Taylor Cassell
  • Theatre
  • Dahlonega, GA

Taylor Cassell from Dahlonega, Ga., Has Role in Brenau University Production of the Broadway Musical 'Hairspray'

2011 Nov 3

Taylor Cassell from Dahlonega, Ga., is working on props crew and will also be an usher in the Gainesville Theatre Alliance production of the Broadway musical Hairspray, which is scheduled to run Nov. 8 through Nov. 19 in Hosch Theatre in the John S. Burd Center for the Performing Arts on Brenau University's Gainesville campus. Cassell is a freshman at Brenau majoring in theater.

Brenau collaborates with Gainesville State College in the Gainesville Theatre Alliance, which for three decades has brought high-level drama and musical performances involving students, community theater amateurs and professionals to stages at the two institutions.

The Gainesville Theatre Alliance 2011-12 season opens Tuesday, Nov. 8 , with the production of the Tony Award-winning musical by Mark O'Donnell and Thomas Meehan with music by Marc Shaiman and Scott Scott Wittman. Performances are at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 8-12 and Nov. 15-19, 2011; 2:30 p.m., Nov. 13 and 19. Tickets are $20-24 for adults, $18-22 for seniors and $14-16 for students. Patrons can select their own seats on the website at www.gainesvilleTHEATREalliance.org or purchase tickets through the GTA Box Office from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays at 678-717-3624.

Hairspray ran for more than 2,500 performances on Broadway between 2002 and 2009. Built 1960s-style dance music and "downtown" rhythm and blues, the play, set 9n 1962 Baltimore, focuses on the travails of a plump teenager, Tracy Turnblad, whose dream is to perform on a local dance show. She then moves on to launch a campaign to racially integrate the show. Hairspray is a social commentary on the injustices of parts of American society in the 1960s.

Choreographer for the Brenau performance is David Rossetti, who was featured in the 2003 national tour of the musical. Rossetti is no stranger to Brenau audiences, having choreographed previous GTA productions of Singin' in the Rain, Thoroughly Modern Millie and The Wedding Singer.

ABOUT BRENAU – Founded in 1878, Brenau University currently enrolls about 2,800 students in graduate and undergraduate programs on campuses and online. The main campus of the Georgia-based liberal arts institution, which includes the Brenau Women's College, is in Gainesville with other campuses in Augusta, Kings Bay and in two metro Atlanta locations, Norcross and Fairburn. Brenau's 2011 ranking as one of the top 15-best higher education values in the Southeast by U.S. News & World Report marks the university's sixth consecutive year in that position for the magazine's America's Best Colleges guidebook. Brenau University also was granted "Honor Roll" status among the 2012 listings of the great collegesand universities to work for by The Chronicle of Higher Education and one of the best universities in the Southeast by The Princeton Review. Breanu's extraordinary learning environment also his highlights among the Colleges of Distinction.