11th Hour Theatre to Debut Michael Ogborn's Latest FIELD HOCKEY HOT, 3/5-22

11th Hour Theatre Company is heading back to the 80s this Spring with its first commission. The company is finalizing the World Premiere of Michael Ogborn's Field Hockey Hot - its first World Premiere and commission. This gender-bending field hockey musical will run March 5-22. Opening night is Monday, March 9 at 7 p.m. Tickets cost $32-$37 and are available online at www.11thhourtheatrecompany.org or by phone at 267-987-9865. The show will be performed on the Mainstage of the Adrienne Theatre, 2030 Sansom Street.

11th Hour is thrilled to present Michael Ogborn's smart and entertaining new satire about a high school girls' field hockey team, their ambitious coach and America's favorite pastime...winning! When Applebee Academy's star goalie is injured two weeks before the championship, Coach Shipley Barnes will stop at nothing to win the North American title. This hilarious and zany comedy featuring a pop score inspired by iconic musicians of the 1980's, showcases a world where field hockey rules all.

Led by Jennie Eisenhower as Coach Shipley Barnes, the ensemble cast includes Alina John, Alex Keiper, Brendan Norton, Michael Philip O'Brien, Jenna Pastuszek, Rob Tucker, Leah Walton, Ali Wetzel, and Sean C. White. Michael Ogborn wrote the Book, Lyrics, and Music for Field Hockey Hot. The show is directed by Megan Nicole O'Brien. Dan Kazemi is the Musical Director/Orchestrator. Ellie Mooney is the Choreographer.

Ian Paul Guzzone is the Set Designer. John Bryant is the Lighting Designer. Toby Pettit is the Sound Designer. Amanda Wolff is Costume Designer. Jessica Simkins is the Stage Manager.

Most commissions involve a theatre approaching a playwright/composer. Field Hockey Hot was the opposite. After seeing 11th Hour Theatre Company's production of Reefer Madness, Ogborn approached the company about producing the musical. He hadn't finished it and the company worked with Ogborn to workshop it and bring it to life.

"11th Hour is thrilled to be producing our first World Premiere Musical with the amazingly talented Michael Ogborn. This two-year process has been a truly wonderful experience for all of us at 11th Hour, and we couldn't think of a more exciting production to cap off our 10th Anniversary Season," said 11th Hour Producing Artistic Director Michael Philip O'Brien.

About Michael Ogborn - Michael Ogborn was born and raised in Philadelphia and currently makes his home in New York City and Philadelphia. A graduate of DeSales University, he made his Off-Broadway debut in 1993 with the critically acclaimed musical revue Box Office of the Damned, featuring then "newcomer" Kristin Chenoweth. He has worked steadily in the professional theater for the past twenty five years creating musicals, cabaret revues, song cycles and special material. His work has been produced at the Arden Theatre Company, People's Light, The Wilma Theater, The Kennedy Center in Washington, DC; City Theatre in Pittsburgh, PA; Theater LaB, Houston, TX and Radio City Music Hall and the Signature Theatre in New York City. Together his productions have received over 40 Barrymore Awards nominations and have received 10 awards.

Some career highlights and awards include the World Premiere productions of Baby Case, Café Puttanesca (featuring Megan Hilty) and Tulipomania at the Arden Theatre Company under the direction of Terry Nolen; creating special material for the legendary Radio City Rockettes. As a "Piano Man," he received Philadelphia Magazine's 1992 "Best of Philly" Award for Cabaret Performer, a Mid-Atlantic Emmy Award in 1993 for the PBS music video "Soldiers in the Sky" and in 2003, the "Harrington Award" for outstanding creative achievement given by BMI Musical Theater Workshop.

In 2002, his musical fantasia Baby Case, received eleven Barrymore nominations and four Barrymore Awards including Outstanding Music and Best Musical of the Year. In 2012 Baby Case was produced at the NYMF and received four festival awards including Best Music & Lyrics and "Best of the Festival". The next productions are scheduled early next season at the History Theatre in St. Paul, MN, and the University of Hartford, CT.

Since 2007, Michael has written the scores to the holiday pantos at Peoples Light in Malvern. In 2008, Cinderella: A Musical Panto received seven Barrymore nominations and four awards including Outstanding Original Music and Best Musical of the Year. This production was remounted in 2013. That will be followed in 2014 by an all new panto based on the legend of King Arthur. His first panto Treasure Island was recently published with Playscripts Inc. and available for production worldwide. Other works in progress include The Three Maries and A Tour of the Ruins. Mr. Ogborn is a proud member of Pi Kappa Phi, the Dramatists Guild Inc., The BMI Musical Theatre Workshop, MAC and the owner of Leydensdong Music Co.

About 11th Hour Theatre Company - Now in its 10th Anniversary Season, 11th Hour Theatre Company has become Philadelphia's premiere producer of intimate, character-driven musical theatre. The company was the first-ever recipients of the June and Steve Wolfson Award for an Evolving Theater. 11th Hour has produced a broad spectrum of musicals that fill a niche in the diverse Philadelphia theatre landscape: musicals that spark the creativity of our artists and the imaginations of our audience. Over the past nine seasons, the company has produced fifteen full-scale musicals, nine of which - I Sing!, Jonathan Larson's tick, tick...BOOM!, The Bomb-itty of Errors, Reefer Madness, Rooms: A Rock Romance, The Great American Trailer Park Musical, Ordinary Days, The Marvelous Wonderettes and Winter Wonderettes - were Philadelphia premieres. Our hugely popular Next Step Concert Series is a staged-reading series that showcases musicals seldom seen in Philadelphia. The company has contributed to the development of several new musicals, including: Angst, a ten-minute musical that premiered in the Spark Festival of 2005; the American premiere of Austentatious that went on to success at the New York Musical Theatre Festival; and a 29-hour reading of Fantasy Football, the Musical before its production at New York University. Both Austentatious and Fantasy Football have since been published and are now professionally licensed 11th Hour Theatre Company has received 33 Barrymore Award nominations and eight awards, including two consecutive awards for "Outstanding Ensemble in a Musical" (The Bomb-itty of Errors, The World Goes 'Round), several individual awards for our artists, and the June and Steve Wolfson Award for an Evolving Theatre.

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