Seattle Repertory Theatre Presents: Fire on the Mountain

Seattle Repertory Theatre presents:
Fire on the Mountain
by Randal Myler and Dan Wheetman
Directed by Randal Myler
February 22 – March 24, 2007

Seattle, WA – Evoked from the heart of Appalachia, musical miners bring bluegrass to life at Seattle Repertory Theatre in the musical Fire on the Mountain by Randal Myler and Dan Wheetman. Directed by co-author Randal Myler, Fire on the Mountain plays in the Bagley Wright Theatre from February 22 through March 24. Previews begin February 22, with opening night set for February 28. Tickets are available through the Seattle Repertory Theatre box office seven days a week at (206) 443-2222, toll-free at (877) 900-9285, as well as online at www.seattlerep.org.

The Play: From the acclaimed creators of It Ain't Nothin' But the Blues comes a poignant, passionate musical about the lives of coal miners in the Appalachian Mountains. Alternately exuberant and mournful, joyous and gripping, Fire on the Mountain is nothing short of a spiritual triumph. The stories of the people of this extraordinary culture are told in the bluegrass rhythms of a uniquely American art form. Beloved from its birth in Appalachia, it gained widespread popularity following the release of O Brother, Where Art Thou? With “Mississippi” Charles Bevel (Jeff Award-winner for …Blues) and Dan Wheetman (former fiddle player for John Denver) this celebration of culture, lifestyle, hardships and heroics is sure to set spirits soaring.

The Co-Author: Dan Wheetman shared a Tony Award nomination for Best Book for It Ain’t Nothin’ But the Blues, in which he appeared at Seattle Rep. His play Appalachian Strings, written with Randal Myler, has been performed at the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Denver Center Theatre Company, Meadow Brook Theatre, and Virginia Stage Company. He has composed and served as musical director for the stage versions of John Irving’s The Cider House Rules at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles and the Atlantic Theater Company in New York. He received a DramaLogue Award for Musical Direction for Hank Williams: Lost Highway
at the Taper and an L.A. Critics Award for …Blues. He toured and recorded with John Denver for seven years, has written a Christmas song for Kermit the Frog, recorded a 78rpm with R. Crumb and the Good Tone Banjo Boys, played a fiddle duet with Itzhak Perlman, worked as an opening act for Steve Martin, and currently plays in the band Marley’s Ghost. His solo album House of a Different Color was released on Sage Arts records.

The Director/Co-Author: Randal Myler was a Tony Award nominee for Best Book of a Musical for It Ain’t Nothin’ But the Blues. He also wrote and directed the recent Off-Broadway hits Love, Janis and Hank Williams: Lost Highway, for which he received a 2003 Outer Critic’s Circle Award nomination in the Outstanding Director category. He has directed at theatres throughout the country, including the Missouri Rep, Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center Theater, Denver Center Theatre Company, Arena Stage, Mark Taper Forum, Geffen Playhouse, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Cleveland Play House, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, The Old Globe, Coconut Grove Playhouse, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, and Bay Street Theater. His writing and directing projects include co-adapting and directing Touch the Names: Letters to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, directing Union City (with Rosie Perez), and the musical version of The Immigrant.

Performance Details: Performances of Fire on the Mountain are at 7:30 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday with 2:00 p.m. matinees on Saturday and Sundays. There will be no performance on Thursday, March 1. Pay-What-You-Can performance February 26 at 7:30 p.m. Post-play discussions will be held after performances on Sunday, March 11 at 2:00 p.m., Thursday, March 15 at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, March 18 at 2:00 p.m. There is an audio-described performance on Saturday, March 17 at 2:00 p.m. and an American Sign Language (ASL)-interpreted performance on Sunday, March 18 at 2:00 p.m.