FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
U.C.L.A. Alumni, Mark McQuown and Buddy Mix realize they attended classes together 20 years later, then co-write Dragula: The Musical.
Mr. McQuown, of Valencia CA, possesses an MFA in Directing from the School of Theater, Film and Television at U.C.L.A. and is a member of The Screen Actors Guild/AFTRA, Actors Equity Association, along with The New York Dramatist Guild and The Association of Los Angeles Playwrights. Buddy Mix, a.k.a. Alfred Charles Mix, graduated from U.C.L.A. with a degree in music, emphasis in voice.
In 1994 Mix hired McQuown to direct an original musical called A Little Meditation; an original creation that Mix wrote and produced. The musical was nominated in six categories by the N.A.A.C.P. Theater Committee, Hollywood Chapter for: Best Directing, Best Costumes, Best Choreography, Best Lighting, Best Leading Female Actor, and Best Music Director. McQuown was nominated for Best Director and Mix received the Best Music Directing Award for A Little Meditation.
Fast forward 20 years later when McQuown contacts Mix, who subsequently moved to North Carolina, to write the music for a new libretto (Story with Music) titled Dragula, The Musical McQuown had written. Over the course of the next year McQuown and Mix communicated via phone and internet about Mix’s compositions.
Once Mix completed eight (8) of the compositions, McQuown submitted the musical to the Los Angeles Theater Festival which accepted their submission for an Angels Performance presentation to be seen and heard the last weekend of the 2015 festival, Oct 2nd and 3rd. David Gadd, The Executive Director of the Los Angeles Theater Festival called the work, “A Musical for the Modern Age”.
Mark McQuown is an Award Winning/Produced Playwright/Screenwriter with credits on the IMDB, for the film PJ (2008) starring John Heard, Vincent Pastore, Robert Picardo, and Hallie Kate Eisenberg.
Mr. McQuown has been honored as a Quarter Finalist in the 1997 Chesterfield Screenwriting Fellowship with Pier 21, as a Semi-Finalist in the 1998 Chesterfield Screenwriting Fellowship with The China Tiger and a Quarter Finalist in the 200-2001 Scriptapolooza with Jane, the Legend of Mountain Charley. Graduate School was named the fourth place winner in the 2006 Winter Script Network Contest in Los Angeles.
Mr. McQuown is the recipient of the 1997 Santa Clarita International Film Festival, animation division Winner with The Rocking Horse Christmas, the 2000 Telluride Independent Film Festival with The Tahoe Signal, the 2002 Telluride Independent Film Festival with Dot Gone and the 2002-2003 Key West Independent Film Festival with Pier 21.
Mr. Mix received the George Washington Honor Medal for his patriotic songs he produced and wrote for the Huntington 4th of July parade, created the first singing lesson on video called The Singer’s Workout which sold throughout the United States in Guitar Center and Sam Ash Music Stores, as well as The Music Stand Catalogue and internationally via the internet. Mix’s educational products continue to be sold over 30 years later by various distributors and on-line and is available in many libraries.
Mix also produced and recorded several original albums, has several music videos shot by director Eric Walker, that were released on Itunes via Tunecore and YouTube. His original albums can be seen at www.oftheapple.com , created by, movie and acting star Eric Walker (See The Ewok Adventure, a George Lucas Film) currently working with Actor/Writer Greg Holland on their epic movie adventure “Star Walker”, with recently released eBook Star Walker Ken Ju Kai: “Mystery of The 7 Seals". Walker also has several original instrumental albums on Itunes.
Mix credits his interest in writing music to a private audition arranged by Alan Gilbert, a music professor at U.C.L.A., to Universal Studios music composer Roy Rogosin, Upon listening to Mix sing, Rogosin signed Mix to a management contract and introduced him to D’Arneil Africa Pershing, composer/arranger for Debbie and Pat Boone, Johnny Matthis, The 5th Dimension, among others. D’Arneil challenged Mix to write a song. D’Arneil believed that anyone who could sing could write music.
That introduction by Professor Alan Gilbert of U.C.L.A. ultimately set the course of Mix’s life for the next 40 years and continues to this day. Subsequently Pershing arranged and produced one of Mix’s first compositions, which was recorded at the Devonshire Studios in Burbank, CA called Superman Where Are You Today. The executive producer for that session wrote the NBC music theme, Mr. Ellis. Mix also recorded Mr. Ellis’s son’s original song during that session, Just Being Friends, by Mark Ellis.