Cited by the Los Angeles Times as "better than any textbook," Water and Power is an industrial strength musical about the 1830s labor movement performed by thirty students from the LA-based Marquez Charter Elementary School. These 4th-6th graders will perform the 90-minute work as both their New York debut and their homework assignment.
Co-written by fifth grade teacher, Jeff Lantos, Water and Power is a part of a Performing History Program in which students take history from the page to the stage. Lantos writes the book and lyrics, Bill Augustine writes the music and the students at Marquez Charter Elementary (and former Marquezians) dramatize seminal events in early American history including the trials tribulations of the Plymouth Colony (Plymouth 2.0), the writing of the Constitution (Miracle in Philadelphia) the Lewis and Clark expedition (Hello Louisiana) and the legal battle to integrate the public schools (Carry On). Students in the program are either rehearsing or performing history 39 out of the 40 weeks of school. At a time when music and drama programs are being cut from public education, students at Marquez Elementary get a daily dose.
Water and Power centers around fifteen year-old Abby who must leave her family farm to work in the cotton mills of Lowell, MA. When she falls in love with the rich son of the mill owner, their relationship is tested by her involvement in the nascent labor movement.
Jeff Lantos (Writer and Co-Director) has written for the Los Angeles Times, LA Weekly, and for 13 years was a contributing writer and editor for Movieline Magazine. With Robyn Hutter and LeeAn Lantos, he wrote the family musical, Big Tush, Little Tush, which has had two Los Angeles productions and has been published by Dramatic Publishing.
Now in its seventh year, the New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF) is the largest annual musical theatre event in America and is widely regarded as the essential source for new material and talent discovery. NYMF provides a launching pad for the next generation of musicals and their creators to ensure the continued vitality of one of America's greatest art forms. Hailed as the "Sundance of Musical Theatre," NYMF discovers, nurtures, and promotes promising musical theatre artists and producers at all stages of development, and inspires a diverse audience through vibrant, accessible, powerful new work.
NYMF is the flagship program of National Music Theater Network, Inc., a 501(c) (3) not-for-profit organization. NYMF 2010 is presented in association with BroadwayWorld.com, Production Resource Group,TheaterMania.com, and Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment and is supported by AP-Red.com, Back Stage, Barnes and Noble, BroadwayBox.com, BroadwayInsider.com, Broadway.TV, Clear Channel Spectacolor, DFD-TV, King Displays, NASDAQ OMX, New World Stages, Next Magazine, PMD Promotions, The Port Authority of NY & NJ, Queerty.com, Season of Savings, Tekserve, Terra Fossil, Thomson Reuters, TheMenEvent.com, Times Square Squared, and Yelp. Major supporters include The ASCAP Foundation, BMI Foundation, Inc., The Broadway League, The BWF Foundation, The Nathan Cummings Foundation with the support and encouragement of Jamie Ariel Phinney, The Charlie & Jane Fink Charitable Fund, Cameron Mackintosh Foundation, The Jerome Robbins Foundation, The Rodgers & Hammerstein Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, Spiritus Gladius Foundation, and The Theater League. NYMF is supported, in part, by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, and by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency.
NYMF Memberships, which combine charitable contributions with valuable, flexible ticket packages and perks like early seating, and tickets to individual events are currently available for purchase at (212) 352-3101 or www.nymf.org. Single tickets for Festival events are also currently on sale.
WATER AND POWER plays at The Duke on 42nd as follows: October 1, 2010 at 8pm; and October 2, 2010 at 1pm. Tickets are $20 and can be purchased online at www.nymf.org or by calling (212) 352-3101. For more information, please visit www.NYMF.org.
