Music Professor and Theater Director Mark Ross Clark and the ULM School of Visual and Performing Arts are presenting musical theater production, Speed Dating Tonight, at ULM's Spyker Theater. Show times are 7:30p.m. on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, November 2-4. There will be an additional performance on Sunday, November 5 at 2p.m. Admission will be free to ULM students with student ID, and $5 for ULM faculty and staff. General admission tickets will be $10. Tickets can be purchased at the door or online at eventbrite.com.
Speed Dating Tonight is a musical theater performance written by Michael Ching that tells the story of a local lounge and its staff as they host a group of people for a speed dating event. The production features several musical moments with songs chosen by the cast out of an archive of music written for the play, showcasing many different styles such as Jazz, Blues, Opera, and more.
This production has been put on over a hundred times in the United States in the past twenty years, each time different than the original. This is because the play can be structured to the producer's liking. No song is set to one vocal type, or gender, so each role can be played by any cast member. This also means the director can choose the order of the pieces and ensembles in each version of the production. Mark Clark's version is set in ULM's own Library Lounge, a bar that has since been closed down, but is a valuable memory for some of their time spent here.
The singers that comprise the cast are: Alexa Cannon, Leslie Hobgood, Cecilia Milam, Addison Mitchell, Artie Smith, Dajah Taylor, Preston Anderson, A Marion Dimmer, Braden Tucker, Jemes Wright. The Director is Mark Ross Clark, the pianist is Richard Seiler, the Technical Director Steven Burnside, the Costumer: Margaret Hall, and the Stage Manager is Elizabeth Frison. Most of whom are music majors at ULM.
