Composer Adam Guettel on Musical Theatre

May 4, 2003 at Jack Straw Productions

INTIMAN Theatre, Jack Straw Productions, Seattle Composers Alliance, and Washington Composers Forum are pleased to sponsor a presentation by award-winning composer Adam Guettel at Jack Straw Productions. Guettel will perform excerpts from The Light in the Piazza, his new musical written with INTIMAN Theatre's Associate Artistic Director, Craig Lucas. He will also share his process of collaboratively creating a musical and the challenges of production.

Adam Guettel has been called "a composer for the new century" by the Los Angeles Times. He is one of American musical theatre's most vibrant new voices, a composer/lyricist who has written some of the more adventurous and admired theatre music of the last decade. His musical Floyd Collins, written in collaboration with director Tina Landau, received an Obie Award, the Lucille Lortel Award, and a Drama Desk nomination for Best Musical.

Guettel's song cycle Saturn Returns: A Concert has been released on CD by Nonesuch Records under its original title, Myths and Hymns. His stage scores also include a full-length operatic version of A Christmas Carol (in collaboration with Tina Landau). In addition to his theatre credits, Guettel has composed several one-act operas and scored for films, animated films and television. He is also the recipient of the Stephen Sondheim Award (1990), and the ASCAP New Horizons Award (1997).

Based on the 1960 novel by Elizabeth Spencer, The Light in the Piazza is a love story set in Florence and Rome in 1953. Both romantic and mysterious, it tells the story of an American mother and daughter and their life-transforming encounter with a young Italian. The Light in the Piazza features Glenn Seven Allen, Victoria Clark, Patti Cohenour, Mark Harelik, Celia Keenan-Bolger, Kelli O'Hara, Steven Pasquale and Robert Shampain. The music director is Ted Sperling and the choreographer is Pat Graney. The creative team also includes scenic designer Loy Arcenas, costume designer Catherine Zuber and lighting designer Christopher Akerlind.

The Light in the Piazza will begin previews in Seattle on May 31, 2003 at the INTIMAN Playhouse, 201 Mercer Street at Seattle Center. Press nights are June 11, 12 and 13. The opening night performance on Saturday, June 14 will benefit INTIMAN Theatre. Following the world premiere in Seattle, the musical will travel to Chicago's Goodman Theatre.

2003 Past Events