No. 53: TOSHA FOWLER, BO LIST, DR. GREGORY PARTAIN - GHOST MUSIC
release date: April 29, 2025
release date: April 29, 2025
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About Ghost Music
It’s only been a month since Dawn’s musician husband, Clark, suddenly died. When his former student shows up with missing pages from Clark’s unfinished book, voices from the pages are reawakened. A portal from the past cracks open, transporting us back to German Romanticism and renowned pianist Clara Schumann. As she desperately tries to preserve the dignity of her husband, the brilliant composer Robert Schumann, he descends further and further into madness. Separated by a gulf of both time and space, Dawn and Clara grapple with grief and lunacy, and the hope that long-ago melodies can heal their broken hearts.
This production is sponsored in part by the AthensWest Emerging Play Grant awarded to the theater program and sabbaticals for both Dr. Greg Partain and Professor Tosha Fowler. The production will feature a team of professional actors and a director working in residence at Transylvania. The production will include the live musical performance of Dr. Greg Partain as an essential component of the play’s concept and design. Professor Tosha Fowler will be helming the role of Clara as well as head producer. Professors Daniel Bennett and Melissa Gilbert will lead the design team.
It’s only been a month since Dawn’s musician husband, Clark, suddenly died. When his former student shows up with missing pages from Clark’s unfinished book, voices from the pages are reawakened. A portal from the past cracks open, transporting us back to German Romanticism and renowned pianist Clara Schumann. As she desperately tries to preserve the dignity of her husband, the brilliant composer Robert Schumann, he descends further and further into madness. Separated by a gulf of both time and space, Dawn and Clara grapple with grief and lunacy, and the hope that long-ago melodies can heal their broken hearts.
This production is sponsored in part by the AthensWest Emerging Play Grant awarded to the theater program and sabbaticals for both Dr. Greg Partain and Professor Tosha Fowler. The production will feature a team of professional actors and a director working in residence at Transylvania. The production will include the live musical performance of Dr. Greg Partain as an essential component of the play’s concept and design. Professor Tosha Fowler will be helming the role of Clara as well as head producer. Professors Daniel Bennett and Melissa Gilbert will lead the design team.
Tosha Fowler is an educator, director, and actor. Currently, she is serving as actor (Clara Schumann) and producer for the world premiere, Ghost Music by Bo List, commissioned by Transylvania University and AthensWest Theater Company. She is the Lucille C. Little Chair of Theater at Transylvania University, where she teaches a variety of classes, runs the theater program, and is artistic director of their producing season. She has directed many productions at Transy including The Children’s Hour, Angels in America: Millennium Approaches, Stupid F’ing Bird, and the original musical The Ballad of Bride of Blue by Abe Reybold. Upon moving to Lexington, she professionally directed Brighton Beach Memoirs, which began her relationship with Bo List, Marianne Miller, and the now defunct AthensWest Theater Company, for whom we can thank for the birth of Ghost Music.
Prior to her move to Kentucky, Fowler worked professionally in both Chicago and Atlanta. While in Chicago, she founded Cor Theatre and served as the Executive Artistic Director where she produced several US premieres and received some acclaim. Overall, she has worked professionally for over twenty years primarily acting, directing, producing, and teaching, as well as a few dabbles in playwriting.
Prior to her move to Kentucky, Fowler worked professionally in both Chicago and Atlanta. While in Chicago, she founded Cor Theatre and served as the Executive Artistic Director where she produced several US premieres and received some acclaim. Overall, she has worked professionally for over twenty years primarily acting, directing, producing, and teaching, as well as a few dabbles in playwriting.
Bo List is best known in the Central Kentucky theatre world as Producing Artistic Director of AthensWest Theatre Company, which produced plays in Lexington from 2015-2022. As playwright, he has written adaptations of Frankenstein (seen in theatres across the country – and New Zealand!), Dracula (which will be performed this fall with Antagonist Productions, and R.U.R. – Rossum’s Universal Robots (which will enjoy its world premiere at City Lit Theater in Chicago the same weekend as Ghost Music. He also writes historical dramas for Kentucky Humanities, with characters including Daniel Boone, Henry Clay, Nancy Green, Abraham Lincoln, and Mary Todd Lincoln. In 2019, he was named Kentucky Arts Teacher of the Year by the National Society of Arts and Letters.
Classical pianist, composer, and recording artist Dr. Gregory Partain has been a music professor at Transylvania since 1991.
In his four decades on the concert stage, Greg has performed as piano recitalist, concerto soloist, and chamber music collaborator throughout the United States, as well as in Germany, Poland, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Russia, and Greece.
GHOST MUSIC was conceived as his idea during the downtime of the pandemic. He is thrilled to see this collaboration with his colleagues come to fruition.
In his four decades on the concert stage, Greg has performed as piano recitalist, concerto soloist, and chamber music collaborator throughout the United States, as well as in Germany, Poland, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Russia, and Greece.
GHOST MUSIC was conceived as his idea during the downtime of the pandemic. He is thrilled to see this collaboration with his colleagues come to fruition.
Rehearsal images taken by KEVIN NANCE
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