Ladyhawks A New Musical

Book by Rob Ackerman Lyrics by Sam Forman

Music by Eli Bolin Directed by Neil Patrick Stewart

¡  The St. Agnes Ladyhawks are a team in trouble. Overbearing parents, academic pressures and new romances of all kinds have turned them into the worst high school girls’ volleyball program in Central Ohio. Beloved English teacher Kim Brindell is also struggling with her confidence. Once a world-class athlete, Kim committed an historic blunder in the Olympic games. But now, with the encouragement of her headmaster  and despite the resistance of a hardline, helicopter P.T.A. mom,  Kim returns to the game she abandoned years ago, and assists the team of wide-eyed misfits to overcome their challenges and find their inner beasts. 

About the show

¡  Adapted from Ackerman's play Volleygirls commissioned by Carrie Perloff and Craig Slaight from American Conservatory Theatre.

¡  T h e f i r s t d e v e l o p m e n t a l production of Ladyhawks was a smash hit at the 2013 New York Musical Theatre Festival (under the title Volleygirls), taking home top honors with the “Best of Fest” Audience Prize, Outstanding Ensemble Performance, and the Most Promising Musical Award.  

¡  Ladyhawks received a second developmental production at the University of Florida in Gainesville in May 2015.

Production History

Media

Music Videos https://www.youtube.com/user/VolleygirlsMusical/videos

Dropbox to Script and More Information about Ladyhawks:https://www.dropbox.com/sh/p5dfxqj0n2xblfo/AABfoTdHATTafbXMAK23iIN7a?dl=0

2015 Developmental Production Sizzle Reel:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/w0btuynhkuts30y/LADYHAWK%20sizzle.mov?dl=0

Reviews from the NYMF Production

“It’s nice to see girls finally take the court. And they do so—winningly—in “Volleygirls” about a high school girls’ volleyball team.” “The whole pop-rock score — music by Eli Bolin, lyrics by Sam Forman — is terrific. Director Neil Patrick Stewart keeps the action moving at a nice clip, and choreographer Ryan Kasprzak puts the young performers through their energetic paces.”

“It's clever, well-written, filled with strong songs and great characters, well-acted and -- crucially -- presents the sport of volleyball in theatrically clever terms that don't leave you worried whether an actress who can sing and dance will also prove capable of convincingly spiking the ball….” “Bringing it all together is director Neil Patrick Stewart, who has delivered a genuine crowd-pleaser with heart.” “…a show ideally suited to a small venue with a fresh-faced cast of newcomers like this could be financially successful and run for ages. Wherever it ends up, you'll discover a talented creative team to keep an eye on and a lot of appealing performers.”

The Team: The Authors Eil Bolin (Music) is music director of Story Pirates, which performs songs and sketches adapted from the creative writing of children all over the country. Theater: Found (Atlantic), Skippyjon Jones (Lucille Lortel nomination) & its sequel Skippyjon Jones Snow What, Roller Disco (ART), SCHMOOZY Togetherness (WTF), I Sing!  Tv: Sesame Street, Billy On The Street and two Kristen Schaal comedy specials (Comedy Central Presents & Live At The Fillmore). As an actor, Eli appeared on NBC's 30 ROCK as a member of the Woggels. Eli  is a graduate of Northwestern, a member of ASCAP and the Dramatists Guild and is represented by Abrams Artists. http://elibolin.net

SAM FORMAN  (Lyrics)  is a writer for the stage and television. He spent two seasons on the writing staff of Netflix’s House of Cards and has recently written for HBO’s The Brink and Amazon’s Hand of God. Sam was the lyricist for the musical adaptation of Sleepless In Seattle(Pasadena Playhouse, dir. Sheldon Epps).  Sam’s other plays and musicals include:  The Rise and Fall of Annie Hall  (Stage 13, NYC dir. Sam Gold,  Helen Hayes Nomination 2010); We The People (TheaterWorks USA, Lucille Lortel Nomination 2011); Roller Disco (A.R.T. Oberon, Cambridge, MA dir. Jen Wineman); The Grille Room(Cherry Lane Mentor Project, dir. Thomas Kail);   Please Stop Talking (Cherry Lane Theater, NYC dir. Erwin Mass; Willlamstown Theatre Festival, dir. Portia Krieger) and The Quiet Game (Hangar Theater, Ithaca NY dir. Daniel Kramer).  Sam is an alumnus of Youngblood at EST, Ars Nova’s Play Group and a graduate of Northwestern University and Columbia University’s MFA program in playwriting. Sam is a member of the WGA, The Dramatists Guild, and is represented by CAA. 

ROB ACKERMAN's  (book) work includes Teach for America (2014, commissioned and produced by ACT in San Francisco);  Call Me Waldo (2012, The Working Theater, Off Broadway, and The Kitchen Theatre, Ithaca); Tabletop  (2001, American Place Theater, Drama Desk Award Winner, Best Ensemble);    Icarus of Ohio  (2008, NYU's  Tisch  School of the Arts);  Disconnect  (2005, The Working Theater, Classic Stage Company). Rob’s full-length plays and monologues have been published by Dramatists Play Service, Smith and Kraus, and Playscripts, and nurtured at Yaddo, Flux, and Dorset Theatre Festival. Rob earned an M.F.A. in stage directing at Northwestern University. He is a member of Dramatists Guild of America, Inc. and represented by Abrams Artists.

The Team: Director and Choreagrapher Neil Patrick Stewart (Director) is a teacher of acting, characterization, and improvisation at Texas State, as well as an actor, writer, and decorated director.  Neil directed the premiere of Christian Durso’s Shiner for the IAMA Theatre Group in both Los Angeles and New York, and his L.A. production of The Elephant Man for the non-profit Mechanicals Theatre Group earned four prestigious Ovation Award nominations, including best direction of a play, and best production. He is the former creative director of New York’s Back House Productions, which he co-founded. With Back House, Neil helped over forty projects make the leap from the laptop to the stage, including Broadway’s smash hit In the Heights, which he co-directed for its first couple of years of laboratory development. Neil is the associate artistic director (as well as a founder and member of the acting faculty) of The Performing Arts Project, a cutting-edge musical theatre training intensive for outstanding high-school and college-aged students, which takes place every summer at Wake Forest University, and he was a member of the acting faculty of the Broadway Theatre Project for over a decade. Neil holds a B.A. in theater from Wesleyan University, and a M.F.A. in acting from the world-renowned American Repertory Theatre/Moscow Art Theatre Institute for Advanced Theatre Training (A.R.T.) at Harvard University.

Ryan Kasprzak (Choreographer) TV: NBC’s Smash (Asst. Choreographer), Fox’s So You Think You Can Dance, ABC’s Manhattan Love Story, commercials for Hershey’s, White House Black Market, Sun Drop. Nat’l Tours: Billy Elliot (Associate Resident Choreographer / Dance Captain), Fosse (Dance Captain). Ryan creates new work with multi Drama Desk Award nominated Parallel Exit: Physical Comedy Theater. Their production of This Way, That Way prompted the NY Times to say Kasprzak “can get laughs simply by breathing” and their comic tap musical Time Step has been seen at the New Victory Theater, Joyce SoHo, Lincoln Center Institute and Cos Festival in Spain. Their show Exit Stage Left was presented at the Queens Theater, toured the US, and is currently playing variety theaters throughout Germany. Ryan recently set movement for David Blaine’s Real or Magic tour. His choreography has been seen at the NY Musical Festival in Academia Nuts (Best New Musical), and Best of Fest winners Cloned and Volleygirls. Resident faculty at The Performing Arts Project. Professor and alumnus of Marymount Manhattan College. www.ryankasprzak.com

The Team: The Producers Monica Raymund (Producer) is the founder and president of SISU Theatrical Productions. Broadway credits include: Merchant of Venice, The Velocity of Autumn.    Monica is a producer and member of the Ovation Award nominated Mechanicals Theatre Group in L.A and was a co-producer of Volleygirls  (NYMF 2013 Best of Fest). She also just completed producing independent feature The Submarine Kid starring Finn Wittrock and Emilie de Ravin and is a producer and director for the upcoming film campaign Hidden Tears Project. Monica currently stars as the female lead Gabriella Dawson in NBC's drama Chicago Fire. Some Past credits include: (TV) Lie to Me, The Good Wife, Blue Bloods, Law & Order: SVU (Film) Arbitrage, Happy Baby, Brahmin Bulls (Regional) Boleros for the Disenchanted, Sundance Lab's Like Water for Chocolate. She will be starring in Lookingglass Theater's upcoming new musical production Thadeus and Slocum: A Vaudeville Adventure. B.F.A. Juilliard  Jacob Harvey (Producer) is an award winning director and producer whose work has been seen from coast to coast. He is the producer for Your Theatrics International, a full service entertainment production company, specializing in the production and management of theatrical events around the world. He was selected as the Bret C. Harte Director/Producer Fellow for Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s 2013/14 Season. Prior to that, he served as Associate Producer and Interim Director of Programming for the New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF). Jacob was the Co-Artistic Director of the Ovation Award-nominated Mechanicals Theatre Group in Los Angeles, the co-producer of Volleygirls (NYMF 2013 Best of Fest) and the associate producer of Ryan Scott Oliver’s 35MM: A Musical Exhibition,   

The Producers (Cont) Amy Danis & Mark Johannes (Producer) Founded MARS Theatricals in 1999 to develop and produce new work. Their credits include Broadway: The Realistic Joneses, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Tony Award 2013), Ann, The Ann Richards Play, Desire Under the Elms, Little Shop of Horrors, Swing! Off-Broadway: Bug ( Lortel and Obie Awards), The Fantasticks, Striking 12, Cookin’, My Old Lady, World of Mirth, Tabletop, and Perfect Arrangement. Touring: Swing!, Little Shop of Horrors. Musicals in development: Ladyhawks, and One Ride, the Chris LeDoux Musical.

Tilted Windmills Theatricals (Producer) is a producing partnersh ip between David Carpenter and John Arthur Pinckard. The company specializes in the development of new work for the American theater  and is currently focused on producing art i s t ical ly and commercially successful entertainment for under-served markets across North America.  Collectively, the partners have won two Tony Awards (A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder, Clybourne Park) and have been nominated for two others. Past Broadway credits include American Idiot, HAIR, Slava’s Snowshow o n B r o a d w a y ,   H a n d s o n a Hardbody,  and  Doctor Zhivago. Off Broadway and regional credits include CAGNEY the Musical, Silence! the Musical, 5 Lesbians Eating A Quiche, Never Swim Alone, and I Love Lucy (Live on Stage).

Contact Us Sisu Theatrical Productions 8383 Wilshire Blvd. Suite 1000 Beverly Hills, CA 90211 sisutheatricalproductions@gmail.com Jacoblouisharvey@gmail.com MARS Theatricals 324 W. 19th St.,  Suite A NY, NY 10011 212-813-6955 mars@marstheatricals.com http://www.marstheatricals.com

Tilted Windmills Theatricals 214 West 50th Street, Suite 201 New York, NY 10019 David@TiltedWindmills.net John@TiltedWindmills.net