Actors Cabaret of Eugene to Present the West Coast Premiere Production of Earl Wilson, Jr.’s You're It! Limited engagement!

Eugene, Oregon, USA—March 20, 2005

CONTACT: Jim Roberts - (541)683-4368 - cabaret1@aol.com

Actors Cabaret of Eugene is proud to announce the continuation of its Twenty-sixth Season with the West Coast Premiere of You're It!, the musical revue that puts YOU in the spotlight. This production of You're It! is sponsored by RBC Mortgage. Joe Zingo will direct the five-member cast with music direction by Jim Roberts. Our New York Associate Producer is June Rachelson-Ospa. Arrive early for more fun! Doors open at 6:30 PM. The show is part of Actors Cabaret’s New York Connection, working with writers, composers and producers in New York to bring new works to Eugene for development and offer Eugene actors the opportunity to work with professionals in the field.

You're It! Is an interactive musical written by Grammy-nominated composer/lyricist, Earl Wilson, Jr. [Let My People Come, Best Original cast Album, 1974.] The five member cast brings volunteers on stage and brings audience members up on stage to help create the show: ad-libbing, reading lines, even dancing in a Vegas-style showgirl number. The original score is tuneful and describes what it is like being in the theater and on stage. Sometimes the audience volunteers are given a few lines to read and a small script; sometimes they are given nothing… they just have to make it up as they go along. "They are taught that acting isn’t acting, it’s reacting," Wilson explains. The show is about what it is like to be in the theater…and we "actually put them into the show. It isn’t like karaoke—they don’t sing—and we don’t embarrass anyone."

The fun begins when the audience enters the theater. They are "auditioned" on camera by being given a few lines to say as different characters. "It’s a great ice-breaker," explains Wilson, "and we use the video in the show."

You're It! will be opening in New York City at Tony’s Di Napoli Restaurant on April 25, 2005.

EARL WILSON, JR. BIOGRAPHY
"Born in the Biz"

Earl Wilson, Jr. is the son of the well known Broadway gossip columnist [ Earl Wilson] who’s career flourished in the "Glamour Era" of Show Business from the late 1940’s through the early 1980’s. His column, "It Happened Last Night", was seen in several hundred newspapers around the country and archived New York night life and show business insider information for four decades. He was regarded as "The Dean" of the gossip columnists during his time at The New York Post. Growing up in that family gave young "Slugger," as he was nicknamed, a close-up view at the fascinating world of celebrities and entertainment. Earl Jr. started writing songs when he was about twelve. Wilson explains: "because we had a piano in the living room....and nobody played. It was a player piano...the kind that used piano rolls. I once put ‘the Warsaw Concerto’ into the piano at a party and pretended to play. Jackie Gleason was seated across the room and when he commented to my mom, ‘Hey, You’re kid is pretty good on the piano’, I raised both hands and said, ’Look Ma, no Hands’. He cracked up."

Graduating form Bucknell University in 1965, Wilson became an apprentice composer under Lionel Newman, head of the 20th Century Fox music department. "I had written an album of folk music for a group I was performing with while in school. It was produced by 20th Century Fox Records called "Here Come The City Folk." That led to a brief stint in Hollywood in the Fox music department which was a fabulous introduction into the world of entertainment. I was called back to New York a few months later for active duty in the New York Army National Guard." I continued my performing career and found that when I sang my own songs, the response was always better." "When I Was A Child" was a soft anti-war song performed as a lullaby that became a favorite when he performed live. Wilson performed as a night club singer until the early 70’s and toured the U.S. and appeared on all the major variety television shows of the day.

The Wilson Musicals

Wilson has a real love of the musical comedy format and has been involved in the creation of new works for most of his adult life. "The world of the musical is so unique in that one both suspends reality and is forced to live in the special world of fantasy that a musical creates. Complex things become simplified in musicals and the songs are bigger than life," he explained. "Even a revue like Let My People Come has some real true-to-life moments that are uniquely expressed in a song; things one couldn’t explain any other way become clear in a song, I believe."

I am working on several new ones now along with revamping my older works. There are plans afoot to revise several of these shows including, Let My People Come, Columbus: The Musical, and Earthlings. Other shows include: Showgirls, done at The White Barn Theatre in Connecticut and A Day In The Life of Just About Everyone, at the Bijou Theatre in New York [ my first musical, 1970]

FAST FACTS:
WHO: Actors Cabaret of Eugene will present the West Coast Premiere production
You're It! by Earl Wilson, Jr. Directed by Joe Zingo.
LIMITED ENGAGEMENT!

WHEN: April 8,9,15,16,22 & 23, 2005. Friday and Saturday Performances at 8:00 PM
Arrive early for more fun! Doors open 6:30 PM

WHERE: Actors Cabaret, 996 Willamette Street (Corner of 10th and Willamette)

TICKETS:
Friday and Saturday performances tickets are priced at $15.00 Reserved Seating, $12.00 General Admission and $29.95 for Dinner Seating which includes soup or salad, bread, entree, non-alcoholic beverages, and the show.

Tickets may be reserved by calling (541) 683-4368 or by purchasing them at the box office at 996 Willamette Street in Eugene Tuesday through Saturday, 11:00 am to 3:00 PM. ACE also offers group discounts and special performance opportunities for large groups. Birthday parties are a specialty!!

The twenty-sixth season at Actors Cabaret of Eugene is made possible in part by a grant from Lane Arts Council with support from City of Eugene Cultural Services.
KMGE, Magic 94.5 is the media sponsor for our season.
RBC Mortgage is the sponsor of this production.

To schedule interviews or photo or video coverage, please contact Jim Roberts at Actors Cabaret of Eugene. Phone: (541) 683-4368. Street Address: 996 Willamette Street, Eugene, OR 97401-3134. Mr. Wilson will be in Eugene for one week beginning April 4, 2005 and will be available for interviews. To contact him before that please call Jim Roberts.

WHO'S WHO IN THE CAST:
John Elliott, Colin Gray, Tyler Holden, Erica Jean, Brian Sutherland, and Lilli Turner.

A MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR:

You're It! by Earl Wilson Jr. is a uniquely different form of entertaining musical. It is an improvisational, audience participation musical. Yes, that's right improvisational, audience participation musical. The premise of the show is based on you, the audience, participating as its prime focus for entertainment. Yes, it is a musical in that various aspects of acting are musically investigated. Yes, its scenes are improvisational since only outlines are given. And finally, the best part, the audience, with the cast, helps to set the scenes, then sings and dances through some musical numbers.

This very talented cast includes John Elliott, Colin Gray, Erica Jean, Tyler Holden, Brian Sutherland, and Lilli Turner.

Earl Wilson, Jr., presented this very clever idea to us during a recent trip to New York. Because we have presented several audience participation shows in the past with success, and because we have a very talented pool of actors in Eugene, we both felt that You're It! was perfect for Actors Cabaret of Eugene. As part our New York Connection, we felt that our actors would benefit immensely from working with a professional like Earl. We believed that presenting an opportunity such as this would not only benefit our actors and the Eugene artistic community, it would help us to be part of creating new works for the stage.

Since developing our relationship with New York, we have brought many new works to Eugene, some of which will soon see New York openings. We are proud to be a part of this development process with creative people creating new works, but are even more proud to be able to present them to you, our audience.

I love working on new scripts and developing the material for presentation to an audience. It enables me to utilize talented performers coupled with my experience in the theater to make something artistic and entertaining. To a director and a cast, a script is the major road map through which the story smoothly and clearly evolves or is lost due to the lack of theatrical exactness. Working a script for this exactness excites me. So please allow this collaboration between Earl, my cast, and myself to excite you in joining us on stage with the premise that "you’re it!" Come play with us!!

Actors Cabaret of Eugene is a proud member of the National Alliance for Musical Theatre

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