EMILY’S SONG Takes The Stage At Hudson Backstage Theatre

Jordan Productions presents a world premiere musical event, EMILY'S SONG, written and directed by Chet Holmes, with musical direction by Amanda Holmes and produced by Sara Risher and Leigh Fortier and starring Lindsey Haun as Emily (currently featured on HBO'S "True Blood" as Hadley Stackhouse). EMILY'S SONG will begin previews on Sunday January 9 and will open on Saturday, January 15 and perform for six weeks through Sunday, February 27 at the Hudson Backstage Theatre, 6539 Santa Monica Blvd. in Hollywood.

An emotionally riveting musical, EMILY'S SONG focuses on Emily, whose mother dies in childbirth leaving her father, Charlie, to raise her on his own. By ten years old, she is a musical prodigy, outplaying her musician father on the piano and helping him earn a living by writing better material. The father's best writing however comes when he decides to write "Emily's Song," a song for his daughter, a song that teaches her to "dream her dreams" and go after what she should have in life. Tragedy strikes again when Charlie goes on a business trip and mysteriously disappears leaving Emily isolated and alone. As years pass, Emily's emotional grief fuels her talent as a fast rising singer/songwriter, setting the world on fire with her soul-filled style. But just as fame finds her, will true love elude her as her fear of loss keeps her from falling in love with a man who may truly be the one?

EMILY'S SONG is filled with life's epic struggles and triumphs. It's the quintessential rags to riches story, emotionally satisfying and uplifting. Come and live in the music, come and live in the journey, come and live in the love that EMILY'S SONG will overflow

ABOUT "EMILY'S SONG"

EMILY'S SONG was originally a movie sold to Warner Brothers with LeAnn Rimes attached to play the title role. After years of development, Chet Holmes decided to re-create Emily's Song as a musical for the theatre.

Mr. Holmes always took great pride in his work and dreams; however he felt that his most important accomplishment was raising his children. On New Year's Eve years ago Chet was dancing with his ten year old daughter Amanda when he felt winded and easily tired. "I knew something was seriously wrong." A test revealed that Chet had colon cancer. After surgery removed a third of his large intestines, Chet started thinking about how much his children's lives would change if he were suddenly not around anymore.

This became the inspiration for Emily's Song, a story about a ten year-old girl who loses her father. Chet wrote the first draft of Emily's Song in a mere few weeks, his whole heart poured into each page. It is moments like these when life is threatened, that stories of true heart and soul are built.

Half of the songs in Emily's Song were written by his daughter Amanda Holmes and the other half were written by Chet Holmes and Tom Shepard, (who originally secured a songwriting contract with Warner Brothers to accompany the feature film). Amanda Holmes, inspired by a long history of music in her family, has become a formidable song writer, following in her father's footsteps. Chet had ten bands in his youth and composed more than 200 songs with his song-writing partner, Tom Shepard.

ABOUT THE CREATIVE TEAM AND CAST

CHET HOLMES (Writer/Director) has written a NY Times Best Seller, The Ultimate Sales Machine, which has also been the #1, 2 or 3 sales and sales management book on Amazon for 3.5 years now. He has built 75 training products selling in 60 countries, and designed more than 500 record-breaking advertising campaigns. He is also partner with Tony Robbins, in a 12-company conglomerate, BusinessBreakthroughs.com, where Chet is the CEO and chairman. Having lived in 50 different places in his youth before settling down, Chet credits his success in sales and marketing with his broad understanding of "what the people want." Chet feels that this same understanding also gives him the insights to produce and write stories that have a mass appeal. He also had ten bands as a youth and composed over 200 songs.

Chet wrote the feature film, Emily's Song, and sold it to Warner Brothers, with LeAnn Rimes attached to play the lead role. In addition to securing the sale of his screenplay, Chet also secured a song-writing contract and a producer contract on Emily's Song, "an epic musical journey straight to your heart." He also recently completed The Strongest Man on Earth, which currently has a publishing offer.

Having a 5th degree black belt from his youth, Chet wrote and produced Immortal Vengeance, a karate movie in 1999. He was also executive producer of In the Name of the King in 2007, a $62 million film with ten movie stars, including, Jason Statham, Claire Forlani, Matthew Lillard, Leelee Sobieski and Burt Reynolds.

Chet has completed eight more screenplays, including The Mercenary, Kings of the Earth, Spartacus 2010, Above All Else, This Vacation Bites, Utopian Warrior and so on.

While the creative path is Chet's true passion, with designs to tell "highly satisfying commercial stories that appeal to the masses," he has had an elaborate business career as well. Chet doubled the sales of nine different divisions of a company owned by billionaire Charlie Munger (co-chair to Warren Buffett at Berkshire Hathaway). He has had more than 60 of the Fortune 500 as clients, including American Express, New York Stock Exchange, Estee Lauder, NBC Television, WR Grace, Citibank, Apple Computers, GNC and so on. His company with Tony Robbins, Business Breakthroughs (.com), provides a vast array of products and services that help companies grow, including Search Engine Optimization, CRM, website development, sales training, marketing training, consulting, research, recruiting, etc.

Chet's greatest accomplishment is as a parent where he has raised two outstanding children who are well-adjusted, fun- loving and strong in every way.

The cast of EMILY'S SONG features Lindsey Haun as Emily, who currently is featured in HBO's TRUE BLOOD as Hadley Stackhouse, and will soon appear as the lead in the indie feature "House of Last Things." She has starred in several feature films, notably "Village of the Damned," "Shrooms," and "Broken Bridges," the latter two of which she also composed and performed original songs for. She starred in the Emmy-award-winning Disney Channel original film "The Color of Friendship," ABC Family's "Brave New Girl," CBS's "Get to the Heart: the Barbara Mandrell Story." Her band, The Haun Solo Project, recently released their new album NEON GODS, and also have written music for Lifetime's "Reviving Ophelia" and the indie feature "The Four-Faced Liar." The cast also features Tom Schmid as Charlie and also features John Bingham, Cassidy Brown, Darcy Rose Byrnes, Zack Carter, Carmine Dibenedetto, Brian Duclos, Elena Campbell-Martine, Borlenghi Matthew and Jenny Weaver,

EMILY'S SONG features an award-winning design team. The production design (sets/lights/video) is by Joel Daavid. The Sound Design is by Diablo Sound/Drew Dalzell. The Costume Design is by Shon LeBlanc. Casting is by Rick Pagano and Michael Donovan. The stage manager is Brigid O'Brien.

PERFORMANCE AND PRICING SCHEDULE!

EMILY'S SONG will preview on Sunday, January 9 & Friday, January 14 at 8pm and will OPEN on SATURDAY, JANUARY 15 at 8pm and continue through SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 27 at the Hudson Backstage, 6539 Santa Monica Blvd in Hollywood.

The performance schedule is Fridays and Saturday at 8pm; Sundays at 3:00pm. Tickets are $34.00 for all performances. $25 for previews. For Tickets, please call (323) 960-7788 or visit www.plays411.com/emily or www.emilyssong.com.

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