Songs from An Unmade Bed at Pride Films and Plays

Pride Films and Plays continues its 2013-14 season with Mark Campbell’s theatrical song cycle Songs from an Unmade Bed. Directed by PFP Artistic Associate Derek Van Barham with music direction by ensemble member Robert Ollis, both Artistic Ensemble Members of PFP. The production will run March 29-April 27 at The Apollo Theater Studio, 2540 N Lincoln Ave.  Tickets are available through Ticketmaster, and tickets will go on sale on January 1, 2014. The press opening is Saturday, March 29 at 7:30pm.

Songs from An Unmade Bed at Pride Films and Plays

Songs from an Unmade Bed explores the experiences (romantic, sexual and otherwise) of gay men living in the city. Lyricist Mark Campbell worked with eighteen composers (one per song) to create a unique musical revue, accompanied by piano and cello, with gorgeous songs that range from funny, poignant, melancholy and ultimately hopeful about life and love.Songs from an Unmade Bed has previously been presented in New York City (Off-Broadway), Los Angeles and elsewhere; this will be its premiere professional production in Chicago.

“There’s something so beautiful about the simplicity of this show,” said director Barham. “Having one lyricist work with 18 different composers is ingenious.  What emerges is a very personal, articulate voice.  Each composer finds a different color and nuance of the character. The lyrics are so universal, and the music is just a delight.  We’re lucky to be working in such an intimate space at The Apollo, so that we can allow the audience to feel up close and personal with the performers.  The evening should have the feel of being invited over by a few handsome, young gentlemen on a cold winter’s night.  Who doesn’t love that?”

PRODUCTION DETAILS:

Title:  Songs from an Unmade Bed

Lyrics by: Mark Campbell

Music by: Debra Barsha, Mark Bennett, Peter Foley, Jenny Giering, Peter Golub, Jake Heggie, Lance Horne, Stephen Hoffman, Giheih Lee, Steven Lutvak, Steve Marzullo, Brendan Milburn, Chris Miller, Greg Pliska, Duncan Sheik, Kim D. Sherman, Jeffrey Stock, Joseph Thalken

Director: Derek Van Barham

Music Director: Robert Ollis

Cast: PFP Ensemble Member Kevin Webb.  Additional cast will be announced soon.

Location:  The Apollo Theater Studio, 2540 N Lincoln Ave, Chicago

Previews: Thursday and Friday, March 27 and 28 at 7:30pm

Press performance/opening: Saturday, March 29 at 7:30pm

Regular run:  Thursday through Sunday, March 30 through April 27, 2014

Curtain Times:  Thursday, Fridays and Saturdays, and Sundays at at 7:30 pm

Tickets: Previews $15. Opening $30. Regular Run: Thursdays $25; Friday, Saturdays, and Sundays $30. Students and seniors: $5 off all performances. Industry: $10 during previews. Tickets are at Ticketmaster starting January 1.

About the Lyricist

Mark Campbell is one of the most in-demand librettists working in opera today, recently profiled in Opera News as one of twenty-five people “poised…to become major forces in opera in the coming decade.”  He has collaborated with many leading composers of this generation, including Mark Adamo, William Bolcom, Ricky Ian Gordon, Jake Heggie, Martin Hennessy, Paul Moravec, John Musto, Kevin Puts, Richard Peaslee and Michael Torke. His most successful operas include Volpone, Later the Same Evening, Bastianello/ Lucrezia, Rappahannock County, and Silent Night.  Mark has received many prestigious awards for his work. Most recently, Silent Night was honored with the 2012 Pulitzer Prize in Music. Volpone received a 2010 Grammy® nomination for best Classical Recording. He also received the first Kleban Foundation Award for Lyricist, two Richard Rodgers Awards and a New York Foundation for the Arts Playwriting Fellowship.   As a lyricist, Mark penned all of the lyrics for Songs from an Unmade Bed, a theatrical song cycle with music by 18 composers including Jake Heggie and Duncan Sheik. Other musicals for which he has written lyrics include: And the Curtain Rises, The Audience, Splendora, Akin, and Light Shall Lift Them.

About the Director

Derek Van Barham is a PFP Artistic Associate and Literary Manager for The Ruckus Theatre. He most recently choreographed and directed Kill Your Boyfriends, PFP’s contribution to National Pastime Theatre’s Naked July Festival. He has worked with BoHo Theatre (Hauptmann), Red Tape Theatre (The Skriker, Stadium Devildare, The Life & Death of Madame Barker), and The Island Theatre (Wallace Shawn’s The Fever). He can currently be seen improvising with the gentle gentlemen of ThoraBirch, and has also choreographed for The Plagiarists and Brain Surgeon Theatre. He is the founder of the Crush Dance Collective. MFA: Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University. BFA: University of Mississippi.

About the Music Director

Robert Ollis was music director of Pride Films & Plays’ Under A Rainbow Flag, which won two Jeff Awards:  Best Musical and Best New Work.  With Bailiwick Chicago, Robert was Co-Music Director of Elton John’s AIDA,  music director of the musical revues A Season of Change: Holidays in the Sixties and Show Us Your Love,  and was part of the musical team for Violet.  He has also music-directed several casting auction productions for Victory Gardens Theatre and Bailiwick Chicago, including The Drowsy Chaperone – upcoming.  Robert music directed an acclaimed production of Sondheim’s Assassins with The GoForth Productions.  Robert received a non-equity Jeff Award for his musical direction of Kiss of the Spider Woman and a nomination for A Man of No Importance, each at Bailiwick Repertory Theatre.  In recent years, he has also music-directed such shows as My Favorite Year, The Cousins Grimm, The Who’s Tommy and Dennis DeYoung’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame.  On the cabaret scene, Robert has accompanied performers at Feinstein’s in New York City and at Davenport’s in Chicago.

About Pride Films and Plays

Pride Films and Plays fosters excellence in writing for the stage and screen with LGBT themes by linking an international network of writers to our Artistic Ensemble in Chicago and professionals working in the field internationally. Using stories with gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender characters or themes, Pride Films and Plays develops human stories that speak for the community and is essential viewing for all audiences.

PFP’s contests – the Great Gay Play Contest, Women’s Work (for works by women with lesbian characters or themes) and the Great Gay Screenplay Contest – reach their conclusion during Festival Weekends of readings and workshops sponsored by Center on Halsted. Writers from around the world have worked with PFP’s Artistic Ensemble in extensive rehearsals and performances of “enhanced staged readings” which include movement, blocking, and technical elements.

PFP’s fully staged productions include reinvigorated classics, Chicago premieres, and world premieres of scripts that have been developed in the contests. The 2011 Great Gay Play Contest winner, Learn To Be Latina by Enrique Urueta, has had multiple regional productions, and the 2012 winner At The Flash by Sean Chandler and David Leeper was Jeff-recommended in Chicago and recently concluded a successful run in Los Angeles. Under A Rainbow Flag by Leo Schwartz, a finalist in last year’s contest, had its premiere this spring and won the Jeff Award for Best New Work and Best Musical Production, and Directions for Restoring the Apparently Dead by Martin Casella recently concluded its world premiere run in the 150-seat Thrust Theater at Stage 773.

Songs from an Unmade Bed explores the experiences (romantic, sexual and otherwise) of gay men living in the city.

For more information on contests or productions, visit www.pridefilmsandplays.com.

The post Songs from An Unmade Bed at Pride Films and Plays appeared first on Seasons of Pride.