Jason Robert Brown to Take Part in Broadway Dreams Foundation Intensive at Kimmel Center, 7/30-8/5

Philadelphia's Broadway dreams will come true for the fourth consecutive summer when The Broadway Dreams Foundation (BDF) partners with The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts to present their Summer Performing Arts Intensive July 30 through August 5, 2012. Jason Robert Brown, Tony Award winner for Parade, and a faculty of Broadway professionals will teach master classes during the week to aspiring Philadelphia area students interested in pursuing a career in musical theatre. A week's end, the Broadway faculty will perform alongside BDF students in "Express Yourself," a unique concert event directed by acclaimed New York director Matt Lenz (Hairspray, Beauty and the Beast) at the Kimmel Center for Performing Arts' Perelman Theater on Saturday, August 4, 2012 at 3 pm and 8 pm. Tickets range from $23 - $76 and are available now online at www.kimmelcenter.org, by calling 215-893-1999 or by visiting the Kimmel Center Box Office (260 Broad Street).

Hailed by the Philadelphia Inquirer as "one of Broadway's smartest and most sophisticated songwriters since Stephen Sondheim," Jason Robert Brown's music has been heard all over the world in the hundreds of productions of his musicals every year and in his own live performances. Brown's four major musicals as composer and lyricist include 13, which premiered at Los Angeles's Mark Taper Forum before opening on Broadway; The Last Five Years which will receive an Off-Broadway revival in 2013 at NYC's Second Stage; Parade, which premiered at Lincoln Center Theater and garnered Brown the Tony Award for Best Original Score; and Songs for a New World, a theatrical song cycle which played Off-Broadway in 1995, and has since been seen in hundreds of productions around the worlD. Brown is the winner of the Kleban Award for Outstanding Lyrics and the Gilman & Gonzalez-Falla Foundation Award for Musical Theatre.

"We are greatly looking forward to the finale of our 2012 Summer Intensives Tour at Philadelphia's Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts with an incredible faculty roster including Tony Award winner Jason Robert Brown," said BDF Executive Director Annette Tanner. "Broadway Dreams is thrilled to offer our students in Philly the incredible opportunity to learn from Jason, one of the most gifted composers of the modern musical theatre."

Brown will join a faculty roster of Broadway favorites including BDF Artistic Director Nicholas Rodriguez ("One Life to Live," Tarzan), Tituss Burgess (The Little Mermaid), Craig D'Amico (Annie Get Your Gun), Deidre Goodwin (A Chorus Line), Morgan James (Godspell), 2012 Emmy Award nominated "So You Think You Can Dance" choreographer Spencer Liff (Cry Baby, "Smash"), Billy Porter (Kinky Boots, Miss Saigon), Matthew Scott (Jersey Boys), Kirsten Scott (Follies), Nikki Snelson (Legally Blonde), Tony Vincent ("The Voice," Jesus Christ Superstar), nationally recognized college audition coach Mary Anna Dennard, Broadway Clear Talent Group NY Office Director Jamie Harris, NY talent agent Josh Pultz, and Telsey + Co casting directors Craig Burns and Rachel Hoffman.

The Broadway Dreams Foundation presented "Express Yourself" earlier this summer at Atlanta's ALLIANCE THEATRE and Omaha's Holland Performing Arts Center.

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