Staged Readings Announced For New Musicals FOUNTAIN OF YOU and THE PELICAN at Theatre Now

This month, Theatre Now is producing staged readings of new musicals Fountain of You and The Pelican, presented in repertory with their full developmental production of The Jury now running at the Jeffrey & Paula Gural Theatre at the A.R.T./New York Theatres. Fountain of You, with book & lyrics by Tasha Gordon-Solmon and music by Faye Chiao, is scheduled for February 15th at 6:30pm. The Pelican, with book & lyrics by Will Lacker and music & lyrics by Dylan Glatthorn, will play February 22rd at 6:30pm. For more information, email info@tnny.org.

"Fountain of You and The Pelican, both full of humor and societal satire, represent the best of Theatre Now's Musical Writers Lab and the future of musical theatre. They are ready for live audiences and the next step in their development," says Theatre Now Artistic Director Thomas Morrissey.

Fountain of You, an irreverent chamber musical that satirizes society's preoccupation with youth and beauty, will feature cast members Bettina Bresnan, Michelle Liu Coughlin (The King and I), Christopher Ryan Grant (Million Dollar Quartet), Allie Re, Maria Tramontozzi, and Kay Weber, with music direction by Jesse Kissel.

Book writer and lyricist Tasha Gordon-Solmon, who will direct, has written plays and musicals that have been produced and developed at the Humana Festival of New American Plays, The Playwrights Realm, Northern Stage, Sun Valley Center for the Arts, The Z, The Perry Mansfield New Works Festival and The Flea. She is a recipient of the Dramatist Guild Fellowship, the Playwrights Realm Fellowship, a Puffin Foundation Grant, and an AFO Solo Collective Residency. Composer Faye Chiao has been honored with awards from The Presser Foundation, The Puffin Foundation and OPERA America. Chiao has also been an artist-in-residence at New Victory Labworks, The John Duffy Institute for New Opera at the Virginia Arts Festival, and Boston Chamber Symphony. Chiao's work has been commissioned, produced and developed by Syracuse Stage, Two River Theater, The Z, Kenyon College, Prospect Theater, The Playwrights Realm, Single Carrot Theater, Hear Her Song, Houston Grand Opera, Pittsburgh Festival Opera, and the 24-Hour Musicals.

The Pelican is set in a near-future Florida where hurricanes, rising sea levels, and the overall warming of the globe have reduced a once-bustling town to a few square miles of precious dry land. The cast includes Aaron Lee Battle, Preston Truman Boyd (She Loves Me, Kiss Me Kate), Diana DeGarmo (Hair, The Toxic Avenger), Michelle Dowdy (Hairspray), Diana Huey, Kelly Lester, and Timothy Warmen (The Who's Tommy, Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark). Kimille Howard (Ain't Too Proud) directs, with musical direction by Adam Cole Klepper.

Book writer and lyricist Will Lacker has had his work produced at The Player's Theatre, Merkin Concert Hall, The Flea, NYC Fringe, Gene Frankel Theatre, Manhattan Repertory Theatre, Woodstock Fringe, Alexandra Film Festival, and Gen Con Film Festival. Original works include The Pelican, Bittersweet Lullaby, Catch the Westbound, Edison, The Invasion, Chupacabra, The Custodian, Republic, and Trials of a Scientific Mind. Honors and awards include: Best Book, Best Director: SOUND BITES 6.0, Best One Act: Central PA Theater Fest, Players Theatre Short Play Festival, Manhattan Repertory One Act Fest. Composer and lyricist Dylan Glatthorn has written music for nine feature films, numerous shorts, documentaries, and his original musicals The Pelican, Bittersweet Lullaby, Edison, and Republic. He has also written music for Lindt, Nickelodeon, Oakley, Red Bull, Alessi, and PBS. He was co-composer and arranger for Diana DeGarmo's GEMINI and served as lead arranger for Lolo's X. For his work, he has been awarded the New Hampshire Theatre Award for Best Sound Design, the Clive Davis Award for Excellence in Music in Film, Best Original Score at First Run Film Festival, and is a two-time recipient of the Alan Menken Award.

The Pelican is supported by the Frank Young Fund for New Musicals, a program of the National Alliance for Musical Theatre - www.namt.org.

Both readings will take place at the Jeffrey and Paula Gural Theatre at the A.R.T./New York Theatres (502 West 53rd Street, New York, NY 10019). Strict COVID procedures will be in place, including requiring proof of vaccination and mask use while in the theatre. Fountain of You and The Pelican were developed in part with Theatre Now's Musical Writers Lab, which consists of 20 writing teams across the nation. The Writers Lab meets bi-monthly to present new work at various stages and levels of development. The Lab offers its members a variety of developmental opportunities including Cabaret evenings of performances of new music, developmental workshop productions, and licensing of new shows.

Theatre Now is an artist service organization dedicated to the development, production, publication, and circulation of short and long- form musicals, by providing ongoing support for writers and their work in order to nurture voices and forms that push the boundaries of musical theatre. Theatre Now bridges the gap between early readings and fully produced theatrical runs by offering staged and performed developmental productions to pieces that are ready to live on their feet. They strive for continuity and growth in their production process by collaborating with artists on story development through song and dialogue and focusing on their prospective audience. For more information, visit tnny.org.

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