's School of Theatre and Dance continues its 2021-2022 season with the production of Disney’s Freaky Friday, running Feb. 25 – March 6 in E. Turner Stump Theatre.
With book by Bridget Carpenter, music by Tom Kitt, and lyrics by Brian Yorkey, the musical is based on the novel “Freaky Friday” by Mary Rodgers and the Disney films. Directed by Eric van Baars, choreographed by assistant professor Jennifer Black, and music directed by associate professor Jonathan Swoboda, Freaky Friday explores what happens when an overworked mother and her teenage daughter magically swap bodies and have just one day to put things right again. A heartfelt, comedic, and unexpectedly emotional tale – can a mother and daughter come to appreciate, and realize the immeasurable love and mutual respect that bond them together?
The Freaky Friday production team includes costume design by Michelle Souza, lighting design by Wes Sneed, scenic design by Brian Seckfort, sound design by Ian Macdonald, props supervision by Travis Williams, and technical direction by associate professor Steve Pauna. Lexi Snoddy is the production stage manager.
Freaky Friday is presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI). All authorized performance materials are also supplied by MTI.
ABOUT THE CREATIVE TEAM
Bridget Carpenter (Book)
A playwright, television writer, and producer, Carpenter created the 2016 miniseries "11.22.63" for Bad Robot and Hulu from Stephen King's bestselling novel. "11.22.63" premiered at the Sundance Festival, was nominated for a Writers Guild Award, and won the Saturn Award for best limited series.
Prior to "11.22.63," she wrote and co-executive-produced all five seasons of the Peabody Award-Winning series Friday Night Lights. She was a Consulting Producer for HBO's Westworld and a Co-Executive Producer for Parenthood. In 2013 she was the Executive Producer/Showrunner for the Sundance Channel drama series The Red Road.
Carpenter's plays have been produced by Steppenwolf, the Public Theater, the Alley Theatre, La Jolla Rep, Berkeley Repertory Company, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and many other theaters across the country. She has written several songs for film (Basmati Blues; Dear Dumb Diary) and has adapted Freaky Friday as a movie musical for the Disney Channel, airing in 2018. Most recently, she was awarded the Princess Grace Statue.
Awards: a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Jerome Fellowship, a McKnight Grant, the Princess Grace Award, the Kesselring Prize, and the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. WGA and Emmy nominations for Friday Night Lights. Her plays Fall, Up and The Faculty Room are published by Samuel French.
An alumnae of New Dramatists, Carpenter received her BA and MFA from Brown University. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Chris Harrison, and their children, Rita and Henry.
Tom Kitt (Music)
Tom Kitt received the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama as well as two Tony Awards for Best Score and Best Orchestrations for Next to Normal. Next to Normal also received the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New Score. He is also the composer of If/Then (Tony Nom., Outer Critics Nom.); High Fidelity (Broadway); Bring it On, The Musical (co-composer with Lin-Manuel Miranda, Broadway); Superhero (2nd Stage); Disney's Freaky Friday (Stage Production and Original Disney Channel Movie Musical); Dave (Arena Stage); The Winter's Tale, All's Well That Ends Well, and Cymbeline (The Public's NYSF); From Up Here and The Madrid (MTC); Orphans (Broadway) The Retributionists (Playwrights Horizons) and As You Like It (Toho Co., Japan). As a music supervisor, arranger, and orchestrator, credits include SpongeBob Squarepants, The Musical (Tony Nom., Outer Critics Nom, Drama Desk Nom.); Head Over Heels; Jagged Little Pill; Grease Live!; Rise (NBC); and American Idiot. His work with Green Day also includes additional arrangements for their Grammy Award-winning album 21st Century Breakdown and their album trilogy, ¡Uno! ¡Dos! ¡Tré! Tom received an Emmy Award as co-writer (with Lin-Manuel Miranda) for the 2013 Tony Award opening number, Bigger. Other Television Songwriting credits include a musical episode of Royal Pains, and songs for Penny Dreadful, Sesame Street, and Julie's Greenroom. As a musical director, conductor, arranger and orchestrator, credits include the Pitch Perfect films, 2Cellos featuring Lang Lang (Live and Let Die), The Kennedy Center Honors, 13, Debbie Does Dallas, Everyday Rapture, Hair, Laugh Whore, Pippin (Deaf West), and These Paper Bullets. Upcoming projects include musical adaptations of the films Almost Famous, Magic Mike, and The Visitor.
Brian Yorkey (Lyrics)
Brian Yorkey received the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, as well as the 2009 Tony Award for Best Score, for Next to Normal. Brian is currently the Executive Producer and Showrunner of 13 Reasons Why for Netflix, Paramount Television and Anonymous Content.
Brian was also nominated for the Tony Award for Best Musical and Best Book of a Musical for Next to Normal, and his work on the show earned him the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Score. He partnered again with the Next to Normal team on If/Then (Tony Award Nominee for Best Score) starring Idina Menzel. Brian co-wrote the libretto for The Last Ship (Outer Critic's Nomination, with John Logan), with a score by Sting. His musical adaptation of Freaky Friday for Disney Theatricals enjoyed a National Tour before being adapted into a Disney Channel Original Movie. Current theatrical projects in development include the original musical Jesus in My Bedroom, with composer Tim Symons, as well as stage musical adaptation of Magic Mike.
Additional theatre credits include Making Tracks, which has played off-Broadway and regionally, the musical adaptation of Ang Lee's The Wedding Banquet and the play, Book of Jobs with Alex Glover. Brian has directed off-Broadway and regionally and for seven years was associate artistic director at Village Theatre in Washington state, one of the nation's leading producers of new musicals.
He's a graduate of Columbia University, where he was artistic director of the Varsity Show, an alum of the BMI/Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop and a proud member of the Dramatists Guild and the WGA.
TICKET INFORMATION
Tickets to Freaky Friday can be purchased through the Performing Arts Box Office by phone at 330-672-ARTS (2787) or online at the link below.
To purchase tickets in person, visit the Performing Arts Box Office located in the Roe Green Center lobby of the Center for the Performing Arts at 1325 Theatre Drive.
The box office is open Mon. – Fri., Noon to 5 pm.
Tickets are $18 for adults, $16 for alumni, $14 for faculty and staff, $14 for seniors (60+) and non-Kent State students age 18 and under are $10. Tickets for full-time, Kent campus undergraduates are free of charge. Groups of 10 or more can purchase tickets for $12 per person. Flex pass subscriptions are also available. The box office accepts Visa, MasterCard, Discover, checks, and cash.
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Media Contact:
Joni Koneval, 330-672-0116, jkoneval@kent.edu