WORLD PREMIERE: "THE TREE" AN URBANE OPERA...WILL MELT YOU HEART April 3, 2006

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE INTEGRITY PUBLICITY
APRIL 2 ,2006 LOS ANGELES/ NEW YORK

URBANE URBAN OPERA "THE TREE" GROWS IN LOS ANGELES!

Librettist/ Director/Dancer Peter Wing Healy and Musical Director/ Composer/ Arranger Linda Dowdell have shared backgrounds in both dance
and opera ( with legendary Baryshnikov ) have inspired both of these virtuoso
talents to create a rhythmic innovation and
grand story-telling that will melt your heart!


The Center for the Arts Eagle Rock and the Department of Cultural Affairs, in association with the Mesopotamian Opera Company, Inc., with funding from the James Irvine and Noah Wyle Foundations, with generous support from the Latino Theater and the Latino Museum of Natural History. Art and Culture, present a new, vibrant and witty work by Peter Wing Healy and Linda Dowdell, THE TREE. Using opera, jazz, folk, dance, comedy, and poetry THE TREE is a retelling of an ancient Shinto Myth filtered through a very modern American lens. It combines the soulful fairy tale of love with today?s endless struggle to save our trees and our environment.

Linda Dowdell?s melodic, whimsical score and Peter Wing Healy?s surprising and highly accessible lyrics pull together to present a new look at urban density and the encroaching sprawl of concrete that plagues us today. The performers deliver a libretto that will tear at your heart. The melodies and movement will make you feel like Baryshnikov! With its magnificent costumes, choreography, and set, THE TREE is a visual delight in which the always controversial theme of Progress versus Nature is portrayed in a combination of Eastern and Western stylings.
This is the Los Angeles Theater Center?s final performance before it is converted into the Latino Museum of Natural History, Art and Culture. THE TREE is getting major support from Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa as it handily brings to light his "Plant One Million Trees" Campaign.
THE TREE plays at The Los Angeles Theater Center, 514 S. Spring Street (between 5th and 6th) in Los Angeles. There is parking in the adjacent lots. Show times are Thurdays at 8 PM, Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 PM, Sundays at 5 PM, now through April 16th. Call (323) 226-1230 for information and reservations.

Note: There is a special PRESS OPENING on Friday, April 7th, 2006, 7:30 PM.

For Press, Radio, & TV Interviews, Press Reservations, & All Other Media Requests Contact Integrity Publicity:
In L.A. Robert Axelrod (213)483-1449 & (323) 288-9452 In N.Y. Sheryl Mandel (718)352-5976
E-Mails: ssshekkie@aol.com
rob27axelrod@yahoo.com