Connections Plays 2012
Alice By Heart
by Steven Sater & Duncan Sheik
How do we leave childhood behind?
How do we close the book when the world around us has gone mad with arbitrary rules?
In the throes of adolescence, determined Alice Parsley convinces her seriously ailing friend Alfred to follow her one last time "Down the Hole" and play White Rabbit to her childhood heroine. Mad as it all is, there's so much she still wants from him. And yet, how late it's getting!
A new rock-musical take on Alice in Wonderland, from the writers who brought Spring Awakening: The Musical to the London stage in 2009.
Cast size 12 plus chorus
Age suitability 13-19
Steven Sater
Steven Sater was awarded the 2007 Tony Awards for Best Book of a Musical and Best Original Score for Spring Awakening along with the Drama Desk and Outer Critic Circle Awards for Best Lyrics. With alt-rocker Duncan Sheik, he received the 2007 Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album for Spring Awakening. In addition, the two received London's Olivier Award, The Dramatists Guild Hull-Warriner Award, the Outer Critics Circle, the Drama Desk, the Lucille Lortel, New York Drama Critics' Circle, and Drama League Awards for Best Musical.
Steven is the author of numerous plays, including the long-running Carbondale Dreams, Perfect for You, Doll (the Rosenthal Prize, Cincinnati Playhouse); Umbrage (Steppenwolf New Play Prize); A Footnote to the Iliad (New York Stage and Film, The Miniature Theatre of Chester); Asylum (Naked Angels); Murder at the Gates (commissioned by Eye of the Storm); In Search of Lost Wings (Sanford Meisner Theater) and a reconceived version of Shakespeare's Tempest, with music by Laurie Anderson, which played London's Lyric Hammersmith and toured throughout Great Britain.
In addition to Spring Awakening, Sater has collaborated with Sheik on Umbrage, Nero, and The Nightingale. Sater is the lyricist for Sheik's critically acclaimed album Phantom Moon (Nonesuch), and together the two wrote the songs for Michael Mayer's feature film A Home at the End of the World (Warner Classics) as well as the independent features Brother's Shadow and Mary Stuart Masterson's The Cake Eaters.
Sater has just finished working with System of a Down's Serj Tankian on a musical version of Prometheus Bound (American Repertory Theater). He is also at work with Burt Bacharach on a new musical, The Gift of the Magi.
On the film and TV front, Sater is also co-creator and executive producer, with Paul Reiser, of recent pilots for both NBC and Sony/FX, and has developed two projects for HBO, and another for Showtime (with Reiser). In addition, Steven works as a screenwriter (the forthcoming Chitty Chitty Bang Bang remake for Sony Pictures), and as a lyricist with various composers in the pop/rock world - recently writing songs with Burt Bacharach, Andreas Carlsson, Desmond Child, Leo Z, William Joseph, Johnny Mandel, Itaal Shur, and Lucy Woodward.
Duncan Sheik
Theatre credits include; Spring Awakening (2007 Tony Awards for "Best Orchestrations" and "Best Original Score", 2008 Grammy Award for "Best Musical Show Album"), Whisper House, American Psycho (currently in development), Nero (Another Golden Rome) (currently in development), The Nightingale.
Recorded works include Covers 80s; Whisper House; White Limousine; Daylight; Phantom Moon; Humming; and Duncan Sheik (Grammy Nomination "Best Male Vocal").
Film Scores include; Harvest; DARE; Little Spirit: Christmas in New York; Capers; and The Cake Eaters.
Producer Credits include; Holly Brook's O' Dark 30 Thirty; Micah Green; Spring Awakening Original Cast Album; and Chris Garneau's Music for Tourists.
