SCOTLAND, PA
Book by Michael Mitnick
Music & Lyrics by Adam Gwon
Based on the film by Billy Morrissette and produced by Richard Shepard, Jan Stern and Abandon Pictures
Directed by Lonny Price
Reading: October 20 – 28, 2018
FREE Reading Presentation:
Sunday, October 28, 2018
3:00pm
Mussetter-Struble Theater
Virginia Wadsworth Wirtz Center for the Performing Arts
1949 Campus Drive | Evanston, IL 60208
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ABOUT THE SHOW
The new musical version of SCOTLAND, PA takes its inspiration from the film of the same title, which is itself inspired by Shakespeare’s MACBETH. Shifting that story of murderous ambition to America in the 1970s, SCOTLAND, PA follows Joe and Pat McBeth, a pair of downtrodden hamburger stand employees. Pat decides that the boss and his old ideas are keeping everyone else from getting ahead, so she encourages bewildered Joe to take action. Things quickly take a turn for the deadly, and soon the McBeths find that their stars are on the rise (just as a bunch of hippies in the woods had predicted). But when a police investigator takes an interest in the duo, they must act fast to keep the truth (and the bodies) hidden before the fast food empire they fought so hard to build comes crashing down on top of them.
THE WRITERS
ADAM GWON
(Music & Lyrics) is a composer and lyricist whose musicals include Ordinary Days (Roundabout Theatre), String (Village Theatre), Cake Off (Signature Theatre, Helen Hayes Award nomination), Cloudlands (South Coast Rep), The Boy Detective Fails (Signature), and Bernice Bobs Her Hair (Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma). Honors include the Kleban Prize in Musical Theatre, the Fred Ebb, Frederick Loewe and Richard Rodgers Awards, Second Stage Theatre’s Donna Perret Rosen Award, the Weston Playhouse New Musical Award, the ASCAP Harold Adamson Award and the Manhattan Association of Cabarets and Clubs’ John Wallowitch Award. His recordings include Ordinary Days (Ghostlight Records), Audra McDonald’s Go Back Home (Nonesuch), The Essential Liz Callaway (Working Girl Records) and Over the Moon: The Broadway Lullaby Album.
MICHAEL MITNICK (Book) is a writer whose plays include Sex Lives of Our Parents (Second Stage, The Kennedy Center), The Siegel (Edgerton New Play Award, South Coast Repertory), Spacebar: a Broadway Play by Kyle Sugarman and The Happiness Trilogy: Elijah, Ed, Downloaded and Babs the Dodo. He co-wrote/composed the musical Fly By Night (Drama Desk-nominated Best Musical, Playwrights Horizons). His songs have been sung at Lincoln Center, The Guggenheim, Joe’s Pub, 54 Below and on HBO. Film work includes The Giver and the upcoming film The Current War with Benedict Cumberbatch. Michael is a graduate of Harvard University and has an MFA in playwriting from The Yale School of Drama.
THE TEAM
LONNY PRICE (Director) directed Glenn Close in Sunset Boulevard on Broadway and at the English National Opera and Sweeney Todd, starring Emma Thompson and Bryn Terfel, at the English National Opera and Lincoln Center. His Broadway credits include Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill starring Audra McDonald (also for HBO and on the West End), 110 in the Shade, “Master Harold” … and the Boys, Sally Marr…and Her Escorts (co-written with Joan Rivers and Erin Sanders), Urban Cowboy and A Class Act (Tony nomination, best book, with Linda Kline). His work with the New York Philharmonic includes Company, Sondheim: The Birthday Concert (Emmy Award) and Passion starring Patti LuPone, Audra McDonald and Michael Cerveris. He directed television adaptations of his Sweeney Todd (Emmy Award), Company (which played in more than 700 movie theaters across the U.S.), Camelot and Candide. For his first feature film, “Master Harold”… and the Boys (starring Freddie Highmore and Ving Rhames), he received a best director award from the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival. His documentary, Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened, premiered at the New York Film Festival and was named one of New York Times’ Top 10 Films of 2016.
MATT COWART
(Associate Director) most recently associate directed the critically acclaimed Broadway revival of Sunset Boulevard starring Glenn Close. Additional Broadway credits include the Tony award winning production ofLady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill (Associate Director), and 110 in the Shade (Assistant Director), both starring Audra McDonald. Additional select directing credits: Carousel (Associate Director), Sweeney Todd(Associate Director), and Sunset Boulevard (Associate Director) all for the English National Opera; Kiki Babyat the New York Musical Theater Festival, co-directed with longtime collaborator Lonny Price; and Camp Wanatachi, a new “electro-musical” that premiered Off-Broadway at La MaMa ETC. Select Film/television credits include the upcoming documentary, Hal Prince: the director’s life for PBS (Co-Producer); and Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened (Co-Producer)