2ST Announces 'Everyday Rapture' Written By Dick Scanlan and Sherie Rene Scott; Mayer to Direct

Completing its 30th Anniversary Season, Second Stage Theatre (Carole Rothman, Artistic Director; Ellen Richard, Executive Director) will present EVERYDAY RAPTURE, written by Dick Scanlan (Tony nominee for Thoroughly Modern Millie) and Sherie Rene Scott (Tony nominee for Dirty Rotten Scoundrels), with musical supervision by Tom Kitt (Next to Normal, High Fidelity), directed by Michael Mayer (Tony Award winner for Spring Awakening).  Featuring a cast of five led by Ms. Scott, EVERYDAY RAPTURE will begin previews on April 7, 2009 and officially open in late April. For subscription or ticket information, please call the Second Stage Box Office at 212-246-4422 or visit the company’s website, www.2ST.com.  

EVERYDAY RAPTURE is the story of a young woman’s psycho-sexual-spiritual journey on the rocky path that separates her mostly Mennonite past from her mostly Manhattan future.  Her life takes her from the cornfields of Kansas to the clover fields of New York (with a disturbing detour through YouTube).  EVERYDAY RAPTURE also features songs made famous by David Byrne, George Harrison, U2, The Dap Kings and Judy Garland.  
 
Second Stage Theatre’s 30th Anniversary Season kicked off on October 2 with the 20th Anniversary staging of Howard Korder’s 1988 breakthrough play BOYS’ LIFE, directed by Michael Greif and starring Jason Biggs, Rhys Coiro, and Peter Scanavino.  The season will continue on December 16 with Gina Gionfriddo’s Becky Shaw, directed by Peter DuBois, which recently received a critically acclaimed world premiere staging at the Humana Festival.  Following EVERYDAY RAPTURE, the season will conclude with the world premiere of MR. & MRS. FITCH, by Douglas Carter Beane, whose Tony-nominated hit The Little Dog Laughed had its world premiere at Second Stage Theatre in 2005.  Direcetd by Scott Ellis, the comedy will premiere in summer 2009.

ABOUT THE COMPANY

Sherie Rene Scott (Performer, Co-Author) has appeared in The Little Mermaid, Landscape of the Body (Obie Award, Lucille Lortel Award, Drama League honor), Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle nominations.; Drama League honor), Elton John and Tim Rice's Aida (Derwent Award, Drama League honor), Tommy (Original Broadway Cast), Rent, The Last Five Years (Drama Desk nomination, Drama League honor), Debbie Does Dallas, Randy Newman's Faust, Kander & Ebb's Over and Over (Helen Hayes nomination). With husband Kurt Deutsch, she co-founded Sh-K-Boom/Ghostlight Records (sh-k-boom.com), which has produced more than 50 albums, receiving five Grammy nominations and a 2006 Drama Desk Award for dedication to the preservation of musical theatre through cast recordings.  

Dick Scanlan (Co-Author) was nominated for Tony and Drama Desk awards for his book and lyrics for the Tony Award-winning Best Musical Thoroughly Modern Millie.  He is the author of the novel Does Freddy Dance. In addition, he has published articles in Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Village Voice, Playboy, Playbill, Time Out New York and other magazines. He wrote the lyrics to Jeanine Tesori's music for "The Girl in 14G" on Kristin Chenoweth's Sony CD, Let Yourself Go. A former actor, Dick originated the role of Miss Great Plains in the hit Off-Broadway musical Pageant.

Tom Kitt (Musical Supervisor) returns to Second Stage Theatre where his acclaimed musical, Next to Normal, premiered earlier this year, earning the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best New Score (also Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel, and Drama League nominations).  He is the composer and co-orchestrator of High Fidelity (Broadway) and the composer of the original music for From Up Here (MTC). His songs with the Tom Kitt Band (www.tomkittband.com) have been featured in film and TV. As a musical director, conductor and arranger, Tom has worked on several Broadway and Off-Broadway shows including Laugh Whore, Urban Cowboy, Debbie Does Dallas, and currently, 13.

Michael Mayer (Director) received a 2007 Tony Award as well as Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for his direction of the Tony Award-winning Best Musical Spring Awakening. Other Broadway productions include ’night, Mother; After the Fall; Thoroughly Modern Millie (Drama Desk Award and Tony nomination); An Almost Holy Picture; Uncle Vanya; You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown (Tony nomination); The Lion in Winter; Side Man (Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards); A View From the Bridge (Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards and Tony nomination); Triumph of Love. Off-Broadway credits include Dawn Upshaw in Round About at Lincoln Center, The Credeaux Canvas, Stupid Kids, Antigone in New York, Baby Anger, View of the Dome, Missing Persons, America Dreaming, Hundreds of Hats and Spring Awakening at the Atlantic Theater Company. National tour: Angels in America (Jefferson and Carbonell Awards). West End: Thoroughly Modern Millie, Side Man. Film: A Home at the End of the World, Flicka.
ABOUT SECOND STAGE THEATRE
 
Founded in 1979 under the leadership of Artistic Director Carole Rothman, SECOND STAGE THEATRE produces a diverse range of premieres and new interpretations of America’s best contemporary theatre, including Tiny Alice and Peter and Jerry by Edward Albee; The Good Times Are Killing Me by Lynda Barry; The Little Dog Laughed by Douglas Carter Beane; Little Murders by Jules Feiffer; The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee by William Finn and Rachel Sheinkin; A Soldier’s Play by Charles Fuller; Afterbirth: Kathy & Mo’s Greatest Hits by Mo Gaffney and Kathy Najimy; Painting Churches and Coastal Disturbances by Tina Howe; Ricky Jay and His 52 Assistants and On the Stem by Ricky Jay; Living Out by Lisa Loomer; This Is Our Youth and The Waverly Gallery by Kenneth Lonergan; Some Men by Terrence McNally; eurydice by Sarah Ruhl; Saturday Night by Stephen Sondheim; Crowns by ReGina Taylor; Uncommon Women and Others by Wendy Wasserstein; Spoils of War by Michael Weller; Before It Hits Home, Jar the Floor and Birdie Blue by Cheryl L. West; Jitney by August Wilson; Lemon Sky, Serenading Louie and Sympathetic Magic by Lanford Wilson; and Metamorphoses and The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci by Mary Zimmerman.  The company’s more than 125 citations include the 2007 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play (Julie White, The Little Dog Laughed), 2005 Tony Awards for Best Book of a Musical (Rachel Sheinkin, ...Spelling Bee) and Best Featured Actor in a Musical (Dan Fogler, ...Spelling Bee), 2002 Tony Award for Best Director of a Play (Mary Zimmerman for Metamorphoses), the 2002 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Body of Work, 23 Obie Awards, four Outer Critics Circle Awards, two Clarence Derwent Awards, nine Drama Desk Awards, five Theatre World Awards, 11 Lucille Lortel Awards, the Drama Critics Circle Award and 15 AUDELCO Awards. 

In 1999, Second Stage Theatre opened its state-of-the-art, 296-seat theatre, designed by renowned Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas.  In 2002, Second Stage launched “Second Stage Theatre Uptown” series to showcase the work of up and coming artists at the McGinn/Cazale Theatre.  The Theatre supports artists through several programs that include residencies, fellowships and commissions, and engages students and community members through education and outreach programs.

SECOND STAGE THEATRE AT THE Helen Hayes

Second Stage Theatre recently announced that it has acquired the right to purchase the historic Helen Hayes Theatre, located at 240 W. 44th Street.  With this new home, Second Stage will be the only theater company on Broadway dedicated exclusively to the development and presentation of contemporary American theatrical productions.  Second Stage will also become one of only four non-profit theater companies that own and operate theaters on Broadway.  The company will continue to lease and operate their original theaters on the city’s Upper West Side and in Midtown Manhattan.  Programming in the Helen Hayes will begin in 2010. 

For more information, please visit www.2ST.com.

Photo Credit Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.

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