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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 1, 2011
Contact: Bonnie Erickson, Dir. of Performing Arts
952-563-8588, berickson@bloomingtoncivictheatre.org

Bloomington Civic Theatre Announces
Its 2011-12 Schneider Theater Season

(Bloomington, MN) Bloomington Civic Theatre (BCT) is pleased to announce its 2011-12 Schneider Theater season: Oklahoma!, directed by Gary Gisselman and choreographed by Michael Matthew Ferrell; Sweet Charity, directed by Jon Cranney and choreographed by Tracy Erickson; You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, directed by Joe Chvala; and My Fair Lady, directed and choreographed by Lewis E. Whitlock III. Anita Ruth will serve as musical director for all four productions.

With music by Richard Rodgers, book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, and original dances by Agnes de Mille, Oklahoma! set a new record of 2,212 performances during a first run when it opened on Broadway in 1943. Oklahoma! was Rodgers and Hammerstein’s first collaboration and contains some of the most beloved songs of musical theater, including “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning,” “People Will Say We’re in Love,” and “Oklahoma!” Turn-of-the-century Indian territory is the backdrop for this tale of high-spirited rivalry between farmers and cowboys, a love story’s journey, and the birth of a new state. Oklahoma! is based on Lynn Riggs’ play, Green Grow the Lilacs. Oklahoma! runs from August 19 to September 18, 2011.

Gary Gisselman returns to BCT after many years to direct Oklahoma!. A Bloomington native, Mr. Gisselman found his first professional work in theater as BCT’s artistic director, a position he left in 1968 to become the founding artistic director of Chanhassen Dinner Theatres. In 1980, Mr. Gisselman took on the artistic directorship of the Arizona Theatre Company in Tucson and Phoenix for more than a decade. He and his family then moved back to Minnesota and he served as the associate artistic director of the Children's Theatre Company until 1995, when he accepted the directorship of the Opera Workshop at the University of Minnesota. Since 2000, Mr. Gisselman has been teaching full time at St. Olaf College and directing numerous theater productions, including eight years of the Guthrie's A Christmas Carol as well as A Delicate Balance and Lost in Yonkers.

Michael Matthew Ferrell, Oklahoma! choreographer, is the 2007 Ivey Award recipient for Choreography and 2010 Choreographer of the Year by Lavender Magazine. Mr. Ferrell’s credits include Evita, The Full Monty, Parade, Gypsy, The Rink, and Passage of Dreams for Theatre Latté Da; You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown, Grand Night for Singing, and Broadway’s Legendary Ladies at The Ordway Center; Annie, Babe The Sheep Pig, Tommy, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Disney’s High School Musical, A Year with Frog and Toad, and Fashion 47 at Children’s Theatre Company; and Cats, Annie, The Sound of Music, Camelot, The Music Man, My Fair Lady, Forever Plaid, Oklahoma!, and Can Can at Chanhassen Dinner Theatres. Mr. Ferrell’s work has also been seen in productions of the Minnesota Opera Company, Park Square Theatre, Sesame Street, Stages Theatre Company, Pantages Theatre, Disney World Orlando, and Guthrie Theatre Cabaret.

Based on an original screenplay by Federico Fellini, Tullio Pinelli and Ennio Plaiano, Sweet Charity invites the audience to mid 60s New York City and offers an amusing and bittersweet portrayal of dance club hostess Charity Hope Valentine, the girl who loses sight of who she is in a desperate search for love. Sweet Charity is a Neil Simon comedy in every sense of the word and a vehicle for composer Cy Coleman and lyricist Dorothy Fields to capture the rhythms, sounds and fun of New York. Sweet Charity was conceived and first staged and choreographed by Bob Fosse, whose brilliance is readily apparent in impressive production numbers including “Big Spender,” “There’s Gotta Be Something Better Than This,” and “If My Friends Could See Me Now.” Fosse’s choreography garnered one of four Tony awards earned by the original Broadway production. Sweet Charity runs from October 21 to November 19, 2011.

Jon Cranney returns to BCT to direct Sweet Charity after directing Jacques Brel is Alive and Well & Living in Paris during the 2010-11 season. Mr. Cranney has had a long and varied career in the theater as a director, producer and actor. He began his professional career as a member of the company at Guthrie Theater where he performed in many productions and served as director, stage manager and administrator over a period of 15 years. Mr. Cranney then served as artistic director of Children’s Theatre Company from 1984 to 1997. His directing credits span the globe and include Tom Sawyer at The Central Children’s Theatre in Moscow and The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins at The Children’s Art Theatre of Shanghai as well as productions at Guthrie Theater, Chanhassen Dinner Theater, Mixed Blood Theater, Actors’ Theater of St. Paul, The Arizona Theatre Company and The Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

Tracy Doheny Erickson returns to BCT to choreograph Sweet Charity after choreographing Jacques Brel is Alive and Well & Living in Paris during the 2010-11 season. Ms. Erickson started dancing at age three and has obtained extensive training in various dance forms over the years, including private tap training under the direction of Char Weiss and with Heather Cornell, director of the Manhattan Tap Company. Ms. Erickson’s jazz dance training comes from John Command, Zenon, Michael Ferrell, and others. Ms. Erickson has worked locally and internationally as a director and choreographer. She has also pursued her passion for musical theatre through projects with the Ordway, Troupe America, Chanhassen Dinner Theatres, and Minnesota Opera. Ms. Erickson currently owns and operates Sweet Feet, Inc., and works as a freelance dancer.

You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown invites audiences of all ages to experience comic, touching, and occasionally profound moments in Charlie Brown’s life, strung together on the string of a single day. A beloved cast of characters including Charlie Brown, Linus, Lucy, Schroeder, Snoopy, and Charlie’s sister Sally help ensure a delightful and family-friendly evening of theater. Based on the “Peanuts” comic strip by Minnesota’s own Charles Schultz, You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown includes songs “My Blanket & Me,” “Suppertime,” and “Happiness,” enlivened by new orchestrations and arrangements. The book, music, and lyrics are by Clark Gesner, with additional dialogue by Michael Mayer and additional music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa. Charlie Brown runs from January 13 to February 12, 2012.

Joe Chvala directed BCT’s acclaimed productions of The Light in the Piazza in 2010 and Into the Woods in 2011. He returns to BCT to direct and choreograph You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown. Mr. Chvala is the founder and artistic director of the Flying Foot Forum, with which he has toured nationally and internationally. He has spent most of his multidisciplinary career based in Minneapolis and Gothenburg, Sweden and has worked as a director, choreographer, writer, composer, performer, designer and teacher for opera companies, experimental and non-experimental theater companies, concert dance venues, performing arts academies, and universities. He has held the Cowles Chair in the
Dance Department of the University of Minnesota four times and is currently a member of its adjunct faculty. Mr. Chvala has earned both the Ivey and Sage awards for theater and dance and numerous other awards, fellowships, and grants from organizations including the National Endowment for the Arts, Minnesota State Arts Board, Bush Foundation, Jerome Foundation, The McKnight Foundation, and others.

A musical theater classic and audience favorite, My Fair Lady is Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe’s adaptation of George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion. My Fair Lady brings beauty, style and grace to the stage, pleasing both the eye and ear with numerous memorable production numbers and songs such as “I Could Have Danced All Night,” “I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face,” “The Rain in Spain,” and “Get Me to the Church on Time.” My Fair Lady became the longest running production in Broadway history in June 1961, surpassing the previous record-holder, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! My Fair Lady runs April 27 to May 25, 2012.

Lewis W. Whitlock III, My Fair Lady director, began his career in Minnesota, training under Barbara Lotsberg. His work has been seen locally, nationally, and internationally with organizations including Guthrie Theatre, Arizona Theatre Company, Plymouth Playhouse, Chanhassen Dinner Theatres, Minnesota Orchestra, Des Moines Community Playhouse, Depot Theatre in Westport, N.Y., and numerous colleges and universities including Louisiana State University, St. Cloud State University, Carleton College, and others. Mr. Whitlock has directed and choreographed many productions at Penumbra Theatre, including the original production of Black Nativity, which he conceived and directed and choreographed for 14 years. He taught jazz dance in Riga, Latvia on a Fulbright grant in 2003, and in 2008-2009, served as a Cultural Envoy for the American Embassy in Kazakhstan. Mr. Whitlock’s many additional awards and appointments include, among others, the Twin City Mayors’ “Public Arts Award,” serving on the advisory council of the School for the Arts and Resource Center as a nominee of Gov. Rudy Perpich, and serving as a Minneapolis arts commissioner. Mr. Whitlock is artistic director for A Minnesota Without Poverty.

Musical Director Anita Ruth is also an orchestrator and arranger who has worked on over 150 musicals in the last 30 years. Her BCT credits include The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Follies, Wonderful Town, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Command Performance, Funny Girl, A Little Night Music, The Fantasticks, The Pajama Game, Crazy For You, Fiorello!, Man of La Mancha, The Music Man, Thoroughly Modern Millie, The Scarlet Pimpernel, The Light in the Piazza, The King and I, City of Angels, Jacques Brel is Alive and Well & Living in Paris, Into the Woods, and Neo Cabaret’s On Our Own. Ms. Ruth served as music director at Chanhassen Dinner Theatres from 1968 to 1988 and has since been a freelance music director and orchestrator at Guthrie Theater, Children’s Theatre Company, Park Square Theatre, and Theatre Mu, among others. In 2008 and 2009, she collaborated with Bloomington Theatre and Art Center Director of Performing Arts Bonnie Erickson to produce the breast cancer awareness fundraiser, The Breast of Broadway.

BCT is a program of the Bloomington Theatre and Art Center (BTAC), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization formed in 2009 from the merger of the Bloomington Civic Theatre and Bloomington Art Center. BTAC offers high quality theater productions, art education for children and adults, and visual arts exhibitions featuring the work of emerging and established artists from Minnesota and surrounding states.

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