All-new Symphony holiday musical premieres Dec 12-13

Symphony Produces All-New Original Holiday Musical,
“How the Symphony Saved Christmas”

Family show celebrates spirit of the season through story and song, featuring several well-known local personalities

How the Symphony Saved Christmas is an all-new original Kansas City Symphony holiday musical play written by local talent Ry Kincaid, telling the story of the glum Glissenfoffel-Meyer family and their quest to regain the spirit of Christmas. Starring Cathy Barnett, Phil Fiorini and Dick Wilson, this concert premieres December 12-13 at the Lyric Theatre. Associate Conductor Steven Jarvi, Santa and other costumed characters bring the spirit of the season to Kansas City through story and song. Help Santa get his new hybrid sleigh off the Lyric Theatre rooftop! Clap, laugh, sing and dance your way through the yuletide’s best-loved songs: Jingle Bells, Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town, Sleigh Ride and many more. This concert will make you feel like a kid at Christmas!

Performances, held at the Lyric Theatre, 11th & Central in downtown Kansas City, are scheduled for:
Saturday, December 12 at 2pm and 7pm
Sunday, December 13 at 2pm

A jewelry prize, courtesy of Helzberg Diamonds, will be given away at each performance. The piece will be a 14kt White Gold 1-1/4ct TW Round & Tapered Baguette Diamond V-Shaped Necklace valued at $999.99. No purchase is necessary to win.

Tickets are available by calling 816.471.0400 or online at kcsymphony.org. Group and student discounts are available. Box office hours are Monday-Friday 10am-5pm.

Sponsored by Helzberg Diamonds; Midwest Airlines; David T. Beals III Charitable Trust, Bank of America Trustee; and Bayer Corporation.

How The Symphony Saved Christmas is produced by and featuring several well-known local personalities, including:

RY KINCAID (PLAYWRIGHT) is a Kansas City writer and musician. Productions of his plays, which include In This Corner and The Rajah of Saint Louis, earned two Best of Kansas City Awards from The Pitch. He wrote the book, music, and lyrics of his first play for young audiences, Not Just for the Birds, in 2003, commissioned by Theatre for Young America. For six years, Ry was the main facilitator for Coterie Theatre’s Reaching the Write Minds, introducing playwriting to Kansas City area students. A published poet, Kincaid read his work last year at Queens College, at the invitation of the university.

SIDONIE GARRETT (DIRECTOR) is the Producing Artistic Director of the Heart of America Shakespeare Festival where she directed Twelfth Night, The Taming of the Shrew, Hamlet (awarded Best Play by Pitch Magazine), Julius Caesar, Much Ado About Nothing, King Henry V, Romeo and Juliet and Othello.
Prior to joining the Shakespeare Festival, Sidonie worked as a freelance director. Her experience working with new plays took her to New York City, where she directed the off-Broadway production of Thanatos. Sidonie also assistant directed the off-Broadway premiere of the interactive Aunt Chooch's Birthday Party. Locally, she directed Faith Healer, Retreat from Moscow, Omnium Gatherum, the world premiere of Thanatos, SubUrbia, The Waiting Room, Desert Holiday, Spinning Into Butter, SantaLand Diaries and co-directed Light/Damage with Cynthia Levin, at the Unicorn Theatre. At The Coterie she directed the The Macbeth Project: In Spite of Thunder,the U.S. premiere of After Juliet, Mr. A's Amazing Maze Plays, Little House on the Prairie, Little House by the Shores of Silver Lake, Of Mice and Men, Playing for Time and co-directed The Hobbit, and for several years was part of the directing team for the Young Playwright's Festival. Sidonie directed Rose’s Dilemma and Greater Tuna for the American Heartland Theatre, Reckless and Too Clever By Half for UMKC's Rotating Repertory and co-directed Tony & Tina's Wedding (Kansas City and St. Louis) for Fourth Wall Productions. She directed Jason Chanos as Hamlet, in the Kansas City Symphony’s Supremely Shakespeare concert, and was the stage director for the past four seasons of their “Magic of Christmas”. Sidonie was the stage director for Kansas City Civic Opera’s productions of The Marriage of Figaro and Falstaff.

Costumes Designed by: Mary Traylor

Lighting Designed by: Margaret Spare

CAST OF CHARACTERS:
CATHY BARNETT (MOM) most recently appeared in Are We There Yet? at the American Heartland Theater and has performed in numerous New Theater productions including Don’t Dress For Dinner with Jamie Farr, Rumors with John Davidson, Church Basement Ladies with William Christopher, Caught In The Web with Richard Kline, Aspirin and Elephants with Jack Klugman, Social Security with Michael Learned, Never Too Late with Elinor Donohue and On Golden Pond with Don Knotts. Other area appearances include Private Lives, Dinner With Friends, Talley & Son and Fifth of July at the Actors Theater of Kansas City, The Great American Trailer Park Musical at the Unicorn Theater and the Kansas City Repertory Theater’s production of Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure. Cathy has toured nationally and internationally in both Forbidden Broadway and Forbidden Hollywood. She has also traveled across the nation as Louise in Always, Patsy Cline. She has entertained as a stand-up comedienne in New York, appearing at Caroline’s and the West Bank Cafe. She also portrays the Hallmark greeting card character, “Maxine,” and can give you directions to anywhere you want to go as the voice of the Garmin GPS Navigation Systems. She remains devoted to her husband, Dan, daughter, Julia and canine princess, Lucy.

PHIL FIORINI (SANTA CLAUS) most recently performed in the Actor’s Theatre of Kansas City’s production of Glengarry Glen Ross and spent this summer as Falstaff in the Heart of America Production of Merry Wives of Windsor. Mr. Fiorini has spent the last three years touring with the Broadway production of The Lion King, playing Pumbaa the warthog. He also has toured nationally with Greater Tuna and A Tuna Christmas. His regional theatre credits include George Street Playhouse in New Jersey, Heart of America Shakespeare Festival, Unicorn Theatre and Quality Hill Playhouse.

DICK WILSON (NARRATOR) – morning show host on 94.9 KCMO-FM. Legendary radio personality who was part of the “Dick & Jay” duo on KY-102 in the 1970’s and 1980’s.

SIMON GLISSENFOFFEL-MEYER: Christian Gamble is a 7th Grader at Kansas City Christian School and is making his debut with the Kansas City Symphony. Christian’s credits include A Christmas Carol (Tiny Tim/Ensemble) with the Kansas City Repertory Theater, Annie (Ensemble) at Starlight Theater, Our Town (Si Crowell) with the UMKC Theater Department, Epic Productions and various Community Productions. In addition Christian has sung with the Allegro Children’s Chorus and the Kansas City First Church of the Nazarene Kaleidoscope Children’s Chorus. Video credits include the 2010 international release of the Deep Sea Adventure VBS Curriculum created by Word Action Publishing Company.
Duet: Evening Prayer by Humperdinck
Simon is the youngest Glissenfoffle-Meyer. While watercolor and studying take up all of Lily’s time, Simon is different. Let’s just say if Santa does have a Naughty or Nice list, you can guess which column Simon would be in.

LILY GLISSENFOFFEL-MEYER: Cāsi Riegle has performed on various professional stages and venues with her most notable role as Annie in Starlight Theatre’s regional tour of ANNIE. Cāsi is a high school senior.
Duet: Evening Prayer by Humperdinck
Solo: Silent Night
Lily is the Glissenfoffel-Meyers oldest daughter. A bright young girl. She does well in school, has many friends, and absolutely loves art. With her busy schedule, she sometimes forgets to enjoy the great things in life. Including Christmas.

EUSTACE: Luke Boyce is a 9 yr. old home educated third grader with the Abeka Academy. Past credits include Les Miserables (Gavroche), The Lion King (Timon), Pinocchio commercial for Disney, and most recently Chitty Chitty Bang Bang with Starlight Theatre.
Solo: Christmas Song
Eustace is Santa’s no.1 sleigh elf. On a test run for this seasons Christmas run, the sleigh, Santa and Eustace make a surprise entrance into the Lyric Theatre. Eustace stays silent (only talking to Santa) until later in the play where he sings The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting)

BALLERINA: Megan Secrest has been involved in dance since she was three years old. Upon moving to Kansas in 2004, Megan started musical theater at The Culture House and performed in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Seussical, Annie Jr., Fiddler on the Roof, The Lullaby League in The Wizard of Oz, and Tink in Peter Pan. This past summer she performed as Marta in The Sound of Music at The New Theatre in Overland Park, KS. Megan is currently a fourth grader at Arbor Creek Elementary in Olathe, KS and taking dance and theater at Trilogy Cultural Arts Centre.

CHARLES DICKENS/NUTCRACKER: Tyler Horseman is a senior at Bishop Miege High School. This is his debut performance with the Kansas City Symphony. He was recently in New York working with Broadway Artists Alliance. He has appeared in numerous productions including the world premiere of Geppetto and Son at the Coterie and Christmas Carol at the Kansas City Repertory Theatre. Tyler has also performed at the Jewish Community Theatre, The Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre, Just off Broadway and several productions with MTYP. He also takes dance at The Pulse Performing Arts Center and voice lessons from Laure Ronnebaum.

-xxx -
Contact: Megan Felling
816.218.2621
mfelling@kcsymphony.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – November 10, 2009