Creative Team 2005 New York
Brian Paul Mendoza
(Choreography and Musical Staging)
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Brian Paul Mendoza won both the LA Theatre
Ovation Award and a Backstage West Garland Award for Best Choreography with
his LA theatrical premier, the groundbreaking Oliver! at Deaf West Theatre
directed by Jeff Calhoun, both of whom also won the Ovation Award for
Oliver!
Combining the beauty of sign language with the discipline of dance and
applying it
to the constant meter of music, BP created a technique, as well as raised
the
bar, for movement in an art form rarely seen in live theatre before
Oliver!
musical theatre for the deaf. The seeds of BP's work can currently be
seen in
full bloom on Broadway in Deaf West and Jeff Calhoun's revival production
of Big
River. Luckily for the LA theatrical scene and the Southland, in general,
BP
opted to stay in LA and continue to push the boundaries of conventional
theatre through movement in several critically acclaimed productions since
his 2000
debut God Help's Terrence McNally's Corpus Christi, Actor's
Coop's As It Is
In Heaven (LA Times Critic's Choice), International City Theatre's
Raisin (LA
Times Critic's Choice), Lillian Theatre's Head Games, Gascon's
Xanadu Live.
As a playwright, BP's theatrical coming out was *change at Babylon,
produced
by and starring Chad Allen (CBS's Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman) at both the
Tiffany and Hudson Mainstage Theatres. His screenplay of *change won the
AngelCiti
Screenwriting Festival and is currently in pre-pre-pre-production with,
once
again, Chad Allen taking the reins. BP has also recently workshopped his
first
full-length musical ever--babeLOVESdickie with composer Aaron Abrahamy
based on
this country's original crime of the century, the Leopold and Loeb case
of
1924. It is an honor to be working on JKB. Nothing excites BP more than
creating something from the ground up, especially an original musical.
In LA, no
less. Cast, you are fan-tastic! Now just, one more time thanks. Murphy
and the
Brothers K, a musical doesn't dance unless the music inspires it
to! thanks. Marie,
you are fierce, girl! Don, are you sure you're not a Shubert? And, of
course, much love and original glazed to our illustrious and impish
director, the
incomparable Jules Aaron... thanks for the ride! Looking forward to many
more!
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