Johnson County Community College
Press Release

College Information and Publications
913-469-8500
Julie Haas, Associate Vice President, Marketing Communications, ext. 3120
Peggy Graham, Writer, ext. 3425
Tyler Cundith, Sports Information Director, ext. 3122

9/01/09
Story by Peggy Graham

JCCC students stage ‘Closer than Ever’

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. — The  Johnson County Community College academic theater department presents Closer Than Ever, a musical review in two acts, at 7:30 p.m., Thursday-Saturday, Oct. 1-3, and Oct. 9-11, in the Black Box Theatre of the Carlsen Center. Performances are free and open to the public.

With words by Richard Maltby, Jr. and music by David Shire, Closer than Ever contains no dialogue, and Maltby and Shire have described this show as a “bookless book musical.”  The revue has 14 funny, wise and witty “songs of experience.”  Each song is a story – an intimate, insightful tale about love, security, happiness – and holding onto them in a world that pulls you in a hundred directions at once.  Maltby and Shire bring their celebrated craft and contemporary sensibility to songs about aging, lasting friendship, marriage and role reversals with parents, as well as wicked satirical jabs at physical fitness, couple dynamics and unrequited love.

Closer than Ever has a cast of nine singer/actors, directed by Timothy Noble, adjunct associate professor of theater, JCCC. Noble, who has a master of fine arts degree in acting from the University of Arizona, has directed more than a dozen productions and performed in more than 100.  Musical theater is one of his favorite genres of theatre.

“Closer than Ever, like most good theater, has the ability to explore something of our human condition,” Noble said. “Through its pertinent wisdom and humor, it exposes our unwillingness to ever give up on what we most desire.  Even when we fail, there’s always another choice to be made, and next time we’ll get it right.”

For more information, call 913-469-3245.

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