Encore Theater Company Hosts Development Residency For THE PROOF 10/6-13

Encore Theater Company is thrilled to host The Bengsons to develop their new musical, THE PROOF, through a weeklong residency. Abigail Nessen Bengson and Shaun McClain Bengson and their cast and musicians (some local and others from around the country) are spending October 6 - 13, 2010 here with ETC in Dayton to further develop the show before it moves to New York, with the final day featuring a selected audience performance and discussion.

THE PROOF, featuring a cast of five and a live band is an exhilarating, heartbreaking experimental folk opera. Featuring the critically acclaimed music of The Bengsons and groundbreaking video projections, The Proof tells the story of a young couple falling madly in love, only to be hit with the sudden diagnosis of a terminal illness. With only a year left to be together, they decide to live sixty years in twelve months - to celebrate the ordinary moments of a life that they would have had together. THE PROOF explores the impact of love upon the mutable and illusory nature of time within life, music, and theate-and how love makes us mortal.

The Bengsons not only create musicals, but are also renowned performers and activists and rising stars in the NYC experimental music and theater community. They have performed their original musicals, Ain't That Good News and The Magic Show: The Story of the Barefoot Angels, across the country and around the world. They have appeared to acclaim at such venues as Culture Project's Women Center Stage (NYC), MASS MoCA (North Adams, MA), terraNOVA Collective's solo NOVA Arts Festival at The Daryl Roth Theater (NYC), La Mama E.T.C. (NYC), Dixon Place (NYC), BRIClab (Brooklyn, NY), The Flynn (Burlington, VT), Town Hall Theater (Middlebury, VT), The Thacher School (Ojai, CA), the Tijuana Christian Orphanage (Tijuana, Mexico) and the Market Theater (Johannesburg, South Africa). The Bengsons have taught students in NYC's public schools and Cambodian immigrants in Massachusetts, as well as internationally, including at the Market Theater Lab of Johannesburg, ZA, the Tijuana Christian Orphanage of Tijuana, Mexico, and ASAPROSA, in Santa Ana, El Salvador. They are no strangers to the Encore stage: previously, ETC presented their musicals Ain't That Good News and The Magic Show, and, during our 2010 summer mainstage production of Rent, Abigail starred as "Mimi" while Shaun led the band on lead guitar.

The New York Times calls the Bengsons, "Not only a tremendous musical talent, but also a raw honesty and sincere righteousness."

Other members of the New York production team of THE PROOF include Andrew Lazarow (projection design), David Eppel (director), and David Neumann (choreography).

ETC is excited at this opportunity to have the Bengsons return to Dayton and to help develop a new musical through this residency. The final day of the residency will be an invitation-only performance of THE PROOF. That performance will take place in the Oregon District Arts Collaborative space on October 13, 2010.

Critical Acclaim for The Bengsons

"Not only a tremendous musical talent, but also a raw honesty and sincere righteousness."
The New York Times

"There is just no easy way to describe the experience... It's a little bit of everything and also unlike anything you've seen and heard before. There's no show quite like it... on any stage anywhere."
CityBeat

"Inspired... worthy of Bob Fosse's Cabaret work, as funny as it is horrifying."
EDGE Entertainment

"Beautiful and artful."
NYTheater.com

"A rare and compelling talent."
Rachel Chanoff, Artistic Director of Celebrate Brooklyn and MASS MoCA

"Friendly, fresh-faced and downright enchanting... audiences are bound to sit up and take notice."
Addison Independent

"Tremendous vocals and a range of stunning and diverse musical stylings... Would bring tears to even Charles Manson's eyes."
Brandon Lucy Campos, My Feet Only Walk Forward

 

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