For Immediate Release:

Celebrating Its 40^th Season…
Overtone Industries Presents a Revival
Of One of Its Earliest Shows
Katy Cruel: A Play with Songs
By Kathleen Cramer and O-Lan Jones
Directed by O-Lan Jones
Two Performances at a Site-Specific Rustic Farm Near Burbank
Saturday, June 8 & Sunday, June 9, 2019

LOS ANGELES, CA – May 31, 2019 – Overtone Industries is proud to present a revival of one its very first shows, Katy Cruel: A Play with Songs, running for two performances over the second weekend of June on Saturday, June 8 and Sunday, June 9, 2019 at a private site-specific location near Burbank, California. Directed by O-Lan Jones with libretto and music by Jones and Kathleen Cramer, Katy Cruel is an intense slice of life that takes place during the American Revolutionary War where we see the beginnings of America. This show is being presented as part of Overtone Industries 40^th anniversary of mythic story telling through theatre and music. This limited engagement will take place at a rustic farm in Shadow Hills. For additional information and tickets, please visit https://www.overtoneindustries.org/katy_cruel_2019.

One of Overtone’s earliest shows, Katy Cruel has been revised and revamped for this site-specific location. Total runtime for this equity approved performance is approximately 75-minute with no intermission. The night-time performances will take place at 8:00pm. There will be an opening night “Meet the Artists” post-show reception where guests will gather on the private patio of the ranch owners for drinks and desert and have the opportunity to meet director and co-composer/writer O-Lan Jones and cast members. Tickets are $45 in advanced, $50 general admission at the door for Saturday night (with reception) and $25 in advance, $30 at the door on Sunday night (no reception). Audience members are encouraged to bring a jacket and sensible shoes as the entire event takes place outdoors and this terrain does not encourage high heels. Chairs are provided. This production is not recommended for children under 13.

Katy Cruel is music directed by Brent Crayon. The full cast of Katy Cruel: A Play with Songs includes: Michael Bonnabel, Michael Cassady, Liz Eldridge, Michael Harris, Abe Martell, Andi Morrow, Molly Pease and Jessica Sade Ward.

Katy Cruel: A Play with Songs – SYNOPSIS:
Katy Cruel is an intense slice of life that takes place during the American Revolutionary War near the Battle of Camden. It is inspired by the song “Katy Cruel,” which the historical figure Katy Cruel wrote about her own life. It illuminates the complex culture of a rag-tag group of revolutionary soldiers and the women Camp Followers that travel with them. In these characters we see the beginnings of America: the farmer, the religious fanatic, the unwed mother, the African American who has escaped slavery, and the shadow of English aristocracy, looming over them all.

Katy is the central character, a feral and independent woman who has thrown in her lot with the Camp Followers as a means of survival. She has a transcendent understanding of the plants and the forest and a desire to know the heart and soul of each person she meets without giving anything of herself away.

The story revolves around the power dynamics and romantic love triangle between one of the common soldiers, Katy, and the governing Aristocrat. These relationships and rising passions play out in front of the backdrop of war, and the urgency created by the visceral understanding that death is imminent. 

CAST & CREW:

Music and Libretto: Kathleen Cramer and O-Lan Jones
Director: O-Lan Jones
Music Director: Brent Crayon
Featuring: Michael Bonnabel, Michael Cassady, Liz Eldridge, Michael Harris, Abe Martell, Andi Morrow, Molly Pease, Jessica Sade Ward

O-Lan Jones [Director and Co-composer/writer] –
O-Lan Jones is an award winning composer, sound designer, writer, and actress who has been consistently involved in experimental theatre, music and opera since the age of sixteen. The press has referred to her as an “uncategorizable legend.” As an actress, she has originated roles in 97 of 100 plays including those of Sam Shepard, Julie Hebert, Beth Henley, Murray Mednick, and John Steppling. Her screen credits include Edward Scissorhands, Mars Attacks, Natural Born Killers, The Truman Show, Lonesome Dove, Seinfeld and The X-Files. O-Lan founded Overtone Industries in 1980, and has simultaneously pursued an acting career and worked as a composer; creating original sound designs and scores for more than forty productions. She has written music for Padua Hills Playwrights, LA Woman’s Shakespeare Company, San Diego Rep, the Taper Too, and Shakespeare Festival LA. Her music has also been showcased at Playwright’s Horizons, the Workhouse, La Mama, and the Kurt Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall.

Kathleen Cramer [Co-composer/writer] –
Bay Area native Kathleen Cramer is an artist who has written for Overtone Industries for many years.  In San Francisco, she began a serious collaboration with O-Lan Jones, yielding five operas. After beginning her career in New York’s Off-Off Broadway scene, working with many cutting edge playwrights, Cramer co-founded the Padua Hills Playwrights Festival in Los Angeles, which held both a school and an acclaimed festival every summer for 18 years. She has also written for the magazine Works and Conversations as a contributing editor.

Overtone Industries [Producer] – 
Overtone Industries develops and presents new multidisciplinary operas and music theatre, bringing to life vivid, original stories and myths. Founded in 1980 by Artistic Director O-Lan Jones, Overtone Industries is dedicated to creating original works of opera and music theatre. Since its first production of After Stardrive, Overtone Industries has produced and performed more than twenty original works across the country at such lauded venues as La Mama in New York, The Met Theater, and the Ford Theaters in Los Angeles. Overtone Industries is the recipient of numerous awards including the Bay Area Critics Circle Award for Original Score, the Dramalogue Award for Best Overall Production, the Ovation Award for Best Costumes, and two Emmy Awards for best Original Score and Design.

Currently, Overtone Industries is developing Cynosemma: A dirge from the dog’s tomb, a new ritualized music theatre work ripped from the myth of Hecuba being written by Megan Breen and composed by Artistic Director O-Lan Jones.

Links – 

• Katy Cruel Tickets – https://www.overtoneindustries.org/katy_cruel_2019
• Katy Cruel Facebook Event Page – https://www.facebook.com/events/2451521548191265
• Overtone Industries – http://www.overtoneindustries.org
• Overtone Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/overtoneindustries
• Overtone Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/overtoneind

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For more information, photos, to schedule an interview or request press passes, please contact Green Galactic’s Lynn Tejada at 213-840-1201 or lynn@greengalactic.com.