the orange grove

From Broadway News: Manhattan Theatre Club (MTC) has announced a new partnership to commission new musicals. In collaboration with the Hermitage Artist Retreat in Sarasota County, Florida, MTC will develop new work by offering fellowships to musical-writing teams. 

The inaugural cohort consists of Lindsey Ferrentino and Samuel Beam, and Sofya Levitsky-Weitz and Benjamin Velez. “The Fear of 13” scribe and “Queen of Versailles” book writer Ferrentino will pen a libretto, and Beam, also known by the stage name Iron & Wine, will compose original music for “The Orange Grove,” a Florida-set, modern retelling of Anton Chekhov’s “The Cherry Orchard.” As part of their fellowship, Ferrentino and Beam recently presented a free program on the Hermitage Beach in Florida, with Ferrentino sharing excerpts from her original scene featuring local actors who had performed in a Sarasota, Florida production of her play “Ugly Lies the Bone,” with Beam performing a concert of five songs.