Signature Theatre commissions new work from 'Shrek' composer Jeanine Tesori
Jeanine Tesori, who wrote the scores for "Shrek the Musical" and "Caroline, or Change," has received a commissioned from the Signature Theatre through the company's extraordinary "American Music Voices Project."
That project, the largest program of its kind in the country ($780,000 has been awarded so far), has commissioned full-length musicals from Adam Guettel, Michael John LaChiusa, Ricky Ian Gordon and Joseph Thalken. The latter's musical version of "Giant" was staged by the Signature Theatre last year. Gordon's "Sycamore Trees" premiered a couple months ago (I found it an uneven, but affecting, piece).
Thalken’s "Wheatley’s Folly" is due next March 2011; the new musicals by Guettel and Tesori will be unveiled in subsequent years.
Also announced as part of the
American Music Voices Project are commissions for composers in the early stages of their music-theater careers to create works for the Signature Theatre.
The latest "Next Generation" recipients of commissions are Chris Miller and Scott Davenport Richards; "special honoree grants" have been awarded to Josh Schmidt and Josh Rosenblum.
The American Music Voices Project, launched in 2006, is funded by the Shen Family Foundation.
