Byron Civic Theatre hosts reading of new musical Feb. 20

From press release

BYRON, Ill.—Byron Civic Theatre (BCT) will host a “reading” of a new musical based on the book Three Days in Vienna by former Byron resident Susan Haugland Saturday, Feb. 20. The book came about after Haugland went to Vienna on a choral tour with Highland Community College.

“I learned a little about Karoline Unger’s part in the premiere of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony,” said Haugland. “I found that she had many entries in his conversation books.”

Haugland found translations of the books and pieced together the story. Although the book tells an engaging story, Haugland kept it as factual as possible.

During the summer of 2008, Haugland was attending a class at Boston University where she met Nicola Buttigieg, a playwright who had some of her work showcased by Andrew Lloyd Weber. The two collaborated on the script and music for the new musical, Beethoven in Vienna: The Musical.

“As with all new scripts, authors need to hear what their words and music sound like in order to bring the work to the next level,” said Dan Danielowski, director of the project. “We also want to provide audience response and critique that the authors can take with them to guide their revisions.”

Often times, authors request a “table reading” of their scripts where actors sit around a table and read as the characters on stage would read, but without any of the production values of a full production. The BCT project will combine the features of Readers Theatre and the table reading as a Staged Reading of the script.

The audience will see actors onstage with scripts, reading and singing in character. There will be limited movement or other production aspects. The music will be accompanied by piano, viola and cello. Prior to the show, the audience is invited to join the actors, musicians and authors for a pre-show reception in the lobby beginning at 7:30 p.m. with the reading to follow at 8 p.m.

“My ultimate goal with writing the book and pursuing this musical idea,” says Haugland, “is to do for Beethoven what Amadeus did for Mozart.”

There is no charge, although BCT requests you e-mail tickets@bctmagic.com to let them know how many to plan for.