Hartt Students Featured in Goodspeed Fest Of New Artists

This January, hundreds of theatre enthusiasts from across the region will convene at the Goodspeed Opera House to experience the newest works in musical theatre. The Goodspeed campus will come alive as emerging writers, established creative teams, Goodspeed artistic staff, and senior music theatre students from The Hartt School of the University of Hartford collaborate in a weekend-long festival of new musicals.

The Sixth Annual Goodspeed Festival of New Artists, produced by Goodspeed Musicals' Max Showalter Center for Education in Musical Theatre, kicks off its much anticipated three day festival of brand new works on Friday, January 14, at the Goodspeed Opera House with a staged reading of Room 16. On Saturday, January 15, the new-fashioned musical Hello! My Baby debuts. On the final day of the festival, Nobody Loves You will be presented. Several special events will round out this exciting weekend. Performances will be held at the Goodspeed Opera House, 6 Main Street, East Haddam, CT. Tickets are available at the Goodspeed Box Office or by calling 860.873.8668 or online at www.goodspeed.org. Tickets are $15 each for one show and $10 each for students. This year's festival is sponsored in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Noel Coward Foundation, and RisCassi & Davis. P.C.

This year, Goodspeed has expanded its popular Festival Package with a weekend full of special events, including the three staged readings; the New Musical Preview, a short preview of a new musical headed to The Norma Terris Theatre in 2011; the Symposium panel discussion with musical theatre luminaries; "Pick-Three" festival seminar sessions; a Saturday evening pre-show dinner at the Gelston House, with an engaging post dinner discussion hosted by a special guest speaker; and a Meet the Writers Reception which will complete the weekend's festivities. Also included in Goodspeed's special Festival Package is admittance to the Friday Night and Saturday Night Cabarets, informal gatherings showcasing new songs by new artists. For both Festival Package and single ticket holders, Goodspeed Opera House tours will be offered throughout the weekend.

"The Sixth Annual Goodspeed Festival of New Artists, with its expanded programs and wonderful new talents, highlights our commitment to developing new musicals," said Michael P. Price, Executive Director of Goodspeed Musicals. "It's thrilling for us to see the Goodspeed campus bustling in wintertime. Our community comes alive when hundreds of musical theatre fans from around the country join the best and brightest new writers and performers as they work together to create the future of musical theatre," he added.

About the staged readings, in which Hartt students will perform along side Equity professional actors to bring these new musicals to life:

Room 16
Friday, January 15, 7:30 PM, Goodspeed Opera House
Book by Andrea Lepcio
Music by Stephen Sislen
Lyrics by Stephen Sislen and Ben H. Winters
Originally Developed by Stephen Sislen and Ben H. Winters
Room 16 tells the story of the unlikely friendship between G. Gordon Liddy and E. Howard Hunt, and the events leading to the Watergate break-in of June 1972. With a score spanning America popular musical styles from swing and big band to folk and early '70s rock, Room 16 is a fast-paced and darkly comedic look inside American political history.

Hello! My Baby
Saturday, January 15, 7:30 PM, Goodspeed Opera House
Book and New Lyrics by Cheri Steinkellner
New Music and Arrangements by Georgia Stitt
From debutante balls to Delancey Street, Hello! My Baby puts a new-fashioned spin on the great American songbook musical, weaving the updated hits of Berlin, Gershwin, Kern, and a score of others into a timely and hilarious tale of first love, class-struggles, street-gangs, gender-swapping, and a whole lot of ukuleles.

Nobody Loves You
Sunday, January 17, 1:00 PM, Goodspeed Opera House
Music & Lyrics by Gaby Alter
Book & Lyrics by Itamar Moses
A romantic comedy about the search for meaningful relationships in a culture dominated by the quest for popularity. When Jeff, a philosophy grad student, goes on a reality TV dating show to win back his ex, he instead finds a girl who might be the love of his life. But will she fall for him once he is seduced by the adulation of his fans?

Created in 2002, Goodspeed's Showalter Center inspires and nurtures musical theatre artists and students by providing a unique and comprehensive range of training and educational programs to serve both the national and local academic communities. One of the Showalter Center's major endeavors is The New Artists program. It offers new and emerging artists the rare opportunity to thoroughly work on their projects with the help of Goodspeed's renowned resources and artistic environment, while affording senior students from The Hartt School real-world experience in new musical development and performing new musicals. This year, students from Boston Conservatory also will participate in the New Artists program.

The New Artists program is being held throughout the Goodspeed campus January 4 - 16, 2010. During the first week of the program, three teams of writers and composers will dedicate their time to further writing and composing their musicals in development. In the second week, senior students from The Hartt School and Boston Conservatory will join them for rehearsals and continued development of the material. The New Artists program culminates with Goodspeed's Festival of New Artists, which will showcase staged readings of the new musicals developed during the New Artists Program and is open to the public. Goodspeed's New Artist Program is generously sponsored by The Adolph & Ruth Schnurmacher Foundation.

The Hartt School is the comprehensive performing arts conservatory of the University of Hartford that offers innovative degree programs in music, dance, and theatre. Founded 90 years ago, Hartt has been an integral part of the University of Hartford since its charter merged the then Hartt School of Music, the Hartford Art School, and Hillyer College to create the University in 1957. 2010 marks Hartt's 90th year of providing world class performing arts education to students in Greater-Hartford and around the world. With more than 400 concerts, recitals, plays, master classes, dance performances, and musical theatre productions a year, performance is central to Hartt's curriculum. For more information about The Hartt School, visit www.hartford.edu/hartt.

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