MARDI GRAS

SYNOPSIS

MARDI GRAS

Set in 1910 New Orleans, the show is about bigotry, racism and misogyny. It's the perfect show in today's political climate. Josie Mac Rae, an 18 year old very light skinned Octoroon girl, the illegitimate daughter of the Octoroon cook and the white owner of a plantation in Natchez, MS, is sent to New Orleans to attend the Octoroon ball where the rich white men of New Orleans go to pick out their mistresses. She looks around and notices that she's as white as anyone on the train. She decides then and there to try to pass as white, reinvent her past, marry a rich white boy and live happily ever after. She almost succeeds. Getting off of the train at the wrong stop, she is befriended by Lulu White, the proprietress of Mahogany Hall, the finest of all the brothels in the Storyville section of New Orleans. She is introduced to Judge Roy Prudhomme, the mover and shaker of New Orleans. She falls in love with his son, Edward, and is poised to spend the rest of her life in luxury while being at the top of society when someone from Natchez recognizes her. Her life is turned upside down and she's forced to work as a prostitute to survive. She proves her love for Edward by taking a bullet meant for him.

PRODUCERS

Harriet Rose Tarr

Harriet Rose Tarr, Producer, was a Principal Dancer with the Chicago City Ballet and is an educator, musician, real estate investor and developer as well as a theatrical agent, drama/vocal coach and audition coach. She has students who have appeared in the NBC production of Sound of Music starring Carrie Underwood, and on national TV commercials as well as regional theaters such as North Shore Music Theater in Beverly, MA. She has produced and costumed plays and musicals at the local level as well as for college and university drama festivals which she also hosted. She has degrees in music, psychology and philosophy. She is a published writer with four books in print.

If available, the following have expressed a strong interest in performing in Mardi Gras the Musical.

CAST & CREW

Jessica Tyler Wright

Jessica was most recently seen Off Broadway as Marjory Taylor in Allegro at the Classic Stage Company, which earned her a 2015 Lucille Lortel nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. Other favorite credits include - Broadway: War Horse, Sweeney Todd, Company and LoveMusik. New York City Opera: Candide. Off Broadway: I'm a Stranger Here Myself, It Must Be Him, Suburb, Radio Gals. Tours: Sweeney Todd, The Radio City Christmas Spectacular. Regional: Radio Gals (Cape Playhouse, Actors Theatre of Louisville), Merrily We Roll Along (Cincinnati Playhouse), Music Man and Kiss Me Kate (Marian and Lilli-Music Theatre of Wichita), 10 Cents a Dance (Williamstown Theatre Festival, McCarter), Annie (Grace-North Shore Music Theatre), World Goes Round (Prince Music Theatre), Crazy for You and Cabaret (Irene and Kost-California Music Circus), Pump Boys and Dinettes (Prudie-Theatre Under the Stars),TV: Nexium National Commercial, Blue Bloods. www.jessicatylerwright.com

Raymond Jaramillo McLeod

Ray began his career in Zefirelli's La Boheme at the Metropolitan Opera and continued to Broadway's Jekyll and Hyde, Wonderful Town, for which he was a Drama Desk nominee, Dance of the Vampires and Tale of Two Cities; Off-Broadway's The Wild Party, The 20th Anniversary Tour of Evita and Seven Deadly Sins with The New York City Ballet and Patti LaPone; as Psycho Bob in The Fresh Prince of Bel Air and over 200 Movie Soundtracks and Disney Films (including The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast and Pocahontas). He has released his own solo CD: Until Then, 24 Love Songs in 4 Languages.

Edward Barker

Ed has performed in dozens upon dozens of productions ranging from the world premier of Memphis at the North Shore Music Theater to the Roundabout Theater's production of Tin Pan Alley Rag. He has starred in numerous musical productions ranging from Leading Player in Pippin to Nathan in Dessa Rose where he was also the dance captain. He also starred in his one man show, Ellington: Life and Music of the Duke. His performances range from Edward in the complete works of Shakespeare to Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar.

Stowe Brown

With Carrie Underwood

Stowe Brown is a member of SAG and AFTRA. Her television credits include a postulant and dancer on The Sound of Music Live on NBC as well as understudy of Liesl. She also appeared on NBC's Law & Order SUV as Janey Thurber . She performed on the recording of The Sound of Music Live. Her film credits include The Proposal and Here Comes the Boom. She has appeared in numerous regional productions including The Sound of Music and A Christmas Carol at North Shore Music Theater, Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse and Garland at Boston Children's Theatre, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever at Stoneham Theater, Grease at Theater Direct, and Cats and Jimima at Neverland Theatre. She has also done numerous voiceovers and commercials.

CREATIVE AND LEGAL CONSULTANTS

Jim Kilroy

Music, Lyrics, Book

Jim has written, directed, produced and acted in plays and musicals at the New England Theater Conference Festival at Brandeis University and other venues and was involved in theatrical performances both onstage, conducting and/or playing in the orchestra.

Jim is also a successful businessman, publisher, musician, writer, composer and lyricist.

In the military, Jim was a Special Agent in United States Military Intelligence.

As a professional musician, his musical credits include organist for the Boston Red Sox for eight years and performing organ concerts throughout the United States, drummer with Capitol recording artist jazz organist Joe Bucci and trombonist and bandleader of Jim Kilroy's Jambalaya Jazz Band. He has performed in dozens of Mardi Gras parades in New Orleans which was the impetus for the writing of Mardi Gras when he overheard people in New Orleans saying "we're glad that they aren't planning on rebuilding the ninth ward. Maybe now we can get a white mayor".

Bigotry and prejudice on any level has always bothered Jim and Mardi Gras is his way of helping to expose just how deep those feelings go.

Larry Hochman

"Jim Kilroy is a wonderful writer and Mardi Gras is a beautiful and gripping work of theatre. I was attracted to the score immediately, and upon learning about the subject matter, the characters, the setting and the history, I became totally intrigued. It has genuine heart and soul and I look forward to working on its first production."

Larry Hochman, Tony Award Winning Orchestrator (Book of Mormon)

Director

William G. Martin

Dramaturg

William Martin is a free-lance director, playwright, dramaturg, and acting coach. After receiving his Ph.D. in theatre history from the University of Wisconsin, he began his directing career staging operas with many Metropolitan Opera notables including Jerome Hines and Eleanor Steber. His first Broadway venture was the Tony-nominated "Best Musical" The Lieutenant for which he received a Drama Desk Award nomination for "Best Director '74-75". Since that time he has directed more than 200 productions of both musical and non-musical theatre On- and Off-Broadway and in the regional and university theatre arenas with such names as Eartha Kitt, George Grizzard, Jessica Tandy, Hume Cronyn, Deborah Kerr, Frank Langella, Barry Bostwick, Salome Jens, Barbara Barrie, Jason Alexander, Maureen Anderman Patricia Richardson, Pamela Meyers, and Dick Shawn.

During his 34-year professional career, Dr. Martin has established himself as a premier "actors' director" and a reputed adjudicator and instructor for university and theatre conferences. He is the creator of the "Character Kinespheric Technique". Among his produced plays are his adaptations of The Three Musketeers, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Last Unicorn, and his co-authored That Man Jefferson, which was credited in The Best Plays of 1976 as the best of the Bicentennial theatrical offerings; and most recently his musical farce A Naughty Knight was produced Off-Broadway.

Dr. Martin is a theatre historian, dramaturg, and co-founder/vice president of the Lyric Theatre International, which is a research and publishing organization restoring the entire canon of John Philip Sousa's comic operas, including The Glass Blowers, which was produced at the New York City Opera to successful reviews. If this were not enough, he was brought in on special assignment by Joseph Papp to the casting office of the NY Shakespeare Festival.

Jack Swig

Seasoned Sr. Exec. General Counsel, Corp. Development, strategic advisor, seed, early, devel, stage, public & private.

      Attorney At Law - Counsel At Finance

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Mardis Gras logo designed by Jim Kilroy, rendered by Lisa Hutchinson, Day Dream Designs