Broadway actress, Karen Curlee, takes the Ramsdell stage on this one-of-a-kind show featuring Mark Stewart (Paul Simon music director) and Carrie Selbee (local pianist) on Friday, September 8 at 7pm. "What is this Thing Called Love" promises to be a fun and dynamic show!

Event begins at 7pm | Concessions to be sold at the event

Karen Curlee biography

For more than 25 years, Karen Curlee appeared in chorus and feature roles on Broadway in six long-running shows (Cats, A Chorus Line, Me and My Girl, Blackstone, The Tap Dance Kid and Showboat ). She has played lead roles in musicals off- Broadway and regionally; roles include Sally Bowles in Cabaret, Marta in Company, Velma Kelly in Chicago, and Kate in The Taffetas. She has worked with many of Broadway’s greatest contributors, including Michael Bennett, Hal Prince, Susan Stroman, and Gillian Lind. She performs her cabaret act in venues throughout New York City, and can heard on cast albums of The Tap Dance Kid and The Taffetas. She has appeared in short films and commercials, and has choreographed Xanadu and Sweeney Todd for Piper Productions.

Karen hails from California, where she graduated from San Francisco State University with a degree in theater. She completed an Arts Administration Certificate Program at New York University while performing on Broadway for four years in Hal Prince’s Showboat.

After performing on Broadway, Karen transitioned into arts education. She is co-director of Together in Dance, a dance and musical theater education company that reaches more than 4000 NYC children and teens per year. Karen creates residency designs, facilitates professional development and family workshops, and mentors teaching artists. She has directed numerous youth musical theater productions, including 1776, An Immigration Experience, and Memphis.

She also teaches musical theater, dance and voice, has practiced yoga daily for 18 years, is an avid cyclist, enjoys knitting and her biggest success – her son, filmmaker Gabriel Gomez.

While Karen's contribution to arts education has been meaningful and satisfying, performing has always been her first love. She is seeking representation and looks forward to the roles that are now available to her as an active and experienced performer.

Mark Stewart biography

Multi-instrumentalist, singer, composer and instrument designer Mark Stewart has been heard around the world performing old and new music. Since 1998 he has recorded, toured and been Musical Director with Paul Simon. A founding member of the Bang on a Can All-Stars, the comic duo Polygraph Lounge with keyboard & theremin wizard Rob Schwimmer, Mark has also worked with Simon & Garfunkel, Steve Reich, Sting, Bob Dylan, Meredith Monk, Stevie Wonder, Philip Glass, Hugh Masekela, Bruce Springsteen, Ornette Coleman, Edie Brickell, Joan Baez, Paul McCartney, Jimmy Cliff, the Everly Brothers, Alison Krauss, Bobby McFerrin, James Taylor and many others. He has worked extensively with composer Elliot Goldenthal on music for the films Midsummer Night's Dream, The Tempest, Across the Universe, Titus, The Butcher Boy, The Good Thief, In Dreams and Heat, often playing instruments of his own design and construction. He has designed instruments for TFANA's productions of Midsummer Nights Dream & King Lear and is the inventor of the WhirlyCopter, a bicycle-powered Pythagorean choir of singing tubes and the Big Boing, a 24 ft. sonic banquet table Mbira/thumb piano that seats 30 children playing 490 found objects. He is currently a curator at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art and a visiting lecturer at MIT in Cambridge.

Carrie Selbee biography

Carrie Selbee has been involved in all things piano since she was six years old. She has both a Bachelor of Music degree in Piano Performance from Central Michigan University, and a Master of Music degree in Piano Performance and Pedagogy from Southern Methodist University, studying under internationally acclaimed pianist Alfred Mouledous. Her own performing experience is diverse, from soloing with symphony orchestras to playing popular music at a piano bar. She has a special love for the classic jazz piano style of boogie-woogie. She currently is one half of the jazz duo, Carrie and Roger, with the highly acclaimed drummer, Roger Tarczon. She does extensive accompanying for the Manistee area schools and is an accompanist for the Manistee Community Chorus. Carrie is also the pianist and music worship leader at Manistee United Methodist Church, and a founding member of River City Music School in Manistee, which seeks to connect her community to the joys of music making.

Concert rep:

What is This Thing Called Love

Gorgeous

Where or When

Bill

Can't Help Lovin That Man

Sleepy Man

I Didn't Know what Time it Was

Time Heals Everything

Like it Was

Could I leave you?

Still Hurting

Everybody Says Don't

Fifty Percent

Old Friend