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Famous composer, lyricist lets local stage try out new production

DETAILS

What: “The Steven Schwartz Project,” a professional musical revue of Schwartz’ most well-known work from such shows as “Wicked,” “Godspell” and “Enchanted.”

When: July 31 through Aug. 9

Where: Newton-Conover Auditorium

WANT TO AUDITION?

When: 9:30 a.m. registration, 10 a.m. to noon open call and 1 to 2 p.m. agent submissions on Saturday, June 13. Callbacks will follow.

Where: Clater-Kaye Theatreworks, 3387 N.C. 127 South, Hickory

Bring: Resume and photo as well as sheet music for your song in the correct key. Women should bring character heels.

Prepare to sing: 16 to 32 bars of an up-tempo ballad.

Also prepare to dance.

Auditions are open to everyone. No previous professional experience is required.

All positions are paid.

WHO IS STEPHEN SCHWARTZ

Schwartz is a composer and lyricist who wrote the music and new lyrics for “Godspell,” “Pippin” and “Wicked” as well as scoring Disney’s animated “Pocahontas,” providing songs for DreamWorks’ animated “The Prince of Egypt” and writing lyrics for Disney’s “Enchanted.”

“People who know theater know his stuff but so do people who take their kids to movies like “Enchanted” and “Pocahontas,” said Reggie Helton, executive producer of the Newton-Conover Auditorium, where Clater Kaye Productions will present “The Stephen Schwartz Project.”

By Ragan Robinson | Hickory Daily Record

Published: June 4, 2009

HICKORY - Robert Clater is gushing. He admits it. This is big, he says, sitting in a room full of disassembled stage sets and unemployed props waiting a turn for the limelight. It's Big Apple big. Broadway big.

He is talking about "The Stephen Schwartz Project," the revue that will bring music from some of the world's most famous musicals and movies to a Catawba County stage in July.

"You're going to get songs from 'Wicked,' which is unheard of since it's still on Broadway, 'Godspell,' 'Pippin,' 'Enchanted,' 'Prince of Egypt'… all his most popular shows," says Lesia Kaye, who will choreograph.

This is what happens before a show gets to Broadway, says Clater, the producer/director for the piece. Writers and producers "workshop" the performance, testing it to see how it will work on stage and in front of an audience.

"You want a feel for how average Americans react," Kaye says.

A Broadway run for the show isn't set in stone but Schwartz' credentials make it probable.

"He is the new Andrew Lloyd Webber or Rodgers and Hammerstein," Clater said.

He and Kaye were directing "Dreamgirls" in Houston, Texas, when they met the writers "The Stephen Schwartz Project." They say, otherwise, they never would have gotten it.

Pre-Broadway productions usually get tried out on a stage in Philadelphia, Pa., or Providence, R.I., somewhere closer to New York, Clater says.

The show has never been performed, never been choreographed. The arrangement of the songs? The dancing woven into and around the singing? That's all up to Clater and Kaye.

"This doesn't exist at all right now," Clater said. "It's only in our minds."

Cast members for "The Stephen Schwartz Project" will likely come from across the region. Auditions on June 13 are open to anyone.

"One of our goals is to take what's homegrown and give it that professional opportunity," Clater said.

He and Kaye expect Schwartz to hold a class in Hickory to coincide with the production.

The show will be family- and child-friendly, with equally friendly prices, Reggie Helton, executive director of the Newton-Conover auditorium. He said those details are still being worked out.

Clater and Kaye have young adults and adults in mind for the parts but, because it is a musical revue, singers with talent have an opportunity regardless of age.

The studio's co-owners imagine turning the Hickory area into a theatrical art hub. They would like to see more professional shows — those where the actors get paid and the caliber of performance is superior — so people don't have to train here and take their talents elsewhere. Kaye grew up here and knows the arts are important to residents. Clater chose the area much for the same reason.

"They're hungry for it. They want it," he said. "We want it for them."

"The Stephen Schwartz Project," they say, is a major steppingstone toward their vision for Catawba County.

"I think it's something that should be on everybody's calendar," Kaye said. "It's like an eclipse or Halley's Comet. You may only ever get to see it once in your lifetime."

"And you can say, 'I was there,'" Clater says. "I was there."