Baltimore School for the Arts presents The Last Five Years with U.K. partner Showdown Theatre Arts, January 10-12, 2014

The award-winning Off-Broadway hit, written and composed by Jason Robert Brown, will feature British actors Carli Jones and Lee Thomas with BSA students as understudies and technical support

In their fourth year of an international partnership, Baltimore School for the Arts and Showdown Theatre Arts, U.K., are excited to add a winter performance to their collaborative projects. The production of The Last Five Years, directed by Donald Hicken with musical direction and accompaniment by Michael Sheppard, will offer Baltimore audiences the opportunity to see an iconic, critically acclaimed Off-Broadway classic.

New this year, the winter performance provides BSA students a third opportunity to work with mentors from Showdown Theatre Arts. In October, actors Carli Jones and Lee Thomas spent a week at BSA with a group of 13 British students who lived and worked with BSA’s own senior theatre ensemble. The group began work on Our House, the musical they’ll present in Guildford, U.K. when the BSA students travel there in June. The international exchange has been flourishing with students on both sides of the Atlantic gaining invaluable experiences as they study their craft.

The Last Five Years will run  January 10, 2014 at 7:00 pm  January 11, 2014 at 2:00 pm & 7:00 pm  January 12, 2014 at 2:00 pm & 7:00 pm

Shakur Black Box Theatre at Baltimore School for the Arts. Tickets are $10 & $15 and can be purchased at the door or at www.bsfa.org.

Baltimore School for the Arts/712 Cathedral Street/Baltimore, MD 21201/443-642-5165/www.bsfa.org About The Last Five Years The musical by Jason Robert Brown premiered at Chicago's Northlight Theatre in 2001 and was then produced Off-Broadway in March 2002. It won the 2002 Drama Desk Award for outstanding music and lyrics. Since its debut The Last Five Years has had numerous productions both in the United States and internationally. The story explores a five-year relationship between Jamie Wellerstein, a rising novelist, and Cathy Hyatt, a struggling actress. The show uses a form of storytelling in which Cathy's story is told in reverse chronological order (beginning the show at the end of the marriage), and Jamie's is told in chronological order (starting just after the couple have first met). The characters do not directly interact except for a wedding song in the middle as their timelines intersect. Jason Robert Brown has been recognized as one of Broadway's smartest and most sophisticated songwriters. The American musical theater composer, lyricist, and playwright fuses pop-rock stylings with theatrical lyrics.

Carli Jones is the principal and founder of Showdown Theatre Arts, one of the largest independent theatre schools in Surrey and West Sussex, UK, and BSA’s partners in an annual exchange program. Trained in London, Carli has performed in numerous shows in the UK including She stoops to Conquer, Savage Love, The Birthday Party, Batboy, Fame, and the UK premier of High School Musical. She has also done commercial, audio and TV work. She also trained at the Academy of Contemporary Music where she developed her passion for songwriting and received the semi finalist position in the UK songwriting competition. This is her third time performing in Baltimore.

Lee Thomas is an actor whose credits in the UK include roles in Company, Rent and Parade at The Electric Theatre, Guildford; Into the Woods at the Rhoda Mcgal Theatre; Oliver and The Wizard of Oz at Theatre Royal Windsor; and Passion at Mill Studios. US credits include roles in A Beautiful Thing and Stags and Hens at the Theatre Project, and Closer at Load of Fun Theatre

Michael Sheppard trained at the Peabody Conservatory studying with Leon Fleischer and Ann Schein. He is currently the pianist for the graduate conducting program at Peabody and maintains a busy concert schedule performing as a soloist and as an accompanist. Mr. Sheppard has been a Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center, the La Gesse Foundation, and a Classical Fellow of the American Pianists Association. His recently-released album of contemporary American music for the Harmonia Mundi label has been getting rave reviews.

Donald Hicken has directed Red, Heroes, Fifty Words, Shooting Star, Our Town, I Am My Own Wife, The Turn of the Screw, Betrayal, The Cripple of Inishmaan, The Childrens’ Hour, Jacques Brel..., My Children! My Africa!, Watch On The Rhine, The Road To Mecca and The Lion in Winter for Everyman Theatre. He has also directed at The Berkshire Theatre Festival, The Baltimore Shakespeare Festival, The Kenyon Festival Theatre, Round House Theatre, Rep Stage, and Pennsylvania Stage Company. For his production of The Glass Menagerie (a co-production of Everyman Theatre and Round House Theatre) Mr. Hicken received the 2000 Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Director of a Resident Play. The production also received the Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Resident Play. He has been Department Head of Theatre at The Baltimore School for the Arts since 1979 and had directed numerous productions at the school. Mr. Hicken was a founding board member of The Baltimore Theatre Alliance, served on its Advisory Board and currently serves on the Board of Trustees of The Hippodrome Foundation.

Baltimore School for the Arts/712 Cathedral Street/Baltimore, MD 21201/443-642-5165/www.bsfa.org