Raw Impressions, Inc. in association with PenneySeal Productions present the performances, directed by Daniella Topol.
Raw Impressions Music Theatre (RIMT) is a unique artistic matchmaking company pairing writers and composers to create new music theatre pieces. For each of the 15 events RIMT has produced, eight composers and eight lyricists who have never worked together are paired and given an assignment, a few actors and 48 hours to turn in a first draft of a new 10-minute musical.
All eight new pieces are then performed at La MaMa ETC 10 days after that very first meeting. Over the course of the past two years, RIMT has created 124 new 10-minute musicals and engaged more than 400 artists from New York and Los Angeles.
Dreams This Way is comprised of eight of the best pieces created in RIMT. This project involves 38 artists who represent what musical theatre looks and sounds like today.
Among this talented group are David Javerbaum (2003 Emmy Award-Winning head writer for "The Daily Show"); Andrew Gerle and Maryrose Wood (the only three-time winners of the Richard Rodgers Award for their musical, The Tutor); Scott Ethier (Macon Symphony Composer-In-Residence 2001); Curtis Moore (currently writing and recording the score for Todd Solondz's next film, "Palindromes"); Gavin Esham (who starred as Jesus Christ in the cast of the international tour of Jesus Christ Superstar); Jennifer Waldman (dance captain for Titanic on Broadway); and Jimmy Bennett (co-creator and star of "The Nuclear Family"). Director Daniella Topol has directed new plays and musicals for City Theatre, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Epiphany Theatre Company, The Lark, HB Playwrights, New York Theatre Workshop Reading Series, NYU's Department of Dramatic Writing and FringeNYC, among many others. She is the new works program director at the National Alliance for Musical Theatre, is a Lark associate artist, First Look directing member and Carnegie Mellon directing alum.
She is joined by musical director Daniel Feyer, choreographer Wendy Seyb, set designer Orit Jacoby Carroll, lighting designer Andrew Hill and costume designer Heather Dunbar. The cast includes Jimmy Bennett, Gavin Esham, Patrick Mellen, Amanda Ryan Paige, Lucy Sorensen and Jennifer Waldman.
Jane Abramson and Laura Penney are PenneySeal Productions, which produced Slut at FringeNYC 2003 and set the record for the fastest show to sell out in the New York International Fringe Festival's history.
David Rodwin (producing artistic director) and Patrick Mellen (music theatre division director) founded Raw Impressions in 2001. With the success of the music theatre program, Raw Impressions has expanded to include dance, film and non-musical theatre collaborations fostered through a similar process.
TADA! Theater Space is at 15 W. 28th St., Second Floor, between Fifth and Broadway. Performances play March 18-April 3, running 8 PM Tuesday-Friday, 5 & 8 PM Saturday, and one special performance March 23 at 3 PM (there will be no 8 PM show on March 23). Tickets are $15 and can be purchased (212) 212-352-3101. For more information about Raw Impressions, visit the website at www.rawimpressions.org.
