For Immediate Release: January 14, 2008

MTC MainStage presents Connecticut Premiere of Edges: A Song Cycle

MTC MainStage, Music Theatre of Connecticut’s Professional Equity Acting Company, presents the Connecticut premiere production of Edges: A Song Cycle. Music and lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul and directed by MTC MainStage Artistic Director Kevin Connors, Edges: A Song Cycle is a hip, young and exciting collection of songs linked by theme. Filled with music ranging from pop to gospel, intimate solos and high-spirited group numbers, we follow four young adults as each attempts to discover their true potential. Performances are February 1-17 and take place at the MTC MainStage Studio Theatre in Westport, CT.

Edges: A Song Cycle follows four people as they set about finding their authentic selves, smoothing out their own rough “edges” on a journey to living as who they really are. They are hindered in this evolution by peer pressure, false expectations, career drive, family negativity, prejudice and narrow-mindedness. Each learns that the search for true fulfillment begins within rather than from external forces, and that one’s own true happiness cannot be achieved in a void. Through their relationships with one another, they each evolve through personal struggle, conflict, shattered dreams and by facing their own individual demons; and from friendships deeply rooted in mutual support, individually-grounded life paths, and unconditional support for one another.

The cast includes Michael Kadin Craig (Off-Broadway favorite Altar Boyz), Alex Ellis (Millie in the National Tour of Thoroughly Modern Millie), Monique French (Goodspeed’s Meet John Doe) and Kevin Reed (Brownstone The Musical Sudio Cast Recording). Musical direction by Paul Staroba, secnic design by James Burns, lighting design by Graham Kindred, costume design by Diane Vanderkroef and stage management by Anna Becker.

Edges: A Song Cycle is directed by Kevin Connors, MTC MainStage Executive Artistic Director and co-founder of Music Theatre of Connecticut. Music and lyrics for Edges: A Song Cycle are by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, winners of the prestigious 2007 Jonathan Larson award. Justin Paul, a Westport, CT native, grew up at MTC School of the Performing Arts and attended Staples High School prior to University of Michigan, where he met his collaborator, Benj Pasek. Together, Pasek and Paul have gained national acclaim, with Edges: A Song Cycle published by Music Theatre International, as well as productions and concerts throughout the country including Joe’s Pub at New York’s Public Theatre. They are currently writing for Disney Channel’s Johnny and the Sprites and have a number of projects for stage and screen in development.

Edges: A Song Cycle is generously sponsored by Shoff Darby Companies, Inc. The MTC MainStage 2007/08 Season is made possible with additional support from The Daphne Seybolt Culpeper Memorial Foundation.

Performances take place February 1-17, Fridays at 8pm, Saturdays at 5pm and 8pm, Sundays at 3pm at MTC MainStage Studio Theatre, 246 Post Road East in Colonial Green (lower level) in Westport, CT. Tickets are $35. Student and senior tickets available on a limited basis for some performances. Special gala performance on Saturday, February 2 at 8pm. Reservations suggested. Edges: A Song Cycle contains adult language and themes and may not be suitable for younger audiences. For reservations or more information, call MTCMainStage at 203.454.3883 or visit www.MTCMainStage.org

For additional press resources, click here.

A Conversation with one of the creators of Edges: A Song Cycle by Joe Landry

I recently sat down with Edges: A Song Cycle co-creator, Justin Paul, a Westport, CT native who grew up taking classes at MTC School of the Performing Arts. We discussed his career as a composer thus far, the story behind Edges: A Song Cycle and pursuing a life in the arts.

JOE LANDRY: What was it like growing up at MTC?
JUSTIN PAUL: It was a unique and cool experience. I started taking classes in third grade and learned by applying the craft taught in the classroom and transforming it into art on stage. MTC nurtures each student as an individual, and with a faculty comprised of working
professionals, they really knew what they were talking about. I’d say my experience as an MTC student contributed greatly to what I’m doing now, helping me discover what I wanted to do with my life. I’ve found that having such a resource at that age is a very rare thing.

JL: When did you start writing music?
JP: Actually, the first song I ever wrote was for an MTC production of Pinocchio. I was in seventh grade and my brother was playing Gepetto and he didn’t have a song and I thought he should (laughs). So I asked Kevin [Connors, MTC?co-founder] if he’d mind if I tried writing a song, and he, along with my parents, were very encouraging. I wrote the song, brought it in and played it for Kevin, he loved it and put it into the show and it’s been performed in subsequent productions.

JL: How else did you develop your career during the MTC days?
JP: MTC helped open my eyes to the possibilities of musical theatre. Kevin’s diverse background as performer and composer encouraged me to develop my talents on both sides of the footlights. MTC gave me my first job as musical director, and it was the culmination of these opportunities that kept me heading in this natural direction from student to performer to musical director to composer. Returning to MTC with Edges: A Song Cycle has brought this journey full circle.

JL: Was there a moment you realized you wanted a life in the arts?
JP: I know a lot of writers have that “when I was five I went to a show and it changed my life” story (laughs), but I don’t have a singular moment like that. Between the strong arts presence in my hometown of Westport and proximity to New York City, going to shows was a regular occurrence. It was something I just did and loved and it became part of who I was. I was encouraged and supported through high school and college with the opportunities made possible by living close to New York.

JL: What are your musical roots and influences?
JP: Musically, my roots are in church. My father is a minister and I grew up singing in our church, which uses primarily African-American gospel music. That definitely influenced my musical style. My musical taste is very eclectic these days: Stevie Wonder, John Mayer’s earlier stuff, Billy Joel, Ben Folds, certainly Sondheim, Adam Guettel (A Light in the Piazza) and a lot of pop.

JL: When did you decide to study music in college?
JP: Studying all through high school with Kevin was an amazing learning experience and this went hand in hand with the opportunities provided through my involvement with Staples Players at my local high school. During junior year, I was performing in Into the Woods and people were coming up to me saying ‘You were great, I hope you’re going to do this in college.’ I guess it never really hit me before then that I could do this for a living, so it really got my wheels turning. Kevin had helped advise me and my parents on selecting a college. When I went out and visited the University of Michigan, I fell in love with it. I auditioned for two programs and got into both, so it seemed like the perfect fit. I was a BFA Musical Theatre Major and went through the obligatory two years of ballet and tap classes and acting and performance. While I was there as a performer, I was also playing and conducting.

JL: How did you meet your collaborator, Benj Pasek?
JP: I first met Benj at orientation before we started our freshman year. We were split into groups and there were two other students from the music theatre program and Benj was one of them. We met and hit it off immediately, horsing around and laughing (laughs) and became friends there.

JL: How did you start working together?
JP: Before college, I wrote the song for Pinocchio at MTC and a song for my choir during high school and that was it. When I got to school and didn’t think much about composing. But I was the piano player at school and Benj approached me with some pop songs he had written in high school and asked if I’d help him embellish them, since he plays by ear. The first time we got together we started fooling around with a poem he’d written, I started playing music to it and we’d go back and forth. This was the first song we wrote
together, we called it ‘Classical Prose.’ It makes little sense, but it’s fun. (Laughs) Every once in a while we’ll perform it at the end of a show. After that first song, we started writing new stuff together.

JL: How did the piece which evolved into Edges: A Song Cycle begin?
JP: During freshman year Benj and I wrote a few songs. We went home for the summer, Benj to his hometown of Philadelphia and me to Westport, but we kept in touch. When we came back to school as sophomores, we started writing again and started talking about putting together enough material to do an evening of our work. We were both in our college production of City of Angels and had small enough parts that we could use the time we weren’t in rehearsal to write. We announced that we were going to do this evening of our work, booking the space for the show to give ourselves a deadline. During spring break, Benj and I went to Florida and we were back and forth about the upcoming show, questioning whether our work was ready or good enough. A musician friend was visiting us and encouraged us to stop talking about it and go with the inspiration and just do it. So we came back from spring break on fire and within the next three weeks wrote three-quarters of the material that appeared in this first incarnation.

JL: How did you come up with the title for Edges: A Song Cycle?
JP: One night, about three weeks before this initial show, we still didn’t have a title. We’d just gone to TGI Friday’s (laughs) and Benj and I were sitting in the car in the parking lot outside his apartment for an hour brainstorming on titles. We started thinking about how the piece was about people making decisions at pivotal moments in their lives and on the edge of who they’re becoming. And we realized that the word ‘edges’ also appears in one of our favorite songs, ‘Our Time’ from Stephen Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along: ‘Edges are blurring, All around, And yesterday is done.’ And we sort of fancied ourselves a young Frank and Charlie, the composer characters in Merrily… (laughs) So, perfect, Edges—and we just stuck with it.

JL: How did this first incarnation go?
JP: We hand picked some performer friends who were excited about working on something new and original. Some of them were in shows, so we rehearsed from 11pm till 2am a lot of nights. There was a week and a half of rehearsal and the performance was April 3, 2005, and that’s when Edges was born.

JL: What opportunities did this first version present?
JP: We were lucky enough to have some benefactors in our music theatre program who approached us and offered to donate the money to preserve the show on CD. And you can’t pass up a generous offer like that, so we went into a recording studio a couple of weeks later and recorded it. Since Edges was very well received in Michigan, we thought ‘let’s take it on the road’ and arranged to perform it that summer in Westport, Philly, DC and New York City. Our parents helped us pay for it along with CD sales and it ended up being a really cool venture.

JL: What is a “song cycle?”
JP: ‘Song cycle’ is a hot buzzword in the theatre. Jason Robert Brown’s Songs for a New World and William Finn’s Elegies, it seems like every composer has a song cycle (laughs). I think to us it was an easy way to create a show that doesn’t have a book (laughs). Edges is a collection of songs thematically linked similar in tone and issues, songs about young people and pivotal moments that we were going through or we saw people going through. Through these songs you’re taken on a journey, and while you learn things along the way, you don’t necessarily end up in a completely different place. The show has had a journey of its own in its development and is now more character driven than before. There’s a story in each song and each character has a journey and goes through changes, but the entire evening isn’t necessarily a story itself.

JL: How do you and Benj work together?
JP: Working together with Benj is an ever evolving process. When we started working together he was completely lyrics and I music, but we’ve become a lot more evolved in each other’s area since, editing each other as we go along. It’s collaborative to the point that it’s difficult to write separately. A compliment we loved receiving was that our words and music merge so well that they seem like they were written by one person. With the nature of collaboration it’s like we are one person sitting in the same room at a computer and a keyboard and writing together. There’s tension and fights sometimes, but that’s because we care greatly about the end result. We want our music to be fresh and accessible, storytelling with each song.

JL: Can you tell me about winning the Jonathan Larson Award?
JP: Jeff Marx (Avenue Q), one of our mentors and first champions, encouraged us to apply for the Jonathan Larson Award while we were still in college. We felt a strong connection to what Jonathan’s music was about, fresh and new, but we were nervous because we were still in college, partially because the rules stated you needed to be out of college to apply. But we filled out the application, sharing our passion for living lives as theatre writers and stating that we’d be out of college by the time the winners were chosen. Jeff wrote one of our reference letters and we ended up winning it. There was a ceremony at the 21 Club with Jonathan’s family and it was really exciting. We were the youngest people to ever win the award.

JL: What’s your life like now?
JP: Life these days is pretty scattered. You need to be working on many different things at the same time. I’m still up in Connecticut almost every weekend, playing for church and at parties. I also music direct a group called the Broadway Boys in the city and we do many shows. Benj and I spent much of the fall working on the Albany production of Edges where we rewrote a lot of the show. We also write for the Disney Channel’s Johnny and the Sprites and have four episodes coming up in season two. Right now we’re working on three different projects, two musicals and a movie. We’re also in a fellowship program through the Dramatists’ Guild where we meet twice a month and present our material, Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty who wrote Ragtime and Once on this Island are the moderators. We try to see shows a lot and keep up with what’s going on. And people invite us to parties and events that we don’t deserve to go to.

JL: What are your expectations for the MTC MainStage production?
JP: The MTC MainStage production of Edges: A Song Cycle is only the second professional production of this current version, which had its’ debut at Albany’s Capital Rep last fall. I was around for some of the MTC auditions, but I’m not super-involved as I’ve been with other productions. Usually I’m too involved to sit as an audience member and watch the show, which is a whole different experience because you feel what the audience is feeling and when things are landing and when they’re not. I look forward to coming to MTC and seeing the show completely fresh, which will be such a luxury. I think the intimacy of the MTC space is perfect for the piece, and I’m excited to see what Kevin does and see how it works. This is the first time that Benj and I will see this new version of the production together and we can’t wait to see it!

JL: What’s in store for the future?
JP: Benj and I want to keep writing for the New York theatre scene, and, hopefully, Broadway. We’d love to see something in that direction as well as movies and television. We also really enjoy performing and want to brand ourselves as singer/songwriters and maybe write a show centered around us. We’re not theatre snobs (laughs), we love music, we love songwriting, wherever we go in the industry, it looks like we may be writing something else for Disney. We want to work as writers and artists and creative people and dramatists and we’re down for whatever. We want to try to do everything.

The Benj Pasek and Justin Paul Website

Edges: A Song Cycle at Music Theatre International