For Immediate Release.
In a unique agreement, best-selling author
Nina Foxx has optioned dramatic rights to her latest novel, Marrying Up, to Garrett Davis and gdavisplays.com for development as a stage play. Rehearsals are set to begin in November in Nashville, Tennessee, and the play will begin touring in February 2006, premiering in Alabama. Davis has assembled an award-winning lineup for the stage play Marrying Up that is destined to take urban theater to another level. This unique cast features Peoples’ Choice Award nominee, Thea Vidale, star of her own ABC sitcom, “Thea,” featured in a recurring role on the “Drew Carey Show” and guest appearances on “Whoopi,” Ellen” and “Comedy Central;” Kerisse Hutchinson, who plays “Chantal” on the hit ABC soap opera All My Children; Archie Love from the legendary R&B group The BarKays; and hip hop vocalist K-Rob, the next generation of Isleys Brothers. gdavisplays.com is proud to introduce Kim Fleming in her urban theater debut. Kim’s career includes touring as a background vocalist with country superstar Wynonna and her voice is featured on over 200 recordings ranging from Stevie Wonder and Brian McKinght to rockers Bon Jovi and BeBe and CeCe Winans, from gospel’s reigning musical family.
John Forbes, one of the industry’s top musical directors, who worked with Tyler Perry on his first 8 stage play productions as musical director, will now serve as musical director and producer of the soundtrack album for Marrying Up. John has an impressive array of projects to his credit including serving as musical director for Whitney Houston, Jessica Simpson and Rick James as well as composer of the film score for Tyler Perry’s recent #1 box office smash, “Diary Of A Mad Black Woman.” Additionally, John composed music for many TV shows including Tyra Banks’ “America’s Next Top Model,” ESPN, “America’s Most Wanted,” NBA Sports for Fox TV, MTV’s Video Clash, the UPN hit show “Girlfriends,” and contributed arrangements for “The New Jack City” soundtrack. John has also performed on numerous shows including “The David Letterman Show,” “The Tonight Show,” MTV Awards, “Saturday Night Live,” and the CBS Morning Show. According to Garrett Davis, the play’s Producer and Director, “I feel so fortunate to have John Forbes as our musical director, producer of the soundtrack album and a part of our production team. John brings a wealth of experience, talent and successful collaborations to gdavisplays.com and his musical genius will help me to create not just a play, but an experience.”
Nina Foxx, the author of the best-selling novel on which play is based, has been acclaimed as a “veracious storyteller” by BET Books, Nina Foxx’s academic insight into the human psyche allows her to develop sophisticated characters that are as real and as complicated as any member of her readers’ own families. In Marrying Up, Foxx peels back the veneer of her main character, Paris Montague, a determined and self-sufficient woman who parallels one of women’s fiction’s most enduring heroines, Elizabeth Bennett of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. “So many young women find themselves searching for a mate by listing the qualities that are unacceptable to them, instead of the things that are. I wanted this story to make us take a look at the things that should really be at the core of a relationship, such as love and values rather than how much money a potential mate makes. I’m really excited about working with gdavisplays.com.” Garrett Davis is excited about producing Nina Foxx’s first stage play adaptation. “I really admire Nina’s writing style. She is so visual with her characters. Nina’s style draws you into the story which made it easy for me as a playwright to turn this work into an incredible production.”
An ordained minister, Garrett Davis has written ten plays in eleven years that have earned him accolades across the country. Davis’ work in Urban Theater has earned him a Humanitarian Award nomination, and he was labeled as one of the funniest Gospel Playwrights in America by the NAACP. Davis’ latest creations, “If Loving You Is Wrong,” and “Private Chambers” (plays 8 and 9) have solidified his place as one of America’s premier playwrights and producers of Urban Theater. Upon its release in 2003, If Loving You is Wrong sold 10,000 DVDs in 90 days. Private Chambers, the first courtroom based drama for urban theater, will debut the DVD in late 2005.
Artists who have appeared in Garrett Davis’ productions during the last 11 years include Freddie Jackson, Ann Nesby (from the movie “The Fighting Temptations”), Donnie Harper of the New Jersey Mass Choir, singer songwriter Becky White, Blanche McAllister, Luther Barnes, Melvin Williams, Gerald Alston and Blue Lovette of the Manhattans, Anthony McDonald of the group Prophet Jones, Glenn Jones, gospel comedian Sister Cantaloupe, R&B Songstress Cherelle, Dorothy Townes from the Sounds of Blackness, Duranice Pace of the Pace Sisters and Carl Payne form the Martin Lawrence Show.
According to Davis, “I am so blessed to be a part of such an incredible production, from the cast and crew, to the musical direction and the underlying story. I believe that our stage production of Marrying Up create a new benchmark of excellence in urban theater.”
For booking Information, contact:
P. Browne, Esq. Phone: 615.516.2128
Email: browneentertainment@yahoo.com
