Romeo revisited: Sutton’s play finds love, after all, in NYC

Congratulations to moonlighting Writing Center Director and Humanistic Studies Prof. Brian Sutton, whose efforts as a playwright, producer and songwriter have paid off with some nice recognition from the New York Music Theatre Festival. Sutton’s Searching for Romeo will have a three-performance run as a staged reading in a mid-Manhattan theatre this coming July as part of the Festival. There will be a professional cast — most will have Actors Equity cards — but Sutton expects to be allowed a few exceptions, with two of them for UW-Green Bay Theatre grads (and former or current Rough Draft singers) Suzi Lindner and Molly LeCaptain, both of whom have agreed to take part. Exact dates of performances aren’t yet set, but the festival itself runs July 8-28. This is the same festival for which Searching For Romeo was a finalist for a full production but didn’t get selected. “The staged reading is kind of a consolation prize,” Sutton writes, “but it’ll still be nice to have a NYC production with an Actors Equity cast on the show’s resume.” The contract calls for 29 hours of rehearsal, and it’s also a “staged reading/singing,” in that the cast will be performing Sutton’s original music as well as the dialog.