NEW PALTZ — New Voices, New Music, a cabaret revue of songs from contemporary musical theatre, will be staged in theatres on both sides of the Hudson River in the coming weeks. A talented young cast from the Department of Theatre Arts, SUNY New Paltz performs a sophisticated collection of songs and scenes from current Broadway hits including “Avenue Q,” “Hairspray,” “The Producers,” and others. Performances are Sunday, December 12 at 8pm at The Center for Performing Arts at Rhinebeck, and Monday, December 13 at 6:30pm at Parker Theatre, SUNY New Paltz.
Stephen Kitsakos directed and produced the revue with an eye toward showcasing the burgeoning talents of the performers while simultaneously offering audiences the chance to hear music that is rarely heard outside of its original context. He chose contemporary music in order to build upon the students’ knowledge of traditional music-theatre repertoire, and to expose them to shows that will likely be casting road companies and national tours when they graduate.
In order to draw out exceptional performances from his company, Kitsakos has employed a methodology that fuses the separate acts of singing and acting into a single, powerful theatrical expression. “For this production, I employed the standardized musical theatre training originally developed by Thomas de Mallet Burgess and Nicholas Skilbeck,” Kitsakos says. “They are musical theatre directors in England who developed practical and effective exercises that merge music and drama in the study and performance of musical theatre, opera, operetta, vaudeville, and cabaret. Their most well-known productions have been with Andrew Lloyd Weber and the Cameron Macintosh organization The Really Useful Theatre Company.”
New Voices, New Music includes works from Avenue Q (“The Internet is for Porn”), Hairspray (“Mama I’m a Big Girl Now”), The Producers (“Goodbye”) Assassins (“Another National Anthem”), Urinetown (“I See a River”), Falsettos (“The Baseball Game”), The Scarlet Pimpernel (“Madame Guillotine”), and selections from Bloodbrothers and Miss Saigon. Musical accompaniment is provided by a trio comprising Richard Mogavero, piano, and Roger Voss, percussion, and Liam Baum, bass, guitar, and saxophone.
Tickets to the performance at The Center for Performing Arts at Rhinebeck on Sunday, December 12 at 8pm are $7. They are available by calling 845-876-3080. SUNY New Paltz students with ID are admitted free.
The performance at Parker Theatre, SUNY New Paltz on Monday, December 13 at 6:30pm performance is free to all. For further information call 845-257-3872.
A photo to accompany this press release is available in both low and high resolution at http://www.newpaltz.edu/news/images/kitsakosalone72-12-04.html
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