Midwest New Musicals Continues 'Words and Music' With VERVE

Midwest New Musicals continues Words and Music, its concert reading series of original musicals, with VERVE by Fran Zell and Karena Mendoza on Monday, March 19, at 7:30 PM at the Light Opera Works Second Stage at 1420 Maple (at Lake) in Evanston. Tickets are $15, available at Light Opera Works box office: (847) 920-5360 or at the door.

  

An additional presentation will be on Tuesday, March 20, at 7:00 PM at Citadel Theatre, West campus space, 300 Waukegan Road in Lake Forest. (847) 735-8554. Donation at door only.  

 

VERVE is about excess jealousy and the futile pursuit of skinny happiness at a women's gym. Four women challenge each other to a friendly weight loss contest that eventually tests their ability to accept themselves, each other and the mysterious, ultra-svelte fifth woman among them. They never dream it will all lead to a rigged game of Truth or Dare and the opportunity to divulge secrets they wouldn't share with their best friend. Or would they? 

 

VERVE is directed by Denise Blank. Musical director is Randy Buehler and stage manager is Dylan S. Roberts. Midwest New Musicals is lead by workshop director John Sparks.

 

Fran Zell (book, lyrics) got the idea for Verve while working out to music and side chatter at a women's gym. She is a teacher, freelance journalist, and political activist who sometimes writes fiction and poetry. She is a former feature writer for the Chicago Tribune and author of The Marcy Stories, a book, and Meat Marketing, a play produced at the Love Creek Productions' one-act festival in New York. She is a member of Midwest New Musicals and the Dramatists Guild.

Karena Mendoza (music) is an award-winning vocalist and composer. Her children's CD On-The-Loose Dreams won the Gold Parent's Choice Award, among others. In 2004, she won Best Song Writing at the New York International Fringe Festival. In 2007, she was commissioned to compose music for Dario's Archangels Don't Play Pinball at North Park University. Current collaborations include The Gift of Mrs. Magi with Charmaine Spencer, which had a concert reading in December, Marcie the Marvelous Tree with Larry Carpenter, a children's environmental musical, and Requiem for a Refugee, a choral work.

  

The Midwest New Musicals writers workshop and the new Words and Music series are funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, The ASCAP Foundation and The Dramatist Guild Fund. Most of the new musicals in the Words and Music series are written by members of the Midwest New Musicals writers workshop and have been developed in the workshop Core Curriculum and development process.

 

Midwest New Musicals is an ongoing forum where lyricists, composers and book writers create and discuss their work. Divided into three levels, workshop members meet 10 times per year for intensive weekend sessions. Since 2009, Midwest New Musicals has been a resident arm of Light Opera Works, Chicago's specialists in operetta and musical theater. With the Midwest New Musicals, Light Opera Works is able to expand its programming and service to the field by providing an outlet for writers and for new works of musical theater.