{"id":158533,"date":"2025-04-17T16:29:07","date_gmt":"2025-04-17T20:29:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/?p=158533"},"modified":"2025-04-17T16:29:07","modified_gmt":"2025-04-17T20:29:07","slug":"dayton-daily-news-wright-state-theatre-alum-invited-to-write-musical-for-current-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2025\/04\/17\/dayton-daily-news-wright-state-theatre-alum-invited-to-write-musical-for-current-students\/","title":{"rendered":"Dayton Daily News: Wright State theatre alum invited to write musical for current students"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Wright State University\u2019s School of Fine and Performing Arts tapped 2006 theatre alum Ronv\u00e9 O\u2019Daniel to write a new, full-length, two-act musical. The working title is \u201cHow to Survive in New York City\u201d and it is expected to premiere in February 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been watching his work and have been intrigued by it,\u201d said Marya Spring Cordes, associate chair of the school and professor and artistic director of Wright State Theatre, in a news release.<\/p>\n

In particular, Cordes said she was attracted to O\u2019Daniel\u2019s use of R&B, hip-hop and rap.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat he writes is unique and the aspect of a new piece was intriguing,\u201d Cordes said. \u201cWe were looking for a new voice with a new story.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Daniel met the 14 students performing in his show in December during a four-day residency at Wright State.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy job is to craft a show that plays to the strength of the cast,\u201d O\u2019Daniel said in the release. \u201cIn this case, I needed a sense of the talent, which was the whole point of my trip.\u201d<\/p>\n

The New York-based O\u2019Daniel is an award-winning songwriter, lyricist and composer whose work has been produced Off-Broadway. He was most recently attached to the development of the World War II-inspired, Blair Underwood-produced \u201c6888: The Musical.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHow to Survive in New York City\u201d tells the story of Kenya, a struggling screenwriter-turned-bartender navigating the demands of motherhood and marriage who discovers a passion for mixology.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe show is going to be great,\u201d O\u2019Daniel said. \u201cIt tackles the themes of parenthood, motherhood, identity, dreams, how old is too old to follow your dreams, mental health \u2014 to be talked about in a fun, entertaining way. I encourage people to see the talent that Dayton has to offer at Wright State.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read the article at daytondailynews.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wright State University\u2019s School of Fine and Performing Arts tapped 2006 theatre alum Ronv\u00e9 O\u2019Daniel to write a new, full-length, two-act musical. The working title is \u201cHow to Survive in New York City\u201d and it is expected to premiere in … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":158538,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[730],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-158533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wright-state-in-the-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158533"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158533\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":158544,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158533\/revisions\/158544"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}