What’s better than talking about stimulating creativity in West Virginia and then seeing it in action?
On Friday, April 10, join host group “Create Mercer” and the statewide Create WV team at the RiffRaff Arts Collective in downtown Princeton, WV, for an afternoon and evening of innovative culture and economic/community growth discussion.
The Southern WV Create WV Summit will run from 1pm – 5pm. Using the exciting developments in arts and entrepreneurship in Mercer County as a backdrop, the Create WV team will announce new services available for WV communities to build their “creative economy”, which includes arts/culture, media, technology, research and development, design and other fast-growing industries.
Attendees will hear case studies on creative communities who are turning the corner with innovative growth models. There will also be presentations on implications for West Virginia’s new economy from the Federal stimulus plan, West Virginia’s 2009 legislative session, and much more. Don’t miss it!
Read on for details on the exciting event following the Summit:
The RiffRaff Players, a performing arts collective out of Princeton, W.Va., will stage Jason Robert Brown’s 1995 off-Broadway show “Songs for a New World” in two area performances this spring. This compelling, powerful, sometimes very funny work is by a composer described as “one of the strongest new musical theatre writers of this generation.”
The show will be staged Friday and Saturday, March 20 and 21, in Tamarack’s Hullet C. Smith Theatre as part of the center’s popular dinner theatre series. Then, on Friday and Saturday, April 10 and 11, The Room Upstairs, operated by The RiffRaff Arts Collective in downtown Princeton, W.Va., will play host to the 17-song musical. Both shows are dinner theatre experiences beginning with a full-course meal at 6:30 p.m.
The RiffRaff Players consists of four well-known regional performers: Kayla Kathleen Ward (also known as Kathleen Coffee), Douglas Imbrogno, Lori McKinney and Albert Perrone. Each player brings a wide range of diverse performance experience to the stage and together they are part a new generation of progressive music theatre in West Virginia.
There is limited seating at both venues and the Tamarack theater series often sells out. Purchase Tamarack dinner theatre tickets for $40 at www.tamarackwv.com or call 1-88TAMARACK Ext. 148. For the Princeton showing, purchase tickets for $25 at www.theriffraff.net or call 304-425-6425.
NOTE: The Tamarack show is a PG-13 version of the show, missing a few of the ribald references and language from the off-Broadway show. At the Princeton venue, a more R-rated show language-wise, there will also be a regional summit for Create WV earlier on Friday, April 10. Guests may participate in a progressive discussion on West Virginia in the new economy and the rise of the “creative class” and are invited to stay for the show. For more on that group, visit http://createwv.com.
SHOW HISTORY
Says Jason Robert Brown of this gripping revue: “It’s about one moment. It’s about hitting the wall and having to make a choice, or take a stand, or turn around and go back.” One writer, describing the show’s songs, says they are about “those moments in life when everything seems perfect and then suddenly disaster strikes, in the form of the loss of a job, an unexpected pregnancy, the death of a loved one, the end of a marriage, imprisonment, even suicide. But it’s even more about surviving those moments. It’s about the way we regroup and figure out how to survive in a new set of circumstances – a new world – even against seemingly overwhelming odds.”
Brown transports his audience from the deck of a 1492 Spanish sailing ship to a ledge 57 stories above Fifth Avenue and beyond, to meet a startling array of characters. They range from a young man who has determined that basketball is his ticket out of the ghetto to a woman whose dream of marrying rich nabs her the man of her dreams and a soulless marriage. These are stories and characters of today, the songs for a new world.
With music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown, the show was originally produced by the WPA Theatre, NYC in 1995 with Kyle Renick as artistic director. “Songs For A New World” is presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International, New York.
For more history and an analysis of the show, visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songs_for_a_New_World
For more information on the RiffRaff Players and these performances, contact Lori McKinney at 304-425-6425.