AUBURN, N.Y. (May 10, 2017) – Finger Lakes Musical Theatre Festival/Merry-Go-Round Playhouse, Inc. is thrilled to announce the lineup for the sixth season of its new-works series, “The PiTCH” presented by Generations Bank. The season will have a distinctly international flair, welcoming teams from Canada and the U.K. and featuring stories centered in Brazil and Denmark among others.
The 2017 season of the “The PiTCH” runs July 12 through Aug. 11 and will give five creative teams an opportunity to present their new musicals in development. Audiences at “The PiTCH” watch a 50-60 minute presentation of the new musical before being invited to give feedback to the team in a post-performance talkback session. To date, “The PiTCH” has been a development platform for the creative teams of 54 new musicals.
“Our 2017 PiTCH line up is unique and stylistically diverse,” said Brett Smock, producing artistic director of The Finger Lakes Musical Theatre Festival. “We are grateful and honored to be able to provide this important forum for emerging musicals which would simply not be possible without the generosity of Generations Bank. Together, we are committed to supporting writers and their process of crafting new musicals. Further, I’m thrilled that audiences in the Finger Lakes are often among the first to meet these gifted writers and witness their works in development. If you have not yet done so, come check out “The PiTCH.” It’s a unique forum and an entirely entertaining experience for anyone who is curious about how musicals are made.”
The series launches with “Rio,” a modern day take on Oliver Twist set in Brazil during the colorful days of Carnival. Written by Canadians Mitch Magonet and Joey Miller, the epic musical was a 2011 finalist at the National Alliance for Musical Theatre’s (NAMT) Annual Festival of New Musicals and a 2012 selection at the New York Musical Festival (NYMF).
Next up is “Ophelia,” a modern day adaptation of “Hamlet” told entirely from Ophelia’s perspective. The folk-rock musical was written by U.K.-based writers Victoria Saxton (book), and Ella Grace (music and lyrics) and was workshopped in 2016 at The Canterbury Institute of Performing Arts.
Third in the lineup is “Anne of Green Gables,” a musical based on L.M. Montgomery’s famous novel of the same name. The show was written by the New York City writing team of Matte O’Brien and Matt Vinson and features a score that blends folk-rock, pop, gospel, and musical theatre styles. It has been workshopped at Syracuse University, College of Charleston, and in New York City.
The fourth show in the series is “Devil’s Kin.” Inspired by the Hatfield and McCoy feud, the musical focuses on the mothers and daughters of the two infamous families. The show was developed in 2016 at CAP21 in New York City. It features a book by Kevin Wanzor and music and lyrics by festival alumnus, Caleb Damschroder, who was last seen on the Playhouse stage in 2015 as Sparky in “Forever Plaid: Plaid Tidings.”
The sixth season of “The PiTCH” closes with “The Showmen,” a musical set during the Golden Age of Hollywood, which takes the classic MGM movie musical formula and flips the script. The show was workshopped in 2014 at the Musical Theatre Factory’s 4x15 series and in 2015 a staged reading of the show featuring Emily Skeggs (“Fun Home”) was held at Don’t Tell Mama in New York City. “The Showmen” has a book by Ryan McGovern and music and lyrics by Noel Carey, who was seen last summer at The Playhouse as Jerry Lee Lewis in “Million Dollar Quartet.”
All performances of “The PiTCH” are held at The Cayuga Museum Carriage House Theater (formerly known as Theater Mack) at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday and Thursday evenings and at 8:00 p.m. on Friday evenings. “PiTCH Passes” are available for $50 and are good for one ticket to all five shows; single tickets are $20 and can be purchased by calling the box office at 315-255-1785 or by visiting FingerLakesMTF.com.
For a full list of performance dates and for more information about the season, visit FingerLakesMTF.com/the-pitch.
About Finger Lakes Musical Theatre Festival / Merry-Go-Round Playhouse, Inc,:
Headquartered in Auburn, NY, the Finger Lakes Musical Theatre Festival is a dynamic arts organization committed to creating theatrical experiences at the highest levels of artistic integrity. It leverages the power of the arts as a tool for entertainment, education, social awareness and cultural development in its community and in the region. The Festival is situated in the picturesque Finger Lakes wine region of Central New York. Four hours from NYC and situated between Syracuse, Rochester and Ithaca, the Finger Lakes Musical Theatre Festival is one of the largest producing musical theatre organizations in New York State, outside of New York City.
Find Merry Go Round Finger Lakes Music Theatre on Facebook, follow @FingerLakesMTF on Twitter and Instagram and visit www.FingerLakesMTF.com.
