-Courtesy of Bryan Buttler Media Relations
Feature image: Imani Moss in SOON – Credit Dan Kontz
11th Hour Theatre Company, the region’s premier boutique musical theatre organization, is excited to announce the return to live performances with the Philadelphia premiere of SOON. This fully-staged musical by Nick Blaemire (he’s the youngest person ever to have written a Broadway musical (Glory Days) while also performing in another Broadway musical (Cry-Baby) at the same time) is a co-production with Lancaster’s Prima Theatre, and is directed by outgoing 11th Hour Producing Artistic Director and co-founder Michael Philip O’Brien. The witty, apocalyptic, and surprisingly funny musing comes to Christ Church Neighborhood House (20 N. American Street) from October 28 through November 7, 2021.
“We are so excited to return to the live stage with SOON, a humorous end-of-the-world musical that 11th Hour is co-producing with our friends at Prima Theatre,” notes Transitional Artistic Director and company co-founder Steve Pacek. “11th Hour audiences will love this story, and it’s fitting to have Michael Philip O’Brien direct SOON as his final engagement with the company before he takes his new position with Gretna.”
SOON centers on Charlie, a woman who isolates herself in her apartment (sound familiar?). She has taken to her couch as the apocalypse nears with a few of her favorite things: peanut butter, Wolf Blitzer, and Herschel, the Jewish fish. The perfect piece for today, SOON reminds us of the importance of fully embracing life – even with the end in sight. SOON features Imani Moss, previously featured at 11th Hour in Chess, as Charlie; Barrymore Award-winning Ebony Pullum as Adrienne; Matt Donzella as Jonah; and Carmen Castillo as Stevie. Music direction is by Nathan Landis Funk.
SOON runs 90 minutes with no intermission. Single tickets are currently available by visiting 11thhourtheatrecompany.org/shows/soon-the-musical/.
HEALTH AND SAFETY
To help protect the health and safety of audiences, artists, staff, and the greater community, audience members are required to wear masks at all performances. Additionally, 11th Hour events will require proof of vaccination to attend. Audience members will be asked to show proof of vaccination before entering the performance venue. Accepted forms for proof of vaccination include: a physical vaccine card with the guest’s name on it or a digital photo of a vaccine card on a cell phone.
If a guest is feeling unwell, experiencing any COVID-related symptoms, or comes into close contact with someone who has COVID-19 up to 14 days before a performance, 11th Hour Theatre company asks that they stay home. All 11th Hour artists, staff, and volunteers are required to show proof of vaccination. These guidelines may evolve depending on local health and safety recommendations. Please consult the 11th Hour website for the latest information.
ABOUT 11TH HOUR THEATRE COMPANY
11th Hour’s mission is to have an enduring impact on our community by producing musical works of theatre. We use the expertise of industry leaders and up-and-coming artists to create an intimate and lasting experience with our audience.
In the past sixteen years, 11th Hour Theatre Company has emerged as Philadelphia’s premiere boutique musical theatre company. In 2016, 11th Hour was awarded a New Theatre Works Initiative grant by the Independence Foundation, and in 2013, 11th Hour became the first-ever recipients of the June and Steve Wolfson Award for an Evolving Theater. Our work focuses on presenting intimate, character-driven stories rather than flashy, budget-busting spectacles. Our hope is that these stories prove the relevance of musical theatre in the contemporary world, engaging audiences and inspiring the next generation of musical theatre artists for years to come.
11th Hour Theatre Company produced a broad spectrum of musicals that fill a niche in the diverse Philadelphia theatre landscape: musicals that spark the creativity of our artists and the imaginations of our audience. In the 2014-2015 season, we produced our first world premiere, Michael Ogborn’s Field Hockey Hot, which was a smashing success, and motivated us to create one of the first original cast albums to come out of Philadelphia in years. To date, we have produced twenty-one full-scale musicals, ten of which were Philadelphia premieres. Our hugely popular Next Step Concert Series is a staged-reading series that showcases musicals seldom seen in Philadelphia. In addition to Field Hockey Hot, the company has contributed to the development of several new musicals including Angst, Factory Girls, Five Points, Persephone (now titled Mythic) and Something Like A War. We also produced the American premiere of Austentatious that went on to success at the New York Musical Theatre Festival; and a 29-hour reading of Fantasy Football, the Musical? before its production at New York University. Both Austentatious and Fantasy Football have since been published and are now professionally licensed. In 2018, 11th Hour produced our second world premiere musical, Big Red Sun, written by John Jiler and Georgia Stitt.
11th Hour has received a total of fifty-five Barrymore Award nominations to date. Our work has been recognized with fifteen awards, including Outstanding Overall Production Of A Musical (Lizzie), several individual awards for our artists, and the June and Steve Wolfson Award for an Evolving Theatre.
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