DIRECTORS' NOTE
Welcome to Dunbar Theatre and our Pilot Production SOMETHING ROTTEN! JR. We are so excited to now be an official MTI Pilot School and be able to present this new BROADWAY JR show that is still in the production process. Music Theatre International (MTI) is a theatrical licensing agency based in New York City that holds the rights to many Broadway Musicals. They develop the BROADWAY JR adaptations from these full length shows. Pilot productions are an integral part of the development process of a show that has been edited into a Broadway Jr show such as SOMETHING ROTTEN! JR. In most cases, MTI has a workshop of the edited scripts in the summertime, using students that work on a new show for one week and then present it to the authors and producers. We were very fortunate to have one of our students, Wyatt Moore, in the cast of that workshop, and we were there to see it and meet with the authors, Kirk and Wayne Kirpatrick afterwards. It was a truly memorable experience!
Dunbar Theatre started attending the Junior Theatre Festival sponsored by iTheatrics and MTI in January of 2012. Over the years we have developed even stronger friendships and working relationships with the many wonderful individuals at both companies, and we want to thank them for this opportunity!
In November of 2019, iTheatrics and MTI reached out to us to see if we would be interested in producing a pilot. OF course we said "YES!" Then we learned it would be the Pilot Prodcution of SOMETHING ROTTEN! JR and we were even more thrilled. We were only given a script and a piano score of the show. It was up to us to come up with a vision of how we wanted to present this new work from the ground up. We give extensive feed back to them before, during and after our show and follow many guidelines during this process. The authors want to see how we interpret their work and how a live audience reponds to the comedy, storyline and the music. We have pulled out all the stops to make this hilarious show come to life on our stage and we hope you enjoy every minute
We had originally cast the show and had just begun to work on it in March of 2020, when things were shut down due to COVID -19. Our production was put on hold and we had to wait before we could continue our journey. After successfully producing Disney's DESCENDANTS THE MUSCIAL in June, we finally were able to begin the pilot and finish what we started in 2020.
This has been such an incredible honor for us both, and our beloved Dunbar Theatre! It is also a huge honor for Lynchburg City Schools and the City of Lynchburg. Working with awesome and talented cast of alumni and current students has been a true blessing and a dream come true! All but four of the cast are alumni and getting to work with them again and reconnect has been the best part of this whole experience! We hope you enjoy the fruit of our labor of love and our gift to you the audience! Thank you for your support!
Albert and Lori Carter
