INSPIRED 3: A Benefit Concert for A PLACE TO BARK (TN) & SECOND CHANCE RESCUE NYC
featuring…
JOEY CONTRERAS, BOBBY CRONIN, JONATHAN REID GEALT, McGUIRE & SIMON, MICHAEL MOTT, DREW OVERCASH, ZOE SARNAK, BRAD SIMMONS
SUNDAY 1/26 at 7pm at Stage 72, NYC
Produced and created by Bobby Cronin, INSPIRED is a benefit concert series for animal rescue organizations across the country that will play every other month, with a rotating line-up of some of today’s exciting musical theatre writers in a casual and intimate setting as they sit behind the piano and, unlike traditional concerts of their material, perform songs by other writers that have inspired their work. The INSPIRED series hopes to spread the word about the 2.7 million adoptable animals that are euthanized each year in America.
INSPIRED 3 will benefit two brave, bold, and commendable rescue organizations: A PLACE TO BARK and SECOND CHANCE RESCUE NYC.
A PLACE TO BARK is a no kill foster and adoption rescue dedicated to the welfare of animals and was founded by Bernie Berlin. Established in 2001, we mainly work with Animal Control Agencies, rescuing animals from high kill shelters and fostering them until they are healthy. This provides an ideal situation for the animals. They are then placed for adoption through Humane Societies in various parts of the country. We cover all costs for the medical care of the animals with no cost to the Humane Societies. We also handle some private adoptions after a strict screening process. A Place To Bark is a temporary home, a foster facility that provides quarantine, full vet care, rehab & training to help adoptable animals further in the adoption process. All animals rescued are spay/neutered to reduce the future population & by saving existing lives, our program encompasses all vital actions needed to benefit the pets in need. For more info and/or to make a donation: http://www.aplacetobark.com/donations.
Second Chance Rescue NYC was formed in 2009 on the firm belief that all animals deserve to be loved and cared for, and no animal should ever be abused, neglected or homeless. Our mission is to facilitate the adoption/rehoming of animals that have been abandoned, or given up by their former owners, and to place them in new loving homes. We are 100% not for profit and to date have relied solely on donations from the public. We rescue dogs and cats from the streets, as well as from “death row” at municipal shelters (predominantly NYC Animal Care & Control) around New York City. For more info and/or to make a donation: http://nycsecondchancerescue.org/about-us/
The line up for the 1/26 7pm concert features a wide array of artists including:
Joey Contreras is a musical pop songwriter in the New York scene. His musicals include All The Kids Are Doing It (book/lyrics: Kate Thomas) and the song-cycle, This Thing Called Love. In addition to being featured on Seth Rudetsky’s SiriusXM Broadway show and in “Cutting Edge Composers” with the New York Musical Theatre Festival, Joey’s work has been featured in NYC venues including 54 Below, Joe’s Pub, Lincoln Center, Le Poisson Rouge, Laurie Beechman Theater, The Duplex and multiple Broadway in South Africa galas at the Manhattan Center. Internationally, performances of his music have stretched as far as Australia, Germany, South Korea and the UK. His first album, “Love Me, Love Me Not: The Music of Joey Contreras” (featuring Broadway favorites such as Jeremy Jordan, Rachel Potter and Lilli Cooper) is available on iTunes and CDBaby.com. He is also the creator of the Playbill.com series, Hot Off The Ivories. Recipient of the 2010 ASCAP Foundation Max Dreyfus Scholarship Award, Joey holds an MFA from the Tisch Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program at NYU and is currently the Artist-in-Residence with Broadway Dreams Foundation, in which he is currently developing his next album, Young Kind of Love. Find out more at www.joeycontreras.com, Facebook (Joey Contreras Music) and on Twitter (@joeypatrick).
BOBBY CRONIN is an award-winning composer/writer whose current projects include: Sunset City with bookwriter Wade Dooley & co-lyricist Brett Teresa (2013 Running Deer Theatre Lab, Goodspeed Mercer Project); The Concrete Jungle with co-bookwriter Crystal Skillman, which goes into workshop March 2014 and was commissioned in 2012 for London’s esteemed ArtsEd School (President: Andrew Lloyd Webber) which opened in June 2012. Welcome To My Life (W2ML) currently under a Broadway option; ‘’Til Death Do Us Part with Harrington winning bookwriter Allen Mogol (2012 Alec Baldwin Fellowship Winner, UK’s S&S Award Finalist). Daybreak (add’l material by Brett Teresa) which won the 2011 New Jersey Playwrights Contest and premiered in Wayne, NJ & London’s Tristan Bates Theatre June 2012. Currently writing Mary & Max with Crystal Skillman and Stafford Arima, Alone In The US for CAP21 with Terry Berliner, and the short musical film “A Mile In Her Shoes” for NYFA. Other: 54 Below, Lincoln Center Songbook Series, Birdland, Symphony Space, London’s The Players Theatre & St. James Theatre, and more. “Reach The Sky: Live at The Beechman” and “The Concrete Jungle International Studio Cast Recording” both on iTunes. Yale graduate, Member of ASCAP, Dramatists Guild, and MMD (UK). @bobbycronin or www.bobbycronin.com
Jonathan Reid Gealt is a member of the advanced BMI Theater Writing Workshops, is currently adapting the novel Dust and Shadow as well as continued work on two other musicals and two original screenplays. Jonathan’s debut album ‘Thirteen Stories Down’ was released in 2011 on Sh-k-Boom/Ghostlight Records. His second album “Here For You – Ballads for Broadway Impact” was released worldwide on April 30th, 2013 and a portion of all sales benefit Broadway Impact. Jonathan’s music has been featured in sold out venues and concerts all over New York City including the Broadway in South Africa Benefits, Symphony Space, The Canal Room, The Cutting Room, Joe’s Pub, The Triad, The Laurie Beechman, The Lucille Lortel, Le Poisson Rouge, and Birdland. Outside New York City, his music has been sung around the world including: Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Manila, Japan, Australia, and Canada, as well as a sold out concerts in London. His online videos (via YouTube) have passed more than a million views. A performer as well as a composer, select theater credits include The Secret Garden (Hammerstein Ballroom, NYC), Rags (NOKIA Theater, NYC), Les Miserables (Tour), St. Louis MUNY, Atlanta Theater of the Stars, Kansas City Starlight, The Wolf Trap, Junie B. Jones (Tour), and Thrill Me (New England Premiere). FILM/TV “Across The Universe” and “Kidnapped.” He also appeared as a soloist with the Boston Pops under the baton of Keith Lockhart.
Drew Overcash is an Illinois born songwriter. His work has been heard at Joe’s Pub, The Pershing Square Signature Center, (le) Poisson Rouge, Manhattan Movement and Arts Center, Birdland and 54 Below. Drew’s musical Boys Vs. Girls, the story of a pair of twins rediscovering each other and themselves as their worlds collide, is currently under an option agreement. His current projects include: three new musicals (Joe, Rhapsody and To You With Love…), a new song cycle and an upcoming solo EP. Drew is a proud member of ASCAP. Follow him @djovercash.
Janine McGuire & A. Lawton Simon are members of the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop, where they are collaborating on a new musical. Janine McGuire’s other shows include Roadtripping, Psyche & Eros, Once Upon the Moon, and an untitled rock musical in development about Margaret Sanger. Her work has been seen at Dixon Place, 54 Below, the Laurie Beechman Theatre, and the Helen Mills Theatre. She holds a B.A. in Music from Barnard College of Columbia University. Arri Lawton Simon has received multiple commissions and awards for a wide variety of works, including contemporary art songs, musical theatre pieces, and sacred cantatas. “The American Dream”, his setting of part of Dr. King’s “I Have A Dream” speech, received its premiere by Grammy® Award Winner Sylvia McNair, and his film score for Charlie Chaplin’s “The Kid” was the grand finale of the Tallgrass Film Festival. Simon holds a B.M. in Composition and Voice Performance from the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University.
MICHAEL MOTT is a composer, lyricist, singer and actor living in NYC. As composer/ lyricist, his original musicals include “Faustus” and “Mob Wife.” He is currently composing music for a brand new original musical, “The Hellfire Club,” co-conceived and written with lyricist/ librettist, Zoe Samuel. His concert work includes sold out performances of “Write Now: The Music of Michael Mott” at The Laurie Beechman Theatre in NYC, “Three Way Street” at 54 Below,” “Mob Wife” at THE PITCH at Merry-Go-Round Playhouse, “Faustus: Live In Concert (Chicago),” “Faustus: The Next Step” and “An Evening of New Music: The Music of Michael Mott.” Upcoming: Original music & lyrics for the new TV series, “For Real,” currently in production. Mr. Mott is a proud graduate of Ithaca College’s BFA Musical Theatre program and current member of the BMI Musical Theatre Writer’s Workshop in NYC. Member of Actor’s Equity Association. www.MichaelMott.net
ZOE SARNAK is an award winning composer, lyricist and playwright. She graduated from Harvard University in 2009 magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. Sarnak wrote the book, music and lyrics for The Quad, developed and performed at Harvard’s Loeb Experimental Theatre; she was awarded the Ann Radcliffe Trust for her work. Sarnak wrote the book, music and lyrics for Mixtape, featured in Silent Street Productions 2012 season and premiering in concert at 54 Below in January 2014. Sarnak wrote the book, music, and lyrics for A Lasting Impression, winner of Pace New Musicals 2012, workshopped Off-Broadway at the 4th Street Theatre at NYTW in August 2012, winner of the 2013 NJ Playwright’s contest, and produced in concert by Cutting Edge Composers at Joe’s Pub in 2013. Her music has been featured in showcases by Cutting Edge Composers, New York Theatre Barn, Composers Sing Composers, and New York Musical Theatre Festival and in venues from Playwrights Horizons and New York Theatre Workshop to Joe’s Pub and the Highline Ballroom. @zoesarnak on Twitter.
BRAD SIMMONS – Remembered as the pianist in the films Camp and the upcoming The Last Five Years, Brad’s compositional credits include the films Gargoyle and Whiskey Neat, the play Billie & Billy, and the musicals A Kiss from Alexander (Jefferson Award nominee, Best New Musical), A Dickens of a Carol and A Woman Onstage. Broadway Music Director: Lysistrata Jones. Music Director/Arranger/Co-Star: Clear: The Musical; Bring on the Men with Tonya Pinkins at Joe’s Pub; The Next Best Thing to Love Tour with Paul Oakley Stovall.
WHERE: Stage 72/The Triad – 158 W72nd Street, 2nd Floor
(1/4 block east of the 1/2/3 72nd Street station)
WHEN: SUNDAY JANUARY 26, 7pm
TICKETS: credit card purchases/RSVP at www.stage72.com OR www.bobbycronin.com