Overture Magazine - 2014-2015 November-December 2014 | Page 18

{ program notes Jo seph M eyer ho f f Sy m pho n y Hall she was awarded the Oscar Hammerstein Scholarship as a playwright-lyricist. Didi Balle is also a published writer and journalist and worked as an editor for The New York Times for 13 years. Jered McLenigan Off the Cuff: Shostakovich: Notes for Stalin Saturday, November 15, 2014 — 7p.m. Marin Alsop, Conductor Jered McLenigan, Actor Richard Poe, Actor Tony Tsendeas, Actor Shostakovich: Notes for Stalin A Symphonic Play Written and Directed by Didi Balle Dmitri Shostakovich Symphony No. 5 in D minor, opus 47 Moderato Allegretto Largo Allegro non troppo The concert will end at approximately 8:30 p.m. World Premiere, The Philadelphia Orchestra, conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin, March 1, 2013 Marin Alsop M i chael S tad ler For Marin Alsop’s bio., please see pg. 7. Didi Balle In the spring of 2013, Marin Alsop and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) announced the appointment of Didi Balle as the organization’s first-ever playwright-inresidence. Tchaikovsky: Mad But For Music (April 2015) will mark the fifth successful Symphonic Play™ collaboration and world premiere with Alsop and the BSO. Other commissioned works with Alsop include: CSI: Mozart; A Composer Fit for a King: 16 O v ertur e | www. bsomusic .org Wagner & Ludwig II; Analyze This: Mahler & Freud and CSI: Beethoven. Symphonic Plays commissioned and premiered by the Philadelphia Orchestra: Shostakovich: Notes For Stalin and The Secret Life of Isaac Newton. Didi Balle’s work as a writer and director includes commissions, broadcasts and stage productions of her work from Symphonic Plays, radio musicals, musical theater, song cycles and opera. She’s created a new genre called Symphonic Plays borne out of a friendship and dynamic collaboration with Marin Alsop. Founding director of Symphonic Stage Shows, Balle received her MFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, where Jered McLenigan is a Philadelphia-based performer reprising the role of Shostakovich, which he performed with The Philadelphia Orchestra. He has worked with companies such as the Walnut Street Theatre, Wilma Theater, Lantern Theater, Theatre Exile, 1812 Productions, InterAct Theatre, Delaware Theatre Company and the Fulton Theatre, among others. He appeared off Broadway in Inis Nua Theatre's critically-acclaimed production of Dublin by Lamplight at 59E59, which was part of the First Irish Theatre Festival (Outstanding Ensemble). Jered received a Barrymore Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Play for his role in It’s a Wonderful Life, a Live Radio Play (Prince Music Theater) and was recently nominated for the same award for his turn as Marc Antony in Julius Caesar (Lantern Theater). He will next appear as Guildenstern in the Wilma Theater's upcoming productions of Hamlet and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. Jered McLenigan is making his BSO debut Richard Poe Richard Poe recently played Everett Dirksen, among others, in All The Way on Broadway. It was named Best New Play at the 2014 Tony Awards. Richard received the 2013 Barrymore Award for Best Actor for his performance in The Outgoing Tide at the Philadelphia Theatre Company. On Broadway, he’s been part of the original companies of M. Butterfly (1988 Tony Award, Best Play), The Pajama Game with Harry Connick Jr. (2006 Tony Award, Best Musical Revival) and Journey’s End