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Sending out an S.O.S.: Book your tickets now for the Philadelphia premiere of @Sadlers_Wells "Message in a Bottle," presented by @EnsembleArtsPhilly (Facebook/Instagram)/@EnsembleArtsPHL (Twitter/X), May 14-19, 2024. Visit www.ensembleartsphilly.org for info.
Press Contacts:
Lauren Woodard Hall
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lhall@ensembleartsphilly.org
Carole J. Morganti
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Bryan Buttler
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MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE – WITH CHOREOGRAPHY BY KATE PRINCE, SET TO THE MOST CELEBRATED HITS OF WORLD-RENOWNED ARTIST, STING – PREMIERES IN PHILADELPHIA, PRESENTED BY ENSEMBLE ARTS
★★★★★ “Every aspect of this production harmonizes perfectly. It is a triumph" – Sunday Express
★★★★ “Infectious energy and knock-out style across the board” – Evening Standard
★★★★ “Pretty much irresistible” – The Daily Telegraph
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (April 10, 2024) — Ensemble Arts – the new presenting brand of the Kimmel Cultural Campus and The Philadelphia Orchestra – in partnership with The Shubert Organization, Sadler’s Wells, and Universal Music UK, present Message In A Bottle, a new dance theatre production by Sadler’s Wells Associate Artist Kate Prince, set to the music of 17-time Grammy Award-winning artist Sting.
“We are honored to be one of only 10 cities in all of North America presenting this tour of Message In A Bottle,” said Frances Egler, Vice President of Theatrical Programming and Presentations. “Dance and athleticism of the highest caliber, this production exudes creativity and class while telling a timely story.”
Message In A Bottle sees a village alive with joyous celebrations suddenly come under siege. In the chaos, three siblings – Leto, Mati and Tana – are separated from their parents. They undertake a perilous journey to new lands and set out on their own extraordinary adventures. Songs include “Every Breath You Take,” “Roxanne,” “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic,” “Walking On The Moon,” “Englishman In New York,” “Shape Of My Heart” and “Fields Of Gold.” On stage, gravity-defying lyrical hip-hop dance and breathtaking music combine in a moving story of humanity and hope.
The brilliantly recorded soundtrack to Message In A Bottle also features new vocals by Sting and new arrangements by Grammy and Tony Award winner Alex Lacamoire (Hamilton, The Greatest Showman), with guest vocals from award-winning actress and singer Beverley Knight MBE and Lynval Golding (The Specials).
Message In A Bottle made its world premiere at Sadler’s Wells’ West End Venue, The Peacock Theatre, on Wednesday, February 19, 2020.
Message In A Bottle contains some scenes of an adult nature: There are some scenes in Message In A Bottle which contain moments of adult content. These are all told through dance and are appropriate to the storyline and setting of the show. There is a short moment representing sexual violence against a female character in Act 1. After the interval, at the beginning of the second half there are some depictions of drug use.
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MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE
Miller Theater
May 14 – 19, 2024
Tickets
Tickets can be purchased by calling 215-893-1999 or online www.ensembleartsphilly.org. In-person ticket sales can be conducted daily from 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. at the Academy of Music Box Office, located at 240 S. Broad Street. Orders for groups of 10 or more may be placed by calling 215-790-5883 or emailing groupsales@ensembleartsphilly.org.
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ABOUT THE PRODUCTION, CAST, AND CREATIVES
Director and Choreographer Kate Prince
Music and Lyrics Sting
Music Supervisor and New Arrangements Alex Lacamoire
Music Producer and Arranger Martin Terefe
Set Designer Ben Stones
Video Designer Andrzej Goulding
Costume Designer Anna Fleischle
Lighting Designer Natasha Chivers
Sound Designer David McEwan
Music Co-Producer and Mixer Oskar Winberg
Dramaturg Lolita Chakrabarti
Associate Choreographer Lukas McFarlane
Music Associate and Additional Arrangements DJ Walde
Assistant Choreographers Tommy Franzen and Lizzie Gough
Dancers
Oliver Andrews, Lindon Barr, Deavion Brown, David Cottle, Harrison Dowzell, Nestor Garcia Gonzalez, Natasha Gooden, Lizzie Gough, Anna Holström, Megan Ingram, Ajani Johnson-Goffe, Charlotte Lee, Daniella May, Dylan Mayoral, Lukas McFarlane, Robbie Ordona, Lara Renaud, Hannah Sandilands, Jessey Stol, Steven Thompson, Gavin Vincent, Malachi Welsh
About Kate Prince, MBE
Choreographer / Director / Writer
Kate Prince is Artistic Director of ZooNation: The Kate Prince Company, which she founded in 2002. She is an Associate Artist at the Old Vic and at Sadler’s Wells, where ZooNation is also a Resident Company. ZooNation: The Kate Prince Company is also an Associate Company at Birmingham Hippodrome and The Mayflower, Southampton.
ZooNation productions include: Into the Hoods (Novello Theatre 2008) which was the West End’s first hip hop dance show, Some Like It Hip Hop (Sadler’s Wells Peacock 2011-13, and UK tour, and 2019 revival), Groove on Down the Road (SouthBank Centre 2013-14), ZooNation: Unplugged (Sadler’s Wells 2013), The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party (Royal Opera House Linbury Studio 2014 and the Roundhouse 2016), Into the Hoods: Remixed (Sadler’s Wells Peacock 2015-16 and UK tour) and SYLVIA (Old Vic 2018). The company also created special performances for Nelson Mandela’s 90th birthday celebrations in Hyde Park 2008 and for the Laurence Olivier Awards in 2011 creating new choreography for West Side Story with the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
For TV Kate’s credits include choreography for Strictly Come Dancing, So You Think You Can Dance, The Royal Variety Show, Top of the Pops, Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Take Away, CD:UK, Blue Peter, Strictly Dance Fever, Sport Relief, The Album Chart Show, Discomania and PopWorld.
Her film work includes choreography for Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, StreetDance 3D and a short film, The Holloway Laundrette, which she wrote & directed for BAFTA/Channel 4.
Other theatre work includes Everybody’s Talking About Jamie for Jonathan Butterell (Sheffield Crucible & West End, nominated for Olivier Award for Best Theatre Choreographer), Enda Walsh’s Ballyturk (National Theatre), Stephen Mear’s Shoes (Sadler’s Wells), I Can’t Sing! The X-Factor Musical (Palladium) and It’s A Mad World My Masters (RSC), both for Sean Foley.
With ZooNation she has also created choreography for sporting events, including the Beijing Olympic and Paralympic Handover Ceremonies (2008), the Opening Ceremony of the Tour de France (2007) and the IOC opening ceremony for the London 2012 Olympics at the Royal Opera House.
Kate has been nominated for five Olivier Awards, a South Bank Sky Arts Award, a WhatsOnStage Award and two Critics’ Circle National Dance Awards. Kate is a graduate of the University of Edinburgh with an MA in General Arts and has an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Winchester. She was awarded an MBE for services to dance in the Queen’s Birthday Honours, 2019.
In 2017, ZooNation: The Kate Prince Company became an Arts Council National Portfolio Organisation for 2018-22.
About Sting
Music & Lyrics
Composer, singer-songwriter, actor, author, and activist Sting was born in Newcastle, England, before moving to London in 1977 to form The Police with Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers. The band released five studio albums, earned six GRAMMY Awards® and two Brits, and was inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2003.
As one of the world’s most distinctive solo artists, Sting has received an additional 11 GRAMMY Awards®, two Brits, a Golden Globe, an Emmy, four Oscar nominations, a TONY nomination, Billboard Magazine’s Century Award, and MusiCares 2004 Person of the Year. In 2003, he was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for his myriad of contributions to music. Also a member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, he has received the Kennedy Center Honors, The American Music Award of Merit and The Polar Music Prize. Sting has been awarded Honorary Doctorates of Music by the University of Northumbria (1992), Berklee College of Music (1994), University of Newcastle upon Tyne (2006) and Brown University at its 250th Commencement ceremony (2018).
Throughout his illustrious career, Sting has sold 100 million albums from his combined work with The Police and as a solo artist.
Following his critically-acclaimed album, 57th & 9th, his first rock/pop collection in over a decade, Sting and reggae icon, Shaggy, released a collaborative, island-influenced album, entitled 44/876, drawing from the many surprising connections at the heart of their music. With its title referencing their home country codes, 44/876 first and foremost honors the duo’s mutual love for Jamaica: Shaggy’s homeland, and the place where Sting penned such classics as The Police’s “Every Breath You Take.” Their chart-topping release debuted at #1 in Germany and Top 10 in the UK. It spent over 20 weeks atop Billboard’s Reggae Album chart in the US, earned Gold certifications in Poland and France and received the GRAMMY Award® for Best Reggae Album.
The duo reunited to release a new, festive reggae song entitled “Silent Night (Christmas is Coming)” available on all streaming and digital platforms.
In 2019, Sting was honoured at the BMI Pop Awards for his enduring hit single “Every Breath You Take,” which has become the Most Performed Song, with 15 million radio plays, from BMI’s catalog of over 14 million musical works.
On May 24, 2019, a new album entitled My Songs, featuring contemporary interpretations of his most celebrated hits, was released and followed by a world tour of the same name. Sting’s ‘My Songs’ World Tour was a dynamic and exuberant show featuring his most beloved songs spanning the 17-time GRAMMY Award® winner’s prolific career with The Police and as a solo artist.
He has appeared in more than 15 films, executive produced the critically acclaimed A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, and in 1989 starred in The Threepenny Opera on Broadway. His most recent theatre project is the Tony®-nominated musical The Last Ship, inspired by his memories of the shipbuilding community of Wallsend in the North East of England where he was born and raised. The show, with music and lyrics by Sting, ran on Broadway in 2014/2015 and completed a UK regional theatre tour which ran from March-July 2018. Thereafter, Sting starred as shipyard foreman Jackie White in the Toronto-based production of The Last Ship at the Princess of Wales Theatre. He reprised the role for productions in North America.
Sting’s support for human rights organizations such as the Rainforest Fund, Amnesty International, and Live Aid mirrors his art in its universal outreach. Along with wife Trudie Styler, Sting founded the Rainforest Fund in 1989 to protect both the world’s rainforests and the indigenous people living there. Together they have held 19 benefit concerts to raise funds and awareness for our planet’s endangered resources. Since its inception, the Rainforest Fund has expanded to a network of interconnected organizations working in more than 20 countries over three continents.
SADLER’S WELLS
Sadler's Wells is a world-leading creative organization based in London committed to the making of dance, with over three centuries of theatrical heritage. Since 2005, Sadler’s Wells has created award-winning dance productions, co-productions and touring projects in collaboration with its portfolio of Associate Artists, as well as international dance companies and partners.
These include Russell Maliphant’s multi award-winning production PUSH with Sylvie Guillem; Crystal Pite’s Polaris with Thomas Adès; Gravity Fatigue, directed by fashion designer Hussein Chalayan; Sutra by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and sculptor Antony Gormley; Michael Keegan-Dolan’s Swan Lake/ Loch na hEala; productions by Carlos Acosta’s company Acosta Danza; Natalia Osipova’s Pure Dance; Botis Seva’s Olivier Award winning BLKDOG and William Forsythe’s A Quiet Evening of Dance.
Sadler’s Wells plays a significant role in the development of dance, bringing innovative and inspiring works to worldwide audiences. In the last 15 years, it has created 56 productions that have been enjoyed by 2.2 million people, with over 2,500 performances given at 388 venues in 48 countries. Sadler’s Wells productions have toured to some of the most prestigious theatres and festivals around the world, such as the Sydney Opera House, the Lincoln Center’s White Light Festival in New York, the National Centre for Performing Arts in Beijing, Chekhov International Theatre Festival in Moscow and Santiago a mil Festival in Chile.
In 2020, Sadler’s Wells premiered Message In A Bottle, a Sadler's Wells and Universal Music UK production by Kate Prince, based on the songs of Sting. In 2021, The Rite of Spring and common ground[s] received its world premiere, in partnership with the Pina Bausch Foundation and École des Sables.
"If you could pick up a dance piece, turn it inside out and look at the label, the words 'Made at Sadler's Wells' would be a guarantee of quality. Since 2005, the north London theatre has been a hotbed of dance creativity, commissioning and supporting some of the world's finest choreographers to make work”. The Scotsman
About Universal Music UK
Universal Music is the UK’s leading music company, home to successful artists from across the musical spectrum. Alongside the labels Polydor, Decca, Island, EMI, Capitol and 0207 Def Jam, its businesses include Abbey Road, the world’s most famous recording studio, and Mercury Studios, a music-first content studio.
Over the past year, Universal Music UK has overseen chart-topping releases from the likes of Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, Celeste, Ariana Grande, Jack Savoretti, Paul Weller, Ben Howard and Lana Del Rey, as well as helping to bring the extraordinary catalogs of The Beatles and Queen to new audiences. It also releases repertoire from Decca, the number one classical label in the world, which celebrated its 90th anniversary in 2019.
Universal Music UK is passionate about nurturing and inspiring the next generation of talent and is a founding partner of East London Arts & Music (ELAM), the free school for 16-19-year-olds set up in 2014 by Will Kennard – one half of Virgin EMI artists Chase & Status – with a mission to increase access routes into the creative industries. In 2020, the company also launched its Creative Differences project, led by the publication of the first handbook for embracing neurodiversity in the creative industries.
Universal Music UK is a division of Universal Music Group (UMG), the world leader in music based entertainment, with a broad array of businesses engaged in recorded music, music publishing, merchandising and audio-visual content in more than 60 countries. Featuring the most comprehensive catalog of recordings and songs across every musical genre, UMG identifies and develops artists and produces and distributes the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful music in the world.
Committed to artistry, innovation and entrepreneurship, UMG fosters the development of services, platforms and business models in order to broaden artistic and commercial opportunities for our artists and create new experiences for fans. Universal Music Group is a Vivendi company. universalmusic.com.
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THE SHUBERT ORGANIZATION
The Shubert Organization is America’s oldest professional theatre company and the largest theatre owner on Broadway. Since the dawn of the 20th century, Shubert has operated hundreds of theatres and produced hundreds of plays and musicals both in New York City and throughout the United States. Shubert currently owns and operates 17 Broadway theatres, six off-Broadway venues, and the Forrest Theatre in Philadelphia. Under the leadership of Robert E. Wankel, Chairman and CEO, The Shubert Organization continues to be a leader in the theatre industry. Shubert delivers innovative ticketing solutions via its Telecharge interface, API distribution, and private-label technology, offering unparalleled distribution and marketing to the theatre industry and beyond. Its consumer-facing brands—Telecharge for retail ticket sales and Broadway Inbound for group buyers, tour operators, and the travel industry—sell millions of tickets each year. The Shubert Foundation, sole shareholder of The Shubert Organization, Inc., is dedicated to sustaining and advancing live performing arts in the United States. The Foundation provides general operating support to not-for-profit theatres and dance companies. Foundation grants in 2022 totaled $37.6 million to 609 grantees.
ABOUT ENSEMBLE ARTS PHILLY
For more information about ENSEMBLE ARTS PHILLY, visit www.ensembleartsphilly.org.
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For photography, please visit www.ensembleartsphilly.smugmug.com.
For a PDF version of this press release, click here.