Numbers Nerds
As one of the two Workshop Productions at this year's CMTF, Numbers Nerds has the unique experience of having two performances during the festival with two weeks in between to do what they came to the festival to do: play and edit. CMTF's Workshop Program is designed for shows that are in their early stages to get the material in front of an audience with little to no technical elements to gauge an audience's reaction to the material and give the writers an idea of what the show looks like with actors. CPA Theatricals producer Larry Little warned the cast on day one of rehearsals, "stay flexible and memorize quickly, but be prepared to make adjustments." Even before the festival opens, the process and progress has already begun. "As we work with the actors and discover the path of the story, it changes and grows," Little says, "and it is becoming something very strong that is not only funny, but heartwarming."
The inspiration for Numbers Nerds not only comes from Little's love for numbers and former career as a CPA (hence the moniker), but also from a desire to create a vehicle for female actresses to show their comedy chops. "First," he emphasizes "every director will tell you that for every one boy that auditions there are 15 girls --maybe more. And I realized there were very few all-girl musicals with three-dimensional characters." Little doesn't seem to be the only one that feels this way, with movies like Bridesmaids and the new Ghostbusters reboot trying their darnedest to give female comedians the roles and credit that they deserve. Numbers Nerds also has a unique trajectory for after the workshop at CMTF. Rather than aiming for a regional mounting, tour, or big city transfer, Nerds is shooting for licensing in the "secondary market" of high schools, colleges, and community theatre. "My strategy is to work with a few theaters and directors to help us hone the show, then we can put together a marketing portfolio and bring it to the larger licensing houses, who can reach our target audience."
An all-girl math team from Waukesha, Wisconsin advances to the National Math Challenge when the team from Oshkosh gets caught cheating. Now the girls must prepare for the tournament, as they also learn to work together. We meet the colorful, exciting characters, and then follow them as they finally get to the National Math Challenge. Against a backdrop of drama-queens-turned-janitors, loose ferrets and college pressure, a diverse (almost) all-girls high school Math Team must band (and sing!) together to raise the money to go to the National competition, surmount their differences to win and figure out if unicorns are extinct. Book by Laura Stratford, Lyrics by Alex Higgin-Houser, Music by David Kornfeld, Story by Larry Little, Directed by Amber Mak. Numbers Nerds is presented by CPA Theatricals.
Check out the Performance Dates page on the 2016 CMTF Blog to find the performance times for Numbers Nerds, and visit their website or cmtf.org for more information and to reserve your FREE tickets.
