EVENT: AMERICAN DIRECTOR PETER FLYNN, SPEARHEADS ORIGINAL SOUTH AFRICAN MUSICAL, “CALLING US HOME”

Acclaimed American Director – Peter Flynn

Shy Music, producers of Calling Us Home, are proud to announce that acclaimed American Director, Peter Flynn, has joined their Creative Team as Director of their original grand-scale musical opera, to prepare the show for international touring in 2023.

Peter will be travelling from his home in New York to Cape Town, to lead the Creative Team – which will be a hybrid of South African and American creatives – as rehearsals begin in Cape Town in January 2023.

A short season will be staged in Cape Town in February 2023 before the cast head out for the international tour. The Calling Us Home cast will be a fusion of local and international talent, with Shy Music intending to create as many opportunities for South African artists and talent as possible.

Peter Flynn fell in love with the music and libretto of Calling Us Home and shares his excitement for being part of the team in re-working and then staging the musical.

Peter is a New York-based director, writer and teacher who works both in new work development, as well as staging classic American musicals in New York, and for some of the most notable regional theatres.

His New York directing credits include the off-Broadway premiere of Smart Blonde by Willy Holtzman starring Andréa Burns; the off-Broadway premiere of Curvy Widow by Bobby

Alice Gillham of Shy Music

Goldman & Drew Brody; Rhapsody in Seth starring Seth Rudetsky; Lee Blessing’s Two Rooms; the 75th Anniversary performance of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town with Adriane Lenox, B.D. Wong, S. Epatha Merkerson; On the 20th Century with Douglas Sills & Marin Mazzie; Chess with Josh Groban & Julia Murney; Funny Girl with Bebe Neuwirth, Whoopi Goldberg, & Andrea Martin; Skippyjon Jones, and Junie B. Jones (nominated for two Lucille Lortel Awards including Best Musical).

Calling Us Home is a story of hope, a story of love and a story of home that ‘premiered’ in Johannesburg with a development run in 2017 and a further development run in Cape Town in 2018. It is a story that tells of a great love, but it is also one that humbly yet firmly touches on some of humanity’s big issues, such as the plight of refugees, the many challenges women face and the need for greater empathy, understanding and care in an uncertain world.

Composer, Lyricist, Writer, Arranger/Orchestrator Alice Gillham and the Shy Music Team have spent most of 2019 working on the show and establishing strong international relationships and Alice was, in fact, in Berlin in 2020 when Covid struck and the world came to a standstill.

“We pay tribute to our Originating Director Magdalene Minnaar. She brought unique insights, commitment, courage and a spirit of adventure and was a true creative partner without whom none of this would have been possible.” – Alice Gillham 

Shy Music will be holding virtual call auditions for South African artists commencing shortly.
For those wishing to audition, information and audition requirements will be available on the Calling Us Home Website from Friday, October 29^th, 2021.

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