Vineyard Theatre, Creators and Cast of NOW. HERE. THIS. Launch Original Cast Recording Kickstarter Campaign

The creators and cast of the musical NOW. HERE. THIS. and Vineyard Theatre, where the musical debuted Off-Broadway in March, have launched a campaign on Kickstarter.com to raise funds for an original cast recording of the album, it has been announced. The fundraising goal is $75,000 by August 30, 2012 and a mere three days after the effort was begun on Friday, August 3, the campaign has already met 50 percent of its goal.

NOW. HERE. THIS. has music and lyrics by Jeff Bowen and a book by Hunter Bell and Susan Blackwell. It was produced Off-Broadway at Vineyard Theatre with direction and choreography by Michael Berresse, musical direction and arrangements by Larry Pressgrove, and starred the three writers alongside collaborator Heidi Blickenstaff.

NOW. HERE. THIS. reunited the six major collaborators of the Tony-nominated Broadway musical, [title of show], which was also produced by Vineyard Theatre in 2006, winning Obie Awards for its creators, prior to transferring to Broadway.

On the pledge page on Kickstarter, the NOW. HERE. THIS. team says, "[title of show] was truly a labor of love. That thrilling rollercoaster ride helped shape our voices, our priorities, and most importantly our friendships. It opened so many doors for us and we've been fortunate to work on all sorts of exciting projects, together and separately, but nothing beats coming back together to make art the way we like to do it. NOW. HERE. THIS. is again a labor of love. We learned from our [title of show] adventure that every moment is an awesome moment. Whether it's a moment of sadness or joy, of defeat or triumph, what's important is to be present to that moment, no matter what. NOW. HERE. THIS. explores how challenging it can be to live in and appreciate the present moment and celebrates how rewarding life can be when we do. With this cast recording, our goal is to entertain and inspire you to embrace every moment you have on this planet. We want for you and for all of us, 'more life.'"

The album will be produced and distributed by Sh-K-Boom/Ghostlight Records in conjunction with Vineyard Theatre.

Jennifer Garvey-Blackwell, Executive Producer of The Vineyard states, "Developing and producing new musicals has always been a part of our mission as a non-profit theatre company. Musicals are considerably more expensive than plays to produce and funding the cost of producing an original cast recording in addition to the development and production expenses can be challenging. Our composer Jeff Bowen and Kurt Deutsch of Sh-K-Boom/Ghostlight and I sat down and got excited about the prospect of doing this on Kickstarter to be able to make a recording of this beautiful score a reality. We have been overwhelmed by the generosity of the backers in our first weekend on Kickstarter. We are deeply grateful."

Kurt Deutsch of Sh-K-Boom adds, "Preservation of musicals through Original Cast Recordings is an essential tool for the artists involved, the original producing theatre and future producers, as well as moving the art form forward for future generations. Without a recording it becomes very difficult to license the show. Unfortunately, the cost of preserving musicals can be extremely expensive and therefore cost-prohibitive. By crowd-funding NOW. HERE. THIS., our hope is to activate supporters of the creators and musical theatre in general to help us preserve this recording. The music industry is evolving so rapidly and having tools like Kickstarter is proving invaluable to us."

Visit http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1329967639/now-here-this-original-cast-recording for more information.

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