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New Work in Progress: PLAY IT BY HEART

An interview with Kevin Moore, Producing Artistic Director of The Human Race Theatre Company, about their upcoming production of Play It By Heart with a book by Brian Yorkey (Making Tracks, NAMT Fest ’01), music by David Spangler and Jerry Taylor, and lyrics by Spangler, Taylor and R.T. Robinson.

As a teenager, she became the breakout star of the Jasper Family Singers. Now, Jeannine Jasper is the “Queen of County Music,” but she has hopes of getting off the road and having a life. After a concert, a long lost love appears and they discover the spark is still there. But their “history” could be her undoing. Her record label has been purchased by a Dubai businessman who has his own plans for her career, and her rebel, younger sister is always in the news for all the wrong reasons. Family secrets are revealed to the sweet sounds of old and new country in this quintessential story of a family.
 
Play It By Heart was originally produced out at The Village Theatre. How did it find its way to Dayton, Ohio?
It actually came to us from one of the writers, David Spangler. After their production at the Village Theatre in 2005, the writers all went off to work on other projects. Brian Yorkey had this little show brewing called Next to Normal. In 2006, we workshopped the musical Nefertiti by David Spangler and Rick Gore. We stayed great friends and in 2009 he told me about Play It By Heart, and that the writers all wanted to get back to it. I read it, listened and was hooked. I offered them a residency – brought them in and gave them a space to live, work and gave them actors to play with. That was Fall, 2009. In the summer of 2010, we did a full workshop. Our audience loved it. Over and over I heard, “I’m usually not a country music fan, but I really liked this music and this show.” 
 
You presented a reading of the show last year in your Festival and clearly must have gone over very well. What work have the writers put in on the show since then?
Based upon our workshop experience that incorporated new material and plot ideas, the writers and I identified certain story lines that needed to be clarified, songs that needed to be replaced, and development of some of the new ideas that didn’t have enough time to fully ferment during our workshop. Brian, David and Jerry have been working on both the book and the score and are working to deliver our starting materials. We have engaged a music director/arranger who will refresh the old score and make it more “actor friendly,” as well as prepare the new material and orchestrations.
  
Why is the show a good fit for your season and your audience? 
I, and my audience, love to see shows move from workshop to full production. Our audience is already invested in the work. What I have found in Play It By Heart is a musical that speaks volumes about family and about forgiveness – surrounded by a changing world. Everyone can relate to this family, this situation. The universality of it intrigues me and makes me want to tell this story. This is a story that my audience wants to experience.
 
Why are you excited about presenting this new musical this season?I believe the global popularity of country music makes it essential that America – originator of the musical form – deliver a country musical to the masses. I am honored to follow in the big footsteps of the Village Theatre to help make Play It by Heart the “poster child.” Personally,  I never understood why my father watched The Grand Ole Opry and The Porter Wagoner Show every week. I just couldn’t, and it was a likely reason for my escaping to musical theatre. It is somewhat ironic that my current passion is for a musical about the country music industry. My own personal apology to my Dad.
 
Why should people catch Play It By Heart this summer? 
Whether you are a small regional theatre (we are 212 seats, 3/4 thrust) or a larger proscenium house, this is a show that has the potential to bring in new audiences while delighting your traditional subscribers. It’s a great story and “radio-worthy” songs. It has been a long time since musical theatre songs have crossed over. This could be the next. Besides, “summer in Ohio” is much more than the song would leave you to believe. Come find your country roots.
For more information about the show, please visit www.humanracetheatre.org.

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NAMT News

National Fund for New Musicals recipients announced!

We are honored to announce this year’s recipients of our National Fund for New Musicals grants. Now in its fifth year, the National Fund has distributed 56 grants totaling $234,000 to non-profit member theatres around America.
A special thanks to our funders including Stacey Mindich Productions, The Alhadeff Family Charitable Foundation and The ASCAP Foundation. This fund would not be possible without their contributions. If you are interested in supporting theatres developing new musicals around the country, please consider making a contribution to our National Fund for New Musicals.

National Fund grants of $10,000 to support full productions have been awarded to:
Barrington Stage Company (Pittsfield, MA) for Southern Comfort by Dan Collins and Julianne Wick Davis. This project previously received a Project Development Grant in support of its time at CAP21, a Writers Residency Grant for its time at Playwrights Horizons and was presented in NAMT’s 2012 Festival of New Musicals.
Transport Group (New York, NY) for The Memory Show by Sara Cooper and Zachary Redler, with support from Stacey Mindich Productions. The Memory Show was presented in NAMT’s 2009 Festival of New Musicals. 

National Fund grants between $2,500 and $5,000 to support a workshop or reading have been awarded to:
Chicago Shakespeare Theater (Chicago, IL) for Summerland by Laura Eason, Jenny Giering & Sean Barry. Giering is an alumna from NAMT’s 2005 Festival for Princess Caraboo.
Dallas Theater Center (Dallas, TX) for The Fortress of Solitude by Itamar Moses and Michael Friedman, with support from the ASCAP foundation. Itamar Moses is an alumnus from NAMT’s 2012 Festival for Nobody Loves You, which also received a Project Development Grant in 2011-2012 in support of its time at The Old Globe.
Human Race Theatre Company  (Dayton, OH) for The Noteworthy Life of Howard Barnes by Michael Kooman and Christopher Dimond with support from The Alhadeff Family Charitable Foundation. Kooman and Dimond are alumni from NAMT’s 2011 Festival for Dani Girl.
Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma (Oklahoma City, OK) for Triangle by Thomas Mizer and Curtis Moore with support from Stacey Mindich Productions. Triangle was presented in NAMT’s 2012 Festival of New Musicals.

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Festival Shows in the News

NAMT News

FESTIVAL SHOW UPDATE: Dani Girl

An interview with Michael Kooman and Christopher Dimond, writers of the Festival ’11 show Dani Girl, about their show, life since the Festival and other projects they are working on.
Dani Girl is the inspiring and humorous story of a young girl’s battle with a life-threatening disease. Far from sitting back and accepting her condition, Dani transforms her struggle into a fantastical adventure. Together with her teddy bear, imaginary guardian angel and movie-obsessed hospital roommate, she battles a personified Cancer across the realms of fantasy and reality as she attempts to get her beloved hair back. Told from a child’s perspective, this provocative musical explores the universal themes of life in the face of death, hope in the face of despair and the indomitable power of imagination.


What was the response to your presentation at the Festival?
We got a terrific response.  The feedback we received was incredibly encouraging and it’s generated some great opportunities for the piece, including the chance to participate in the festival at The Human Race Theatre Co. (Aug. 3-5), which we’re thrilled about.  Additionally, the Festival has generated several opportunities for us beyond Dani Girl, which have allowed us to begin to develop several new projects.  We’ve also made some terrific new contacts that we hope will lead to new opportunities in the future, which came about as a direct result of NAMT.


Did the Festival process make you go back and revise or refine anything in the show?
Absolutely.  The process of preparing the piece for the presentation, trimming it down to 45 minutes, helped us to see some potential cuts to the script that we ended up implementing. We’ve also gone back and done some work on the very opening of the show, which we think helps to establish the tone of the piece much more clearly right from the get-go.


What are you hoping to work on while at Human Race? 

In addition to seeing how the new changes we’ve made feel up on their feet, we’re looking forward to getting to watch the show in front of a regional American audience.  The show has changed quite a bit since the last time we were able to do so, and we’re interested in seeing how people respond.


Why should people come out to Dayton and check out Dani Girl?
We feel that Dani Girlis a theatrical experience unlike any other.  It’s a story that needs to be told and it’s told in a way that people don’t expect.  If the show works the way we want it to, we think that it has the potential to do most of the things that great theater should do.  You’ll laugh.  You’ll cry.  You’ll think.  You’ll experience the full gamut of human emotion and you’ll come out seeing the world in a different light.


What else is planned for Dani Girl?
We’re working on setting up a number of small regional productions at the moment, as well as a few international ones.  Additionally, we’re in the midst of discussions for a potential New York opportunity.  Hopefully we’ll be able to say more soon.


Other than Dani Girl, you had residencies at Goodspeed Musicals and at The 5th Avenue Theatre with more coming up at at Trinity Rep and Rhinebeck Writers Retreat.  What are you working on at these residencies and how have the experiences been? 
 We’ve been working on a new, original musical called The Noteworthy Life of Howard Barnes, which tells the story of a man who wakes up to discover that his life has become a musical.  Not being the type of man who would see this change as a good thing, he embarks on a journey to escape the world of the musical and get his normal life back.
This project has been a blast to work on.  It’s been great to work on something that’s a bit more commercial and more focused on comedy than some of our other work.  At the same time, the premise allows us to have fun with a lot of the conventions of musical theater, while simultaneously digging into the heart of what musicals are all about.
The experiences that we’ve had thus far have been terrific.  We felt unbelievably supported at Goodspeed and The 5th Avenue.  In both cases, we received some incredibly encouraging responses as well as some terrific feedback that has shaped the direction we’re heading in.  We’re really looking forward to continuing to develop it at Trinity and Rhinebeck this summer, as well as continuing to develop a couple of other projects that we have in various stages of development.
For more information about Dani Girl, please visit www.koomandimond.com

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NAMT in the News

NAMT News

Lark Play to develop musical

Gotham company Lark Play Development Center now has a little cash with which to develop the musical “A Wonder in My Soul,” by Marcus Gardley and Scott Frankel (“Grey Gardens”), thanks to the National Alliance for Musical Theater. Org handed out grants for its 2007 Producer-Writer Initiative last week, presenting $2,500-$3,000 each to a producing org paired with the creative team of a developing tuner.
Other recipients are Ohio’s Human Race Theater Company for “Make-over,” by Kim Sherman and Darrah Cloud; Massachusetts’ SpeakEasy Stage Company for “The Woman Upstairs” by Kait Kerrigan and Brian Lowdermilk; Connecticut’s Spirit of Broadway Theater for “The Enchanted Cottage,” by Kim Oler, Alison Hubbard and Thomas Edward; and Texas’ Theater Under the Stars for Michael Bobbitt and John L. Cornelius III’s “Bingo Long.”

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