BIG RED SUN
Premiere reading of a new musical
7:30 pm –
9:00 pm
Kimball Recital Hall
1113 R St
Lincoln NE 68508
Lincoln NE 68508
Additional Info: KRH
Contact:
Mike Edholm, (402) 472-6865, medholm2@unl.edu
Alisa Belflower and Musical Theatre students will premiere a new musical in a reading on Sunday, March 11 at 7:30 pm in Kimball Recital Hall. This event is free and open to the public.
BIG RED SUN is a new musical about a young musician being raised by a single mom. When the imaginary heroes of his childhood can no longer fill the void, the son searches for his long-lost father in post-WWII America. His questions unearth a dark family secret. The war carved a silent divide between those who fought and those who waited––a truth unshared. Their son’s unrelenting quest shatters the silence. While the dizzying energy of jazz and the noise of rock-and-roll replaced the simple melodies of Kern and Berlin, an American innocence vanished.
The performance is immediately followed by
A TALKBACK with the creative forces behind this new musical, guest artists Georgia Stitt and John Jiler.
GEORGIA STITT (BIG RED SUN’s composer) is a composer and a lyricist. Her musicals include: Big Red Sun (NAMT Festival 2010, Harold Arlen Award in 2005, written with playwright John Jiler); Hello! My Baby (a “new-fashioned” musical written with Emmy Award winner Cheri Steinkellner using the great American songbook), The Water (winner of the 2008 ANMT New Voices in American Musical Theatre), written with Jeff Hylton and Tim Werenko); Sing Me A Happy Song (a musical revue); and Mosaic (commissioned for Off-Broadway in 2010, written with Cheri Steinkellner). In 2007 she released her first album, This Ordinary Thursday: The Songs Of Georgia Stitt. With lyricist Marcy Heisler she wrote and recorded Alphabet City Cycle, a song cycle for soprano and violin, featuring vocalist Kate Baldwin. Georgia’s latest album, My Lifelong Love, was released in 2011, featuring performances by Anika Noni Rose, Brian D’Arcy James, John Pizzarelli and Jessica Molaskey, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Shoshana Bean, Susan Egan, Heidi Blickenstaff, Michael Arden, Christopher Jackson, Laura Osnes, Kate Baldwin and Michael McElroy. Her records are on the PSClassics and Sh-K-Boom labels. Also a music director, Georgia was the vocal coach for the 2008 season of the NBC hit “America’s Got Talent.” She was the assistant music director for the NBC TV special “Clash of the Choirs,” the on-camera vocal coach for the NBC reality TV show “Grease: You’re The One That I Want,” and the Production Music Coordinator for the Disney/ABC TV musical “Once Upon A Mattress” starring Tracey Ullman and Carol Burnett. On Broadway she was the assistant conductor of Little Shop of Horrors and the associate conductor of the Encores! production of Can-Can starring Patti LuPone. Also on Broadway: Avenue Q, Sweet Smell of Success, The Music Man, Titanic, Annie, and the national tour of Parade. Georgia received her M.F.A. in Musical Theater Writing from New York University and her B.Mus. in Music Theory and Composition from Vanderbilt University, where she graduated magna cum laude. She is a recipient of the ASCAP Frederick Loewe Fellowship, the Harold Arlen Award, and the Sue Brewer Award for excellence in music composition. Georgia lives in Los Angeles and New York with her husband, composer/lyricist Jason Robert Brown, and their two daughters.
JOHN JILER (BIG RED SUN’s bookwriter & lyricist) is a writer of both drama and prose. He was the recipient of both the Richard Rodgers Award and the Kleban Librettists’ Award for his musical Avenue X, which played in New York at Playwrights’ Horizons and on stages around the world. He was a runner-up for the Weissberger Prize for his first full-length play Sour Springs. His work has been seen coast to coast, from the Eugene O’Neill National Playwright’s Conference to the Kennedy Center to Seattle Rep and many places in between. His most recent book, Sleeping With The Mayor, was named a New York Times’ “Most Notable Book.” The Village Voice called his first book, Dark Wind, “a classic.” As a journalist he has also written for the NY Times, The Nation, and The Village Voice, where the stories that led to Avenue X and Sleeping With The Mayor first appeared. Among his current theatrical projects are Big Red Sun, a World War Two era story with composer Georgia Stitt seen at last year’s NAMT festival, and Explicit Vows, a one-man show at both Playwrights Horizons and the Flea Theatre. In his former life as an actor he appeared at the New York Shakespeare Festival, the Hartford Stage Company, and Chicago’s Body Politic, where he won the Chicago Drama Critic’s Best Actor Award. He has just completed his first novel, North Of Here, and three new plays; Channel, seen last year at Labyrinth Theatre, Sirocco, recently unveiled at the Actors Studio, and a brand new play, Revolution. A native New Yorker, John Jiler graduated from the University of Hartford.
There will be a discussion with the composer Georgia Stitt and playwright John Jiler following the performance.
BIG RED SUN is a new musical about a young musician being raised by a single mom. When the imaginary heroes of his childhood can no longer fill the void, the son searches for his long-lost father in post-WWII America. His questions unearth a dark family secret. The war carved a silent divide between those who fought and those who waited––a truth unshared. Their son’s unrelenting quest shatters the silence. While the dizzying energy of jazz and the noise of rock-and-roll replaced the simple melodies of Kern and Berlin, an American innocence vanished.
The performance is immediately followed by
A TALKBACK with the creative forces behind this new musical, guest artists Georgia Stitt and John Jiler.
GEORGIA STITT (BIG RED SUN’s composer) is a composer and a lyricist. Her musicals include: Big Red Sun (NAMT Festival 2010, Harold Arlen Award in 2005, written with playwright John Jiler); Hello! My Baby (a “new-fashioned” musical written with Emmy Award winner Cheri Steinkellner using the great American songbook), The Water (winner of the 2008 ANMT New Voices in American Musical Theatre), written with Jeff Hylton and Tim Werenko); Sing Me A Happy Song (a musical revue); and Mosaic (commissioned for Off-Broadway in 2010, written with Cheri Steinkellner). In 2007 she released her first album, This Ordinary Thursday: The Songs Of Georgia Stitt. With lyricist Marcy Heisler she wrote and recorded Alphabet City Cycle, a song cycle for soprano and violin, featuring vocalist Kate Baldwin. Georgia’s latest album, My Lifelong Love, was released in 2011, featuring performances by Anika Noni Rose, Brian D’Arcy James, John Pizzarelli and Jessica Molaskey, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Shoshana Bean, Susan Egan, Heidi Blickenstaff, Michael Arden, Christopher Jackson, Laura Osnes, Kate Baldwin and Michael McElroy. Her records are on the PSClassics and Sh-K-Boom labels. Also a music director, Georgia was the vocal coach for the 2008 season of the NBC hit “America’s Got Talent.” She was the assistant music director for the NBC TV special “Clash of the Choirs,” the on-camera vocal coach for the NBC reality TV show “Grease: You’re The One That I Want,” and the Production Music Coordinator for the Disney/ABC TV musical “Once Upon A Mattress” starring Tracey Ullman and Carol Burnett. On Broadway she was the assistant conductor of Little Shop of Horrors and the associate conductor of the Encores! production of Can-Can starring Patti LuPone. Also on Broadway: Avenue Q, Sweet Smell of Success, The Music Man, Titanic, Annie, and the national tour of Parade. Georgia received her M.F.A. in Musical Theater Writing from New York University and her B.Mus. in Music Theory and Composition from Vanderbilt University, where she graduated magna cum laude. She is a recipient of the ASCAP Frederick Loewe Fellowship, the Harold Arlen Award, and the Sue Brewer Award for excellence in music composition. Georgia lives in Los Angeles and New York with her husband, composer/lyricist Jason Robert Brown, and their two daughters.
JOHN JILER (BIG RED SUN’s bookwriter & lyricist) is a writer of both drama and prose. He was the recipient of both the Richard Rodgers Award and the Kleban Librettists’ Award for his musical Avenue X, which played in New York at Playwrights’ Horizons and on stages around the world. He was a runner-up for the Weissberger Prize for his first full-length play Sour Springs. His work has been seen coast to coast, from the Eugene O’Neill National Playwright’s Conference to the Kennedy Center to Seattle Rep and many places in between. His most recent book, Sleeping With The Mayor, was named a New York Times’ “Most Notable Book.” The Village Voice called his first book, Dark Wind, “a classic.” As a journalist he has also written for the NY Times, The Nation, and The Village Voice, where the stories that led to Avenue X and Sleeping With The Mayor first appeared. Among his current theatrical projects are Big Red Sun, a World War Two era story with composer Georgia Stitt seen at last year’s NAMT festival, and Explicit Vows, a one-man show at both Playwrights Horizons and the Flea Theatre. In his former life as an actor he appeared at the New York Shakespeare Festival, the Hartford Stage Company, and Chicago’s Body Politic, where he won the Chicago Drama Critic’s Best Actor Award. He has just completed his first novel, North Of Here, and three new plays; Channel, seen last year at Labyrinth Theatre, Sirocco, recently unveiled at the Actors Studio, and a brand new play, Revolution. A native New Yorker, John Jiler graduated from the University of Hartford.
There will be a discussion with the composer Georgia Stitt and playwright John Jiler following the performance.