Once Upon a Pastime: York announces cast for Developmental Reading

The York Theatre Company has announced casting for Once Upon a Pastime, part of its Developmental Reading Series, playing at the Theatre at Saint Peter's on 6 Aug 2009.

Directing and performing in Once Upon a Pastime is Tony Award winner Len Cariou (Sweeney Todd, Applause).

The cast of Once Upon a Pastime also features Dan Bogart (Les Mis�rables), Cole Burden (Applause; Encores!), Cheryl Freeman (The Who�s Tommy), Ikum Isaac Fryman, David Green (Wish You Were Here; Musicals in Mufti), Sebastian LaCause (The Rocky Horror Show), Matt Landers (Working), Adam Monley (Mamma Mia!), Brooke Sunny Moriber (Follies), Benjamin Perry, Richard Ruiz (Two Gentleman of Verona; Shakespeare in the Park) and Henry Strozier (Judgment at Nuremberg).

In Once Upon a Pastime Mac, a widowed ex-ballplayer, now a bar owner in a shabby Southern town, is having a bad day. Things becomes worse as he is confronted with ghosts from his past, an unhappy daughter, a dying best friend, an African-American singer named Whitey and three travelers who may or may not be baseball gods.

Each year, York�s Developmental Reading Series presents between 30 to 40 readings and workshops of new musicals by emerging and established authors, all free of charge and open to the public. Producing Artistic Director James Morgan says, �These readings give writers a unique opportunity to get audience feedback while a show is still in progress and gives audiences an active role in the creative process.� York�s productions of 'Souvenir' and 'The Musical of Musicals (The Musical!)' were first developed in the Developmental Reading Series, where the Tony Award-winning Broadway hit 'Avenue Q' also made early appearances.

The Developmental Reading Series is made possible in part through a generous donation from The Dorothy Strelsin Foundation.