Fresh Ground Pepper Archives

Sparkle like your leotard.

The Magnificent Seven

L-R: Amy Linden, Ally Bonino, Gillian Munsayac, Ellen Macy, Emily Walton, Dana Steingold, Shaleah Adkisson, Ned Risely, Lynne Marie Rosenberg, Keith Rubin

I’m so in awe of what we were able to share on Monday at Cloud City in the Fresh Ground Pepper Playground Festival. And it was only possible because of our director, Nikki DiLoreto, MD Rich Silverstein, and the ten wonderful people in the picture above who jumped (vaulted? Yurchenko’d?) into this fast and furious process and made my 17-year-old dream come true!

I can’t wait to share The Magnificent Seven with more than the 30 or so people that were in that tiny space at some point in 2017. Demos will be coming soon, and hopefully more!

It also wouldn’t have been possible without the encouragement, input, and excitement of Andrew, Jaclyn, Ellie, and our whole cohort in the Fresh Ground Pepper Playground Playgroup. It’s hard to believe our year is up with them already!

The Magnificent Seven @ Cloud City

The Magnificent Seven

It’s hard to believe that our time in Fresh Ground Pepper’s Playground Playgroup is nearing a close… It’s been a great nine months of making new friends and hearing their really wonderful work as Julia and I vaulted into our dream musical (pun intended.) And now, to celebrate, we’re sharing a little more of The Magnificent Seven with the world!

On Monday, December 12 at 7pm at Cloud City, we’ll be doing an hour-ish-long version of what we have so far (which includes 13 songs!) We have an amazing cast, most of whom were with us at Dixon Place: Shaleah Adkisson, Ally Bonino, Ellen Condon Macy, Amy Linden, Gillian Munsayac, Ned Risely, Lynne Marie Rosenberg, Keith Rubin, Dana Steingold, and Emily Walton. Nikki DiLoreto is directing again, and Rich Silverstein is on board to music direct.

All in all, it’s going to be a really fun way to kick off the sharings of each of the projects that have been developed in FGP this year!

Tickets are free at the door, so take the L train (while you still can) and come check it out!

Fresh Ground Pepper

News The Magnificent Seven Writers Group

I’m thrilled that Julia and I have been selected for Fresh Ground Pepper‘s 2016 Playground Playgroup. As FGP says:

The PlayGround PlayGroup is a year-long, collaborative workshop culminating in the PlayGround Festival, realizing Fresh Ground Pepper’s mission to prompt and provoke the artist to make art. It is a place where writers and creators of varying mediums convene to convert their pages, projects, and ideas into fresh new works.

We’re excited to be writing and working alongside old and new friends – and especially excited that it means we finally get to start work on the show I’ve been waiting seventeen years to write…

The Magnificent Seven will tell the story of the 1996 U.S. Women’s Olympic Gymnastics team and their road to winning the gold medal. Seven girls – Amanda Borden, Amy Chow, Dominique Dawes, Shannon Miller, Dominique Moceanu, Jaycie Phelps, and Kerri Strug – were on their home turf in Atlanta and caught the imagination of the world in the first truly post-Cold War games. It resulted in one of the most iconic Olympic images: Kerri Strug’s final vault, landed on an injured ankle, that clinched the gold medal.

Check back for updates, and be on the lookout for a December presentation of work from the show!