| PROSPECT MUSICALS AND NAT. ASIAN ARTISTS PROJ. PRESENT “MĀYĀ" | |
| Last Edit: Official_Press_Release 12:14 pm EDT 09/16/24 | |
| Posted by: Official_Press_Release 12:14 pm EDT 09/16/24 | |
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| PROSPECT MUSICALS' IGNITE SERIES IN PARTNERSHIP WITH NATIONAL ASIAN ARTISTS PROJECT'S DISCOVER: NEW MUSICALS SERIES ANNOUNCES A ONE NIGHT ONLY CONCERT OF "MAYA" BOOK & MUSIC BY CHEEYANG NG BOOK & LYRICS BY ERIC SORRELS DIRECTED BY J. MEHR KAUR THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 21 @ 7PM AT PETER NORTON SYMPHONY SPACE TICKETS NOW ON SALE New York, NY (September 16, 2024) – Prospect Musicals (Cara Reichel, Producing Artistic Director; Melissa Huber, Managing Director) and National Asian Artists Project (Baayork Lee, Steven Eng and Nina Zoie Lam, Co-Founders) have announced a renewed partnership to present the original musical Maya in a one night only concert at Peter Norton Symphony Space (2537 Broadway, at 95th Street). The performance will take place on Thursday, November 21st at 7:00pm. In the twilight of the British Empire, an aspiring poet named Maya Mehta sets out to make her mark on the world. When Mahatma Gandhi's famous Salt March passes through her hometown, Maya is torn between duty to her family and the passionate ideals of her freedom-fighting friends in the Indian Independence Movement. Ultimately, through the power of words and actions, she defies the Empire and joins the legacy of India's quest for sovereignty. Told through a contemporary score that fuses Indian classical music with Western pop, Maya is the story of how one poet, one dreamer, one person can make a lasting mark on a movement. Maya features book & music by Cheeyang Ng, book & lyrics by Eric Sorrels, with direction by J. Mehr Kaur. Additional creative team and cast members to be announced. Maya was recently developed at Musical Theatre West and at ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshop with Stephen Schwartz, and is currently preparing for a developmental production in London. It has previously been developed at AMAS Musical Theatre, National Alliance for Musical Theatre, Eugene O'Neill National Musical Theatre Conference, Hypokrit Theatre, Pace New Musicals, ASCAP Foundation, Live & In Color, Johnny Mercer's Songwriters Project, New York City Center, and was conceived at New York University's Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program. Maya is a co-presentation as part of the National Asian Artists Project's Discover: New Musicals Series and Prospect Musicals' IGNITE Series. Reflecting Prospect's dedication to fostering and producing work by emerging artists, IGNITE Series programming includes songwriter showcase evenings; cutting-edge creations from Prospect's annual Musical Theater Lab; and concert presentations of work-in-process musicals. National Asian Artists Project (NAAP) exists to celebrate the exceptional work of musical theatre artists of Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) descent. NAAP's Discover: New Musicals Series features performances of new musicals as readings, concerts, and workshop presentations of full-length works. Single tickets are $39 and $59 (prices include a $5/ticket facility fee) and may be obtained through online purchase at www.ProspectMusicals.org or www.NAAProject.org. Student tickets are available (with ID) for $30 (incl. fee). This concert is made possible in part by a project support from the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature. For more information, please visit www.ProspectMusicals.org or www.NAAProject.org. CREATIVE TEAM BIOS CHEEYANG NG (Book & Music) and ERIC SORRELS (Book & Lyrics) have been writing together since 2017, where they met at NYU's Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program. Since then, they've won the Eric Weinberger Emerging Librettist award and the ASCAP Lucille & Jack Yellen songwriting award. Their projects include Maya (NAMT 2021, Eugene O'Neill Finalist), and The Phoenix (Goodspeed Writer's Grove, Rhinebeck Writer's Retreat, Eugene O'Neill Finalist). Other joint credits include Prospect Theatre Lab (2019), The Johnny Mercer Songwriters Project (2019), Live & In Color Residency (2019), Asolo Rep Ground Floor (2020), the ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshop with Stephen Schwartz (2023), Stiles and Drewe Song Prize Finalists (2024), and recipients of the Frank Young Writing Grant (2024). Cheeyang is also a Jonathan Larson Grant finalist and winner of the Princess Grace Award. In 2025, MAYA will have a developmental workshop and concert presentation in London. J. MEHR KAUR (Director) is a director & producer who tells stories that mythicize the lives of ordinary people. Her short film I'm Dead Right?, a queer, dark comedy starring Sakina Jaffrey, will premiere at the 2024 International South Asian Film Festival and her physical theatre piece Kultar's Mime, about the power of art in the wake of genocide toured globally to audiences in Canada, Asia and Europe. In LA, Mehr recently directed readings of Pigeonhole by Jasmine Sharma (CTG) and MAYA by Cheeyang Ng & Eric Sorrels (MTW), the first staged production of ABCD by Lily Abha Cratsley (KriyaShakti/Greenway Court) and the west coast premiere of An Intervention by Mike Bartlett (Encore Producer's award, 2022 Hollywood Fringe). In NYC she's worked at La Mama, Ars Nova, MTC, Juilliard, Dixon Place, Colt Coeur, WP, Astoria Performing Arts Center, and in various Brooklyn basements. MFA: Peter Stark Producing Program, USC; BA: Smith College. ABOUT NATIONAL ASIAN ARTISTS PROJECT NAAP was founded in 2009 by Baayork Lee, Steven Eng and Nina Zoie Lam. Prominent theater artists in their own right, they joined together in an effort to address what they felt was a significant lack of opportunity for professional Asian American theater artists to practice their craft and contribute on a broader level to the diversity of the American theater. NAAP seeks to showcase the work of professional theater artists of Asian descent through performance, education and outreach. NAAP is a community of artists, educators, administrators, community leaders and professionals who recognize the need to bridge the work of artists of Asian descent to the many communities the work can serve, from under-served primary school students to seasoned arts patrons. For more information about NAAP, visit www.NAAProject.org. Among the many productions NAAP has proudly produced are: Oklahoma, Carousel, Hello Dolly, Oliver, Into the Woods, Cinderella, Pajama Game, Gold Mountain and Honor. In 2017, NAAP founder Baayork Lee was honored with the Isabelle Stevenson Tony Award, presented annually to a member of the theatre community who has made a substantial contribution of volunteered time and effort on behalf of one or more humanitarian, social service or charitable organizations. NAAP was proudly cited and showcased as a contributing factor in the award. ABOUT PROSPECT MUSICALS Over 25 years, Prospect Musicals has mounted full productions of nearly 40 new musicals, as well as presented hundreds of concerts, readings, and developmental labs, affirming the organization's place as one of NYC's foremost incubators of new musical theater talent. In addition to Prospect's musical premieres, they have produced new plays and numerous "revisals" and re-inventions of classic works. Reflecting its investment in the future of the field, Prospect leads a variety of developmental initiatives: including an annual Musical Theater Lab for emerging writers, and the IGNITE Series of new musical theater in concert. In 2020, Prospect launched the VISION Series of original music-theater works on film, created for online streaming. In recognition of its enterprising and risk-taking new musical theater, the company has received an OBIE Award grant, and its role as a community anchor for emerging artists that strengthens the quality, diversity, and dynamism of American theater was honored by the American Theatre Wing. In 2023 Prospect produced the NYC Off-Broadway premiere of Justin Huertas' acclaimed musical Lizard Boy at Theatre Row, which was nominated for three 2024 Drama Desk Awards including Outstanding Musical, Outstanding Music, and Outstanding Book of a Musical. In 2022, Prospect commissioned and produced (at 59E59 Theaters) the musical song-cycle Notes From Now – Songs of Resilience & Renewal, featuring a lineup of newly-commissioned original songs created by 21 of today's brightest musical theater writers. Previously, Prospect produced the Drama Desk Award-nominated Einstein's Dreams (2019) by Joanne Sydney Lessner & Joshua Rosenblum, adapted from the novel by Alan Lightman; and the Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Award-nominated The Hello Girls (2018), by company founding artists Peter Mills & Cara Reichel. Other notable productions include: Kerrigan & Lowdermilk's The Mad Ones (2017); Ryan Scott Oliver and Hunter Foster's Jasper in Deadland (2014); the Drama Desk nominated Tamar of the River (2013) by Joshua H. Cohen and Marisa Michelson; Carner & Gregor's Unlock'd (2013); Gordon Greenberg's revisal of Working (Drama Desk Award, Outstanding Ensemble, 2012) including new songs by Lin Manuel Miranda; and Elizabeth Lucas' re-imagining of Guettel's Myths and Hymns (2012). # # # # NAAProject.org Facebook: @NAAProject.org X: @NAAProject YouTube: @NAAProject ProspectMusicals.org Facebook: @ProspectMusicals Instagram: @ProspectMusicals X: @ProspectTheater YouTube: @ProspectMusicals TikTok: @Prospect.Musicals |
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