Rollando and Dresner Productions
A Little Place Called Earth
A Little Place Called Earth
A Musical Dramedy in Two Acts
Book by Marcello Rollando and Music & Lyrics by Laurence Dresner.
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NOW IN DEVELOPMENT: BUILDING A PREPRODUCTION STAFF
C A S T I N G
Marcello Rollando
has a forty-year career of successes at impressive venues, including, NBC/ABC, Lincoln Center, The Juilliard School, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington’s Shakespeare Theatre Company, the Broward County Center for the Arts, the annual awards ceremony of the Palm Beach County Film and Television Commission and Spoleto Festival USA.
Mr. Rollando has received critical acclaim for his perceptive casting, and from the talent with whom he has skillfully surrounded himself.
Marcello has earned a reputation for exacting, yet unobtrusive directing – creating in every production endeavor, a rehearsal atmosphere where talent, craft and education coalesce.
For more, listen to Marcello Rollando being interviewed by Stage Whisper Podcast in NYC (Episode #183)
Laurence Dresner is an accomplished composer whose many pieces have been performed to audiences throughout the United States and Europe. His music has been performed by the Metropolitan Flute Orchestra, the Monmouth Winds Quintet, the American Chamber Ensemble, The Poetica Ensemble, and the Motyl Chamber Ensemble, to name a few.
With a strong interest in all forms of music, Larry has been involved in musical theatre with several off-off Broadway shows, cabaret, and has directed talent productions, jazz bands, and produced chamber concerts.
Larry is a board member of several organizations including the Long Island Arts Council at Freeport, and the Long Island Composers Alliance. He is a previous board member of Opera Night, and the Long Island Arts Alliance’s Arts Advocacy Team.
A Little Place Called Earth unites real life solutions and intangible artistic values with music you can hum, and thoughts you will never forget. It’s a call to action, an offer for solidarity in the face of the greatest challenge ever to behold. It rocks our comfort zone, then uplifts us to recapture our balance in the power of ensemble.
George: Weary of explaining why he’s not angry enough to stop trying to be a peacemaker – a black man caught between very different worlds – one of which he’s still struggling to understand (African American Tenor-Baritone – 30-45)
Sandy: precocious, eager, ambitious but haunted by a recurring nightmare, which leaves her feeling she needs to try everything before her greatest fear takes over: that she will die too early to have it all or at least sample it all (Petite Latina or Native American Soprano in her 20s - who can also play young, teen and college student - and dance)
Nau Stranger: (Old Enough to Know Better) Gender OPEN: Male, Female, Transgender – perhaps think Ian McKellen in Lord of the Rings played by a woman; employs subtlety, hints at the poetic, sarcastic, soothing voice and feigned compassion to convince others that bad is good, and good is evil. Nau Stranger is not a nice person, but when they choose, he hides it incredibly well. Only Nau Stranger knows the other four.
Angel: knows how to maneuver each of the others, but does so patiently, lovingly for their own good, while almost always remaining impenetrable. She knows why she’s here - and much more (Exotic: example, Asian, Indian, Middle Eastern Mezzo-Soprano, in her 40s-50s)
Luke: half-empty glass guy offended by those who think he’s privileged because he’s a white male; sees himself as a failure, loves vodka and unintentionally blames the source of past personal disappointments (Caucasian Bass-Baritone in his 50-60s)
A Little Place Called Earth is cold water in the face of all who deny the truth of our past and its power to destroy our future – weaved into challenging love stories and gloriously beautiful songs. However, like life, this is an ensemble piece depending on actors, characters and ultimately audience internalizing Ben Franklin’s, “We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.”
