New York, December 17: Performance Greek Musical OPA!

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From: "HR-Net News Distribution Manager" <dist@hri.org>

Originally From: OPAtheMusical <takemeamerica at gmail.com>

Please join us for the presentation of a new Greek musical - OPA! - a celebration of life and love on a forgotten Grecian isle.

Double Play Connections, LLC and Wild Bird Productions, Inc. present a developmental stage reading of a new musical

OPA!

Life and love on a forgotten Grecian isle.

Written by Mari Carras and Laurel Ollstein, Lyrics by Mari Carras and Donald Carl Eugster,

Music by Nicholas Carras and Nicholas Kitsopoulos; Directed by Spiro Veloudos

One night only presentation on Monday, December 17, 2007 at 7:30 pm at the Players Theatre in Manhattan's West Village

Winner of the Howard L. Blau Award for most promising new musical

New York - Double Play Connections and Wild Bird Productions are set to present a new Greek musical OPA! - a look at life and love on a forgotten Grecian isle. There will be refreshments and a theatre industry panel, including Broadway producers, following the reading. This one night only special presentation will provide an inside look at the development of this new musical.

OPA!, conceived by the father-daughter team of Nicholas and Mari Carras, celebrates Greek life and traditions on a forgotten Grecian Isle. After Nicholas' death last Thanksgiving, Mari continues to pursue their dream of making this story a Broadway Musical as an homage to her father. She has enlisted the creative talents of prominent Greek members of the theatre community in her quest, including director Spiro Veloudos, producing artistic director of the award-winning Lyric Stage Company in Boston, and Tony Award winning composer Nicholas Kitsopolous, who was celebrated for his orchestrations of La Boheme on Broadway.

The cast includes: Demetri Bonaros, Michael Dantuono, Michael Dionissiou, Funda Duval, Carolee Goodgold, Costa Nicholas, Sarah Rolleston, Eric Ruben, Loukas Skipitaris, Natasha Tabandera and Susan Wallack.

OPA! a new musical celebrating life and love on a forgotten Grecian isle

One night only special presentation on December 17 at 7:30 pm

The Players Theatre is located at 115 MacDougal Street (between West 3rd and Bleecker Streets) in the historic West Village of Manhattan

Closest subway: W. 4th Street

Running time: 90 minutes

Admission is FREE but reservations are required

Call: (914) 572-7016 or email: OPAtheMusical@gmail.com

Refreshments and "Dollars and Sense" industry panel to follow reading.

Bios

MARI CARRAS (Book/Lyrics) grew up in LA immersed in music and dance with her twin sister, a flutist, and their composer father and tap dancing mother. She diligently trained in classical piano and ballet before turning towards business pursuits within the entertainment industry. She studied Business at Loyola Marymount University and International Business and the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland. She became a CPA specializing in entertainment at Coopers & Lybrand, and then spent six years as a business risk consultant for the film and music divisions abroad for Time Warner and Ernst & Young. In 1998 she purchased and ran the popular restaurant "Sofi" in LA for five years before moving to Athens, where she executive-produced a well-received documentary about the making of Ancient Greek Tragedies with the National Theater of Northern Greece. Now living in New York City, Mari was involved in the Off-Broadway run of The Great American Trailer Park Musical and the Broadway premiere of The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. She is a 2005 graduate of the Commercial Theatre Institute's 14 week producer workshop. Mari is a member of the Board of Directors of Theatre Resources Unlimited.

NICHOLAS CARRAS (ASCAP) (Music) was born in Pittsburgh, PA. He began serious violin studies at age 7 in Europe before his family moved to Los Angeles. At the famous Hollywood High, Nico participated in all the school's musical events, which led to a period of intensive study of music composition and orchestration at the LA Conservatory of Music. David rose discovered him as a young man and made him his protege for many years. He was then engaged to score Jayne Mansfield's first film, which led to the "Third Eye" starring James Mason and Jeff Bridges, and directed by Burgess Meredith. He was then tapped by Loretta Young to be the musical director on her new television show. Through his La Ronde Music production company, he settled into a long and fruitful stint writing, arranging and conducting special projects for the major companies in Hollywood. Nicholas passed away on Thanksgiving Day, 2006

DONALD CARL EUGSTER (ASCAP) (Lyrics) was born in Hollywood, CA and studied composition at the University of Southern California. Donald has been commissioned to compose, arrange, music direct and write lyrics for hundreds of shows, recordings and movie scores over the course of forty years.

NICHOLAS KITSOPOULOS (BMI) (Music) has recently joined the OPA! team to work on new compositions. Nicholas is a Tony-award winner for his orchestrations of Baz Luhrmann's La Boheme.

LAUREL OLLSTEIN (Book) has worked in new play development as an actress, writer and director and teacher, in San Francisco, Minneapolis, and Los Angeles. A member of the award-winning Actors' Gang for over ten years, currently a member of About Productions - and collaborated as writer and actress in On Earth As it is in Heaven and as a writer/director on her newest piece - Showing Her Age in spring, 2008 at Inside the Ford. Plays produced around the country include her one woman show Laughter Hope and a Blackwell's Corner, Esther's Moustache, and The Dark Ages. Laurel teaches playwriting and acting at Loyola Marymount University, UCLA, UC Redlands and Cal Arts.

SPIRO VELOUDOS (Director) is excited to be part of the OPA! creative team. He is now in his tenth season as the Producing Artistic Director of The Lyric Stage Company of Boston. Since becoming the Lyric's artistic leader, the theatre has been honored with numerous awards and honors including 15 Elliot Norton Awards and 25 Independent Reviews of New England Award. He has been personally honored with the 2006 Elliot Norton Prize for Sustained Excellence, Stage Source's 2002 Theatre Hero Award and was cited as the city's Best Artistic Director by Boston Magazine's Best of Boston program in 1999. He has directed over 95 productions in Massachusetts and throughout New England. His directing credits include: -The Man of LaMancha, 1776, Souvenir, Urinetown: the Musical, A Number, A Little Night Music, Noises Off!, Dirty Blonde, Side Man, No Way To Treat A Lady, Sunday in the Park with George, Assassins (Outstanding Production of 1998 and one of 5 most memorable productions in the last 15 years: Boston Globe), Anything Goes, and Sweeney Todd. He is a member of the faculty at Emerson College and of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers.

Producer Double Play Connections http://www.DoublePlayConnections.com/

A celebration of life and love on a forgotten Grecian isle OPA! the MUSICAL "It's time to follow your heart." http://www.OPAtheMusical.com/

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