(NORTH ADAMS, Mass.) – There will be a work-in-progress public showing of First Daughter Suite, a new work by Tony Award-nominated composer and lyricist Michael John LaChiusa, at MASS MoCA on Saturday, December 7, 2013, at 8pm. The performance is the culmination of a residency by the renowned Sundance Institute Theatre Program’s fall musical and ensemble Theatre Lab that offers workshop support to playwrights, directors, composers, and librettists.

Directed by Kirsten Sanderson, First Daughter Suite is part of a cycle of musical plays that began with First Lady Suite (1992). A fantasia based on historical characters and real events, First Daughter Suite explores the complex dynamic between mothers and daughters, as experienced by the women and children closest to the President of the United States. Despite the rarefied environment of the White House and accompanying trials of the presidency, each faces obstacles that are common to us all.

MASS MoCA’s performing arts residencies offer well-equipped and professionally staffed technical facilities and stages, as well as a sophisticated, diverse, and sympathetic audience for new work – especially technically complex work that requires generous allocations of time and space impossible in conventional theatrical settings.

MASS MoCA’s vast galleries and expert fabrication staff offer visual artists the tools and time to create works of a scale and duration impossible to realize in the time-limited and space-cramped conditions of most museums. MASS MoCA takes every opportunity to expose audiences to all stages of art production; rehearsals, sculptural fabrication, and developmental workshops are frequently on view, as are finished works of art.

Sundance Institute Theatre Lab participants take the stage in MASS MoCA’s Club B-10 on Saturday, December 7, at 8 pm. A full bar, and dinner and snacks from Lickety Split are available before and during the show. Tickets are $12 in advance, $16 the day of, and $10 for students. Members receive a 10% discount. Tickets are available through the MASS MoCA box office, located on Marshall Street in North Adams, from 11am to 5pm (open every day except Tuesdays). Tickets can also be charged by phone by calling 413.662.2111 x1 during box office hours or purchased online at MASS MoCA.