Sixteen Bars is putting together “Crossing the Divide” featuring Krystina Alabado for an online discussion on the Pop-Broadway divide and how artists try to bridge the gap.

Once upon a time, musical theatre was built into the DNA of pop music.  The work of prolific artists like George & Ira Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers, and more dominated the popular consciousness. Then everything changed when pop music distanced itself from the institution of musical theatre. 

Suddenly, there was a divide between pop music and “show tunes” that persists to this day. But more and more musical theatre artists in the present are creating work that bridges the gap between the “popular” and the “niche.” Genres that once lived only on the charts and radios are now making their way to stages, so performers are finding new ways to adapt. 

Crossing the Divide: An Online Pop Broadway Q&A is an interactive Facebook Live Q&A event featuring NYC-based actor and singer, Krystina Alabado. Before the COVID-19 shutdown, she was playing Gretchen Wieners in the Broadway musical, Mean Girls. She has also appeared in a number of theatrical productions on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and on tour including Spring Awakening, American Psycho, American Idiot, David Bowie’s Lazarus, and Kait Kerrigan & Brian Lowdermilk’s The Mad Ones

In this virtual experience, attendees will hear from a rising star in the world of musical theatre who’s done considerable work inhabiting the worlds of “pop musicals.” Part-seminar and part-interview in nature, Krystina shares her experience navigating this new breed of musicals as a performer. Everyone is encouraged to send in questions, whether they be about performance techniques, physical and mental care, creativity, or the various shows that she’s done. 

The event will be held on Saturday, 13 June 2020, from 12:30 to 1:30 PM (PHT) via Facebook Live on the Sixteen Bars Facebook page. Stay tuned to our social media for more announcements. 

This initiative supports the non-profit NGO, Para Sa Sining, and its fundraising project, #HomeNotAlone. The goal of this project is to provide a subsidy of PhP 5,000 (100 USD) to a minimum of fifty (50) workers in the creative sector; particularly to performing artists, cultural workers, and production crews for live events who have been badly affected by the COVID-19 Pandemic. Attendees are strongly encouraged to donate at http://TINYurl.com/homenotalone.

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