Marcy Heisler and Zina Goldrich to Preview EVER AFTER at Roosevelt University's VIVID 2014, 4/8

Chicagoland will get a preview of new songs from the Broadway-bound show, Ever After, by Deerfield native Marcy Heisler and Zina Goldrich, as well as experience some of the best in opera as Roosevelt's Chicago College of Performing Arts (CCPA) presents VIVID 2014 at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 8 at the Auditorium Theatre.

Forty-eight graduate voice students and members of the CCPA-Chicago Opera Theater Professional Diploma in Opera Program will present selections from four popular operas during the first half of the show.

Eleven musical theatre students from CCPA's Theatre Conservatory will take the stage for the second half of the show to present "Sing Your Own Song: The Music of Marcy Heisler and Zina Goldrich" in a program that includes selections from the pair's new 2015 Broadway-bound show Ever After.

"The performance will feature many beloved opera excerpts," said Andrew Eggert, a Hinsdale native and head of the opera program at Roosevelt University who is directing the opera portion of VIVID 2014. "It's a great opportunity to hear some marvelous music in one of the true acoustic gems in the Chicago area," he said.

Selections from Giuseppe Verdi's La traviata and Falstaff, Gioachino Rossini's Il viaggio a Reims, Giacomo Puccini's Madama Butterfly and Georges Bizet's Les pêcheurs de perles will be performed with piano accompaniment during the annual VIVID event, which is the largest and most celebrated student performance of the academic year for CCPA.

"This is a splendid evening and a great opportunity for all to see and hear the promising young talent at Roosevelt's Chicago College of Performing Arts," said Henry Fogel, dean of CCPA and the evening's master of ceremonies.

The musical theatre portion of the show will feature performances by Roosevelt's sophomore, junior and senior musical theatre students who hail from all over the country. Their performances will be a tribute to celebrated songwriting partners, lyricist Heisler and composer Goldrich. Selections will be sung for the first time from the pair's upcoming Broadway show, Ever After, which is based on a film by the same name starring Drew Barrymore and Angelica Huston. The new musical is expected to set the record straight on the fable of Cinderella, showing how a strong-willed independent girl can make dreams come true without help from fairy godmothers, talking mice or magic pumpkins.

"We will be honoring a team of songwriters who have been working together for 20 years by doing an entire showcase of their work," said Ray Frewen, associate professor of theatre, assistant director of the Theatre Conservatory and director of the musical theatre segment of VIVID 2014. A well-known Chicago actor and formerly a producer at Apple Tree Theatre in Highland Park, Frewen has known Heisler and her work since the author and lyricist worked with him at Apple Tree, paving the way for CCPA to debut some of Ever After's songs and scenes.

VIVID 2014 is free and open to the public but tickets are required and may be picked up from noon to 6 p.m. Mondays through Fridays at the Auditorium. Theatre Box Office, 50 E. Congress Parkway, Chicago. Tickets also can be reserved at www.ticketmaster.com. There will be a $1 service fee per ticket for reservations made online. For more information, visit www.roosevelt.edu/ccpa or call 312-341-2238.

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