Creative Caludron to Present D.C.-Area Premiere of THE MISTRESS CYCLE

Creative Cauldron opens the 2017-18 season with the DC area premiere of an intelligent and thought-provoking new musical, The Mistress Cycle. Creative Cauldron Artistic Associate Matt Conner is directing the production.

Created by an award-winning female musical theater creative team, Beth Blatt (Book and Lyrics) and Jenny Giering (Music), The Mistress Cycle tells the story of five mistresses from different times and cultures.

The Mistress Cycle won The Directors' Choice Award at The New York Musical Festival (NYMF) in 2005 and went onto critically acclaimed productions in London, England, and in Chicago at both Auditorium Theatre and The Apple Tree Theater where it received a 2008 Jeff award nomination. Jenny Giering won the National Art Song Award and the National Music Theatre Network Director's Choice Award for The Mistress Cycle.

The Mistress Cycle will run from October 6th through 29th, 2017 at ArtSpace Falls Church. Press Night for The Mistress Cycle is Saturday, October 7th, 2017 at 8 PM.

"The Mistress Cycle tells the stories of stories of passion, compromise, heartbreak and renewal," says director Matt Conner. "The songs honor the resilience and resistance of the feminine spirit."

Creative Cauldron veteran Iyona Blake will play Lulu White, a turn-of-the-last-century New Orleans Madame. Among Blake's awards are: The Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Musical - HELEN and Broadway World, Washington, DC Best Actress in a Musical - Small Professional Theater Award for her role as Caroline Thibodeaux in Creative Cauldron's Caroline, or Change. Blake was seen in Signature Theatre's Titanic as Caroline Neville and Gran Mimi in Jelly's Last Jam. The remaining cast features four Creative Cauldron newcomers. Justine Icy Moral will play Ching, a 14-year-old concubine in 12th century China. Moral received Best Actress in a Musical - Large Professional Theater from Broadway World, Washington, DC for her role as Pearl in The Little Mermaid and DC Theater Scenes Audience Choice Awards as Best Actress in a Family Show for her role as Wendy in Peter Pan and Wendy at Imagination Stage. Moral played Lucy in the Helen Hayes Award-winning production of The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe at Imagination Stage.

Abby Middleton will play Diane de Poitiers, the mistress of Henri II in France in the 16th century. Middleton won Best Actress in a Community Theater Musical by DC Metro Theatre Arts and is a Schubert Fellows Scholar. Erica Clare will play Tess, a struggling 30-something Manhattan photographer. Clare has previously appeared at Signature Theatre, Toby's Dinner Theatre, Naked Theatre Company, Thin Air Theatre Company and as a soloist at the Kennedy Center. Julia Capizzi will play Anais Nin, the famed sexual adventuress of the early 20th century. Capizzi has performed at the London Dramatic Academy, Vagabond Theatre of Baltimore, Spotlighters Theatre, and Baltimore Shakespeare Factory.

Director Matt Conner recently directed Creative Cauldron's critically acclaimed, Helen Hayes Recommended musical Caroline, or Change. He received a Helen Hayes Award Nomination for Outstanding Director of a Musical - HELEN Production with Stephen Gregory Smith for Creative Cauldron's 2015 production of The Turn of the Screw. He directed Creative Cauldron's 2015 production of Once on This Island, which received a 2016 Helen Hayes Awards© Nomination for Outstanding Musical - HELEN Production. With Stephen Gregory Smith, Conner has written three critically acclaimed world premiere musicals under Creative Cauldron's "Bold New Works for Intimate Stages" initiative. He is a nationally recognized musical composer known for Nevermore, Night of the Living Dead: The Musical, and The Hollow. In 2008, Conner was one of six composers awarded a commission through Signature Theatre's "American Musical Voices Project: The Next Generation." Conner and Smith's fourth Bold New Works world premiere, Witch, will appear at Creative Cauldron in April 2018.

The creative team for The Mistress Cycle includes Piero Bonamico as Musical Director, Margie Jervis as Scenic and Costume Designer, and Lynn Joslin as Lighting Designer.

Tickets for The Mistress Cycle can be purchased at creativecauldron.org or by calling 703-436-9948.

Creative Cauldron is a non-profit arts organization whose innovative programs in the performing and visual arts embody collaboration, experimentation and community engagement. Creative Cauldron was founded by Producing Director Laura Connors Hull in 2002. In June of 2009, Creative Cauldron acquired a permanent home in ArtSpace Falls Church, a 3,000 square foot flexible arts space that provides a venue for year-round classes, live performances of theater, music and dance and visual art exhibits. Programs are presented in part through grants from the Virginia Commission for the Arts, The National Endowment for the Arts, the Arts Council of Fairfax County, the City of Falls Church and the Little City CATCH Foundation. Creative Cauldron's programs are also supported by generous corporate and individual sponsors.

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