ENCOMPASS PRESENTS THE WORLD PREMIERE OF

ONLY HEAVEN

Music by Ricky Ian Gordon       Poetry by Langston Hughes
Conceived by Ricky Ian Gordon and Nancy Rhodes
Direction/Musical Staging by Nancy Rhodes
Music Director/Conductor: Jack Gaughan

View Encompass 2001 Only Heaven Production

Ricky Ian Gordon and Nancy Rhodes with a painting of Langston Hughes

Hailed as the “most distinctive music heard all season” (USA Today), Only Heaven is an exuberant journey through Harlem and the Deep South of the 1920s-1930s. This dynamic period is vividly captured in the poetry of Langston Hughes and in the music of Award-winning composer Ricky Ian Gordon brought to life “in a handsome production that’s imaginatively staged by director Nancy Rhodes.” (NY Newsday)

CAST
Sherry Boone
Theresa Hamm-Smith
Michael Lofton

DANCERS
Dwayne Mann
Melissa Ngirailemesang

STAFF
Choreographer: Fran Kirmser
Sets: Erik Ulfers
Costumes: A. Christina Giannini
Lighting: John Hastings

MUSICIANS
Mitchell Cirker: Piano, Ariane Lallemand: Cello, David Wallace:
Viola, Kenneth Dybigs and Adam Kolker: Woodwinds.

STARS

Sung by Theresa Hamm-Smith, Soprano with Dwayne Mann, dancer

O, sweep of stars over Harlem streets,
O, little breath of oblivion that is night.
A city building
To a mother's song.
A city dreaming
To a lullaby.
Reach up your hand, dark boy, and take a star.
Out of the little breath of oblivion
That is night,
Take just
One star.