Rehearsals have begun for the Lincoln Center Theater/LCT3 world premiere of IN THE GREEN, a new musical by Grace McLean, directed by Lee Sunday Evans. McLean will also be featured in the production, along with Rachael Duddy, Ashley Pérez Flanagan, Mia Pak, and Hannah Whitney. IN THE GREEN will begin performances Saturday, June 8 and run for eight weeks only through Sunday, August 4 at the Claire Tow Theater (150 West 65 Street). Opening night is Thursday, June 27.
Commissioned by LCT3, IN THE GREEN tells the origin story of one of Medieval history's most powerful and creative women: Hildegard von Bingen (to be played by Rachael Duddy, Ashley Pérez Flanagan, and Hannah Whitney). Before she became a healer, a composer, an exorcist, and finally a saint, she was a little girl locked in a cell with her mentor, Jutta (to be played by Grace McLean). IN THE GREEN is the tale of two women and the journey that leads one to embrace death, and the other to celebrate the beauty and blemishes of a fully lived life.
IN THE GREEN will have sets by Kristen Robinson, costumes by Oana Botez, lighting by Barbara Samuels, sound by Nicholas Pope, and orchestrations by Grace McLean and Kris Kukul, with music supervision by Kris Kukul, puppet design by Amanda Villalobos, and casting by Henry Russell Bergstein.
Grace McLean is an actor, singer, songwriter, and is making her theatrical writing debut with In the Green. She originated the role Marya D. in the musical Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 first at Ars Nova, before performing the role in its off-Broadway productions and finally on Broadway. In addition to recently appearing in Alice by Heart at the Newman Mills Theater, her other New York Theater includes Brooklynite (Vineyard), Bedbugs!!! (Arclight), The World is Round (BAM), Sleep No More, On The Floor, The Daughters, Grace McLean Lives in Concert (Ars Nova), The Last Goodbye (The Wild Project, also WTF), Twelfth Night (The Wild Project), Twelve Ophelias (Woodshed Collective), Hell House (St. Ann's), Love's Labor's Lost (Baryshnikov Arts Center), La Mama Cantata (La Mama), and The Spider Operas (PS122). Regional and international credits include Pump Boys and Dinnettes (Weston Playhouse), From the Fire (Edinburgh Fringe), and Thursday (WTF). Grace regularly performs original compositions with her band Grace McLean and Them Apples, and received the 2017 Emerging Artist and Hunt Family Award from Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.
Lee Sunday Evans returns to LCT3 where she directed the world premiere of Bull in a China Shop by Bryna Turner. A director and choreographer, Lee won a 2015 Obie Award for her production of A Beautiful Day in November on the Banks of the Greatest of the Great Lakes and The Vineyard Theatre's 2016 Susan Stroman Award. Her work has been presented and developed at Clubbed Thumb, Baryshnikov Arts Center, Sundance Theatre Festival, CATCH, 59E59, The New Ohio, Brooklyn Arts Exchange, The Culture Project, Robert Wilson's Watermill Center, Dixon Place, and La Mama. As the resident director for Collaboration Town, she is currently developing The Rise and Fall of the Trilobite Kingdom, a new musical for young audiences with original music by Nicholas C. Williams and puppets by Amanda Villalobos.
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