM. Mr. Loewith commissioned ADDING MACHINE for Chicago's Next Theatre Company while serving as Artistic Director for that company. He is now Executive Director of the National New Play Network in Washington, DC.

Composer and co-librettist Joshua Schmidt will field audience comments following the matinee on Sunday, March 21st at 3PM. Currently one of the most sought-after young musical theater composers in the country, Mr. Schmidt recently wrote the music for the recent Broadway run of The Neil Simon Plays and the current Lincoln Center production of When the Rain Stops Falling.

For their work on ADDING MACHINE: A MUSICAL, which enjoyed a five-month run Off-Broadway in 2008, Mr. Schmidt and Mr. Loewith won Lucille Lortel, Outer Critics Circle, Jefferson, and After Dark Awards for Best New Musical.

Based on The Adding Machine, Elmer Rice's incendiary 1923 play, ADDING MACHINE: A MUSICAL tells the story of Mr. Zero, who after 25 years of service to his company, is replaced by a mechanical adding machine. In a vengeful rage, Zero murders his boss. An eclectic score gives passionate and memorable voice to this stylish and stylized show, which follows Zero's journey to the afterlife in the Elysian Fields where he is met with one last chance for romance and redemption.

ADDING MACHINE runs March 12 thru April 10, 2010 in the Roberts Studio Theatre in the Stanford Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts, 527 Tremont Street in Boston's South End.

Brendan McNab, Amelia Broome and Leigh Barrett head an all-star Boston cast for the SpeakEasy Stage production, which is being directed by Paul Melone. The artistic team also includes music director Steven Bergman and choreographer David Connolly.

For tickets or more information, the public is invited to call the BostonTheaterScene.com box-office at 617-933-8600 or visit www.SpeakEasyStage.com.

Jason Loewith (Co-librettist) won Lucille Lortel, Outer Critics Circle, Jeff and After Dark Awards for Best New Musical for ADDING MACHINE: A MUSICAL, which he co-wrote with composer Joshua Schmidt. He produced the world premiere at Chicago's Next Theatre Company in 2007, where he served as Artistic Director from 2002-2008. That production went on to a six-month commercial run Off-Broadway in 2008, winning four Obie Awards for direction, design and performance. 

For Next Theatre Company, he shepherded more than 20 productions to the stage, including five plays in world premieres or workshops. His programming twice received the After Dark Award for Outstanding Season (03-04 and 05-06), and work that he directed or produced won multiple Jeff, After Dark, and Black Theatre Alliance Awards and received critical accolades from Chicago's major media outlets. While in Chicago, Jason directed area premieres of works by John Patrick Shanley, Paula Vogel, Lynn Nottage, and many others. He also recently directed a critically-acclaimed production of ADDING MACHINE at DC's Studio Theatre, and heads back to Chicago in April 2010 to helm a production of his new adaptation of Karel Capek's War With the Newts. He is also putting the finishing touches on The Director's Voice, a series of interviews with legendary directors due out from TCG in spring 2010.

Since moving to Washington in October 2008, Jason was appointed Executive Director of the National New Play Network, the country's leading alliance of nonprofit theaters that champion the development, production, and continued life of new plays. Prior to his leadership roles in Washington and Chicago, Jason served for five years as General Manager of Off-Broadway's Classic Stage Company.

He holds an AB from Brown University and an MA in Dramatic Arts from the University of California in Santa Barbara.

Joshua Schmidt (Composer, Co-librettist) is a New York- and Milwaukee-based composer/sound designer who has become one of the most sought-after young musical theater composers in the country.

His original compositions have been heard on Broadway (The Neil Simon Plays, When the Rain Stops Falling); Off- Broadway (ADDING MACHINE, Fifty Words, Crime and Punishment); and in Chicago (Steppenwolf: Tempest, Love-Lies Bleeding; Writers' Theatre: A Minister's Wife; Northlight: Lady Windermere's Fan, The Chalk Garden; Senachai: Journey's End; others). He has also contributed to over 100 regional productions.

His musical ADDING MACHINE finished its Off-Broadway run at the Minetta Lane Theatre on July 20th, 2008, where it won four Lortel Awards (six nominations) including Best Musical, two Outer Critics Circle Awards (four nominations) including Best Musical Off-Broadway Score, four Obies, nine Drama Desk Nominations (including Best Musical, Score, Book and Lyrics), and a Drama League Nomination for Best Musical.
His next work A Minister's Wife premiered at Writers' Theatre in Glencoe, IL in May of 2009, received six Joseph Jefferson Award nominations and two awards, including Best New Work - Musical.

His composition/sound design work has been featured throughout the USA at venues including: Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Writers' Theatre, Next Theatre, Northlight Theatre, and Seanachai Theatre Company (Chicago); Alley Theatre (Houston); Seattle Repertory Theatre (Seattle); Kansas City Rep (Kansas City, MO); Cleveland Playhouse (Cleveland); Kennedy Center, Ford's Theatre, and Studio Theatre (Washington, DC); Broadway/Nederlander Theater, MCC, Minetta Lane Theatre, Public Theatre (associate design), Builders Association (associate design), Jean Cocteau Rep, and Genesius Theatre Guild (New York, NY).

He is a recipient of the 2003-2005 NEA/TCG Career Development Program Award and was named one of nine emerging designers in Entertainment/Design Magazine in 2004. He has received six Joseph Jefferson Award nominations and three Awards for his composition/sound design work in Chicago.

SpeakEasy Stage is the Calderwood Pavilion Resident Theatre Company at the The Boston Center for the Arts (BCA), the nonprofit performing and visual arts center whose mission is to support working artists to create, perform, and exhibit new work; to develop new audiences; and to connect the arts to a broad public. For more information, visit www.bcaonline.org.

ADDING MACHINE: A MUSICAL

Original Music by Joshua Schmidt, Libretto by Jason Loewith & Joshua Schmidt

Based on the play The Adding Machine by Elmer Rice

A musical adaptation of Elmer Rice's incendiary 1923 play, ADDING MACHINE: A MUSICAL tells the story of Mr. Zero, who after 25 years of service to his company is replaced by a mechanical adding machine. An eclectic score gives passionate and memorable voice to this stylish and stylized show.

Presented by: SpeakEasy Stage Company, the Calderwood Pavilion Resident Theatre Company at the Boston Center for the Arts; Paul Daigneault, Producing Artistic Director
Cast: John Bambery, Leigh Barrett, Amelia Broome, Bob De Vivo, Liz Hayes, David Krinitt,

Sean McGuirk, Cheryl McMahon & Brendan McNab

Director: Paul Melone
Music Direction: Steven Bergman

Choreography: David Connolly
Production Stage Manager: Victoria S. Coady

Design Team: Susan Zeeman Rogers, Scenic Design

Gail Astrid Buckley, Costume Design

Jeff Adelberg, Lighting Design

Aaron Mack, Sound Design
Performing at: The Nancy & Edward Roberts Studio Theatre

in the Stanford Calderwood Pavilion

at the Boston Center for the Arts,

527 Tremont Street in Boston's South End

Press Performance: Sunday, March 14, 2010

Performance Schedule: Mar. 12-Apr. 10, 2010

Wed., Thurs. at 7:30PM; Fri at 8 PM; Sat. at 4 & 8PM; Sun at 3PM

Additional Performance: Tues. 4/6 at 7:30PM

Run Time: 90 minutes without intermission

Ticket Prices: Tu, Wed, Th. 7:30PM; Fri. 8PM, -- $51.00 / $46.00 Student/Sr.

Sat. 4 & 8 PM; Sun. at 3PM -- $54.00 / $49.00 Student/Sr.

Gallery Seats: $30 at all times, subject to availability, no discounts.

Student Rush: $14 with valid college ID, at the box-office only, one hour

before curtain, subject to availability, one per person.

Box Office: 617-933-8600; www.BostonTheatreScene.com

 

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