Kenneth Jones, Playbill.com – Wed Oct 14, 6:06 pm ET
The Old Globe in San Diego will produce the world premiere of the contemporary musical drama, Street Lights, a developmental production of which is currently playing in the New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF).
Performances will play Southern California in early 2010 as part of the Old Globe’s community outreach initiative known as Southeastern San Diego Residency Project.
The new musical, created by composer and lyricist Joe Drymala, “chronicles a group of inner city teenagers who fight to save their high school music program from being shut down,” according to Old Globe. Directed by Ryan J. Davis, Street Lights uses hip hop, R&B and pop “to tell a timeless story in the musical language of today’s youth, while creating a bridge to earlier generations by incorporating samples of classic civil rights anthems.”
Street Lights will be performed at Lincoln High School Center for the Arts in San Diego and the Old Globe for a limited number of performances.
The Globe will present Street Lights at both Lincoln High School’s Center for the Arts (Feb. 20-21, 2010) and its flagship Old Globe Theatre in San Diego’s Balboa Park (Feb. 25-28, 2010). Opening night is Feb. 20 at 8 PM at Lincoln High.
Now in its second year, the Southeastern San Diego Residency Project “is a multi-faceted venture that includes innovative performance and training programs establishing the Globe as a vital cultural resource for the community.”
The 43,000-square-foot Globe Technical Center opened in 2008 at 5335 Market Street to house the theatre’s scenic department and storage facility for props and costumes. The Center also serves as “an artistic hub in the community fostering the creation and implementation of new plays, performances, partnerships and training programs for and with area students, residents and artists.”
Casting and creative team will be announced.
According to Globe’s Street Lights production notes, “While fighting to save their high school music program from being shut down, the teenagers of Street Lights discover the power of music to unite their community and bring new hope to the residents of their troubled neighborhood. The talented singer and songwriter Dominique, her academically gifted brother Rocky and their beat-making DJ friend X-Ray use organizing techniques pioneered during the Civil Rights movement to help rally the people around them. When Dominique begins to fall in love with Damon, a local drug dealer with a Robin Hood streak, she must choose between accepting the hard realities of the world she lives in or try to change her neighborhood for the better.”
Writer Drymala is the primary composer and original book writer for the satirical musical White Noise, which received its premiere at the 2006 NYMF and received a Summer Theater Award for Outstanding Score that year. White Noise was subsequently optioned for Broadway, and was recently mounted in New Orleans as a tryout for the Broadway production. In 2003-04, he was the primary speechwriter on Gov. Howard Dean’s presidential campaign where he wrote a feature-length article in Vanity Fair magazine on poverty in America on behalf of Gov. Dean, as well as writing a speech on race relations that was hailed by The Black Commentator magazine as “the most important statement on race in American politics by a mainstream white politician in nearly 40 years.”
He performs indie folk/country under the name Blueyed Son around Brooklyn and Manhattan.
Director Davis conceived and directed the award-winning, Broadway-aimed White Noise at the 2006 New York Musical Theatre Festival. Other New York City projects include My Life on Craigslist and the annual Broadway Beauty Pageant. He recently directed Vote! the Musical at FringeNYC and My Broken Brain at Midtown International Theatre Festival. He serves on the Board of Directors of The Deconstructive Theatre Project, where he co-directed the play, Lilies.
Single tickets go on sale Dec. 6 and can be purchased online at www.TheOldGlobe.org, by phone at (619) 23-GLOBE or by visiting the box office.