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New Song Cycle A NEVER-ENDING LINE Begins Off-Broadway Tonight

By: Aug. 03, 2017
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A Never-Ending Line, a new song cycle composed by Jaime Lozano (The Yellow Brick Road, Children of Salt), made its New York debut at the Metropolitan Room last month and opens tonight, August 3, in a full run Off-Broadway at The Players Theatre in Greenwich Village.

The musical will be directed by Lozano, with musical direction by Geraldine Anello, and musical arrangements and orchestrations by Lozano and Jesús Altamira.

Lozano, named Broadway's "next big thing" by Lin Manuel-Miranda, developed the piece with a group of female lyricists (Lindsay Erin Anderson, Neena Beber, Lauren Epsenhart, Sami Horneff, Victoria Kühne, Lisa Mongillo, Marina Pires, Noemi de la Puente and June Rachelson-Ospa).

Inspired by his upbringing in a strong matriarchy, Lozano conceived the show as a tribute to the women in his life. The songs, performed by a company of four (Kat Blackwood, Florencia Cuenca, Emily Esposito and Erica Wilpon) explore the unique challenges women face in society today on the journey to find happiness, love, and meaning in their lives. The themes of acceptance, hope, and friendship are universal reminders that no matter who we are or where we come from, our lives are all connected through the shared experience of womanhood.

The show made its world premiere in France at Broadway au Carré, the leading American musical theatre concert and open-mic series in Paris, and last May, the show made its Mexican Debut at the prestigious international Festival Alfonsino in Monterrey, Mexico - entirely translated into Spanish. The NYC concert and Off-Broadway production are being produced by Maribel Escobosa, Martha Orendain and Victoria Kühne.

A Never-Ending Line is set for The Players Theatre for a seven-week run tonight, August 3rd, through September 17th, 2017. Performances will be held Thursdays through Saturdays at 7pm and Sundays at 3pm. Tickets are available now at web.ovationtix.com/trs/pr/972819.

A Never-Ending Line is currently being recorded as a double album - both in English and Spanish - the proceeds of which will benefit various women's organizations. Many Broadway favorites are set to sing on the English album, including: Betsy Wolfe (Waitress, The Last Five Years), Daphne Rubin-Vega (Rent), Julia Murney (Wicked, The Wild Party), Emily Skeggs (Fun Home), Jennie Harney (The Color Purple), Hannah Shankman (Wicked, Les Miserables), Courtney Reed (Aladdin), Arielle Jacobs (Australia Aladdin, Wicked), Whitney Bashor (The Bridges of Madison County), Aléna Watters (Sister Act, The Addams Family), Alexa Green (Wicked), Samantha Massell (Fiddler on the Roof), Ramona Keller (Brooklyn), Olga Merediz (In The Heights), and Doreen Montalvo (On Your Feet!), among other performers.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

Jaime Lozano (Original Idea and Music) is a rising musical theatre writer, considered by Lin-Manuel Miranda as the "next big thing" on Broadway. An accomplished musician, vocal coach, composer, arranger, orchestrator, musical producer and musical director, Jaime has staged in Mexico well-known musicals such as Into The Woods, Jesus Christ Superstar, The Fantasticks, Jekyll & Hyde The Musical. Jaime adapted, produced and directed the Spanish world premiere of Jason Robert Brown's The Last Five Years and Songs for a New World. He has co-written The Yellow Brick Road, which had a critically acclaimed Off-Broadway premiere in the Summer of 2011, followed by a successful national tour; as well as Children of Salt; A New Latin Musical winner of "Best of Fest" New York Musical Festival 2016 (NYMF). Jaime also co-wrote the one-act musical Lightning Strikes which premiered Off-Broadway at the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre in June 2010 and had a very succesful run in Venezuela. His one-act musical The Yehuatl was later becoming the first act of the musical tryptich ??????? . Mitos . Kamanalis (Myths) with a world premiere on December 2012 in Mexico. Jaime is the composer, lyricist and librettist of the musical Tlatelolco, which premiered in October 2001 in Monterrey, Mexico, and was revived in 2002, 2004 and 2013. As an arranger, Jaime has worked with the cast of Broadway's In the Heights and with Tony and Grammy award-winner Alex Lacamoire on the Christmas recording Carols for a Cure in 2010. Jaime is also the arranger, orchestrator and music director for the album from the non-profit organization R.Evolución Latina "Dare to Go Beyond", featuring various prominent Broadway performers including High School Musical's star Corbin Bleu. Jaime is co-orchestrator with Alex Lacamoire of the Cuban musical Carmen La Cubana, based on the opera Carmen by Bizet, which had a world premiere in Paris, France at the Théâtre du Châtelet in April, 2016. His new musical, a song cycle called A Never-Ending Line that had its World Premiere in Paris, France as part of the concert series of "Broadway au Carré" at the Comédie Nation Theatre and its Spanish premiere in Mexico earlier this year. Currently Jaime is part of the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop, and he is a voting member of the Latin GRAMMY and GRAMMY Awards. He's a proud member of BMI and The Dramatists Guild of America, Inc.

LINDSAY Erin Anderson (Lyricist). Lindsay Erin Anderson is a lyricist with the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop. She graduated in 2009 from Dickinson College with a degree in Theatre and Dance and continued her studies at Headlong Performance Institute in Philadelphia, PA. There she co-founded two theater companies and co-created two original works, The Jane Goodall: Experience, and Branded, for the Philadelphia Fringe Festivals in 2010 and 2011. Both productions featured original songs penned by Anderson. Immediately following her move to New York City in September 2015, Anderson co-wrote and performed in Lady Parts at Feinstein's/ 54 Below, an evening of original comedy songs and sketches celebrating character specific material for women in musical theatre. In addition to song-writing, Anderson studies improv with the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre and can be found most nights watching prison shows with her roommate in their little clubhouse in Bed-Stuy.

Neena Beber (Lyricist). Most recently, Neena's play A Foreign Body had for a sold-out run in a hotel room at Le Parker Meridien after development at The Lark and The Orchard Project's Exchange. Other plays include Jump/Cut, The Dew Point, Tomorrowland, and A Common Vision, all published by Samuel French, and the libretto for Anthony Brandt's operetta Ulysses, Home. Recipient of a Lilly Award, an Obie Grant, a Weissberger Award, a MacDowell Colony Fellowship, an A.S.K. Exchange to The Royal Court Theatre in London, a Sloan Commission from Cleveland Playhouse and an Ambling commission from Playwrights Horizons. Film/TV credits include "How to Deal" (New Line) and eps of "Ballers", "Daria", "Clarissa Explains it All" and "Little Bear", which she co-created with Maurice Sendak. Neena is an alumna of New Dramatists, Harvard and NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and current member of the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop.

Lauren Epsenhart (Lyricist). Graduated from the State University of New York at Plattsburgh, where she received her Bachelor of Arts in Writing, with a minor in theatre. Lauren earned a Master of Fine Arts in Musical Theatre Writing (librettist/lyricist) from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. Lauren began a dual Masters of Science in Education in Childhood Education/ Special Education with a specialization in Severe/Multiple Disabilities, including deafblindness, at Hunter College of Manhattan. She continued and finished her educational studies at Indian River State College. Her most recent projects include having written book and lyric for the musical, Children of Salt (Music by Jaime Lozano), which has had two readings at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and presented at the 2016 New York Musical Festival. She is the author of the play Pushing Daisy, which had a world premiere with the Planet Connections Theatre Festivity at the Gene Frankel Theatre in June of 2011, where it was nominated for three awards. Pushing Daisy also had a reading with Play Club West at the Noho Stages in Los Angeles in March of 2012 and a run at the Secret Theatre in 2014, in collaboration with MuSE: Multicultural Sonic Evolution productions. Lauren is currently writing book and lyric for the musical Lilly Blooms (Music by Jaime Lozano). Past credits include Observations of a Non-Kosher Pork Lover, Stars Through a Telescope (Music by Yui Kitamura) and Back to You (Music by Jiyoung Chang). Past productions and song lyrics have been featured at Lincoln Center, Julliard, New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, The Secret Theatre, Connecticut's Goodspeed Opera House, Triad Theatre, Queens Botanical Gardens and The Theatre for the New City.

SAMI HORNEFF (Lyricist). A born and raised New Yorker, Sami is a current Lyricist in the world-renowned BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theater Workshop. A proud graduate oF Brown University with a degree in Theatre Arts, an upbringing in and around the Commercial/Film/TV world, and a background in Musical Theater, Sami has also trained at CAP21, NYU's Steinhardt School, and The London Dramatic Academy. Sami made her New York composing debut with the 2014 musical Something Precious, directed by famed acting coach Anthony Abeson. In 2016, she was nominated at the Indie Series Awards in Los Angeles for her songwriting work on the web series "The Under 5ers," which she also helped write, develop, and produce. Sami wrote both music and lyrics for Rock and a Hard Place, a new cross-genre musical that had its world premiere last summer at The Players Theatre in a concert-style reading starring Constantine Maroulis and many other Broadway favorites. Most recently, her work was performed at Feinstein's/54 Below for the MuseMatch 8.0 charity concert. She is thrilled to join Jaime in working on this important piece with an incredible group of women!

VICTORIA KÜHNE (Lyricist). A singer, songwriter, producer and the active CEO of Victoria Records (label, publisher and world-class studios). As a singer and songwriter she's collaborated with some of the most important filmmakers including Academy-Award Winners Jonas Cuaron and Alfonso Cuaron. She's also co-written songs with some of the top pop artists in Latin America like Latin-Grammy winner Belanova, Latin-Grammy nominee A Band of Bitches (signed to her label) as well as the likes of Josh Mosser (co-writer of Imagine Dragons' "Radioactive" and "Demons"). As a CEO she's actively giving workshops on Music Business and Songwriting in all the top universities in Latin America, in Europe (Berklee Valencia Campus) and the U.S. (The Art Institute of Houston). She was also a part of the first Berklee Women's Empowerment Symposium (the only speaker and music executive invited from Mexico). Her label Victoria Records sponsored the event alongside Billboard. One of her biggest passions is supporting music education which is why her studios hosted this past year's Berklee College of Music auditions for Latin prospective students. She's been featured on Billboard Latin, Maxim Mexico's music issue and many other websites and magazines showcasing her as one of the few women CEO's of a music company in Latin America.

LISA MONGILLO (Lyricist). Lisa is a writer, lyricist, and comedian living in Manhattan. She has written for and performed in comedy shows at the Public House Theatre; the playground; Stage 773; the Second City's de Maat, Skybox, and etc. stages; the People's Improv Theater; Upright Citizens Brigade; and pretty much every bar in Chicago and NYC. Lisa learned her crafts at the College of William & Mary and the Second City Conservatory. In 2016 she co-wrote and produced the feminist holiday album Bitch Carols. Currently, she is a lyricist in the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop, as well as a contributing writer for Reductress and HelloGiggles. She hopes to one day become a mermaid.

Marina Pires (Lyricist) is a Brazilian-born actress and singer based out of NYC. Some past roles include Nina Rosario in In The Heights, Rapunzel in Into the Woods with Tituss Burgess and Arielle Jacobs, and Queen Elizabeth in Richard III. She most recently opened Somewhere in Between a new musical, at Dixon Place in New York's Lower East Side. She has performed in over 12 countries around the world.

NOEMI DE LA PUENTE (Lyricist). Plays include Generic Hispanic, finalist MultiStages New Works contest 2012, produced at the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre - PRTT; Manuel versus The Statue of Liberty (full length musical with composer David Davila, winner- 2014 NYMF Developmental Reading Series Award, winner 2015 NYMF Special Award for Social Relevance and Impact, nominated for Best Musical, finalist O'Neill National Music Theatre Conference, 2016); The Revenge of Suicide Jack (in development at the Dramatic Question Theatre - DQT); Lightning Strikes Twice (10 min. musical with composer Jaime Lozano - Huron Club,Soho PlayhouseNew York, Microteatro-SEA, Caracas Venezuela); solo show Fountain of Youth (the Carolinian Shakespeare Festival, PRTT, DQT at Theatre 3); member of the Professional Playwrights Unit at PRTT, 2004 - 2012; founding member of DQT, a collective of playwrights that develop multicultural works, and challenge the traditional race/gender barrier of professional playwriting as practiced in America today. Other awards: Yip Harburg Foundation grant, Anna Sosenko Assist Trust, HOLA Award for Outstanding Achievement in Ensemble Acting (acting work - that's another story!). Noemi received her MFA in Theatre Arts from the University of Iowa (Patricia Roberts Harris Scholarship), MSE Princeton University, and BSE Caltech. Noemi is a member of the Dramatists Guild. "Pura vida" to her husband Ron! www.Noemidlp.com, @noemidlp

June Rachelson-Ospa (Lyricist). Copywriter, playwright, lyricist, book writer and producer. 1974-1985 clients included Kenner Toys, McDonalds, Burger King and PBS Exxon Arts. Partnered with Daniel Neiden in Bozomoon Productions over 18 years : Musicals: Welcome to Tourettaville at Kennedy Center for Congress, Rapunzarella White (www.rapunzarellawhite.com) NY Times Fave, Stupid Wig, Imaginary Boy. Ran theatre programs for YMCA and Amas Musical Theatre. As lyricist songs feature Broadway vocalists and Hall of Fame Artists. In development: Rockin' The Bible with Peppy Castro (Goodspeed's Johnny Mercer Writer's Colony in January) The Hotel Belleclaire: Music Kezia Hirsey, Hyde and Seek: The Life of Young Master Henry Jekyll, Triangle Music: Mark Barkan, The Island of Yaki Yim Bamboo -Book Fred Vargas, Music Jay Griggs, Breakfast With The Birds: Book Jack Hyman. I AM Suzanne (Jack Hyman book, Michael Whalen Music.) 2016 founded Osparations. Member of League of Professional Theater Women, Dramatist Guild, ASCAP. Artistic Director of Identity Theater.



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