Know Theatre Presents 'Adding Machine: A Musical', 2/13-3/6

Know Theatre of Cincinnati is pleased to announce its third production of the season, Adding Machine: A Musical, with original music by Joshua Schmidt and libretto by Jason Loewith & Joshua Schmidt based on the play The Adding Machine by Elmer Rice. Adding Machine: A Musical will open on Know Theatre's mainstage February 13 and play through March 6, 2010. Michael Burnham will direct the production and Alan Patrick Kenny is the Musical Director. PLEASE NOTE: the dates have changed from the original production announcement. The opening has been pushed back one week from February 6 to February 13, 2010.

This musical adaptation of Elmer Rice's 1923 play is a heartbreaking and brilliant tale of the life of middle-class worker, Mr. Zero. After 25 years of service to his company he is replaced by a mechanical adding machine and in a vengeful rage, murders his boss. Zero arrives at an afterlife in the Elysian Fields where he is forced to decide his fate for eternity. The angelic and remarkably eclectic score gives each character a unique voice for their hopes, dreams, and failures as they wander through their monotonous and darkly comic lives.

"Like so many of our own dreams, Mr. Zero's are warped by his desire for a routinely comfortable place to hide from the ambiguities of a rapidly changing world. He is stuck perpetually in a present that seems comfortably numbing even as it daily grows more shallow," says director Michael Burnham. "What really brought me to this piece was the music. I love how Joshua Schmidt's score begins in Elmer Rice's world and proceeds to haul us by the scruff of the neck straight into our own. It's stunning. It's got as many emotional colors to it as our post-post-modern lives do."

"This show is so dear to me, I can hardly find words to express it," says Managing Director, Eric Vosmeier. He continues, "The creative team is a strange little dream team - starting with Michael and Alan and all the way through the cast. This is one of the most interesting casts Know Theatre has ever assembled. I'm terribly excited about putting them all on stage together."

Music Director Alan Patrick Kenny adds, "It's remarkably eclectic piece of work and it definitely doesn't sound like any other musical I've ever worked on. Schmidt advanced the musical theatre form in a really powerful way with this piece. He tried to use sounds that aren't used in musical theatre. Even though its influences are so diverse, it all sounds like one composition coming from a specific voice and a specific vision. This is very attractive to me as a musical director."

Burnham is excited about returning to Know Theatre, "It's been a long time since I've been at Know Theatre and it's a place that has been monumental to making me who I am. Know Theatre's audience is my favorite audience in the city," says Michael.

Michael Burnham (Director) is a Cincinnati director, actor, writer, and dramaturg who teaches in the Drama Department at UC's College-Conservatory of Music. For the Know, he's directed Lanford Wilson's Ukia, Athol Fugard's My Children My Africa, the Post-Corbett Award winning production of Terrance McNally's Corpus Christi, and appeared in Adam Rapp's Gompers. Michael is in the Cincinnati Entertainment Awards Hall of Fame and was also the mad scientist in the image for the 2009 Cincinnati Fringe Festival.

Alan Patrick Kenny (Musical Director) served as the co-founder and Producing Artistic Director of New Stage Collective. During his tenure, he led the company through 7 seasons, winning numerous awards for his productions. This fall, he assisted director Jonathan Moscone on Beckett's Happy Days at CalShakes, directed Dirty Rotten Scoundrels at the Carnegie, Equus at New Edgecliff, and played keyboards aboard Holland America Cruise Lines. Previously Alan was also the Musical Director for Know Theatre's production of See What I Wanna See. He is proud to return to the Know for this challenging piece.

All tickets to all Know Theatre productions are $12 in advance and $15 on the day of the performance. You can purchase online www.knowtheatre.com or call the Know Theatre box office at (513) 300-KNOW (5669).

Adding Machine: A Musical with original music by Joshua Schmidt and libretto by Jason Loewith & Joshua Schmidt based on the play The Adding Machine by Elmer Rice.

Mainstage performances

February 13 - March 6, 2010

8 PM performances: Feb 13, 18, 19, 20, 25, 26, 27, Mar 4, 5, 6

3 PM performances: Feb 28

Cash bar before and after show

Cast
Mr. Zero - Robert Pavlovich*
Mrs. Zero - Aretta Baumgartner
Daisy - Liz Vosmeier
Shrdlu - Rich Roedersheimer
Boss/Fixer/Charles - Joshua Murphy
Ensemble - Beth Harris
Ensemble - Blythe Walker
Ensemble - Chris Wesselman
Ensemble - Ken Early

Creative Team

Director - Michael Burnham

Musical Direction - Alan Patrick Kenny

Scenic Design - Andrew J. Hungerford

Lighting Design - Josh Mansker

Costume Design - Susan Toy

Sound Design - Doug Borntrager

Additional Cast Biographical Information:

Aretta Baumgartner's debut with Know Theatre of Cincinnati. Aretta was seen working with Performance Gallery in all previous seasons of the Cincinnati Fringe Festival.

Ken Early last appeared on Know's stage in The Last Days of Judas Iscariot. Other stage credits include Sleeping Beauty and Grey Gardens at Ensemble Theatre; Oklahoma for Jersey Productions and Dead City for New Stage Collective.

Beth Harris has appeared at Ensemble Theatre for many productions including Don't Make Me Pull This Show Over..., Hedwig & The Angry Inch, Syncopation, Sleepy Beauty and in Dying City at the recently closed New Stage Collective. Beth also is a member of local band, The Hiders.

Rob Pavlovich (playing the lead role of Mr. Zero) last appeared at Know Theatre as the Father in Sarah Ruhl's Eurydice. Robert Is a current faculty member at UC's College-Conservatory of Music (CCM).

Rich Roedersheimer previously performed with the national tours of Oklahoma! and Ragtime.

Blythe Walker, a former member of the CCM Voice Faculty has performed in opera with the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, Public Theatre and the Cincinnati Opera.

Chris Wesselman was very recently seen in Sideways Stories from Wayside School, and Vigils at Know Theatre. Chris also recently received a Cincinnati Entertainment Award for the 2009 Cincinnati Fringe production of A Perfectly Wonderful Evening.

Know Theatre of Cincinnati creates explosive and evocative live entertainment. 

Know Theatre of Cincinnati envisions a world awakened to its collective possibility.

 

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