| NEWS RELEASE |
|
Office of External Communications |
Houston, TX 77204-5017 Fax: 713.743.8199 |
|
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
Contact: Contact:
Mike Emery |
|
|
DURING HOBBY CENTER PERFORMANCE They say the neon lights are bright on Broadway, and a group of University of Houston students may soon see their names illuminated on that famed boulevard. First, they’ll strut their stuff during a performance in downtown’s Hobby Center for the Performing Arts. Tony award winner and UH Distinguished Professor of Theater Stuart Ostrow has spent the fall semester grooming students in his Musical Theatre Lab. Now, they’re ready to entertain Houstonians with selections from three original musicals that were developed in class. These productions are adaptations of Ken Kesey’s “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” Oscar Wilde’s “Lady Windmere’s Fan” and a piece based on Bernard Malamud’s “The Magic Barrel” entitled “Bronx Bashert.” Offered through UH’s School of Theatre, the Musical Theatre Lab is made up of student composers, lyricists, book writers, directors, producers, choreographers and designers, who were all hand-picked by legendary Broadway producer Ostrow. These students were divided into three teams and assigned a challenging literary work to adapt into an original musical production. Ostrow founded the Musical Theatre Lab in 1973 at St. Clement’s Church in New York City. It was later developed at the Kennedy Center and Harvard College before it arrived at UH in 1995. During its stay in New York, the lab hosted workshops featuring the talents of Arthur Miller, Carol King and Robert Wilson. Ostrow received Tony awards for “1776” as Best Musical in 1969 and “M. Butterfly” as Best Play in 1988. He has also produced Tony nominees “Pippin” and “The Apple Tree,” in which he collaborated with regular UH Children’s Theatre Festival contributor Jerry Bock, Bob Fosse, Stephen Schwartz and Sheldon Harnick . “We can make the earth move again if we teach writers that the way to write a great musical is to be great,” Ostrow said. “The way to write a poor musical is to be thinking of getting rich.” Tickets for the Musical Theatre Lab performances are $5 in advance
and $10 at the door. To purchase call WHAT: Stuart Ostrow’s Musical Theatre Lab WHEN: 8 p.m., Friday, Dec. 2 – Saturday, Dec. 3 WHERE: Hobby Center for the Performing Arts’ Zilkha Hall WHO: University of Houston
School of Theatre For more information about UH visit the university’s ‘Newsroom’ at www.uh.edu/admin/media/newsroom. |
||