Stephen Schwartz He studied piano and composition at the Juilliard School of Music while in high school and graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in 1968 with a B.F.A. in Drama. His first major credit was the title song for the play BUTTERFLIES ARE FREE; the song was eventually used in the movie version as well. In 1971, he wrote the music and new lyrics for GODSPELL, for which he won several awards including two Grammys. This was followed by the English texts, in collaboration with Leonard Bernstein, for Bernstein's MASS, which opened the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. The following year, he wrote the music and lyrics for PIPPIN and two years later, THE MAGIC SHOW. At one point, GODSPELL, PIPPIN, and THE MAGIC SHOW were all running on Broadway simultaneously. He next wrote the music and lyrics for THE BAKER'S WIFE, followed by a musical version of Studs Terkel's WORKING, to which he contributed four songs, and which he also adapted and directed, winning the Drama Desk Award as best director. He also co-directed the television production, which was presented as part of the PBS "American Playhouse" series. Next came songs for a one-act musical for children, CAPTAIN LOUIE, and a children's book, THE PERFECT PEACH. He then wrote music for three of the songs in the Off-Broadway revue, PERSONALS, lyrics to Charles Strouse's music for RAGS, and music and lyrics for CHILDREN OF EDEN. He then began working in film, collaborating with composer Alan Menken on the scores for the Disney animated features POCAHONTAS, for which he received two Academy Awards and another Grammy, and THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME. He also provided songs for DreamWorks' first animated feature, THE PRINCE OF EGYPT, for which he won another Academy Award for the song "When You Believe".

Mr. Schwartz's most recent musical, WICKED, opened in the fall of 2003 and is currently running on Broadway. Under the auspices of the ASCAP Foundation, he runs musical theatre workshops in New York and Los Angeles, and serves on the ASCAP board; he is also a member of the Council of the Dramatists' Guild.

Maestro Valéry Ryvkin recently returned from Germany, where he made his triumphant European conducting debut leading Tchaikovsky’s Maid of Orleans” at Theatre Erfurt in Thuringia.  Maestro Ryvkin is currently Music Director of Opera Santa Barbara and Artistic Director of the Greensboro Opera.  A frequent guest at many of the country’s leading opera houses, Maestro Ryvkin has conducted at the San Diego Opera, San Francisco Opera, Chicago Lyric Opera, Austin Lyric Opera, Fresno Opera, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, and many others.  A highlight of this coming season will be the world premiere of Stephen Schwartz’s first opera, “Séance on a Wet Afternoon,” which will be conducted by Maestro Ryvkin.  In the spring of 2010, Maestro Rvykin will be returning to Europe for performances and masterclasses as Music Director of the Sisak International Music Festival in Croatia.

Scott Schwartz, a graduate of Harvard University, is best known for his direction of Golda’s Balcony, the one-woman show about Golda Meir starring Tovah Feldshuh (Best Actress, Lucille Lortel Award, Best Solo Performance, Drama Desk Award), that became the
longest running one-woman show in Broadway history. He also directed Los Angeles and San Francisco productions of the play, and a national tour starring Valerie Harper (2006 Touring Broadway Award, Best Play.) Other Broadway credits include the musical Jane Eyre, and The Foreigner starring Matthew Broderick for Roundabout Theater Company in New York. Off-Broadway, Scott directed the musical tick, tick…BOOM! by Jonathan Larson (RENT) for which he received the 2002 Outer Critics Award, Best Off-B’way Musical, Drama Desk Award Nomination, Outstanding Director of a Musical. He also helmed Batboy: The Musical (2001 Outer Critics Circle Award and Lucille Lortel Award - Best Off-B'way Musical, Drama Desk Award Nomination, Outstanding Director of a Musical). He also directed the off-Broadway production of Franz Kafka’s The Castle starring William Atherton for Manhattan Ensemble Theatre (2002 Outer Critics Circle Award Nomination, Best Director of a Play).

Myra Foster: Lauren Flanigan

Bill Foster: Kim Josephson
Mrs. Clayton: Hila Plitmann
Mr. Clayton: John Kimberling
Inspector Watts: Craig Hart

Sets: Heidi Ettinger
Costumes: Alejo Vietti
Lighting Design: David Lander
Choreography: Matt Williams
Executive Producer: Michael Jackowitz

Renowned for her musical talents from the bel canto to Berio, soprano Lauren Flanigan has firmly established herself as a unique musical presence in the world today. Named by TIME Magazine as, "the thinking man's diva" and awarded by ASCAP and the Center for Contemporary Opera for her commitment to performing the works of living composers she has also been equally recognized as one of the leading interpreters of the early operas of Verdi including Attila, Giovanna D'Arco, Nabucco, Macbeth, I Lombardi, and La Traviata. Her repertory has included performances of more than 100 operas including Nabucco (La Scala, Teatro San Carlo, New Japan Opera, Artscape So Africa, Cincinnati Opera, Carnegie Hall), Macbeth (La Scala, Opera Company of Philadelphia, NYCO), I Lombardi, La Boheme, The Ghosts of Versailles (Metropolitan Opera), Norma (Cincinnati Opera, Manaus), Intermezzo (NYCO, Glimmerglass), Prince Igor (San Francisco Opera), Midsummer Marriage (Bayerische Staatsoper), Euryanthe (Glyndebourne Festival), Venus und Adonis (Santa Fe Opera, Concertgebouw), Maria Stuarda (Opera Orchestra of New York), Roberto Devereaux (NYCO), Rusalka (Metropolitan Opera, Mourning Becomes Electra (Lyric Opera of Chicago, Seattle Opera, NYCO), Don Giovanni (Baltimore Opera Company, Seattle Opera, Glimmerglass, Cincinnati Opera), Esther, The Mother of Us All, Seven Deadly Sins, Lillith, Lizzie Borden, Central Park, Mathis der Maler, La Boheme (NYCO), Peter Ibbetson, Merrymount (Seattle Symphony), Regina (Florida Grand Opera, BARD Summerscape), Fierrabras, Oberon, Giovanna D'Arco, Nabucco (Collegiate Chorale).

Hailed as one of opera’s most versatile baritones, Kim Josephson is a regular guest of leading opera companies, including the Metropolitan Opera where, since 1991, he has performed more than 230 performances of 24 roles including the title role in Rigoletto, Germont in La Traviata, Enrioc in Lucia di Lammermoor, and Belcore in L’Elisir d’Amore to name a few. He has also appeared at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, most notably as Eddie Carbone in the world premiere of William Bolcom’s A View from the Bridge, and from the standard repertoire Rigoletto, Sharpless in Madama Butterfly, and Marcello in La Boheme. Elsewhere in the United States, he has appeared with the Seattle Opera as Rigoletto, Jack Rance in La Fanciulla del West, Minnesota Opera as Scarpia in Tosca, Washington National Opera as Eddie Carbone, Houston Grand Opera, Baltimore Opera, Cincinnati Opera, Fort Worth Opera in the title role of Verdi’s Falstaff, Connecticut Opera, the Spoleto Festival, U.S.A., Sarasota Opera, and Tulsa Opera. In Canada, he has appeared with the Vancouver Opera and Opera Hamilton. In Europe, he has appeared onstage at the Vienna State Opera as the Count di Luna in Il Trovatore, Germont, Enrico, Belcore and Marcello. He has also performed in Japan on tour with the Metropolitan Opera.

Born in Jerusalem, soprano Hila Plitmann is quickly becoming a familiar face — and cherished soprano voice - on the international music scene. In 1998 she premiered Pulitzer Prize winner David Del Tredici’s The Spider and the Fly with the New York Philharmonic under the baton of Maestro Kurt Masur, and in 2000 appeared as a headliner at the International Cervantino Festival. She has performed as a features soloist with The Israeli Philharmonic, New York City Opera, The Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, The Cleveland Chamber Orchestra, The New Israeli Opera and numerous other orchestras and ensembles in the US and abroad. Recent performances include her debut recital in Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, premiering David Del Tredici’s song cycle Lament on the Death of a Bullfighter, Faire’s Requiem with Bobby Mcferrin and The Pacific Symphony; and Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 with The Mexico City Philharmonic. In 2003 she sang in the premiere of Eric Whitacre’s groundbreaking Opera Electronica Paradise Lost in New York and Berlin; she also performed the world premiere of Oscar and Pulitzer prize-winning composer John Corigliano’s Mr. Tambourine Man, with the Minnesota Orchestra and is engaged to appear in several additional international performances of his work. Plitmann is accumulating an impressive catalogue of Del Tredici recordings, beginning with the highly virtuosic song cycle Ms. Inez Sez, under the CRI label, Vintage Alice and Dracula with the Cleveland Chamber Orchestra, and Lament on the Death of a Bullfighter with the composer on piano.

Tenor John Kimberling is a true “cross-over” artist. On the classical side, his appearances have included the Los Angeles Opera world premiere of Drattell’s Nicholas and Alexandra as well as Il Trovatore, Idomeneo, La Boheme, Der Rosenkavalier, La Traviata, Dido and Aeneas, Amahl and the Night Visistors and L’elisir d’Amore. Operetta: The Pirates of Penzance, Die Fledermause, HMS Pinafore and The Mikado. Choral: the Rossini Stabat Mater, Verdi’s Requiem and Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. His versatility extends to the theater stages with performances in A Funny Thing Happened On the Way To the Forum, She Loves Me, Godspell, Death of a Salesman, A Streetcar Named Desire, Dark At the Top of the Stairs and The Glass Menagerie. He was also seen on TV in The Bold and the Beautiful and Diagnosis Murder.

For more than a decade, bass Craig Hart has enjoyed singing on the operatic and concert stages of North America. His engagements have been with such companies as the Metropolitan Opera, L'Opera de Montreal, Palm Beach Opera, Cleveland Opera, Nashville Opera, Toledo Opera, Connecticut Opera, Shreveport Opera, Opera Idaho, Boston Bel Canto Opera, and Opera at Florham. His performances have consistently earned him the respect and accolades of discerning critics for the more than 40 roles in his repertoire, among them King Phillip II of Spain, Mephistopheles, Don Giovanni, Count Walter, Colline, Sparafucile, Raimondo, Daland, Sarastro, Hunding and Collatinus. Mr. Hart’s recent performances include Sarastro for the Portland Opera, and Don Basilio for PORT Opera, the title role in Don Giovanni with Opera Company of North Carolina, Timur in Turandot with Boheme Opera, and Simone in Connecticut Opera’s March 2006 production of Gianni Schicchi. In the spring 2005, some of Mr. Hart's appearances as soloist included the title role in Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Vaughn Williams Dona Nobis Pacem Washington and a concert of excerpts of the sacred opera I am the Way for Tele Saluto in Rome. This performance was broadcast the morning of and preceding the funeral of Pope John Paul II. This was Mr. Hart’s debut performance in the role of Christ. Jerome Hines chose Mr. Hart to succeed him in the role that was created and performed until that point exclusively by Mr. Hines.

SÉANCE ON A WET AFTERNOON is a psychological thriller about a medium, Myra Foster, her doting husband Bill, and the spirit of their deceased eleven-year-old son, Arthur, who speaks to Myra and is her contact for her séances.
Because Myra has never received the recognition she feels her gifts merit, they hatch a Plan: They will kidnap the daughter of a local wealthy industrialist, and keep her safe while the media frenzy over her abduction builds. When Myra has a "vision" that leads to the successful recovery of the girl and the ransom, her fame will be assured. As The Plan is put into action, the girl's presence in the house leads to complex psychological responses from Myra, Bill, and Arthur. The delicate balance of Myra and Bill's relationship and Myra's sanity itself begins to fray, as long-buried secrets are revealed. The Plan goes badly awry, and in Myra's final séance, the drama comes to a devastating conclusion.