AVENUE Q Returning to NCTC this Holiday Season

This holiday season, get ready for more outrageously delightful songs and charmingly naughty puppets, as New Conservatory Theatre Center presents the return of its sold-out, record-breaking hit Avenue Q, with music and lyrics by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx, book by Jeff Whitty, based on an original concept by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx.

This "fresh and delightful" production (SF Examiner) won over critics and audience alike, with Talkin Broadway declaring after seeing the NCTC production, "I have fallen in love with Avenue Q all over again!"

The Bay Area Reporter exclaims, "A big smiley face quickly throw its net over NCTC's Decker Theatre and keeps the audience happily entrapped!"

Avenue Q runs December 5, 2014 - January 18, 2015 in NCTC's Decker Theater. Opening Night is Saturday, December 13, 2014 at 8pm. Tickets are $30 - $50 and are available at nctcsf.org or by calling (415) 861-8972.

Ring In the New Year with Avenue Q, a special New Years Eve performance, will be presented Thursday, December 31, 2014, complete with complimentary champagne toast and festive early start time of 7pm. Tickets are $50 are available at nctcsf.org or by calling (415) 861-8972.

Avenue Q is the laugh-out-loud, Tony Award-winning musical that tells the timeless story of a recent college grad named Princeton who moves into a shabby New York apartment all the way out on Avenue Q. Once there, he meets Kate (the girl next door), Rod (the Republican), Trekkie (the internet sexpert), Lucy the Slut (need we say more?), and other colorful types who help Princeton finally discover his purpose in life.

NCTC's production is directed by Dennis Lickteig, with musical direction by Ben Prince, and orchestrations and arrangements by Stephen Oremus.

Avenue Q will feature Teresa Attridge, Hayley Nystrom, Will Giammona, Paige Mayes, Christopher Morrell, Zac Schuman, Stephanie Temple.

The creative team of Avenue Q also includes Al Daniel (Puppet Director), Kuo-Hao Lo (Scenic Design), Wes Crain (Costume Design), Christian Mejia (Lighting Design), Travis Howse (Puppet Design).

Composer and Lyricist Robert Lopez's first two Broadway musicals, Avenue Q and The Book of Mormon, have both been critical and commercial smash hits and Best Musical Tony Award winners. He shared Tony Awards for Best Original Score and Best Book for The Book of Mormon. He also shared a Tony for Best Original Score and a Grammy nomination for Avenue Q. With wife Kristen Anderson?Lopez, he co-wrote Finding Nemo: The Musical (playing at Walt Disney World since 2006), the Broadway?bound original musical Up Here and songs for Winnie the Pooh (Disney feature animation, 2011). He shared two Emmy Awards for his music for The Wonder Pets and an Emmy nomination for the Scrubs musical episode.

Composer and Lyricist Jeff Marx with Robert Lopez made their Broadway debut with Avenue Q. They began writing Avenue Q in the BMI Workshop in 1999, thinking it was a great idea for a TV series. Three years later it was produced Off?Broadway, Broadway (with three Tony Awards), Las Vegas and London. They also collaborated on new material for a Muppet movie called Kermit, Prince of Denmark (which received the coveted Ed Kleban Award) and Ferdinand the Bull, a children's musical for TheatreWorks/USA.

Librettist Jeff Whitty won the 2004 Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical for Avenue Q, which ran six years on Broadway and then moved to its current home Off-Broadway at New World Stages. He also wrote the book to the musical version of Tales of the City, which premiered at American Conservatory Theatre in 2011. He newest musical was Bring It On, with a score by Tom Kitt, Amanda Green, and Lin?Manuel Miranda, and which had an extended limited run on Broadway in 2012, and was nominated for a Best Musical Tony Award. Whitty's plays include The Further Adventures of Hedda Gabler, The Hiding Place, The Plank Project, Balls, and Suicide Weather, and have played at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the Alliance Theatre, Atlantic Theater Company, South Coast Repertory, Vineyard Theatre, and The New Group.

Director Dennis Lickteig returns to NCTC having directed American Dream, which opened Pride Season 19. Other recent directing projects include: Parade for Palo Alto Players, The Lisbon Traviata, Lips Together, Teeth Apart, The Story of My Life The Busy World is Hushed, Anita Bryant Died for Your Sins, The Sugar Witch, Act A Lady, Thrill Me, Farm Boys, Theatre District and Harvey Milk -The Musical all for NCTC, The Story of My Life (Contra Costa Civic), Thoroughly Modern Millie and The King and I (Broadway By the Bay), Forum, Sunday in the Park with George, Anything Goes (CCMT), A Little Night Music, Closer Than Ever, Crimes of the Heart (Hillbarn Theater).

Musical Director Ben Prince recently musical directed Carrie, Songs for a New World, Bat Boy, The Rocky Horror Show, The Who's Tommy (Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award), Jerry Springer: The Opera (BATCC nomination), and The Full Monty for Ray of Light Theatre. Additional credits include Lucky Duck (Berkeley Playhouse), Show Me Yours (New Musical Theater of SF), Spring Awakening (USF), REAFHelp is on the Way concerts. Ben Prince is also the house pianist at Martuni's Piano Bar.

Choreographer Rory Davis is the resident choreographer for Peaches Christ Productions and is artistic director of dance/drag troupe Exhibit Q. He has staged work at the DeYoung Museum, the Castro Theater, Trannyshack and movie palaces around the globe. Most recently he choreographed the Peaches concert at the Castro Street Fair Main Stage and toured with 'Drag Race' winner Jinkx Monsoon in the widely sold-out stage production Return to Grey Gardens.

Special Engagements:

During the run of the show, theatre lovers can enjoy many special events:

• Onstage Insight, Post-Show Discussion after the following performance:

• • Sunday, December 28th at 2pm- Panel discussion featuring the cast.

• Low-cost Previews take place on Friday, December 5th - Friday, December 12th.

• Community Pay What You Wish Tickets: A limited number of tickets are held for each preview performance for our Pay-What-You-Wish program. These tickets cannot be reserved or purchased in advance and are only available for walkup sales beginning 1 hour before the performance. These tickets must be purchased in person.

• Opening Night will take place on Saturday, December 13th at 8pm. The performance will be followed by a reception with the cast, designers and director.

• Ring in the New Year with Avenue Q - special new Years Eve performance Thursday, December 31, at 7pm Tickets are $50 and includes a complimentary champagne toast.

New Conservatory Theatre Center is San Francisco's premier LGBTQIA and allied performing arts institution and progressive arts education conservatory since 1981. NCTC is renowned for its diverse range of innovative, high quality productions, touring productions and shows for young audiences; its foundational anti-bullying work with youth and educators through YouthAware; and its commitment to nurturing emerging artists and playwrights to expand the canon of queer and allied dramatic work.