THE BOSTON TEA PARTY

An American Musical Comedy Melodrama By Ric Averill

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Brief description:

In THE BOSTON TEA PARTY, the Seem-To-Be Players act out not one, but a series of "plays within a play," all narrated by Simple, a true Yankee hero. The events humorously portrayed by this American "Tent-Show type traveling troupe" re-create the history of the American Revolution in an educational and entertaining manner.

The heroine in this musical melodrama is Mercy Otis Warren, a revolutionary pamphlet writer as famous in her day as Thomas Paine. Both Mercy and Boston's chief occupier, General "Gentleman Johnny" Burgoyne, fancied themselves playwrights and wrote dueling plays; Burgoyne's "The Blockade of Boston" is comically countered Mercy's "The Blockheads of Boston."

Students will leave the theater with a clear concept of the sequence of events that pushed our country to sever ties with King George III of England. Bright Colonial sets, period costumes and original "Schoolhouse Rock Live" type music make the play a theatre event to remember. Perfect for election year!

Press Article

The Seem-To-Be Players are coming to town with The Boston Tea Party. This original musical is a cross between School House Rock Live and 1776. The entire history of the American Revolution is told with songs and 'plays' in less than an hour. Actors play multiple characters as comedy, history and melodrama collide. Guaranteed to be fun for the whole family.

Playwright Ric Averill and his wife, Jeanne, co-founders of the company, also ran a summer Melodrama theatre company in a converted barn for 20+ years. "That barn theatre style kept the audience very involved. Several times I've based children's theatre pieces based on that formula of entertainment and theatricality. The Boston Tea Party really comes from that American tent show style."

Averill's most recent composition, an opera for children based on Andersen's The Emperor's New Clothes was commissioned and toured nationally by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Averill has headed up the Seem-To-Be Players for more than 30 years and has published many of the plays developed by that company. Based in Lawrence, Kansas, the company tours the entire nation from Florida to Washington State. Actors are drawn from not only the greater Kansas City area but from across the country. Former actors from the company have appeared on television and in movies and can be found on both coasts.

The Seem-To-Be Players receive support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Heartland Arts Fund, Hallmark Cards and US Bank.

Company Bio

The Seem-To-Be Players are the Lawrence Arts Center's resident professional Theatre for Youth company, performing across Kansas, the Midwest and the nation. The Players have been touring since 1979, creating original, innovative, exciting and educational productions. Trademarks of the (we are what we ) "Seem-To-Be" style include imaginative sets and costumes, original music, and transformational acting that enlivens each story, myth history or comedy and infuses them all with an energetic and zany love of life and celebration of the humanity of all people.

The company has toured in more than 50 Kansas communities, 35 states and 3 countries, entertaining and educating more than 150,000 students per year.

Now in their 31st Season, The Seem-To-Be Players may be booked nationally and internationally through Mainstage Management and have been granted the Kansas Governor's Arts Award and received major project and touring funding from the Heartland Arts Fund, Kansas Health Foundation, Payless Shoesource, Hallmark Cards, US Bank, the Kansas Arts Commission, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Productions travel in a truck and van and can be loaded into a performance space in less than three hours. Players use house light and sound and bring a few of their own special effects.

Bio
Artistic Director, Writer, Ric Averill

Ric Averill has been the Artistic Director and principal playwright, composer and director for the Arts Center's Seem-To-Be Players professional children's theatre company since he and his wife, Jeanne, founded the company in 1973.

Ric writes both plays and music, with degrees from the University of Kansas in both Music Composition and Children's Theatre. Ric has received numerous Playwriting Fellowships and been selected for five professional play development symposiums including the Kennedy Center's New Visions/New Voices and the Indianapolis Bonderman Youth Theatre Playwriting Symposium.

Ric's plays, published by Dramatic Publishing, include The Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor; Bird Woman, the Story of Sacagawea; The Princess and the Pea and other short plays; Pixies, Kings and Magical Things; Alex and the Shrink World and T-Money and Wolf (with Kevin Willmott.) Ric also wrote the Actor's Handbook for Fran Tanner's high school textbook, Basic Drama Projects.

Included among Ric's many commissions are the Kennedy Center's Alice in Wonderland, First Stage Milwaukee's Little Drummer Boy, the Coterie Theatre's Frankenstein and the Kansas Health Foundation's Red Blood and High Purpose. Ric's fusion of music and theatre has culminated in an opera for children based on the story of The Emperor's New Clothes which was commissioned by the Kennedy Center.

News Press Release for Broadcast or Print

THE BOSTON TEA PARTY IS COMING TO TOWN! DON’T MISS THIS WONDERFUL MUSICAL MELODRAMA FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY COMING TO _____(PRESENTER’S THEATRE)________ ON ______(DATE)______ AT ___(TIME)_____. THE ______(PERFORMANCE SPACE)_____ WILL BE TRANSFORMED INTO A CLASSIC AMERICAN TENT SHOW STAGE FOR THIS SET OF 'PLAYS WITHIN PLAYS' AND 'SCHOOL HOUSE ROCK LIVE' TYPE SONGS THAT SHARE THE STORY OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION IN LESS THAN 60 MINUTES. TICKETS ARE ____ (PRICE) _____ AND CAN BE PURCHASED BY CALLING______ (PHONE)_______.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CALL ____________

Program Copy

THE BOSTON TEA PARTY
An American Musical Comedy
"Tent show"
By Ric Averill

All actors portray multiple ensemble roles in this "Play within Plays"

The Tent show takes place in your theatre, but the 'plays within plays' take place from the settlement of the colonies through the beginning of the American Revolution, in Boston, New England and thereabouts.

Photos

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crispis_small (6K) don't-tread-on-me_small (6K)



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