Centerstage is up to something big, really big, billions-and-billions-of-stars BIG. On September 25, Centerstage Theatre premiered its new musical, Carl Sagan’s CONTACT.

This new show is overflowing with “star stuff” and is sure to launch the theater’s stellar 2009-2010 Season into the stratosphere.

Centerstage’s Managing Artistic Director Alan Bryce explains his passion and enthusiasm for this new project, “Centerstage is dedicated to bringing high quality entertainment at an affordable price to South Puget Sound, and I am determined to push the artistic limits of this fantastic theatre by creating new work for our own community and the greater theatre community at large. Carl Sagan’s mind-bending brilliance and drama will translate well to the stage, and I am thrilled that our theatre is the first to explore the theatrical potential of this new work.”

The book was adapted by Alan Bryce who will also serve as the show’s director.

Amy Engelhardt, ASCAP award-winner and member of The Bobs, is the lyricist and European Composer of the Year Peter Sipos, wrote the music.

LA-based Roni Blak will choreograph the show.

Dana Friedi is the costume designer and set/lighting designer Craig Wollam will incorporate the elaborate video projections by skilled video designer Riley Dickens into the overall design. 

Bryce continues, “It’s not every day that Federal Way audiences get a chance to participate in the development of a new musical and I know this experience will enlighten us all – as microscopic residents of this ‘pale blue dot’ in the middle of the vast universe we inhabit.”

Carl Sagan’s widow, Ann Druyan recently wrote to Centerstage, “My feeling is hugely positive…I really believe your CONTACT has a place on Broadway and all around the planet.”

Carl Sagan and his wife spent long periods of time in Seattle during the mid 1990s when Sagan received bone marrow treatments at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Carl Sagan died December 1996, in Seattle, after a long battle with bone marrow disease. But he never gave up his dream of going to the stars.

Sagan created the character of Ellie Arroway, the director of “Project Argus,” for his novel CONTACT, which was first published in 1985. 

Like Sagan, Ellie unflinchingly searches for extraterrestrial intelligence. After encountering the first confirmed communication from extraterrestrial beings, she discovers something more dramatic and unexpected than anyone could have ever predicted.

It is interesting to note that Sagan named Eleanor (Ellie) Arroway, after two people: Eleanor Roosevelt, a “personal hero” of Sagan’s wife, and Voltaire, whose last name was Arouet.

American astronomer Jill Tarter, director of the Center for SETI Research, served as a consultant to actor Jodie Foster during the making of the film CONTACT.

She also inspired and consulted with Sagan when he originally developed his fictional character of Ellie Arroway. Jill Tarter visited Seattle in August 2009 and met with Alan Bryce and the new musical’s leading lady, Caitlin Frances. 

Single tickets for the remaining performances are also on sale now and available by phone at (253) 661-1444, online at www.centerstagetheatre.com, and in person at the Knutzen Family Theater box office.

Single tickets are $25 for adults; $20 for seniors, military, students 18 & over with ID; and $10 for youth 17 & under. $17 tickets are available for groups of 10 or more.