The Southwestern College Summer Theatre Festival will present Tony nominated and OBIE award winning musical “[title of show]” on Friday, Aug. 26, at 7:30 p.m., in in Messenger Recital Hall located in the Darbeth Fine Arts Center. The show is rated PG-13 due to adult content. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for youth.  Southwestern College students will be admitted without charge. 

“[title of show],” created by Jeff Bowen and Hunter Bell, is directed by Carman Moon, with musical direction by Brian Winnie. The cast of four stars Mathew Porter, Austin Davis, Allie Petrovich, and Julianna Smarsh.
 
“This August performance provides one last opportunity to experience this amazing contemporary musical,” says Allyson Moon, director of the theatre program at Southwestern.  “It is also the launch of the 2016-17 Southwestern College Theatre season.”

“[title of show]” chronicles its own creation as an entry in the New York Musical Theatre Festival, and follows the struggles of the author and the composer/lyricist and their two actress friends during the initial brief creative period, along with subsequent events leading up to the show's off- and on-Broadway production. Bowen and Bell, determined to write an original musical rather than adapt an existing play or movie, discovered almost immediately that their conversations about what to write were more interesting than what they were actually writing. One character in the show explains that they are trying to write a musical about two guys writing a musical about two guys writing a musical.

The production will kick off a busy theatre season at Southwestern.  Upcoming season productions include “Love Letters” by A. R. Gurney (Oct. 8); “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead” and “15 Minute Hamlet” by Tom Stoppard (Nov.11-13); “I and You” by Lauren Gunderson (Feb. 16-19); and “Spring Awakening” by Steven Sater (April 7-9).  For a complete list of the entire 2016-17 season, go to http://www.sckans.edu/undergraduate/theatre-arts/season-at-a-glance/.