A Good Day – songs from musicals by Eric Sirota; Free outdoor concert

The Park Theatre and Write Act Repertory, under the artistic leadership of John Lant and Tamra Pica are excited to present “A Good Day – songs from musicals by Eric Sirota” on Saturday, July 24^th at 2 PM as a part of Union City’s free outdoor concert series. The performance will be at Ellsworth Park in Union City, NJ, in association with Mayor Brian Stack and the Union City Board of Commissioners, and the Alzheimer’s Association.

Ellsworth Park is located at 301-399 24th St, Union City, NJ 07087 (between Palisade and New York Avenues)

*(In case of rain the concert will be performed at the scheduled time inside the Park Theatre, 560 32nd St, Union City, NJ 07087.  (See www.ParkTheareNJ.org for any applicable COVID-related restrictions at that time.)

The concert will feature songs from Sirota’s newest musical, A Good Day.  The program will also include songs from Sirota’s Off-Broadway hit Frankenstein, Your Name On My Lips and Go, My Child.

Eric B. Sirota is a New Jersey based composer/playwright (and research physicist).  Five of his musicals have appeared on New York stages included Frankenstein which played Off-Broadway for 3 years. He is also part of the group of dedicated volunteers and arts professionals who have worked tirelessly over the past two years to refurbish the historic Park Theatre in Union City as an active venue for the arts, as part of the Passion Project, an initiative to save the Park Theatre.  (see www.ParkTheareNJ.org)

Eric B. Sirota’s newest musical in development is A Good Day.   Music, memory, an old flame and Alzheimer’s – You just hope for a good day.

A widowed artist, finds himself brought into the life of his childhood girlfriend, his first love, his muse, who spurned him over 50 years ago, and who now has Alzheimer’s.  

Songs from A Good Day will be premiered and featured in the concert.
“My father had Alzheimer’s, and in his last years, the only way to reach him was through music, singing songs he knew earlier in life.  I decided I wanted to write a musical about the power of music to rekindle memory and awaken the mind.  I received the Denis Diderot Artists-in-Residence grant to attend the Chateau d’Orquevaux artist’s residency in France in 2019.  There I wrote A Good Day.” – Eric B. Sirota

Sirota’s Frankenstein is a sweeping romantic musical about the human need for love and companionship, based on Mary Shelley’s classic novel.  It has been playing Off-Broadway in NYC for three years, up until the pandemic.  It had been scheduled as the restored Park Theatre’s inaugural production in the Spring of 2020, but was postponed due to the pandemic.  It will be coming to Park Theatre this coming season with both weekend performances and weekday matinee performances for schools.  (www.TheFrankensteinMusical.com)
His musical Your Name On My Lips, a romance about following one’s passion with obsession and commitment, had two productions at Theater for the New City in NYC.  (YourNameOnMyLips.com)
Go, My Child, is about leaving one’s parents, infertility and the search for truth, set against a background of xenophobia;  Set in ancient Mesopotamia, it is an original account of the early lives of familiar biblical characters.  It was presented as staged readings at the Actors Temple Theatre in NYC, and will be produced at the Park Theatre as a large cast musical, and part of the Park’s community outreach programs.  (www.EricSirota.com/go-my-child/)

This concert is associated with the Alzheimer’s Association’s Longest Day.  The Longest Day is the day with the most light- the summer solstice.  To shine a light on Alzheimer’s and dementia, people from across the world fight the darkness of Alzheimer’s through a fundraising activity of their choice.  (Events need not take place exactly on that date.)  Eric Sirota is participating in this to advance the care, support, and research efforts of the Alzheimer’s Association in honor of all those who have been diagnosed with the disease, and in memory of his father Dr. Milton Sirota.  This musical spotlights stories of living with Alzheimer’s and the caregivers who help navigate this complicated journey.  #TheLongestDay #ENDALZ   To make a donation to the Alzheimer’s Association in honor of this concert, you can go to: http://act.alz.org/goto/AGoodDayMusical

The musical director is Kent Jeong-Eun Kim.  She is a musical director, composer and pianist, with an MFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.  As music director, recent Off-Broadway credits include: “Frankenstein” and “Swing.”

Eric B. Sirota is a composer/playwright, having written 5 full-length musicals.  He studied musical composition at Brown University.  He is also a highly published research physicist with a PhD from Harvard.   His musical, Frankenstein, played Off-Broadway at St. Luke’s Theatre for 3 years, following earlier development at NYMF.  Your Name On My Lips with previous development at EAT and MITF, had two productions at Theater for the New City, where Sirota was a resident playwright.  Go, My Child had staged readings at the Actor’s Temple Theatre prior to COVID.  In 2019, he was the recipient of the Denis Diderot Artists-in-Residence grant to attend the Chateau d’Orquevaux residency where he wrote A Good Day.   As composer (with librettist Vin Morreale Jr.), he wrote A Day at the White House, which was recently recorded as a radio podcast.  Other works include The Flemington Oratorio and a dramatic musical setting of Unetane Tokef.   (www.EricSirota.com)