P.A. Tokyo's WESONGCYCLE World Premiere Launches on YouTube August 8

On August 8, 2020, P.A. TOKYO will launch the world premiere of their cross-continental musical collaboration, WeSongCycle, on YouTube. The virtual song cycle will be available beginning 8:45am (EST) / 7:45am (CST) in the United States on YouTube.

P.A. TOKYO brought together an international group of the next generation of composers, lyricists, writers, and directors to create an original song cycle, resulting in WeSongCycle. The creators were guided by Broadway mentor Rob Rokicki (The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical) and Broadway advisors Telly Leung (Aladdin, Allegiance), Stafford Arima (Allegiance, Ragtime), and Mariko Kojima (Pacific Overtures).

Creators from Australia, Canada, Japan, South Korea, the United States, and the United
Kingdom came together through Zoom video calls and work sessions to write a musical based on the theme, "Heroism." Participating composers included AKIHA URYU, Minhui Lee, Jamie Maletz, and LUCY O'BRIEN. Lyricists for the cycle included POLLY HILTON, TSUKURI MIYANO, JOE SLABE, and Brandon Michael Lowden with additional contribution by poet ANNABEL MUTALE REED.

Shared creative director Makiko Shibuya, "Though all of our actors have different
backgrounds, I could really feel that we had the same language, passion, and love for musical theater. Each performer has felt a different impact from quarantine life and has been in a different situation - but all of our cast were eager to play with whatever they could. Our musical theater cycle has an international personality weaved in."

The song cycle's cast that will brought the new project to life included seventeen actors in total, from the United States, Australia, and Japan. Performers based in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia included Noah Virgile (Octavia E. Butler's Parable of the Sower by Toshi Reagon and Bernice Johnson Reagon), Cori Jaskier(Charlotte's Web National Tour), DANI WEINER (NYU Tisch), Badia Farha (School of Rock, Broadway Bounty Hunter), GEN PARTON-SHIN (Miss Saigon, RENT), Jarran Muse (Motown the Musical, Ain't Too Proud), LINA ZIKAS ("Start Over") Kennedy Kanagawa(Dinner With Georgette) Jason SweetTooth Williams (Be More Chill, Disney's Freaky Friday), SHANNEN ALYCE QUAN (Six Australia, Priscilla Queen of the Desert), ENZO VEIGA (ASCAP), Jade Johnson (West End's The Book of Mormon) with a special appearance from Sam Tanabe ("The Good Wife," Allegiance). Actors based in Japan included ELIANA (Phantom, Chess), SAYAKA WATABIKI (Les Miserables, Beauty and the Beast at Hollywood Bowl), and MASATO TAKEUCHI (Anastasia).

Visit performingartstokyo.com and follow P.A. TOKYO on Facebook and Twitter. To donate and support future international creators through WeSongCycle, click here or email info@p-a-tokyo.com.

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