Spotlight On Festivals’ Revival of SONGS FOR A NEW WORLD To Benefit The Patrick Michael McMurphy Memorial Foundation August 20 – 22, 2009 at
the Beckett Theatre Spotlight On Festivals presents a limited engagement run of Jason Robert Brown’s Songs for a New World will benefit the Patrick Michael McMurphy Memorial Foundation (PM3 Foundation), which supports the arts through scholarships and grants. Scheduled August 20 through 22, 2009, performances will be held at the Beckett Theatre at Theatre Row ( 410 West 42 nd St .), New York City. Songs for a New World , which debuted Off-Broadway in 1995, underscores the moments that determine whether someone is up for life’s challenges — those instances that define a person indefinitely. Songs for a New World is often presented as a song cycle. This production will take from the Scheherazadian, Grecian and Biblical traditions of storytelling–that each moment, each story is a lesson unto itself. All net proceeds from the production will benefit The Patrick Michael McMurphy Memorial Foundation (The PM3 Foundation), which was established shortly after 23-year-old Patrick’s death from a tragic accident on August 30, 2008. The PM3 Foundation provides scholarships and grants to support the arts, especially theater, film, and music. The foundation currently funds a scholarship to the Stella Adler Conservatory, from which Patrick had graduated only a few weeks before his untimely death. For Kim Kalish, who was Patrick Michael McMurphy’s college sweetheart and who stars in this benefit production, Songs for a New World is a meaningful homage to Patrick, who tragically fell to his death last summer while climbing to his Brooklyn apartment building’s rooftop. “When Patrick passed away, I was devastated,” she says. “This musical, in particular, speaks to those bleak times that determine who we are. It is a fitting tribute to Patrick’s determination and the generosity of the foundation created in his memory.”
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