Family dynamics at center of story for Renaissance Players’ Children of Eden

Release Date: 2/27/2007. Expired: 4/1/2007

Stories from the Bible become a joyous and inspirational musical about parents, children, faith and centuries of unresolved family issues when the Renaissance Players present a community production of Children of Eden at The Renaissance Center March 23-April 1.

Performances of Children of Eden will be 7 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays. Tickets are $12 for adults, $10 for seniors and students and $7 for children under 13 and go on sale Jan. 5.

Written by the award-winning team of Stephen Schwartz (Godspell, Wicked) and John Caird (Les Miserables), Children of Eden is a musical presentation of stories from the book of Genesis that turns Adam and Eve and their children, Noah, his ark and his children and all of their relationships with the “Father” into allegories for families in today’s world.

While using the Bible as a plot source, Children of Eden freely deviates in many details, and is a story of parents and children without a specifically religious point of view.

Hal Partlow, director of the center’s Mind Enriching Theatre series, is directing Children of Eden, with Renaissance Repertory Company members Nathan W. Brown and Bryan J. Wlas serving as musical director and choreographer, respectively. Partlow’s cast of more than 30 actors ranges in age from pre-teen to retirement age and includes several Renaissance Players regulars as well as new faces from all over Middle Tennessee.

Children of Eden was originally written in 1986 as Family Tree for a production by Youth Sing Praise, a religious-oriented high school theatre camp at the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows in Belleville, Ill. Schwartz adapted the script and music of Family Tree into a full length musical, giving it the title Children of Eden. Although it had a very short run on London’s West End and has never played Broadway, Children of Eden is extremely popular in community and professional theatres worldwide.

A major production at the Paper Mill Playhouse in New Jersey in 1997 featured singer Stephanie Mills and Schwartz himself produced a cast recording of this show.

Children of Eden is a frank, heartfelt and often humorous examination of the age-old conflict between parents and children. Adam, Eve, Noah and the “Father” who created them deal with the headstrong, cataclysmic actions of their respective children. The show ultimately delivers a bittersweet but inspiring message that “the hardest part of love… is letting go.”

The melodic, energetic score is a mix of pop, folk, rock, reggae, gospel, Broadway and powerful choral moments.

Schwartz’s credits include Godspell, Butterflies Are Free, Pippin and Wicked, among others. He has received three Academy Awards, four Grammy awards and four Drama Desk Awards.

Caird is an honorary associate director of the Royal Shakespeare Company where he has directed more than 20 plays. He won a Tony Award as Best Director for Les Miserables and also has directed Broadway productions of Jane Eyre, Nicholas Nickleby and Stanley.

For more information on the Renaissance Players production of Children of Eden, call (615) 740-5600 or visit www.rcenter.org. To purchase tickets beginning Jan. 5, call (615) 740-5570.

The Renaissance Center is a fine arts education and performing arts center at 855 Highway 46 South in Dickson, just 35 miles west of Nashville on Interstate 40 at exit 172.

Visit the Theatre page for more about community and professional theatre.

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