Buck Hill Skytop Music Festival Introduces Developmental Theater Lab

In an effort to support emerging composers, lyricists and librettists, the Buck Hill Skytop Music Festival will select a new work that is ready to be explored musically and dramatically and bring it to the stage with a professional creative team and cast.

Projects at various stages of development will be considered. The application deadline is June 1, and the festival’s artistic board will make its selection in June. Each member of the selected creative team will receive a $1,000 honorarium, transportation to the festival, and lodging.

The performance will take place Friday, August 7, at 7:30pm.  It will be produced by festival Artistic Director Joey Chancey, who is the Assistant Conductor for the highly anticipated Broadway revival of Gigi this season. Chancey recently conducted and played piano for the Broadway hit Beautiful: The Carole King Musical and for the 2012 revival of Annie. The production will be directed by Broadway's Lisa Clarson, an accomplished director and choreographer.

The Ballad of Little Jo (2013)

The festival has presented new works from acclaimed musicians for the past two seasons. In 2013, the festival produced The Ballad of Little Jo by Grammy Award-winner Mike Reid and Sarah Schlesinger, a lyricist and librettist who has garnered multiple awards for her work. Last season the festival presented WAS by Joseph Thalken and Barry Kleinbort. The 2015 season marks the first time the festival will present a new work from an undiscovered talent.  

The festival’s new works production is funded by a generous grant from an anonymous donor.

For more information about the Developmental Theater Lab and to submit an application, visit http://www.buckhillskytopfest.org/NewWorks.html.

The Buck Hill Skytop Music Festival, now in its sixth season, will take place from July 31 to August 9. The festival will present world-class artists in the fields of jazz, musical theater, cabaret, chamber music, and pop. Events will take place at Skytop Lodge, Buck Hill Falls, Pocono Mountain East High School, Notre Dame High School, and East Stroudsburg University.