[NEohioPAL] Cain Park Announces 2008 Musicals

[Ksenia Roshchakovsky]

CAIN PARK ANNOUNCES 2008 THEATER SEASON
THE WIZ eases on down the road to the Evans Amphitheater June 19-July 6
HAROLD & MAUDE become intimate in the Alma Theater July 31-August 17
Auditions take place February 29-Mar 1

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:  November 26, 2007
FROM:    Ksenia Roshchakovsky, Cain Park Public Relations/Marketing Manager
216.291.5792  ksenia at clvhts.com

(Cleveland Heights, Ohio) Cain Park celebrates its 70th birthday by choosing
two musical theater works connected with the Seventies:  The Wiz, "the super
soul musical," opened on Broadway in 1975 and ran for four years; and Harold
& Maude: An Intimate Musical, based on the screenplay by Colin Higgins for
the 1971 cult-classic movie, focuses on a pair of 1970s rebels with just
causes. Cain Park and Theater Co-Artistic Directors Victoria Bussert and
Russ Borski announce that the Tony Award winning The Wiz will be directed by
Pierre-Jacques Brault in the Evans Amphitheater and the regional premiere of
Harold & Maude: An Intimate Musical will be directed by Victoria Bussert in
the Alma Theater.

2008 AUDITIONS
Auditions for both shows will occur on February 29 and March 1 at the
Cleveland Heights Community Center (1 Monticello Boulevard at Mayfield).
Callbacks are scheduled for Sunday, March 2.  Those interested in receiving
audition details should call 216.291.5792.

THE WIZ 
Music and Lyrics by Charlie Smalls.  Book by William F. Brown.  Based upon
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum.
Dorothy's adventures in the Land of Oz are set to music in a dazzling,
lively mixture of rock, gospel and soul in a multi-cultural journey that
follows the well-known and beloved story of courage, brains, heart and home.
Audiences will "Ease on Down the Road" with Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tinman and
Lion as they dance down the Yellow Brick Road to the Emerald City.  Winner
of seven Tony Awards including Best Musical and Best Original Score, The Wiz
also won two Drama Desk Awards (Outstanding Musical, Outstanding Music &
Lyrics) and was nominated for four Academy Awards for the movie version,
which starred Diana Ross and featured Michael Jackson.

Pierre-Jacques Brault (Director/The Wiz) is co-founder of Mercury Summer
Stock and has directed locally (Chagrin Valley Little Theatre, The Fine Arts
Association) and regionally (Stage Door Manor in the Catskills, Virginia
Musical Theatre) as well as performed off-Broadway.

HAROLD & MAUDE: AN INTIMATE MUSICAL  Northeast Ohio Premiere
Book and Lyrics by Tom Jones.  Music by Joseph Thalken.
This off-beat love story subversively celebrates the importance of living a
full and unique life.  Young Harold constantly attempts suicide to gain his
mother's attention and love.  Elderly and high-spirited Maude spends her
time in eccentric pursuits of happiness.  They meet while crashing a funeral
and become the oddest of odd couples as Maude passes on her intense love of
life and art to the young man who eventually falls in love with her.  With
witty lyrics and book by Tom Jones of The Fantasticks fame (based on Colin
Higgins' screenplay) and tuneful music by Joseph Thalken, Harold & Maude "is
smart, funny, irreverent, tuneful and fairly faithful to the movie's story
and spirit but different enough to claim its own vibrant identity." [San
Francisco Chronicle]

Cain Park Theater Co-artistic Director Victoria Bussert celebrates her 22nd
season at Cain Park by directing the Northeast Ohio premiere of Harold and
Maude: An Intimate Musical in the 282-seat Alma Theater.  Favorite Cain Park
productions include Bat Boy: The Musical, Follies, Violet, Avenue X, A
Little Night Music, Side Show, Hair and Nine.  Vicky has worked locally and
at theatres across the country.  She is in her 12th year of heading the
Baldwin-Wallace College music theatre program, which was recently selected
by R&H Theatricals as one of six pre-release pilot productions of Andrew
Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera.

Cain Park, a municipally owned and operated summer arts park and one of the
nation¹s oldest landmark outdoor theatres, is produced by the City of
Cleveland Heights and is located on the south side of Superior Road between
Lee and South Taylor roads.




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