page to stage 2018

This year Marika is participated in the Page To Stage Festival at The Kennedy Center. She is music directed readings for two new musicals: Montgomery by Britt Bonney (with Monumental Theatre Company) and The Count of Monte Cristo by John and Elena Tafone.

Montgomery Synopsis:

In 1955, two women were arrested on Montgomery buses for violating segregation law. One went on to be called the Mother of the Civil Rights movement, her name taught to every American schoolchild as a symbol of the best of us. The other works as a nurse’s aide in the Bronx. On a windy March day in Alabama, spunky 15-year-old Claudette Colvin refuses to give up her bus seat to accommodate white riders and is arrested. Suddenly, Claudette finds herself at the center of a whirlwind. When Claudette goes to trial and is convicted, public outrage is at a fever pitch. But civil rights leader E.D. Nixon has his doubts: is Claudette too young, too poor, and too dark-skinned to unite the community in protest? When the mild-mannered, light-skinned Mrs. Parks is arrested, the boycott is on, and Claudette all but forgotten – until a new court case gives her one more chance to make history. With its blues- and rock-infused score, Montgomery takes you to the birth of the civil rights movement.

"Kevin McAllister directed a first-rate cast, and Marika Countouris conducted the bracing score. The book, lyrics, and blues and rock music are all by Britt Bonney, who with this Act One (Act Two isn’t done yet) has already made a mark on American musical theater."

-John Stoltenberg DC Metro Theatre Arts