Houston Family Arts Center Awarded a CLASSY Award!
The Houston Family Arts Center (HFAC) Actors Academy was given the opportunity to take a cast of Houston teens and young adults to perform in the prestigious New York Musical Theater Festival (NYMF). The challenge was how to raise $144,000 in less than three months to make this trip possible.
Read more 'Kissless' Teens New York-BoundSeveral talented students from the Houston area were chosen to fulfill a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to perform in a musical production for audiences in New York City.
Five of the young singers from the Houston Family Arts Center Actors Academy will be part of the production "Kissless." Illich Guardiola, the director of "Kissless," said the students will be performing at the St. Clemens Church as part of the New York Musical Theater Festival. "We're just very excited to be a part of it from the ground floor," said Guardiola. Read more: http://www.myfoxhouston.com/dpp/entertainment/music/110920-kissless#ixzz1YYppNo1U Homegrown Kissless Rocks Out Houston Before Heading Off-BroadwayOur first review! From The Houston Press The setup: An ambitious new Houston-grown musical about teenage conflicts uses a cast of 27 to create a dynamic world where parents are distant and largely irrelevant, while the opinion of a peer can be crucial. The execution: Teenage cliques formed around jocks and nerds are a theatrical tradition, but subcultures expand here with rednecks and goths, adding freshness to the exuberant goings-on. The storyline follows Derek West, leader of the jocks, played by Tyler Galindo, and Summer Stokeley, a Goth with less-than-full commitment to the genre, played by Teresa Zimmermann. Compelled by plot needs to look unhappy much of the time, she nonetheless involves us in her vulnerability.--MORE Hoffman: Local radio guy goes off-Broadway
Houston Chronicle
The first time I met Chance McClain, he had just writtenThe Yao Ming Song, which went nuts on the Internet before "viral" meant anything. That led to him being hired as a producer on a Houston sports talk radio station. Yao's gone and so is McClain's career making commercials for eye doctors, carpet cleaners and chicken-wing joints. McClain has written a teen musical comedy calledKissless, and he's taking it to, for starters, off-Broadway in New York. Kissless centers on an awkward kid who goes to live with a total-jock athlete and his family. The play is packed with songs and teenage comedy, but it also delivers an anti-bullying message. It's goofy fun, and it rocks. "I wrote the musical in my spare time. To motivate myself, I paid the submission fee for theNew York Musical Theater Festival, which is like the Sundance Film Festival of musical theater," McClain said. "It forced me to meet deadlines recording the music. Well, my play was accepted by the festival. It means my show will be premiering off-Broadway this fall. Since my acceptance, I've spent every waking hour putting the show together, six trips back and forth to New York, meeting with producers and all kinds of crazy stuff." --MORE KISD high school students selected to perform in Kissless the MusicalYour Houston News Despite different backgrounds and different schools, three Klein ISD high school students realized they had more in common than just a love for the fine arts. All three were not only cast in the upcoming production of Kissless the Musical, but they also overcame obstacles as children ranging from extreme shyness to one even with Tourette syndrome. Matt Buzonas (Klein Collins), Sierra Gant (Klein High) and Ryne Nardecchia (Klein Oak) will perform in the Off-Broadway production of Kissless the Musical at the 2011 New York Music Theatre Festival. Organized by the Houston Family Arts Center (HFAC) Actors Academy, the students will perform six times Sept. 28-Oct.8 in New York City. The three will also have the opportunity to attend master classes taught by Broadway professionals and visit local colleges. --MORE Local talent to perform in play's New York debut Tyler Galindo (19) Jordan McLaughlin (18) Mark Jammal (16) Lindsey Vrana (16) and at right Jelena Galagaza (cq) (14) rehearse the musical Kissless at the Houston Family Arts Center Thursday 8/18/11. Photo by Tony Bullard. Photo: Tony Bullard / Credit: for the Chronicle
Houston Family Arts Center has provided its share of dramatic moments on the stage, but this summer it experienced one of its own. That moment occurred when the northwest-area performing arts center was asked to produce HoustonianChance McClain's teen comedy, Kissless the Musical, at The New York Musical Theatre Festival 2011, a prestigious event that takes place Sept. 26-Oct. 16 in New York City.--MORE HFAC Sets Houston Previews for New York-Bound Kissless: The MusicalThe Houston Press
Houston audiences will have a chance to seeKissless: The Musical, a new work by Chance McClain, a few weeks before it premieres at the New York Musical Theatre Festival. Though NYMF entrants are normally not allowed to preview their shows 60 days before the New York performances, Houston Family Arts Center, which is producing the show, obtained a special waiver to do so because of the distance between Houston and New York, HFAC Executive Director Bob Clark said. NYMF's rule applies to most shows because they are cast and produced in New York, and previews there could steal audiences from the festival, Clark explained. .--MORE NYMF to Feature KISSLESS, GREENWOOD, and More!
BroadwayWorld.com
The New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF) has announced the next round of invited musical productions, a developmental reading series and special events for their eighth annual festival. This year's Festival will begin September 26th and continue through October 16th. A breakdown of newly added performances for this year follows. Newly-added full productions include: The Big Bank; Crazy, Just Like Me; Ghostlight; Greenwood; and Kissless. --MORE |
May 10, 2012 By Rusty Berry sports@borgernewsherald.com
A professional musical theatre production looks like it may be coming to Borger this summer. On Tuesday afternoon, the Borger Economic Development Board of Directors approved providing chat productions with a grant which will assist the company as it prepares to film its first major production “Kissless, the musical” in Borger through most of July and early August. more Also Involved with NYMF!
Among the Broadway/Off-Broadway directors, writers, and stars already announced are Daisy Eagan (Tony Award® winner for The Secret Garden), Andrea McArdle (the original Annie), Lonny Price (Company with the NY Philharmonic), Donna Lynne Champlin (Billy Elliot, Hollywood Arms, Sweeney Todd), John Carrafa (Tony Award® nominee for Into The Woods & Urinetown), David Shire (Tony Award® nominee for Baby & Big), Jennifer Laura Thompson (Tony Award® nominee for Urinetown, Wicked), Megan Lawrence (Tony Award® nominee for The Pajama Game), Stacie Morgan Lewis (Sunday In The Park With George), Stephen R. Buntrock (A Little Night Music), Jenn Colella (High Fidelity, Urban Cowboy), Jill Paice (Curtains, Death Takes A Holiday), Andrew Kober (Hair), Zonya Love Johnson (The Color Purple), Louis Hobson (Next to Normal, The People In The Picture), Steve Rosen (Guys and Dolls), Rebecca Pitcher (The Phantom Of The Opera), Kathy Voytko (Next To Normal), Jim Walton (Merrily We Roll Along), Gerard Alessandrini (Forbidden Broadway), Max Von Essen (Les Misérables), Felicia Finley (The Wedding Singer), Rachel Reshaff (People In The Picture), Klea Blackhurst (Everything The Traffic Will Allow: Songs and Sass of Ethel Merman), Anthony Fedorov ("American Idol: Season 4," The Fantasticks), Autumn Hurlbert ("Legally Blonde - The Musical: Search For The Next Elle Woods"), Carly Rose Sonenclar (Wonderland), Farah Alvin (The Marvelous Wonderettes), and many more to still be announced!
30 DAYS OF NYMF: Day 8 Kissless
Broadwayworld.com
I know what you're thinking. Teen musicals suck. They're trite, boring and played out. And too often, you're right. But this show is different. When Kissless fell out of my head I wanted to showcase it in some community theaters, maybe stumble into a school auditorium or two, and go back to my life as program director at a sports radio station in Houston, Texas, the musical theater capital of, well, nowhere. On a whim, and to make myself finish the thing, I submitted to NYMF. And the wait began. To kill time, I started honing the show with real live people, and quickly, Kissless went from words on paper, to life on stage. Suddenly, silly things like ‘a job' and ‘income' seemed inconsequential. How could I work on Kissless all day if I had to work on work all day? So that whole employment thing...went away. My world of stats and steroids was replaced with...teenagers and tempos. We did a couple staged readings (I had to look it up, swear to Goth) and I'll be damned if people weren't laughing really hard and crying authentic tears of sadness in the audience. Read more: http://broadwayworld.com/article/30-DAYS-OF-NYMF-Day-8-Kissless-20110921#ixzz1YgftsNbt On the road to New York, Kissless updates West Side Story with teenage angst & energy
CultureMap.com Remember the Jets and the Sharks? Though the music of Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story has its rightful spot in American musical theater history, the dueling-dancing gangs have lost some efficacy with younger audiences. The stylized mobs have become archetypal symbols removed from the realism musical theater lovers are accustomed to nowadays. The Bernstein setting of the universal Romeo and Juliet tale still edifies, but from afar. Love found, love lost, love forbidden — these themes will forever connect with our ceaseless yearning for romance, companionship and acceptance. Chance McClain's Kissless attempts, successfully, to update the story. --MORE The 5-Question NYMF Interviews: KISSLESSEmerging Musical Theatre Tickets to the 2011 New York Musical Theatre Festival went on sale to the general public yesterday, and if you haven't checked out the show listing, you better get on it! There are some really great shows in the line-up this year, so scan the list and then buy your tickets. The festival runs from September 26-October 16, and to celebrate the shows, I will be posting 5-question interviews with writers from many of the NYMF offerings throughout this month. There will be a new interview posted every few days, so be sure to check back often! To kick off the 5-question interview series, we have our first Q&A with Chance McClain, writer behind musical Kissless:--MORE 100 Creatives: Chance McClain
Houston Press What he does: Chance McClain is probably best known for having co-written the "Yao Ming Song," a rousing rally cry for the Houston Rockets fans in the earlier part of this millennium. The song was made famous outside Our Fair City via Sports Illustrated and was even featured on the Chinese program "Breakfast With Yao," in which the previous night's Rockets game was broadcast. --MORE Kissless in New York: It's darker than Glee and giving Houston actors an off-Broadway adventureCultureMap.com
Do you remember the first time you kissed? For real, I mean. None of this slobber on the cheek business, but the first time you felt what it means to kiss someone you felt tingly about? That's one of those teenage milestones that begins a journey into the social complexities of adulthood. Kissless -- a musical taking shape right here in Houston that will make its debut at the 2011 New York Musical Theatre Festival off Broadway in six performances from Sept. 28 to Oct. 8 — might seem like it's a work about that specific moment, but it's much more than that. I found out how much more during a routine Art and About adventure. Camera and microphone on hand, I went to the Houston Family Arts Center, where rehearsals are now in full swing. I got an opportunity to chat with the cast and learn about the play, the actors' aspirations and what it means to be debuting in New York. --MORE  Michael Chiavone and Matt Buzonas obliterate zombie Ryne Nardecchia. Local teen actors to premiere original musical in New York City
YourMagnoliaNews.com
Next month a cast of local teenage hopefuls will step into the spotlight to pursue their professional acting dreams. Youth from the Houston Family Arts Center will perform in the premiere of original musical Kissless, written by Houston-based Chance McClain, at the 2011 New York Musical Theatre Festival. “It’s basically the Sundance of musical theatre. They take 25 productions every year out of 500 or so that are submitted,” said Sam Brown, one of the production’s directors. “This is the only show at the festival this year that is not using professional actors out of New York, so in order to sort of make up that difference or deficit or however you want to think of it, we programmed in over 220 hours of rehearsal. I feel very comfortable and confident that we’re going to represent Houston really, really well.” --MORE  The Jacobs Brothers, looking good. |
