Short Musical by Smashing Pumpkins' Billy Corgan, MILL GIRLS and More Set for Music Theatre Company's 2014-15 Season

Founding Artistic Director Jessica Beth Redish and Co-Artistic Director Jess McLeod are pleased to announce The Music Theatre Company's (TMTC) 2014-2015 season, which begins December 4, 2014 and runs through August 2015.

TMTC's 2014-2015 season includes a 20-minute world premiere musical by Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan, an evening about the making of Rodgers & Hammerstein's Allegro at Ravinia Festival, and presentations of new musicals previously commissioned by TMTC: Mill Girls, Book by Samantha Beach and Music & Lyrics by Diana Lawrence, and The 9/11 Report, Conceived by Founding Artistic Director Jessica Beth Redish, with Music & Lyrics by Michael Mahler.

The 48-Hour Musicals: Encore! (December 4-14, 2014)

The 48-Hour Musicals, for which 15-minute musicals are created in 48 hours, has been an annual mainstay of the TMTC season since 2008. Featuring the world-premiere presentation of a new 20-minute musical by Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan based on the Eleusinian Mysteries, this December TMTC reprises four short works which have inspired future commissions from TMTC, including: Tereshkova by Scotty Arnold; Postcards from Paris by Associate Artist Diana Lawrence, CHASE by Associate Artist Michael Mahler, and Reception by J. Oconer Navarro. Co-Artistic Director Jess McLeod directs and Founding Artistic Director Jessica Beth Redish choreographs.

Said Corgan: "My interest in musical theatre has grown throughout the years. Ms. Redish, I believe, is a visionary; she's inspired me to jump into the narrative form in a fresh way. A work, when composed, should afford her choreography a supple support, and myself as writer new territory."

The 48-Hour Musicals: Encore! will be presented at TMTC's space at 1850 Green Bay Road in Highland Park. Encore! plays Thursdays-Saturdays at 8pm and Sundays at 2pm. Tickets for The 48-Hour Musicals are $35 for the preview performance (December 4) and $40 for regular performances (December 5-14), and are available by calling the TMTC Box Office at (847) 579-4900 or visiting www.themusictheatrecompany.org.

OSCAR & RICHARD & JOE: An Evening about Rodgers & Hammerstein's Allegro (January 31, 2015)

TMTC joins forces with Ravinia Festival to create a one-night-only event: a musical exploration of Allegro. After the immense popularity of Oklahoma! and Carousel, the now-legendary team undertook a revolutionary new musical, Allegro. The show sharply divided critics, but Stephen Sondheim, who served as a production assistant on the original production, found much to admire. The evening will explore the context of the musical through theatrical footnotes of its history and legacy, as well as showcase key moments and songs from this rarely-produced gem. Conceived and Directed by Jessica Beth Redish, Written by Scotty Arnold, OSCAR & RICHARD & JOE features songs from Allegro, Music by Richard Rodgers, Book & Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II.

"Anything I can do to involve the multi-talented and brilliant Jessica Redish at Ravinia is a top priority for me," said Ravinia Festival President & CEO Welz Kauffman. "I'm so pleased Jessica's take on Allegro will come to Ravinia in the 14/15 season."

OSCAR & RICHARD & JOE will be presented in Ravinia Festival's Bennett Gordon Hall on January 31, at 8:00pm. Tickets are $10 and available by calling the Ravinia Festival Box Office at (847) 266-5100 or visiting www.ravinia.org.

Mill Girls (Summer 2015)

Mill Girls, originally commissioned and developed by TMTC in 2014, is a smart, feisty new musical about the young women who left small towns behind to earn higher wages at the newly-built cotton factories of Lowell, Massachusetts. These bright, hungry workers used their paychecks to pay down family debt, send their brothers to college, and take advantage of Lowell's cultural offerings. But when conditions worsened, the Mill Girls were forced to choose: cling to their jobs at all costs, or stand against the factories. Conceived and directed by Co-Artistic Director Jess McLeod and choreographed by Founding Artistic Director Jessica Beth Redish, Mill Girls features Music & Lyrics by TMTC Associate Artist Diana Lawrence and Book by Samantha Beach.

Tickets for Mill Girls will be available starting March 8, 2015, International Women's Day, by calling the TMTC Box Office at (847) 579-4900 or visiting www.themusictheatrecompany.org.

The 9/11 Report (Summer 2015)

Originally commissioned and developed by TMTC, The 9/11 Report explores the 9/11 Commission's Report and the myriad perspectives, agendas, and failures of imagination surrounding the darkest day in modern American history. This folk-rock music theatre piece is Conceived and Adapted by Founding Artistic Director Jessica Beth Redish, who directs and choreographs, and features Music & Lyrics by Jeff Award winner Michael Mahler, with spoken word poetry by Oron Stenesh.

Tickets for The 9/11 Report will be available starting March 8, 2015, by calling the TMTC Box Office at (847) 579-4900 or visiting www.themusictheatrecompany.org.

Co-Artistic Director Jess McLeod joins TMTC's staff for the 2014-2015 season, having been an Associate Artist with the company since 2011 and directing The Pajama Game and Fugitive Songs in Concert as well as the Young Artists' Program presentations of Mill Girls, Zanna, Don't! and YAPbook '11.

Said Founding Artistic Director Jessica Beth Redish of McLeod's appointment: "My goal in founding The Music Theatre Company was to create a home in which daring new works of musical theatre could thrive. I am delighted that my colleague Jess McLeod has joined me in this pursuit, and by adding her dramaturgical wisdom, incisive skill and abundant creativity to our team, I am confident this goal is able to be realized."

McLeod served as Director of Programming of The New York Musical Theatre Festival and received her M.F.A. in Directing from Northwestern University. Chicago credits include Season on the Line (The House Theatre of Chicago), L-Vis Live! (Victory Gardens), Funeral Wedding: The Alvin Play (Strange Tree Group), Kin (Griffin Theatre), The Wedding Singer (Haven Theatre), and Venus (Steppenwolf, Next Up!). She has directed workshops of new plays and musicals at the Goodman Theatre, American Theater Company, the American Musical Theatre Project, TMTC, and Steep Theatre.

McLeod states: "The Music Theatre Company is a unique home for musical theatre artists, one that simultaneously nurtures and challenges writers, actors, directors, and choreographers with an exceptional understanding of and love for the form. I'm thrilled to be working alongside my colleague, Founding Artistic Director Jessica Beth Redish, to create not just the next great innovative American musical, but the next twenty."

Joining the TMTC Advisory Board this season are Broadway and Chicago Director Gary Griffin, Producer Jan Kallish and Chicago Shakespeare Theater Associate Producer Heather Schmucker. Said Griffin: "The artistry of Jess McLeod gives me hope for the future of musical theatre. Her passion for investigating new musical frontiers is truly rare and inspiring."

Associate Artist Michael Mahler stated: "I've been lucky enough to work with both Jess McLeod and Jessica Beth Redish -- I count them among my favorite director collaborators. Both have a strong artistic vision and uncanny way of bringing the best out of a writer and helping a piece find its footing."

"We're ready to shake things up," said McLeod.

To purchase tickets or for more information call The Music Theatre Company at 847.579.4900 (Box Office hours: 10am-3pm Tuesday-Friday) or visit www.themusictheatrecompany.org. Located at 1850 Green Bay Road in Highland Park, The Music Theatre Company explores the musical in the interest of expanding the canon of musical theatre through fully-staged productions, commissions of new works, and musical experiments.

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