August 27th @ 9 pm | August 28th @ 2 pm
sam i was
a musical memoir.
(yeah, seriously)
By Sam Wessels
Director Larry West
Musical Director JD Dumas
In Utah This Week Arts Review 'sam i was'
PLAYWRIGHT'S NOTE
In December of 2007 I was in the middle of my last finals week of college. Right around the corner was a big move to New York City to make it as an actor, playwright, or waiter. I was also diagnosed with leukemia. About a week after I started treatment, not knowing if the cancer would respond to the treatment or not, I started writing songs from the point of view of me and the one's closest to me. Once I had a handful, I decided to write a musical memoir about my experience. Writing book, music, and lyrics, I finished the first act during my third month of chemo, and began the second act eight months later when I reached the end of the weekly rounds of high dosage chemotherapy. In June of 2009 sam i was was chosen to be workshopped at the inaugural year of the Yale Institute for Musical Theatre where my directors, Joe Calarco and Robert Meffe, helped me shape the musical into something dramatically viable. SLAC's new fringe festival will be the first public showing of the piece since Yale, and the first performance of this version of the script, which has received some pretty extensive rewrites since the summer of 2009.
PLAYWRIGHT SAM WESSELS
Sam Wessels is an actor and the author/composer of five musicals. sam i was was workshopped at the newly formed Yale Institute for Musical Theatre in summer 2009, and will be featured in Salt Lake Acting Company's (SLAC) upcoming fringe festival. RECTUM! THE MUSICAL was given a reading at SLAC in 2009. His first musical, Notes on a Sunday, was produced at the University of Utah in Spring of 2008. His two other musicals, REAL DOLLS and STARLIGHT, are ready for further development. While obtaining his B.F.A. from the University of Utah's Actor's Training Program, he composed the scores for two productions: THE CAUCASIAN CIRCLE and THE WINTER'S TALE. He currently lives in Salt Lake City
