New Stage Collective

CINCINNATI—New Stage Collective, the award-winning contemporary theatre company on Main Street in Over-the-Rhine, announces it will close its final season with Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music. NSC Producing Artistic Director Alan Patrick Kenny music directs the iconic 1973 musical at Know Theatre. Wright State Musical Theatre Chair Joe Deer is guest director in his Cincinnati debut. The show features a large cast of talented Cincinnati actors including Amy Warner and Bruce Cromer in lead roles. A Little Night Music opens April 30 and runs for a limited run of 8 performances through May 10.

“A Little Night Music will serve as the swan song for New Stage Collective,” says Kenny, who co-founded the company with Joshua Steele in 2003. New Stage Collective announces the difficult decision to end its amazing, seven-season run after the final performance of A Little Night Music.

In a joint statement, the board of trustees said, “We are heartbroken by this painful, difficult decision to cease further operations. The severity of the economic downturn coupled with rapidly diminishing resources made producing another season impossible.”

“The support from the community has been spectacular throughout our company’s entire history,” says Alan Patrick Kenny. “Unfortunately, we are in a new economic reality. In the past we were able to present amazing works of theatre using incredibly talented artists and very few resources. In this new economic reality, the artistic ideas and the talent remain, but the resources do not. I feel we truly did everything we could to survive, but at the end of the day the board and I made the only responsible decision.”

A Little Night Music, called “heady, civilized, sophisticated and enchanting” by the New York Times when it opened in New York in 1973, is a fitting finale. New Stage’s first main stage production was Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along in 2003. “It feels fitting that we started with a show that tells backward the bittersweet story of young people growing up and the difficulties of finding success,” says Kenny. “We’re now closing with a more sophisticated show about finding love in middle age and not letting the important moments in life pass you by. It’s a stylish, older and world-wise perspective that somehow makes sense.”

“Thanks to the generosity of the Know Theatre of Cincinnati, NSC is able to present one more production,” says Kenny. “This is a last opportunity for our artistic community, family and friends to gather, say goodbye and celebrate what has made the company so successful.”

A Little Night Music stars Equity Guest Artists and local award-winning actors Bruce Cromer (Amadeus, A Christmas Carol) and Amy Warner (The Goat or Who is Sylvia?).

The cast also includes S. Elizabeth Carroll, Maribeth Crawford, Lisa Ericksen, Hilary Fingerman, Margaret-Ellen Jeffreys, Paul Lieber, JJ Parkey, Kelly Pekar, Lindsay Jolin Polasek, Tim Singleton, and Renee Frank Reed.

A Little Night Music is directed by Joe Deer, with music directed by Alan Patrick Kenny, and is produced by Alan Patrick Kenny and Thomas J. McLaughlin.

Because of its limited run of only eight performances over two weekends, all tickets to A Little Night Music are $20 with no discounts available. City of Angels, NSC’s intended closing production for the 2008-2009 season, is canceled. NSC subscriptions will be honored for all performances of A Little Night Music.

Subscribers holding tickets for City of Angels will generously be honored at either Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati’s Don’t Make Me Pull This Show Over, running April 29 through May 17, 2009; Cincinnati Shakespeare Company’s Comedy of Errors, running through April 26, 2009;or Know Theatre of Cincinnati’s Vigils running through April 25, 2009.

About this Production
A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC
Book by Hugh Wheeler, Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Directed by Joe Deer
April 30, May 1, 2, 7-9 at 8 pm
May 3, 10 at 3 pm
All Seats $20
Tickets go on sale Wednesday, April 9

Presented at Know Theatre of Cincinnati, 1120 Jackson St., downtown Cincinnati
visit knowtheatre.com for directions and information

Box Office info:
Online: www.newstagecollective.com
Phone: 513.621.3700

NEW STAGE COLLECTIVE is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, whose goal is to facilitate the development of the pre-professional artist while bringing to the region exceptional performances of meaningful and rarely performed works. NSC debuted in June 2003, and productions have included: BENT, Dead City*, Dying City*, The History Boys*, Shining City*, Caroline, or Change*, Striking 12*, Take Me Out, BUG*, Jerry Springer: the Opera*, The Goat or Who is Sylvia?*, Radiant Baby*, Songs from an Unmade Bed*, Kooky Tunes*, All We Can Handle*, A Number*, The Full Monty, The Book of Liz*, Kimberly Akimbo*, Sunday in the Park with George*, Side Show*, Merrily We Roll Along, The Last Five Years*, Fully Committed, The Shape of Things, the New Directors Workshop Series* and A Cabaret: An Evening of Musical Theatre (* indicates regional premiere). NEW STAGE COLLECTIVE is a member of the League of Cincinnati Theatres, and is a Performance Affiliate of the Contemporary Arts Center.

SPONSORS
2008-2009 Season Sponsor: Lois and Richard Rosenthal Foundation
The Greater Cincinnati Foundation, The Otto M. Budig Family Foundation, The William O. Purdy Jr. Foundation, Fine Arts Fund, Paul and Stephanie McCready, Dr. Robert J. Thierauf, Jerry & Jeanne Rape, Over-the-Rhine Chamber of Commerce Business First AdVenture Program, Neil R. Artman and Margaret L. Straub, City of Cincinnati Arts Grant Recipient, The Carol Ann and Ralph V. Haile, Jr./U.S. Bank Foundation, Funded by the City of Cincinnati, Ohio Arts Council, Duke Energy, Richard Oberacker, The LaBoiteaux Family Foundation

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CityBeat's February 3, 2009, cover story, "Gems of the Neighborhood," names New Stage Collective's Artistic Director Alan Patrick Kenny one of Cincinnati's Persons of the Year. Despite tough economic times, Over-the-Rhine's theater companies continue to breathe life into the neighborhood's bricks and mortar. Check out the article here:

http://www.citybeat.com/cincinnati/article-17098-gems-of-the-neighborhood.html

We're posting a set of videos about Dying City - a new one every few days! And our friends on Facebook get to see them first!

The first one is about Rob Jansen, who stars as Craig/Peter, and the second is about Julianna Bloodgood, who plays Kelly (you can see the videos linked in the right column).

You can watch all the videos as a playlist on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=1C2605EE298C9C1D

Keep checking back to the New Stage Facebook Page every few days over the next couple of weeks for new videos and new insights on by Christopher Shinn's Dying City.