This month, we caught up with John Jiler and Georgia Stitt, the writers of 2010 Festival show Big Red Sun to check in with them before the show receives its world premiere at NAMT member 11th Hour Theatre Company. The show received a Writers Residency Grant from NAMT’s National Fund for New Musicals in our 2015-2016 Granting Cycle.
Playbill reports that Feinsteins/54 Below has officially announced a new concert series featuring presentations from new musicals. The concert series includes past Festival shows Big Red Sun, Funked Up Fairy Tales and String, plus new works from Festival Alumni Joe Iconis and Kyle Jarrow!
New Musicals at 54 is presented by the venue’s programming director, Jennifer Ashley Tepper. The series kicks off Jan. 19, 2016, and is scheduled to run through April 12. Further programming will be announced at a later date.
“[These] new and diverse musicals by a selection of today’s most talented writers have had out-of-town productions, some have had workshops,” state press notes. “Now’s your chance to be first to see them in NYC!”
Read more at Playbill.com or buy tickets for the concerts from 54 Below.
This month, we checked in with Festival Alumni John Jiler and Georgia Stitt about their 2010 Festival Show, Big Red Sun.
Big Red Sun has gone through quite a bit of rewriting in the past few years, how would you summarize the show for those who don’t know it or need reminding?
Big Red Sun tells the story of a family of musicians. Eddie and Helen Daimler were great swing musicians in the 1940s, but now in the early 1960s their teenage son Harry, a budding songwriter himself, lives alone with his mother and writes songs about his great war-hero father. In an effort to write more truthfully, Harry unearths a dark family secret. World War II carved a silent divide between those who fought and those who waited – a truth unshared. In a few short years, the simple melodies of Kern and Berlin were replaced by the dizzying energy of jazz and the beginnings of rock and roll. This is the story of a family that changed as much as their music did.
54 Below‘s Jennifer Ashley Tepper announced in an interview with Playbill.com that “Broadway’s Living Room” will be launching a new series next year called New Musicals at 54: A Showcase of Our Own. “The idea is to present ten new musicals that haven’t been produced in New York, yet that are things you might have seen an out-of-town tryout of or a workshop of,” said Tepper. No word yet on what shows will be featured, but the initial list of writers announced includes several Festival alumni: Kirsten Childs (The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds her Chameleon Skin, Festival 1998), Adam Gwon (Ordinary Days, Festival 2008), Joe Iconis (Bloodsong of Love, Festival 2011), and Georgia Stitt (Big Red Sun, Festival 2010).
We can’t wait to see what Jen and our talented alumni have to show us!
Watch video from our own shows at 54 Below in our concerts archive.