ONCE UPON A RHYME To Be Presented as Part of TheatreWorks Silicon Valley's 2018 New Works Festival

Once Upon a Rhyme: A Musical Tale (formerly iLLA! A Hip Hop Musical), with book, music, and lyrics by Ronvé O'Daniel and music, orchestrations, and arrangements by Jevares C. Myrick will be presented as part of TheatreWorks Silicon Valley's 2018 New Works Festival. J Kyle Manzay will direct three stage reading presentations during the festival at the Lucie Stern Theater (1305 Middlefield Rd., Palo Alto, CA) on August 12 at 7:00PM, August 16 at 8:00PM, and August 19 at 7:00PM. (https://theatreworks.org/new-works-festival-2018/once-upon-a-rhyme/)

With his community facing the recession, a talented dancer falls hard for the girlfriend of a 'gangsta' rapper, threatening his own dreams of hip hop stardom. This tale of family, identity, and the search for truth won the "Best of Fest" Award at the New York Musical Festival. In May 2018, Once Upon a Rhyme received a Choreography Dance Lab developed in association with NYU Tisch School of the Arts, choreographed by, Hamilton Associate Choreographer, Stephanie Klemons.

Lovers of new theatre will gather this August for an advance look at tomorrow's hits at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley's 2018 New Works Festival.This unique festival offers audiences an extraordinary opportunity to experience new plays and musicals in their early stages of development, and hear about the creative process in a "Meet the Artists" panel discussion. With multiple performances of each work, playwrights and composers are able to rewrite scenes, add or delete songs, revise and refine, allowing audiences to return and watch the exciting evolution of brand new pieces of theatre.

Among the roster of acclaimed playwrights, composers, and directors who have participated in past New Works Festivals are: Jeffrey Seller, Andrew Lippa, Stephen Schwartz, Wendy Wasserstein, Marsha Norman, Rachel Sheinkin, David Hein and Irene Sankoff, Henry Krieger, Duncan Sheik, Joe DiPietro, and many more. Past festivals have launched many new works onto TheatreWorks' stage and to national productions including Broadway's Tony Award-winning Best Musical Memphis.

Ronvé O'Daniel (Book, Lyrics & Music)

Is a New York-based songwriter, lyricist, composer, rapper, actor, and playwright. As a recording hip-hop artist, he's been featured in XXL Magazine, HipHopDX.com, and Allhiphop.com. Ronvé was the recent recipient of Eugene O'Neill 2017 National Music Theater Conference's Georgia Bogardus Holof Lyricist Award - given to only one lyricist every summer who exemplifies a promising career in musical theater writing. He was also featured as a performer and writer for Rafael Casal and Daveed Digg's #BARS Workshop at The Public Theater. He received his BFA in Musical Theatre from Wright State University. His current album Motivation Music is available on iTunes and ronve.bandcamp.com. You can also keep up with him at ronveodaniel.com.

Jevares C. Myrick (Music, Orchestrations, Arrangements, Vocal Arrangements)

Is a New York-based Producer, Composer, Singer, Actor, Dancer and choreographer. Raised in Marietta, GA he is an alumnus of the Cobb County Center for Excellence in the Performing Arts (Pebblebrook High School) and attended Wright State University on a full scholarship for Vocal Performance. BROADAWAY CREDITS: The Book of Mormon (Swing, Understudy, and Dance Captain) NATIONAL TOUR CREDITS: The Book of Mormon Latter Day Tour (1st national) and the Jumamosi Tour (2nd national) as a swing, understudy, and dance Captain. REGIONAL THEATRE CREDITS: Smokey Joes Café, All Night Strut, Hairspray, Little Shop of Horrors, Grease, Ragtime, Sweet Charity, Aint Misbehavin', Sophisticated Ladies, and many more. TELEVISION/FILM CREDITS: The Originals (Choreographer, and appeared on 3 episodes). He is a five time Suzi Bass Award Nominee (2 wins). Jevares is also an Ovation Award recipient for Best Male Vocalist. He has written and produced many shows for Six Flags Amusement parks across the U.S. and has produced and performed in many industrials around the world. Jevares has been featured in BroadwayWorld.com and Playbill.com.

J Kyle Manzay (Director)

J Kyle received his MFA from NYU Tisch School of the Arts and a BFA from Howard University. J Kyle has directed stage readings of Once Upon a Rhyme: A Musical Tale (formerly iLLA! A Hip-Hop Musical) at the 2015 and 2016 New York Musical Festivals as well as at the 2017 Eugene O'Neill Musical Theater Conference. Other directing credits include: the national tour of Set it Off - Live, Hip-Hop Monologues at 37 Arts, The Actor's Rap at Baruch Performing Arts Center, The Bootleg Blues starring Chadwick Boseman and Tracie Thoms at Studio Tisch, and several new works for Soul Repertory Theatre's New Playwright Festival at the Dallas Theater Center. As an actor J Kyle starred opposite Denzel Washington in American Gangster, and has received an Obie Award for his Off-Broadway performance in The Blacks: A Clown Show.

Stephanie Klemons (Choreographer - NYU Tisch School of the Arts Dance Lab)

Stephanie is an award-winning Broadway performer and choreographer, most recently adding direction to her resume. Stephanie serves as the Associate Choreographer and Global Dance Supervisor of Broadway's smash hit Hamilton. Stephanie's worked on the Broadway and pre-Broadway productions of Bring It On (Associate Choreographer), In the Heights (Dance Captain, Assoc. Choreographer of the 1st Nat'l tour), and If/Then (Dance Captain). Stephanie is a Carbonell Award Nominee for her work on In the Heights (Actor's Playhouse, Miami) and most recently directed and choreographed the production in a semi-staged concert format at the Kennedy Center as part of the Broadway Center Stage series in March 2018. More recently, Stephanie has been involved in Only Gold, a musical conceived, directed, and choreographed by Andy Blankenbuehler with a score by pop star Kate Nash. She's also developing, directing and choreographing a new piece based on the book This is Sadie (New York Children's Theater) opening for young audiences next spring (2019). Other credits include: Super Bowl LLI NFL Commercial, commercials for Victoria's Secret, a remake of George Michael's "Freedom", How I Met Your Mother, Sesame Street, and Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

To post a comment, you must register and login.