Aaron Thielen and Ryan T. Nelson, the founders of the Broadway Across Borders, will create a new musical with students of three Polish art schools and recognized artists of the young generation. The starting point for the creative work and preparation of the repertoire are the themes and issues important to young people in Poland. The world premiere of the original musical consisting of new songs created during the project will take place in June in Łódź.

Broadway Across Borders is a Chicago-based organization that implements art exchange projects connecting musical theatre artists in countries such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Poland, Serbia, Germany and the United States. Their first two projects took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina where they worked with the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo. This is how BiH Broadway was born. During the pandemic, they worked with young artists from multiple countries to create the first international virtual production of the Broadway hit Spring Awakening, as well as two original ten-minute musicals. Now the U.S. Embassy in Warsaw has invited these American artists to work with the talented students here in Poland.

For the past 30 years Aaron Thielen hasbeen working professionally as an actor, director, choreographer, writer, and for the past 17 years the Artistic Director at the Marriott Theatre in Chicago IL, that focuses on producing, creating, and developing musicals. Dr Ryan T. Nelson is an Associate Professor of Instruction in Music Theatre at Northwestern University. He supervises musical productions in the Wirtz Center for the Performing Arts. He is also the Music Supervisor/Resident Music Director at the Marriott Theatre in Chicago.

The artists behind Broadway Across Borders believe that musical theatre, the quintessential American art form, transcends languages and nationalities. It is an incredibly powerful tool for building bridges between people to eliminate prejudice and discrimination and further human rights.

Students of the three arts schools will take part in this unique project, including The Aleksander Zelwerowicz Theatre Academy in Warsaw, The Ignacy Jan Paderewski Music Academy in Poznań and The Grażyna and Kiejstut Bacewicz Music Academy in Łódź. Young artists are mentored by composers and songwriters Aga Ozon, Łukasz Czyż, Adrian Kieroński and Gosia Lipka.

In November, students has worked for a week with Ryan Nelson in Warsaw, Poznań and Łodź. The next three workshops with Aaron Thielen and Ryan T. Nelson will be held in March, and in June everyone will meet in Łódź during a week of rehearsals to prepare for the premiere planned for June 16th in the Concert Hall of the Academy of Music in Łódź.

Elizabeth Blumenthal, Deputy Cultural Attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Warsaw, says, “The U.S. Embassy is delighted to have the opportunity to bring together these talented young Polish artists to work with American theater professionals from Broadway Across Borders and find ways to use musical theater to explore social issues. We can’t wait to see what they create together.”