".LOVE": **** "Quite Entertaining and Smart" **** Fri.-Sat. 8 p.m. Thru Mar.. 1ST

Thursday

"Quite Entertaining and Smart" Fri.-Sat. 8 p.m. Thru Mar.. 1ST

TWO BOOMERS LOOKING FOR LOVE ONLINE IN MUSICAL THAT CAPTURES A GENERATIONT

SAN FRANCISCO-Piano Fight Productions and CAFÉ presented the world premiere production of “. Love” (yes, that’s dot love), a mostly sung "boomer" tale of experiences many of us have shared; love, sex, drugs, families, careers, divorce, loneliness and middle age. Shows run at the Off Market Theatre. Middle aged and looking for love online, a couple reflects upon their lives and their love in this two act musical for two performers by East Bay composer/playwright Richard Jennings.

An accomplished composer for theatre, television, dance and film, Richard Jennings is the recipient of the Hollywood Drama Logue Critics Award for Excellence in Theatre. Trained by Pulitzer Prize winning composers, he has composed for Tony Award winning theatres, over 25 Shakespearean productions, TV movies, Disney, PBS and Children’s Fairyland in Oakland.

Soprano Eula Janeen Wyatt and Baritone Gregory Marks portray the couple we follow through their lives together and apart, apart and together. “.Love” was first workshopped in 2005 with support from the Zellarbach Foundation. Last season it had a series of successful showcases at The Marsh, the Berkeley Arts Festival and the Intersection for the Arts, which generated much excitement and led to this production.

The simple staging brings the words and music into intimate focus. Ben Frandzel, of Opera Piccola said of “.Love”: “Both the quality and variety of the music really sustained the show, and the wit and insight of the lyrics did the same. I found myself really caught up in the emotional journey that both characters underwent, and felt a strong sense of empathy for them.” One fan said: “You caught so many life... what shall I call them?... hazards so well." Others; “I saw my life.”, “I think the whole thing touched everyone in some way.”

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".LOVE"

A new two act musical for Soprano, Baritone and Piano.

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Book, Music & Lyrics--- RICHARD JENNINGS ********
With Additional Lyrics by ---Ted Newman ********
Musical Director/Pianist ****Rona Siddiqui*****

Directorial Consultant - - - Ellen Sebastian Chang ****************

Featuring-
Eula Janeen Wyatt
Gregory Marks *******************

Utilizing minimal production elements, this mostly sung play tells the touching story of a man and a woman in their 40's-50's looking back at their lives together and apart from age five. Searching on line, they wonder if there's still a chance to find love in their lives.

Artwork - Biliana Stremska
Photos - Peter Allen

Eula Janeen Wyatt - She

Eula Janeen Wyatt currently sings with the a cappella world music quartet, JouJou . Some of her favorite performances with San Francisco Bay Area (and beyond) dance, vocal and theater companies include appearing in Bobbi Jo Lathan’s "A Right Smart of Love" at Glaxa Studios and Whitefire Theater (in LA); in Elizabeth. Gjelten’s "Walking on Water", chosen for presentation by the Working Women’s Festival after playing at the Z Space Studios and Venue 9; singing with Zulu Spear in George Coates’ "The Architecture of Catastrophic Change", and appearing at Ellen Sebastian Chang’s former theater “Life on the Water” in her original production based on the life and works of Zora Neale Hurston entitled "Sanctified". After living in the former Yugoslavia, and returning to the U.S. to sing with The Enormous Ensemble (Balkan trio) for 8 years, Eula Janeen created an interdisciplinary musical, "Negotiating Rapture", for the Zeum Theater. This piece blended four singer/dancers, five musicians and original film with a narrative exploring emotional effects of the Kosovo Conflict. Eula Janeen has degrees in Music and Interdisciplinary Arts, and teaches Creative Arts at San Francisco State University. She does genuinely love to salsa.

GREGORY MARKS - He

Gregory Marks, a native of the San Francisco Bay Area, is a member of the American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA). He earned a Masters of Music in Voice from the University of Cincinnati, College –Conservatory of Music and a Bachelor of Music Education and single subject teaching credential from San Francisco State University Gregory has sung professionally throughout the SF Bay Area for over twenty years. Performing highlights include appearances with the Berkeley Symphony under the direction of Maestro Kent Nagano, Cinnabar Opera Theater, Marin Opera, Marin Civic Light Opera, Ray of Light Theater, Sinfonia San Francisco, Studio ACT, and West Bay Opera. He logged in twenty seasons as a member of the tenor section of the San Francisco Opera Chorus and is featured in the 1992 Oscar-winning documentary “In the Shadow of the Stars” a compelling film on the lives of the Opera Chorus members. Gregory has been an adjunct voice instructor with Los Medanos College and has a private voice studio in San Francisco. He is also a proud board member of the San Francisco-based Performing Arts Workshop, an organization dedicated to using the performing arts in developing critical thinking, creative expression and basic learning skills in children who would not normally benefit from an arts-educational experience. For more information on the Performing Arts Workshop go to their website at www.pawsf.org.

RICHARD JENNINGS- BIO

Richard Jennings has a distinguished career as composer, musical and vocal director with Tony award winning theatres such as the South Coast Repertory, The Mark Taper Forum, The Old Globe Theatre and others . He's composed music for almost 25 Shakespearean productions, TV movies, Disney Specials, PBS documentaries, commercials and other media. His Children’s musical "Mexica", will be running from June to October at Children’s fairyland in Oakland. He’s the recipient of the Hollywood Drama Logue Critics Award for Excellence in Theatre. He holds a graduate degree from U. of Mich School of Music and has served on the faculties of several universities. A member of The Dramatists Guild of America, he lives in Berkeley with his wife and boy/girl twins to whom he expresses gratitude for their love and support. He knows he’s got a good tune when he hears his kids whistling one down the street,

TED NEWMAN - BIO

Ted Newman, a true Arizona Troubadour, has been one of the most popular singers in the state for the past 30 years. He presents an exciting, humorous and musically entertaining program with an Arizona-Southwest flavor. Ted came on the national scene with his hit recording "Plaything" in the 1950's and has been an Arizona favorite ever since. The song made the top ten on the national charts and twice earned him an appearance on "Dick Clark's American Bandstand". Aside from Dick Clark, Ted has appeared with Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Guy Mitchell and Jimmy Rodgers. He also played bass for John Denver and toured with a folk group in Europe. Ted has written more than 160 songs based on experiences in Arizona and around the country.

RONA SIDDIQUI - BIO

Award-winning composer and pianist Rona Siddiqui performs and teaches music in the San Francisco Bay Area. A graduate of UCLA with a degree in Music Composition, she spent six years as Musical Director for Stage Door Conservatory in Berkeley, a youth musical theatre intensive, producing such musicals as Bye Bye Birdie, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and Fiddler on the Roof. Rona recently completed an original piano score for Eve Ensler's Obie award-winning play, The Vagina Monologues. She hopes to make it available to all of the ensembles who produce The Vagina Monologues every year and wish to incorporate live music. For more info visit ronasiddiqui.com.

ELLEN SEBASTIAN CHANG - Bio

Ellen Sebastian Chang is a director, writer and a creative consultant. She has been fortunate to work with some of the most interesting artists and projects in the Bay Area and beyond. She recently returned from an East Coast tour of KALI YUGA: The Age of Chaos, her 2006 collaboration with Gamelan Sekar Jaya and Indonesian poet Goenewan Mohammed. In June 2007 will be the premiere of “Walkin Talkin Bill Hawkins”, about the first black DJ in Cleveland, Ohio written and performed by William Allen Taylor at Cleveland's Dobama Theater. Other highlights include: “self/the remix” written and performed by Robert Karimi Jumpstart,Texas; Dante's Divine Comedy with youth poets for the Youth Speaks Living Word Festival; the world premiere of “The Rusalki Cycle: Songs Between Worlds” with Ukraine composer Mariana Sadovska and KITKA; and “Thieves in the Temple: The Reclaiming of Hip Hop” and “Aya deLeon is Running For President” written and performed by spoken word artist Aya de Leon. Ms. Sebastian Chang was a cofounder and artistic director of LIFE ON THE WATER, a national and internationally known presenting and producing organization at San Francisco’s Fort Mason Center from 1986 through 1995. Ellen's services are made possible by a gant from the TBA/PAAP and Zellerbach Family Foundation, with support from Opera Piccola