Jan McArt to Present Stuart Meltzer's THE GOLDBERG VARIATIONS

"'THE GOLDBERG VARIATIONS' is a play that I've been trying to write for thirteen years," says Stuart Meltzer. "It was just never ready to come out!"

On Monday, January 11th, it will finally come out via Jan McArt's New Play Reading Series at Boca Raton's Lynn University, where McArt continues to develop new work by South Florida playwrights.

"This play is deeply personal to me," Meltzer continues. "And it mixes several theatrical styles into the story telling. It was fun watching the play develop into what it wanted to be, with many styles. Fun, and quite unexpected."

Mr. Meltzer's a very busy man. A faculty member at Miami's New World School of the Arts, he is also the award-winning artistic director and founding member of Zoetic Stage in Miami, where he's currently in rehearsals directing Gina Gionfriddo's play 'RAPTURE, BLISTER, BURN,' a hit from New York's Playwrights Horizons. It will open Friday, January 15th, at Zoetic's home in Miami's Arsht Center for the Performing Arts.

Meanwhile, from her office at Lynn, Jan McArt says "We just got the final draft for this play!" McArt, Florida's First Lady of Theater, heads theater development at the university.

"But the actors won't see that final draft till the first day of rehearsals, when they read it for the first time, cold," she adds.

One week after that first read-through 'THE GOLDBERG VARIATIONS' will be presented as a fully Staged Reading in Lynn University's beautiful Wold Performing Arts Center.

McArt runs this award-winning play reading series at Lynn, where playwrights get the chance to bring a new play to life, working with a cast and a director for six days - rehearsing, re-writing, rehearsing, rewriting. Then, at the end of those six days, their new, polished, reworked play is presented to the public in performance, fully staged, with actors up on their feet, scripts in hand, employing minimal costumes, sets, lighting and sound, to aid them in the presentation of the new work.

"I'm thrilled to have this play workshopped at Jan McArt's New Play Reading Series," Meltzer says. "What an incredible opportunity to listen to, and work on, my play with the finest professional actors in the area, and a top-notch director like Margaret Ledford. It's a truly exciting opportunity for any playwright to experience."

This presentation of 'THE GOLDBERG VARIATIONS will be directed at Lynn University by Margaret M. Ledford, and the cast includes Alex Alvarez, Katherine Amadeo, Patti Gardner, Silas Hoover, Bill Schwartz and Mike Westrich.

"The name of the play refers to a piece of music written by Johan Sebastian Bach entitled 'Goldberg Variations,' says Meltzer. "I've always loved that music and was curious about how it received its title. In the process of my research, it dawned on me that the title of Bach's music would make a terrific play focusing on one family - the Goldbergs.

"Figuring out how to connect Bach's music to the family in the play was an awesome journey. In Bach's 'Goldberg Variations' there is a theme, and thirty versions of that theme follow. I wanted to figure out a way a similar structure could be applied to this play."

McArt says "This promises to be one of the best we've ever presented here, and I can't wait to see how it plays out on our stage, after a solid week of work with this marvelous cast and director."

'THE GOLDBERG VARIATIONS' is the second presentation of this Lynn play reading series' 2015-2016 season.

The 2015-2016 lineup also includes: 'MIDDLETOWN,' a new play by Dan Clancy, directed by Clive Cholerton, on Monday, March 7th, 2016; and 'WAVE YOUR FLAG!,' a new play with music by Tony Finstrom, starring Jan McArt, directed by Wayne Rudisill, on Wednesday, April 6th, 2016.

Tickets are currently available at $10 each for 'THE GOLDBERG VARIATIONS.'

Call 561-237-9000, or go to www.lynn.edu/tickets for more information.

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