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The Story of My Life
Dates:	January 29 - February 7, 2010
Days & Times:	Fridays at 8pm, Saturdays at 4pm & 8pm, Sundays at 3pm
Location:	MTC MainStage Studio Theatre Music Theatre of Connecticut 246 Post Road East Colonial Green, Lower Level Westport, CT Directions
About:	Thomas is a best-selling author, Alvin was his best friend for thirty years. But when time tests the bonds of friendship, Thomas culls his stories of Alvin to learn where things went wrong. A richly melodic musical, The Story of My Life is a soaring tribute to the power of friendship and the people who change our lives forever.
Credits:	Music & Lyrics by Neil Bartram Book by Brian Hill Directed by Kevin Connors

Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
Jan 18 2010	19	20	21	22	Jan 29 8pm SOLD OUT	30 4pm 8pm SOLD OUT
30 3pm	Feb 1	2	3	4	5 8pm	6 4pm & 8pm
7 3pm	The Story of My Life

Who's Who

	MICHAEL DI LIBERTO (Alvin Kelby) is honored to be making his MTC MainStage debut with this production. Michael has toured with productions of Annie (dir. Martin Charnin), Cinderella (dir. Gabriel Barre) and Strike Up The Band (dir. Martin Charnin). Other notable favorites include Titanic (dir. Jen Waldman), Forever Plaid, john and jen, The Next To The Last Revue and The Water Coolers. Michael has had the pleasure of taking part in several readings in NYC as well as singing for the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop. B.F.A. Musical Theatre, Syracuse University. Proud Equity member.

	ROB SUTTON (Thomas Weaver) is thrilled to return to beautiful Westport and MTC MainStage after appearing as Daniel in last season’s Mothers and Sons. On Broadway, he understudied and performed the roles of The Beast and Gaston in Disney’s Beauty and The Beast, and starred as Sam Carmichael in the Las Vegas company of Mamma Mia! Additional credits include The Last Five Years (MTC), The World Goes ’Round (Pittsburgh Public), Idaho! The Musical (NYMF), Children of Eden (Ford’s Theatre), 42nd Street (Fulton Theatre), Mame (North Shore) and The Scarlet Pimpernel (Sacramento Music Circus).

	KEVIN CONNORS (Director, Executive Artistic Director & Co-Founder) Professional musical theatre composer and director for almost 30 years. Off-Broadway credits include Prime Time Prophet, Jukebox Saturday Night, The Abandoned Loves of Frederick R., Life Anonymous, Lover - The Valentino Musical, Babes Off Broadway (finalist for the Michael Stewart Production Award), Saloon and Suzy Q. Connecticut credits include numerous professional productions including The Fantasticks, It’s A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play, Babes in Toyland, Bah Humbug! (all at Stamford’s Rich Forum); Grand Re-Opening of the Palace Theatre starring Skitch Henderson, Louise Pitre, James Naughton and Joan Rivers; Baby (Polka Dot Playhouse), Christopher Columbus and Operetta in Red, White and Blue (New England Lyric Operetta). Mr. Connors began his career as a performer touring his own act with Bob Hope, Henny Youngman and Johnny Mathis, and his debut CD - The Things We Never Say - was released in October 2000. In 1987 he co-founded Music Theatre of Connecticut with Jim Schilling, and has since directed many of the Equity MTC MainStage productions including Yours, Anne (Connecticut Critics Circle award nominee), It’s A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play (2008 Moss Hart Award Winner), A Little Night Music, Edges, john & jen and The Last Five Years; as well as writing original music and lyrics for more than 10 childrens’ musicals. His latest work - Mothers and Sons (with playwright Joe Landry) had its critically-acclaimed World Premiere on the MTC Mainstage in January 2009 and is currently in development for Off-Broadway. He has served as Adjunct Professor of Musical Theatre at The Hartt School of Music/University of Hartford and the University of Bridgeport, taught at Musical Theatre Works in NYC, and has created many of MTC’s educational programs including the nationally-recognized College-Bound in the Performing Arts, which he now presents at theatre schools throughout the country. Kevin is a proud member of AEA, ASCAP and The Dramatists Guild. www.kevconnors.com

	NEIL BARTRAM (Music and Lyrics) is the recipient of a Dramatists Guild Jonathan Larson Fellowship, a Jonathan Larson Foundation Award, and was a finalist for the 2007 Fred Ebb Award. He is the composer/lyricist of The Story of My Life which was developed at NAMT and Goodspeed before debuting on Broadway in February 2009 (Directed by Richard Maltby, Jr.). Neil also wrote the music and lyrics for Somewhere In The World (5 seasons at the Charlottetown Festival), and The Nightingale and the Rose. With bookwriter Brian Hill, Neil is currently developing a musical based on Timothy Findley's novel Not Wanted On The Voyage (at Northwestern University with director Amanda Dehnert) and an original musical Clara’s Piano (workshopped by the Stratford Shakespeare Festival with director and conceiver Susan H. Schulman). Cast albums include Somewhere In The World and The Story Of My Life (PS Classics). Neil is a member of the Dramatists Guild, ASCAP, and is an alumnus of the BMI Lehman Engel Music Theatre Workshop. In 2009 Neil was a double Drama Desk Award nominee for Outstanding Music and Outstanding Lyrics for The Story of My Life.

	BRIAN HILL (Book) In collaboration with composer/lyricist Neil Bartram, Brian has written the book for a number of musicals including an adaptation of Oscar Wilde's The Nightingale and the Rose and Somewhere In the World, which was a hit for five seasons at the Charlottetown Festival. Not Wanted on the Voyage, an adaptation of the provocative Timothy Findley novel, is in development with the AMTP and Northwestern University under the direction of Amanda Dehnert. Clara's Piano, conceived and directed by Susan H. Schulman, was developed by the Stratford Shakespeare Festival. The Story of My Lifegained recognition through the NAMT Festival of new musicals and received a workshop production at Goodspeed Musicals' Norma Terris Theater and had its Broadway premier in February of 2009 directed by Richard Maltby, Jr. and starring Malcolm Gets and Will Chase. Brian received a 2009 Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Book for The Story of My Life.

	JOE LANDRY (MTC MainStage Marketing & PR Director) has worked in marketing for Roundabout Theatre Company, Westport Country Playhouse, Downtown Cabaret Theatre, Stamford Center for the Arts, Fairfield Theatre Company, Playhouse on the Green and others. As a playwright, his published plays include It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play (named one of the top-ten most produced plays in America by American Theatre Magazine), Vintage Hitchcock: A Live Radio Play and Reefer Madness. Joe is founder and artistic director of Second Guess Stage/Screen and a member of the Dramatists’ Guild. www.joelandry.com

	JIM SCHILLING (MTC MainStage Managing Director & Stage Manager) co-founded MTC in 1987 and has served as teaching artist, Artist in Residence, director, general manager, actor, producer and currently as Director of the School of Performing Arts. He has directed a number of MTC MainStage productions including Something’s Afoot, Some Enchanted Evening and I Do, I Do. He has also directed numerous Student Productions including Anything Goes, Oliver!, The Music Man, 42nd Street, Guys and Dolls, Annie (all at the Westport Country Playhouse) The Sound of Music, Grease (3x), Godspell (3x), Funny Girl, (at the Quick Center) Annie, Annie Get Your Gun, Once On This Island, Zombie Prom and Lucky Stiff. Acting credits include Upper Broadway (Westport Country Playhouse), Hamlet (starring Tony Roberts), The Fantasticks (Rich Forum), It’s A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play, and on MTC’s MainStage in Jacques Brel is Alive and Well..., Three Guys Naked from the Waist Down, and Yours, Anne. Film credits include Bullets Over Broadway, Cadillac Man, Soapdish and Dead Man Walking. As an arts educator, Jim has created a number of programs for MTC School of Performing Arts and for MTC’s ArtReach programs in area schools including Briggs High School (Norwalk),Weston Public Schools, Minds In Motion (Westport/Weston/Wilton), Rogers Magnet School (Stamford), Six-to-Six School (Bridgeport) and Coleytown Middle and Elementary Schools in Westport. Jim holds a BFA degree in Musical Theatre from Otterbein College in Ohio, with an emphasis on childrens’ theatre and was also trained at the Actors’ Theatre of Louisville, Playwright’s Horizons in New York City and Improv Asylum in Boston. Jim, a graduate of the National Guild of Community Schools of the Arts’ AMICI Arts Management Program, continues as a Blue Ribbon Panelist for the Daytime Emmy Awards, and a member of “Who’s Who in the American Theatre” from 1991-present. Member AEA, SAG, AFTRA.

	DAVID WOLFSON (Musical Director) has worked as music director, composer, orchestrator, arranger, pianist, copyist or synthesizer programmer for performances in venues ranging from Broadway theatres to elementary school cafetoriums. He recently completed the seven-month run (and original cast recording) of Al Tapper's An Evening At The Carlyle at the Algonquin Theatre, for which he did music direction and arrangements. Other highlights of the last year: Asst. Music Director for Les Miserables at Theatre Under The Stars in Houston, playing in the pit of Mary Poppins on Broadway, and his first submissions of original tunes to Muzak. The song you hear in the elevator may be his. Visit www.davidwolfsonmusic.net to hear his non-elevator music.

	DAVID HEUVELMAN (Scenic Design & Technical Direction) This is David’s first design for MTC MainStage. He recently designed the first MTC MainStage Kids production of the season, Willy Wonka, at the Westport Country Playhouse. For the last five years, David ran Gest Scenic Creations in New York, a scenic studio serving Off-Broadway and event industry. David studied Theatre Design at Carroll College in Waukesha, WI. He would like to thank WYF for her support and encouragement.

	GRAHAM KINDRED (Lighting Design) This is Graham’s third season with MTC MainStage and he is happy to be back working with these amazing people in his favorite theater. He recently lit the national tour of Gilligan’s Island: The Musical and Mother Load. His work can be seen regionally at Florida Repertory Theatre, Denver Civic Center, and Dallas Summer Musicals. Off-Broadway he has designed at Soho Playhouse, The DR-2, St. Lukes, 45th Street Theatre, Sage Theatre, 59E59, Actors Playhouse, St. Clements, Chelsea Playhouse and at Theatre Row. He holds an MFA in Lighting Design from Temple University. Love to his girls.

	DIANE VANDERKROEF (Costume Design) is happy to return to the MTC MainStage. In the past she also worked with Kevin Connors on Babes in Toyland at the Stamford Center for the Arts. She did designs for the Connecticut Grand Opera, including Elixer of Love, Don Giovanni and Don Pasquale. She has also been designer for Downtown Cabaret Theatre’s MainStage and Children’s Company, as well as various musicals for New England Lyrical Operetta. Diane is currently on the staff as designer for the Music Theater of Connecticut School of Performing Arts. When not designing, Diane is a flight attendant for Delta Airlines.

	GOODSPEED MUSICALS has achieved international acclaim for its dedication to the preservation and advancement of musical theatre. Under the direction of Michael P. Prince since 1968, Goodspeed produces three musicals each season at the Goodspeed Opera House in East Hadaam, Connecticut, 17 of which have gone to Broadway (including Man of La Mancha, Shenandoah and Annie), receiving more than a dozen Tony Awards. In addition, Goodspeed produces three new musicals each year at The Norma Terris Theatre, opened in 1984 in Chester, Connecticut, for the development of new musicals. Also integral to its mission, Goodspeed houses the Scherer Library of Musical Theatre, which preserves scores, sheet music, scripts, original cast recordings, playbills and theatre memorabilia and has established the Max Showalter Center for Education in the Musical Theater to educate and train future generations of theatregoers and theatrical professionals. Goodspeed has received two Special Town Awards for its outstanding achievements. To learn more, visit www.goodspeed.org

	ACTOR’S EQUITY ASSOCIATION (AEA) was founded in 1913 as the first of the American actor unions. Equity’s mission is to advance, promote and foster the art of live theatre as an essential component of our society. Today, Equity represents more than 40,000 actors, singers, dancers and stage managers working in hundreds of theatres across the United States. Equity members are dedicated to working in the theatre as a profession, upholding the highest artistic standards. Equity negotiates wages and working conditions and provides a wide range of benefits including health and pension plans for its members. Through its agreement with Equity, this theatre has committed to the fair treatment of the actors and stage managers employed in this production. AEA is a member of the AFL-CIO and is affiliated with FIA, an international organization of performing arts unions. For more information, visit www.actorsequity.org.