(LAWRENCEVILLE, NJ) -- Rider University presents Bright Star in the theater in the Bart Luedeke Center from October 16 through October 20. For the first major musical of the season, they turn to a play written and composed by Steve Martin and Edie Brickell. Inspired by a real event and featuring a Grammy-nominated score, Bright Star tells a sweeping tale of love and redemption set against the rich backdrop of the American South in the 1920s and ’40s. It was nominated for five Tony Awards including for Best Musical, Best Original Score and Best Book of a Musical.
Presented by Rider University students, Bright Star is directed by Trent Blanton. Justin Horwitz is music director and McKenna Woodlan is choreographer. Trent Blanton is associate professor of theatre at Rider University. His acting credits include work with the Forestburgh Playhouse, where he also serves as an associate artist and resident director. His other regional and New York performance credits include shows with Passage Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Ford’s Theatre, Pittsburgh CLO, Kansas City Starlight, The MUNY, The Alliance Theatre, Georgia Shakespeare and the York Theatre. He also toured North America and China in the Broadway tour of Les Misérables. For his direction of Rider’s productions of The Crucible and Metamorphoses, he received an award for excellence in directing from the Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival.
Justin Horwitz is a rising senior at Rider majoring in music direction. His past shows include Jesus Christ Superstar at The Mainstreet Theatre, In the Heights at Open Hydrant), Sister Act at Millbrook Playhouse and Mamma Mia at Bucks County Playhouse. McKenna Woodlan is a recent graduate of Rider’s B.F.A. in musical theatre program. At Rider her choreography credits include The Theory of Relativity, and Assassins and she was the assistant choreographer for last season’s production of The Will Rogers Follies. Her professional acting credits include Jekyll and Hyde and Children of Eden at Casa Mañana in Texas, Crazy for You at Garland Summer Musicals in Texas and Kinky Boots at Hangar Theatre in New York. For her work on Rider’s production of The Theory of Relativity, she received an award for excellence in Choreography from the Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival.
Bright Star begins with a preview performance on Wednesday, October 16 at 7:30 p.m. Performances are Thursday, October 17 at 7:30pm, Friday, October 18 at 7:30pm, Saturday, October 19 at 2:00pm and 7:30pm and Sunday, October 20 at 2:00pm. Tickets are $25 for adults and $20 for non-Rider students and can be purchased online at www.rider.edu/arts and through the box office at 609-896-7775. Preview performance tickets are $9 and are available only at the door.
Based in Rider’s Westminster College of the Arts, Rider’s Musical Theatre productions feature students enrolled in the University’s highly regarded Musical Theatre program, as well as other talented students selected by audition. Graduates of the program are appearing on Broadway, in national touring productions and in major regional theaters. Its productions offer the community the opportunity to see aspiring actors in the early stages of their careers. Rider University is located at 2038 Lawrenceville Road in Lawrenceville, New Jersey.