Press Contact: Canary Promotion, 215.690.4065 Megan Wendell, [email protected] Rose Mineo, [email protected] Online Press Room: www.canarypromo.com/BrindSchool For Immediate Release

Tony Award-Nominated Actor and UArts Faculty Member Forrest McClendon Stars in Big River at Arts Bank Theater Feb. 23–25

PHILADELPHIA (Jan. 5, 2012) – Students from the Ira Brind School of Theater Arts at The University of the Arts will share the stage with special guest star Forrest McClendon – a 2011 Tony ® Award nominee and Barrymore Award winner – in a concert performance of Big River. This production will be on stage for one weekend only with three performances from February 23—25, 2012 at the University’s Arts Bank Theater. Big River is adapted from Mark Twain’s classic novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, with music and lyrics by Roger Williams and book by William Hauptman.

In Big River, McClendon plays runaway slave Jim, opposite UArts student Adam Hoyak ’13 (Musical Theater) as Huck Finn. McClendon has been an adjunct professor in the Brind School for 15 years and has played the role of Jim twice before at Surflight Theatre and Mount Gretna Playhouse. He debuted on Broadway with a 2011 Tony ® Award-nominated performance as Mr. Tambo in The Scottsboro Boys and is currently recreating the role in a Philadelphia Theatre Company production (Jan. 20 – Feb. 19).

Big River follows the journey of Twain’s unforgettable characters Huck Finn, Tom Sawyer and Jim as they discover friendship and freedom at the mouth of the Ohio River. Set to an award-winning bluegrass and country music score, this concert presentation is a collaborative production featuring the students and faculty of the Ira Brind School of Theater Arts.

Also working alongside the students is adjunct professor of Musical Theatre and UArts alumnus Ben Dibble BFA ‘00 (Musical Theater) as The Duke, a Barrymore Award-winning actor, singer and educator who most recently received critical acclaim as Elyot in Private Lives at Lantern Theater Company. Frank Anzalone, an adjunct assistant professor and Barrymore Award-nominated director whose career has spanned over 100 productions, directs the cast. He also directed McClendon as Jim in the Mount Gretna Playhouse production. Assistant professor Linda Henderson serves as music director. Her credits include numerous UArts and regional productions and work in theater orchestras at the Academy of Music, Forrest Theatre and Walnut Street Theatre, among others.

Performances of Big River run Thursday, Feb. 23 at 8 p.m.; Friday, Feb. 24 at 8 p.m.; and Saturday, Feb. 25 at 8 p.m. (press opening: Feb. 23, 8 p.m.). Tickets are $10 - $20 and available online at tickets.uarts.edu or (215) 717-6450. Seating is general admission and on a first come, first served basis. All performances will take place at Arts Bank Theater, 601 South Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19147. About the University The Ira Brind School of Theater Arts at the University of the Arts has been providing conservatory training to aspiring theater professionals for over 25 years. Its alumni can be found on Broadway, leading regional theaters, film and television.

The University of the Arts (uarts.edu) is the nation’s first and only university dedicated to the visual, performing and communication arts. Its more than 2,300 students are enrolled in undergraduate and graduate programs on its campus in the heart of Philadelphia’s Avenue of the Arts. The institution’s roots as a leader in educating creative individuals date back to 1868.

Featured Faculty Forrest McClendon (Jim) is a 2011 Tony ® Award nominee for his performance as Mr. Tambo in The Scottsboro Boys, which was his Broadway debut and a role he first created at the Vineyard and Guthrie theaters. He is currently recreating the role of Mr. Tambo at Philadelphia Theatre Company and is slated to do the same at the Old Globe and the American Conservatory Theater later this year. McClendon has a long history with Big River, including stints as Jim at Surflight Theatre and Mount Gretna Playhouse, the latter under the direction of Frank Anzalone. McClendon has appeared at many Philadelphia theaters in diverse plays from Shakespeare to Soyinka. He received the 2009 Barrymore Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical as Roscoe in Avenue X at 11th Hour Theatre Company. Recent new works include Trim: The Tiger Woods Story (New Dramatists), Aiding in a Bedding (Primary Stages), Bootycandy (The Wilma Theater), Assassin (InterAct Theatre Company), The Electric Baby (PlayPenn), and The Countess of Storyville (Amas Musical Theatre). McClendon received his Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance with directed study in Vocal Anatomy and Pedagogy from the University of Connecticut. He is currently an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Ira Brind School of Theater at the University of the Arts. www.forrestmcclendon.com

Ben Dibble (The Duke) is an award-winning actor, singer and educator who has called Philadelphia his professional home for over a decade. Dibble has appeared in over 50 productions on such stages as the Arden, the Wilma, the Walnut, the Lantern, Act II Playhouse, Prince Music Theatre, Delaware Theatre Company, People’s Light, 1812 Productions, Boarshead (Michigan), Chicago Theatre (Chicago), Roundhouse (D.C. area) and the Kimmel Center with the Philadelphia Orchestra. Career highlights include Leo Bloom in The Producers, Freddy in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Balladeer/Oswald in Assassins, Chris in Miss Saigon, Anthony in Sweeney Todd, Toad in A Year with Frog and Toad, and the title roles in Candide and Bat Boy: The Musical. As an educator, Dibble has taught musical theater and private voice to elementary students with the Arden, high school students with Westminster Choir College, and is an adjunct professor of Musical Theatre at West Chester University, Temple University and The University of the Arts. Dibble was the recipient of the 2006 F. Otto Haas Emerging Artist Barrymore Award. He holds a BFA in Musical Theatre from the University of the Arts.

Frank Anzalone (Director) serves as Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Ira Brind School of Theatre Arts where he teaches Advanced Stage Management & Fundamentals of Stage Management, having joined the faculty in the fall of 2006. In 2008 Anzalone directed the first student-faculty production, the musical 1776 and followed with Neil Simon’s The Dinner Party in the SOTA Studio Series. In January 2009, Anzalone served as event co-coordinator for the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, hosted by the University. For 23 years, Anzalone has served as Production Stage Manager at the Walnut Street Theatre, where he directed 1776 (nominated for four Barrymore Awards including Outstanding Direction and Production of a Musical), Anything Goes and Hello Dolly! on the Mainstage, and Vanities, Marigolds (3 Barrymore nominations), I Do I Do and Visiting Mr. Green in the Studio. His career highlights include directing more than 100 productions that span theaters from Washington, DC to Maine and Rhode Island, and across the ocean to Exeter, England.

Linda Henderson (Music Director) is an assistant professor in the Ira Brind School of Theater Arts, where she teaches class piano and coaches musical theater students. She and Frank Anzalone started the faculty/student musicals in 2008 with a production of 1776. Most recently, she music directed The Good Person of Szechwan, her fifth collaboration with director Heinz-Uwe Haus, previously serving as music director for Mother Courage, Threepenny Opera, Galileo and The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui. Recent performances as pianist include The Hear Again Radio Project at Plays and Players, The Opera Company of Philadelphia’s productions of Tosca and Phaedra, pianist for the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts’ production of Ballet Mecanique and the Russian National Orchestra concerts at the Mann Center last summer. Henderson is active in the theater orchestras in the Philadelphia area, including the Academy of Music, Forrest Theatre, DuPont Theatre and Walnut Street Theatre. As a steel drummer, she is a member of Delaware Steel, performing in the U.S. and around the world.

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Press Contact: Canary Promotion, 215.690.4065 Megan Wendell, [email protected] Rose Mineo, [email protected]