Thank you to those who submitted for Polyphone 2019!
The four final selections out of almost 100 submissions are below.
2019 Polyphone Festival
February 26-March 2, 2019
Arts Bank Theater & The Wilma Theater
University of the Arts, Philadelphia
César Alvarez, Artistic Director
TICKETS AVAILABLE STARTING FEBRUARY 11 AT TICKETS.UARTS.EDU
2019 Festival Line-Up
An Incomplete List of All The Things I’m Going To Miss When The World Is No Longer:
VENUE: Wilma Theater
DATES & TIMES: February 27 at 8pm, March 1 at 8pm, March 2 at 11a
By Dante Green With Additional Music & Lyrics by Marlee Gordon and Lyell Hintz
Director: Garrett Allen
Music Director: Dante Green
Choreographer: Shavon Norris
Dramaturg: Amy Dugas-Brown
Following a global announcement of the date and time all life on Earth will be terminated, a group of friends decide the only reasonable thing to do is throw one more rager. An Incomplete List… invites you to the last shit show of the year to celebrate and mourn the delights and deceptions of the human experience. We’ve all been through our own special kind of nightmare, so we figured what better way to go out but with a bang. Come as you are and take what you will, cause when it’s over, it’s over.
Bring the Beat Back
VENUE: Arts Bank Theater
DATES & TIMES: February 26 at 8pm, February 28 at 8pm, March 2 at 8pm
Derek Lee McPhatter – Book Writer / Lyricist
Germono Toussaint – Composer / Arranger
Director: Christopher Burris
Music Director: Dionne McClain-Freeney
Choreographer: Shanel Edwards
BRING THE BEAT BACK is a queer, black, sci-fi, music-theatre experience. The show follows a young man struggling to reconcile his sexuality with his faith. Our hero journeys towards self- acceptance and affirming spirituality as conservative religious authorities and a queer subculture clash over music at the center of his world. Set in a futuristic, groove-centered alternative reality, Bring the Beat Back is inspired by urban gay “ball culture,” the evolution of house music and the rich Afro-futurist tradition in popular culture.
Hart Island Requiem
VENUE: Arts Bank Theater
DATES & TIMES: February 27 at 8pm, March 1 at 8pm, March 2 at 2pm
Book and Lyrics by Ty Defoe Music by Tidtaya Sinutoke
Director: Eva Steinmetz
Music Directors: Dorie Byrne and Tidtaya Sinutoke
Dramaturg: Katie Donovan
HART ISLAND REQUIEM is an investigative, immersive musical theatre piece inspired by Hart Island – the United States’ most documented potter’s field. Located in the Bronx, an estimated one million people have been buried there, from 1869 to the present day. In this musical, the undocumented, impoverished, and forgotten dead gather at an abandoned theme park to remember their life and death. Hart Island Requiem asks what happens to these souls when they are unable to rest in peace in America?
MARIE IN TOMORROW LAND
VENUE: Wilma Theater
DATES & TIMES: February 26 at 8pm, February 28 at 8pm, March 2 at 5pm
Book & Lyrics by Maggie-Kate Coleman Music by Erato A. Kremmyda
Conceived and Created by Maggie-Kate Coleman, Erato A. Kremmyda, and Sam Pinkleton
Director and Choreographer: Sam Pinkleton
Music Director Pax Ressler
MARIE IN TOMORROW LAND is a musical collage in which Marie Curie journeys through the remains of a Chernobyl-inspired theme park and encounters much of humanity’s troubled history with radioactivity along the way. Featuring a cast of 30+ womxn playing a kaleidoscope of Marie Curies, the piece explores the intersections between science and art, women and history, kitsch and terror, and the impact and aftermath of our radioactive existence.
Marathon Day on Saturday, March 2
(12 p.m. – 11 p.m. at the Wilma Theater and Arts Bank) Four new works in succession:
An Incomplete List of All The Things I’m Going To Miss When The World Is No Longer:, Hart Island Requiem, Marie in Tomorrowland, Bring the Beat Back
Please enjoy this episode of “Working in the Theatre” by American Theatre Wing, featuring the 2017 Polyphone Festival!