The Emerging Stages program at Stoneham Theatre has announced two productions for the first half of 2005. "Thrill Me" with book, music and lyrics by Stephen Dolginoff, will play January 20-28, 2005, and "Never Swim Alone" by Daniel MacIvor is scheduled for April 14-23, 2005.

"Thrill Me," first staged during the Fourth Annual Midtown Theatre Festival in New York, is a chilling musical retelling of the infamous story of Leopold and Loeb. Set in 1924 Chicago, the play chronicles the events that led Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb to commit an unthinkable crime - the murder of a young boy. "Thrill Me" will be directed by Caitlin Lowans.

Stephen Dolginoff, dubbed a "major talent" by Matthew Murray of Talkin' Broadway, has also written the musicals "Most Men Are," "One Foot Out the Door" and "Journey to the Center of the Earth." Peter Filichia of TheaterMania included "Thrill Me" among this list of Fifty Best Scores of All Time for Off-Broadway Musicals.

In Daniel MacIvor's "Never Swim Alone," two actors engage in thirteen rounds of dialogue, each refereed by a young woman in a swimsuit; a girl that both men knew as boys at summer camp. It's a play that NYTheatre.com describes as "a verbal sparring match; a battle through the dangerous terrain of masculine bravado. It's about two men asserting, proving, glorifying their manliness.hell-bent on gaining the advantage." "Never Swim Alone" was presented at the New York Fringe Festival in 1999. The Stoneham production will be directed by Caitlin Lowans.

The Emerging Stages program at Stoneham Theatre was founded in 2001 in an effort to assist emerging artists in the development of new work while offering audiences more opportunities to experience new or unfamiliar scripts.

Memorable past productions include the World Premiere of "Marathon," adapted by Israel Horovitz, and "The Girl in the Frame," a contemporary musical comedy by Jeremy Desmon that's one of only eight shows selected to appear this month in the 16th-Annual Festival of New Musicals with the National Alliance for Musical Theatre.

For tickets and information, call the box office at 781-279-2200 or visit StonehamTheatre.org.

-- OnStage Boston

10/21/04