Award-winning Broadway & TV Director to Teach at SUU

Published: April 15, 2011 | Read Time: 5 minutes

Acclaimed as a director on the New York stage as well as winning an Emmy Award for his work in television, Lonny Price is an accomplished director, actor and writer whose credits range from Broadway to concert halls to film and television. Immediately after staging Stephen Sondheim’s "Company in Concert" for the New York Philharmonic (starring Neil Patrick Harris), Price comes to Southern Utah University’s Department of Theatre Arts and Dance for a lecture on musical theatre and a series of master classes.

The lecture, “From Page to the Stage,” is scheduled for Wednesday, April 20, at 7 p.m. in the Randall L. Jones Theatre. This event is free, and the general public is encouraged to attend.

Here, Price will appear in a panel discussion about developing musical productions for the theatre.

Joining Price in the presentation will be Peter Sham, co-chair of SUU’s Department of Theatre Arts and Dance, and his collaborator, composer Brad Carroll. Sham and Carroll are the creators of "Lend Me a Tenor: The Musical," which will open on London's West End -- the UK's equivalent of Broadway -- this June. Many local theatre fans will remembers Sham and Carroll's Tenor from its world premiere at the Utah Shakespeare Festival in 2007.

The "From Page to the Stage" discussion will focus on the process of bringing a musical from its book and score and development into a stage production.

The master classes Price will teach will be held April 18-21 for SUU's performing arts students.

Price has recently directed a concert production of Stephen Sondheim’s Company with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, starring Neil Patrick Harris, Stephen Colbert, Jon Cryer and Patti LuPone, which was filmed for limited release in theatres nationwide this summer. He directed Stephen Sondheim’s 80th Birthday Celebration at Carnegie Hall in New York City and recently finished directing the film version of Master Harold...and the boys. He directed and co-authored the Ed Kleban musical A Class Act on Broadway (five Tony Award nominations, including one for himself: Best Book of a Musical) and in Los Angeles and Tokyo. He won an Emmy Award for his film of Sondheim's Sweeney Todd in Concert which was broadcast on PBS. He staged the Broadway musical Urban Cowboy and directed Joan Rivers in her Tony-nominated turn as Lenny Bruce's mother in Sally Marr...and her escorts (co-authored with Ms. Rivers and Erin Sanders).

Off-Broadway, Price supervised the Manhattan Theatre Club's remounting of Athol Fugard's Valley Song and directed Jules Feiffer's Grown Ups, Jeff Baron's Visiting Mr. Green (starring Eli Wallach) and revivals of The Rothschilds and Juno. He has worked with famed Tony Award winner Patti LuPone numerous times including staged concert versions of musicals including Pal Joey (Encores!, with Peter Gallagher), Annie Get Your Gun (Lincoln Center), Sweeney Todd (with the New York Philharmonic and the San Francisco Symphony) Passion (co-starring Audra McDonald and broadcast on PBS), and A Little Night Music. He was staff director of ABC's One Life to Live (Emmy nomination) and is the former artistic director of Musical Theatre Works, where he is currently resident director. As an actor, he has appeared on and Off-Broadway in a variety of plays and musicals including Burn This, The Immigrant, Master Harold...and the boys, A Class Act and Merrily We Roll Along, receiving an Obie, Theatre World and Drama-Logue Awards.

Peter Sham is interim co-chair/director of theatre for Southern Utah University’s Department of Theatre Arts & Dance. In addition to Lend me a Tenor, Peter is the author of the musicals, Toyland and It’s a Dog’s Life: Man’s Best Musical; and the plays, Shakespeare’s Moby Dick, a classical adaptation of Herman Melville's American masterpiece, and A Christmas Carol: On the Air, among others. A veteran regional actor for over 30 years, he has performed at such places as The Asolo Theatre, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, and has been a principal member of the Tony Award winning Utah Shakespeare Festival for over 11 seasons. This summer Sham delighted to be returning to the USF stage for their 50th anniversary as Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Mayor Shinn in The Music Man.

Brad Carroll is a recognized regional director, music director and composer whose work has taken him all over the US as well as to Europe, Japan and the UK. He is co-creating a musical stage adaptation of the animated feature Christmas is Here Again, commissioned by Renegade Animation in Los Angeles. He recently made his first foray into film, scoring the independent short, X-Treme Weekend. As a Writer, Director and Musical Arranger for Walt Disney Entertainment, Brad was involved in the creation of three new shows for the multi-billion dollar TokyoDisneySea theme park that opened in Japan in 2001. His musical arrangements/orchestrations have been performed by such prestigious organizations as the San Francisco Symphony and the Boston Pops. He returns to the Utah Shakespearean Festival this summer to direct The Music Man as part of the Festival’s 50th Anniversary Season.

Don’t miss this rare opportunity to gain an insider’s view of the creation of a musical -- as detailed by professionals. Attend “From the Page to the Stage.”

For more information, please visit www.suu.edu/arts or call the Arts Hotline at (435) 865-8800.

About the College of Performing & Visual Arts
The Southern Utah University College of Performing and Visual Arts is comprised of nationally accredited departments of Art and Design, Music, Theatre Arts and Dance, as well as a graduate program in Arts Administration. The College offers 16 different degree areas, including liberal arts Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees; professional Bachelor of Music and Bachelor of Fine Arts in art and theatre degrees; and a Master of Fine Arts in Arts Administration degree. More than 60 full- and part-time faculty and staff are engaged in teaching and mentoring over 550 majors in the College. Over 1100 students enroll each year in over 195 arts classes on the SUU campus. The College presents 100 performances, lectures, presentations, and exhibitions each year. The College’s affiliate organizations include the Braithwaite Fine Arts Gallery, American Folk Ballet, Utah Shakespeare Festival, the performance group Acclamation, and the SUU Ballroom Dance Company.

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