Mike Donahue to direct free reading of Ryan Scott Oliver’s We Foxes at the York Theatre, with a cast featuring Katie Thompson, Ben Platt, Forrest McClendon and more.

Read the Playbill.com press release HERE.

The York Theatre will produce a reading of Ryan Scott Oliver’s new show We Foxes as part of its NEO Reading Series on September 12th at 3:00pm. Directed by Mike Donahue, with music direction by Rich Silverstein, the cast includes Katie Thompson, Ben Platt, Forrest McClendon, Anne L. Nathan, with Andie Alhadeff, Alex Brightman, Jon Ellison Conlee, Natalie Charle Ellis, Will Erat, F. Michael Haynie, Erik Liberman,  Ellyn Marsh, and introducing Emily Rogers.

We Foxes is a southern Gothic thriller set in small-town Missouri, 1945.  It’s the story of Willa, a tough and unmannered orphan girl, and her adoption by the crafty Sheriff’s wife, Vesta Quimby.  When Willa discovers the dark secrets beneath the floorboards, a war cuts them apart and Willa must fight to survive.  After all, Vesta Quimby is the most beloved and powerful woman in town … Yet she’s less humanitarian socialite than she is Machiavellian sociopath…  Can Willa discover her own salvation, deliver herself into courage, and sacrifice everything to escape Vesta?  It is a story of intense human struggle, deliverance, and the great salvation found only through oneself.

The epic period musical is mostly sung-through, combining bluegrass, country, big band and concert music of the 1940s, infused with the contemporary folk-rock of today. We Foxes is a commission from Broadway Across America, and has been in residence at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley’s Writer’s Retreat, CAP 21, and the Weston Playhouse.

The band features Allison Seidner on cello, Charlie Rosen on bass, Jeremy Yaddaw on percussion and Coco Taguchi on violin. Other members of the creative team include stage manager Ashley Rodbro and assistant stage manager Nessie Nankivell.

The presentation is on September 12 at the York Theatre at 3:00pm.  There are a limited number of seats open to the public. Visit www.YorkTheatre.org for more info and to reserve seats.

Ryan Scott Oliver has written eight musicals including Jasper in Deadland which completed a sold out off-Broadway run earlier this year, and is a 2011 Lucille Lortel Award nominee, a 2009 Jonathan Larson grant recipient and the 2008 Richard Rodgers Award for Musical Theatre recipient. His work has been featured at the Kennedy Center, Off-Broadway and on television.

 NEO (an acronym for “New, Emerging, Outstanding”) celebrates songwriters primed to pen the next generation of musicals. The York Theatre Company recently embarked on a new year-long mentoring program that brings together established writers and upcoming producing partners to help encourage the growth of new works.

The York Theatre Company is under the producing artistic direction of James Morgan and executive direction of Andrew Levine. The York Theatre Company in Saint Peter’s is located at East 54th Street (just east of Lexington Avenue). The reading is free and open to the public with a reservation. For more information and reservations, visit www.YorkTheatre.org.