YMTC: Exceptional Training for Exceptional Musical Theater

Youth Musical Theater Company (YMTC) is an educational organization that aspiring young theater artists should get to know. Staffed with professional directors, choreographers, musicians, technicians, and even dialect coaches, this nonprofit provides performers and students of technical theater (ages 12–21) with comprehensive theater experience—from audition through performance. They take on challenging, sophisticated musical and dramatic themes, and the results are exceptional.

Now in its 14th season, YMTC will stage the award-winning musical, A Man of No Importance. The play opens Saturday, March 9, at the El Cerrito High School Performing Arts Theater, 540 Ashbury Ave., El Cerrito. Its run consists of three 2:00 p.m. matinees (3/10, 3/16, 3/17) and three 7:30 p.m. performances (3/9, 3/15, 3/16).

A Man of No Importance debuted in 2002 at Lincoln Center in New York City and won the 2003 Outer Critics Circle award for Best Off-Broadway Musical. Its focal character is Alfie Byrne, a bus driver in 1964 Dublin, whose heart holds secrets that he can't share with anyone but his imagined confidante, Oscar Wilde. When he attempts to produce an amateur version of Wilde's Salome in the local church hall, he confronts the forces of bigotry and shame over a love "that dare not speak its name.” The show’s melodic, Irish-flavored orchestrations, emotional depth, drama, and comedy make for a truly uplifting theater experience.

According to Director Jennifer Boesing, “A Man of No Importance is a perfect play set to the richly emotional score of Lynn Flaherty and Stephen Ahrens—the same team who created Ragtime. The play’s perfection lies in its subtlety. It’s emotional, but not a roller coaster ride the way so many dramatic musicals are. There’s a gentleness to it and incredible depth. We delved into the scenes and songs and found that it was much like reading a poem. The more you read it, the more it unfolds its myriad meanings.”

Music Director David Möschler adds, “The score is one of my absolute favorites. Ahrens's lyrics with Flaherty's gorgeous score of Irish-inspired ballads and reels combine to form something that is almost more poetry than song. The music is interwoven tightly with Terrence McNally's beautiful dialogue to create something wholly unique in the musical theater canon.”

Tickets are available online at www.ymtcbayarea.org beginning February 14, 2019 or at the door one hour before curtain. Ticket prices are $16–32, with discounts for students, seniors, military, teachers, and groups. YMTC offers one “pay-what-you-will” performance to provide affordable musical theater to all in the community. This performance will be on Friday, 3/15, at 7:30 p.m., when seats will be offered for cash-only at the box office. Reserved seats can still be purchased online.