New Play CRAZY HEAD SPACE To Receive Industry Reading 8/20; Barre Directs Cooper, Rooney & More

Choice Theatricals, in association with T. Schreiber Studio will present an industry reading of Elizabeth S. Davis's new play, Crazy Head Space, directed by Gabriel Barre. Presentations will be on Thursday, August 20th at 3:00 PM and 7:00 PM, and Friday, August 21st at 1:00 PM at The Gloria Maddox Theater (151 W. 26th St., 7th Floor).

Crazy Head Space is a manic musical celebrating a dizzying kaleidoscope of mental and emotional disorders. Set inside the world of The Cranium Café, Crazy Head Space serves up a wild series of psychological disorders that run the gamut from Depression to Zoophilia. Come spend an average day inside the head of people with mental disorders and learn a little more about yourself in the process. Taste the excitement of all those disorders you've read about but supposedly have managed to avoid thus far. Crazy Head Space is guaranteed to leave you laughing at your own nervous breakdown! Share the highs and lows and rediscover the "crazy" within you!

Crazy Head Space offers a riveting, wild score by contemporary composers Elizabeth S. Davis and Michelangelo Sosnowitz, and a gloriously insane lyric book by Elizabeth S. Davis. Sometimes hilarious, sometimes magical and unnerving, Crazy Head Space will leave you wishing for a disorder of your own!

Cast includes Jennifer Agnelli; Eddie Cooper; Lilli Cooper; Tina Jensen; Ronald Roy Johnson Jr. ; Racy Joseph; Chaz Langley; Nathaly Lopez; Lyndsey Makovsky; Rosie McGuire; Tricia Paoluccio; BranDon Porter; Brian Charles Rooney; Anica C. Scott-Garrell; Sarah Singer; Keon C. Thoulouis; Bruce Warren.

ELIZABETH S. DAVIS (Book, Lyrics and Music) ElisaBeth Davis has been composing music since childhood. She studied for eight years under the training of piano teacher and modern composer Ruth Schoenfeld. She graduated from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts with a BFA in acting. At NYU's Stella Adler Conservatory, she began to write and direct her own work. She created Self Portrait, which examined the life of an agoraphobic woman who salvaged her ability to re-enter society through cathartic artistic experimentation. With the premise of creating art as a means for healing psychological disorders, she created and directed the first version of what has now become the new musical Crazy Head Space. The original production was performed at Tisch School of the Arts at the Frederick Loewe Theater and then again at the Stella Adler Conservatory in 1995. Elisabeth continues to compose and create pieces of theatre. Some of her works include Shelflives, Stand Clear of the Closing Doors, and Serial Sevens. Elisabeth obtained an MA in Drama Therapy from NYU in 2007. Upon graduation she began working at Elmhurst Hospital Center as a full time drama therapist with adolescents in inpatient psychiatric care. She has utilized drama as a healing tool in various settings ranging from Sing Sing Correctional Facility, Elizabeth Seton's Foundling Hospital, Mount Sinai, and St. Vincent's Hospital. She is committed to the practice of bridging theatre and social activism, using the body and voice to promote personal growth and change.

MICHELANGELO SOSNOWITZ (Music) at the age of six Michelangelo began composing music. By age thirteen, Michelangelo had won the Young Concert Artists International Piano Competition and the Project Mozart Award for Young Composers in the same year. And that was the year Michelangelo also got his first bedroom 'four-track', to start recording his songs. By the time he was eighteen, Michelangelo had effectively recorded four ninety-minute tapes worth of music that circulated generously throughout his High School. He was awarded the Greenwich Jazz Festival Solo Award for outstanding musicianship, was selected an All State Finalist for vocals, and at sixteen, Michelangelo won The Connecticut Songwriting Competition for his song "Standing in the Snow". Michelangelo then went on to NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and quickly fell into a career of theater and film scoring, winning three "Best Score" awards in three years at the First Run Film Festival in New York City. At NYU, Michelangelo met Liz Davis and began working on the original musical Crazy Head Space. To date, Michelangelo has written music for HBO, VH1, The History Channel, USA Network, Animal Planet, PBS, Phillips Norelco, Garnier Fructîs, Acuvue, CONCACAF (Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football) including the Champion's League soccer tournament and Gold Cup tournament themes, Independent Films such as ‘Spirit', ‘The Underground' ‘Soldier Boy' and ‘Aamala', Industrial Films, Off-Broadway Theater, Off-Off-Broadway Theater, Children's Theater, Public Radio, Television Pilots, Children's Video Games, World Documentaries, Rock/Pop demos, Elevator Muzak (seriously!), Video Magazines, Classical Pieces, Dance Pieces, Aerobics Music (seriously!) and music for the Jumbotron at Madison Square Garden, (sung by the Harlem's Boy's Choir). During this time, Michelangelo also put an all-star band together and began performing around New York City's renowned live music scene. With his band Rabbits Against Magic, Michelangelo has performed at numerous music festivals, colleges and concerts, as well as a non-stop stream of steady shows in New York City and the North East. His music has been played on hundreds of college radio stations across the United States, making CMJ's Top 100 Most Added List at #11, and featured on several commercial AAA and Internet radio stations as well. His last three albums were greeted by highly enthusiastic reviews, and achieved "featured artist" position on CDFreedom.com, CDBaby.com, FreeplayMusic.com and NIMBIT. Michelangelo's music was also selected for NIMBIT's ‘Holiday Party' compilation, First Spinz Radio's ‘Rock/Pop Collection', and Cooper Studio's ‘Popkomm 2005' compilation and ‘Midem 2008' compilation. Michelangelo's music was also heard recently in the David Blaine special, ‘Dive of Death' on ABC, in HBO's off-channel teasers for ‘Generation Kill', and in the opening credits for The History Channel's ‘Battles BC'.

Gabriel Barre (Director) directed the off-Broadway production of The Wild Party by Andrew Lippa at the Manhattan Theatre Club in New York city which was nominated for numerous awards, including five Outer Critics Circle Awards and thirteen Drama Desk Awards, both including Best Direction of a Musical and for which he won the Calloway Award for Best Direction. He also directed the national tours of the recent revival of Stephen Schwartz's Pippin, which began with a three month run at the Goodspeed Opera House in Connecticut last summer, as well as Rodger's and Hammerstein's, Cinderella, starring Eartha Kitt, which toured the country for three years. Other New York off-Broadway credits include: Almost, Maine at the Daryl Roth Theatre, Summer of ‘42 at the Variety Arts Theatre, Honky Tonk Highway at Don't Tell Mama (winner of a MAC Award and Bistro Award for Best Review) Stars in Your Eyes at the Cherry Lane Theatre and john & jen at the Lamb's Theatre, as well as the staging for the 25th anniversary of Jacques Brel at the Village Gate, three concerts at Lincoln Center as part of the American Songbook Series and a number of the Broadway by the Year concerts at Town Hall. His regional credits include the world premieres of Tom Jones (winner of Independent Reviewers of New England Award for Best Direction) and Memphis (winner of San Francisco Bay Area Critics Association Award for Best Direction), both at the North Shore Music Theatre in Boston (Memphis also ran at TheatreWorks in Palo Alto, CA). He also directed the critically acclaimed productions of Private Lives at the Seattle Repertory Theatre, as well as Hay Fever and Pericles at the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey. In addition, he directed and help create the new musical about Tammy Wynette, Stand By Your Man, which played at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville two years in a row, as well as at Bass Hall in Fort Worth. He is on the Advisory Board of the Cape Cod Theatre Project and has directed numerous plays there. At the Goodspeed Musicals in Connecticut, he directed the revivals of Pippin, Sweeney Todd (winner of four Connecticut Critics Circle Awards including Best Musical and Best Direction of a Musical), Finian's Rainbow (nominated for five Connecticut Critics Circle Awards) and King of Hearts, as well as many other new musicals including, Frank Wildhorn's Camille Claudel, Houdini (which he also remounted at the Marriott-Lincolnshire Theatre in Chicago), Fanny Hill and Dorian.

Currently Mr. Barre is directing a number of new projects including a new musical adaptation of Gilbert & Sullivan's The Gondoliers, and the new musical All About Us, (based on the play The Skin of Our Teeth) by Kander and Ebb, with a book by Joe Stein, to premiere at the Westport Playhouse this spring. As an actor, Gabriel Barre was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for his performance in Starmites (recently released on CD) and won a Bistro Award as an original cast member in Forever Plaid. Other performing credits include - Broadway: Ragtime (workshop), Ain't Broadway Grand, Rags, Anna Karenina, Barnum (first national tour); Off-Broadway: Return to the Forbidden Planet, The Petrified Prince at The Public Theatre, Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris, as well as numerous productions at the Roundabout Theatre, Mirror Repertory Company, Lamb's Theatre, Playwright's Horizons, Jewish Repertory Theatre, INTAR, York Theatre and LaMama E.T.C. His television and film credits include: The Gurneyman, Luggage of the Gods, Girl 6, Quiz Show, Summer of Sam, The Road to Wellville, Stardust Memories, "Law & Order", "Fame", "Kate & Allie", Nickelodeon, and a number of programs on PBS. He also played the lead role in the new independent feature film, The Amazing Floydini.

CHOICE THEATRICALS (Producer): Choice Theatricals and their partners form the theater production arm of Choice Films Inc., an independent Production Company that specializes in multi-media theatrical productions as well as independent feature films for worldwide distribution. Established in 2001, Choice has produced several projects, ranging from contemporary original plays and revivals to multi-media sketch comedy shows and short films targeted for festival competitions, as well as New Works Reading Series and Gala Award Events. Recent theater production credits include: Stain, (World Premiere, Kirk Theater, Theatre Row, NYC) Safe (West Coast Premiere, Co-Production with Shoot Me Productions, El Portal Theater, Los Angles), Tune In: Multi-media Sketch Show (Caroline's on Broadyway, NYC), Between the Lines (Krider Performing Arts Center, TN), Between the Lines (Saint Clements Theater, NYC), Five Women Wearing the Same Dress (Mint Theater Space, New York City), Looking for Limerance (Trilogy Theater, NYC), Love Angst and the Way In (78th Street Theater Lab, NYC), Doll Play (34th Annual Samuel French Short-Play Festival). Choice is the lead producer for the upcoming new rock musical, Crazy Head Space. Choice Films has partnered with Movie Ranch Entertainment and Air Sea Land Productions to develop a slate of theatrical films, including the upcoming feature film Junction, which is slated to begin principal photography winter 2009. Choice Theatricals is committed to bringing new plays to the stage and giving emerging playwrights the opportunity to realize their work with full productions that will continue to foster their artistic development. www.choicefilms.com.

T. SCHREIBER STUDIO (Associate Producer): TSS has been a creative community for actors since 1969. TSS is acknowledged as one of the foremost professional theatre studios in New York City. For four decades, TSS has been the training ground for more than 300 actors each year, many of whom have gone on to successful careers in theatre, film, and television. TSS received five awards from the Back Stage Readers Poll in 2009, including Favorite Off-Off Broadway Theatre. The Studio's high quality productions continue to reinforce a reputation for excellence among audiences and the theatrical community. Martin Denton of NYTheatre.com raves that TSS "has become one of indie theater's treasures, featuring first-class productions of classic and new plays with incomparable (and award-winning) production values." For more information, visit www.tschreiber.org.

To post a comment, you must register and login.