A production with music by a local composer will be performed in Chicago, New York and Washington, D.C.

The production based on Tomie dePaola�s classic children�s book, "Oliver Button Is A Sissy," features original music by Alan Shorter, assistant professor of theatre and dance at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. The choral piece will be performed in June at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and at Carnegie Hall in New York City. In March, it will be staged in Chicago and then will have a 15-city tour.

"Oliver Button is a Sissy" will be performed by the Gay Men�s Chorus of Washington, D.C., as part of the production "Everything Possible" on Saturday, June 14 at 8 p.m. in the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Tickets sell for $15 to $45.

The Gay Men�s Chorus of New York City will perform the piece in Carnegie Hall in a concert entitled "Pride for All Ages" on Wednesday, June 18 at 8 p.m. Tickets are not yet on sale for this concert. For further information, check the Carnegie Hall Web site, www.carnegiehall.org/.

The Chicago premier of "Oliver Button is a Sissy" is part of a concert entitled "Sticks and Stones, Songs for the Child in You." It will include performances by the Windy City Gay Chorus, Unison Lesbian and Gay Singers, and Windy City Slickers. Performances will be Friday and Saturday, March 21 and 22 at 8 p.m. at Harold Washington Library Auditorium, 400 S. State St., Chicago. Children will be encouraged to participate in the performance. Tickets may be ordered online at www.windycitysings.org/.

A powerful and touching theatre piece, "Oliver Button is a Sissy," tells the story of a boy who is teased because he doesn't like to do typical boy things. He�d much rather paint, write stories, and sing and dance his way into your heart. The book was published in 1979 and has since been translated into more than 200 languages.

"I wrote the book because I didn�t want any child, boy or girl, to be called a negative name," dePaola said. "I wanted to let other children who might call names know how hurtful it can be. I guess in my na�vet� I thought this book wouldn�t be needed in the future, but here it is over 20 years later, and it�s still needed desperately."

The Kennedy Center concert, "Everything Possible," is devoted to the themes of growing up, tolerance and acceptance. The chorus has been recognized by the Washington Post as "one of the world's best male choruses."

In addition to "Oliver Button is a Sissy," the New York City Gay Men�s Chorus will sing Walt Whitman�s "Song of Democracy." A 185-voice male chorus, the group regularly performs classical and contemporary choral music on the world-renowned stage of Carnegie Hall and at a variety of local events.

In 1999 Shorter was commissioned to do the musical adaptation of "Oliver Button is a Sissy" by a consortium of four choruses, including The Twin Cities Gay Men�s Chorus, The Heartland Chorus of Kansas City, Mo., the Gay Men�s Chorus of Vancouver, and the Gay Men�s Chorus of San Diego.

Shorter expanded upon the book for the concert piece, including a tap dance that illustrates Oliver Button�s entry in a talent contest. While the book takes about five minutes to read, the musical work runs 23 minutes, Shorter said.

"I treated the source material, Tomie dePaola�s words, with great respect and built the music around his storytelling style," Shorter said.

In addition to being performed by the four courses that commissioned it, the piece has been performed in other cities such as Los Angeles, Denver, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, Seattle, Boston, Chicago, Orlando, Sacramento, St. Louis and San Francisco.

In 2001 the Twin Cities Gay Men�s Chorus performed the work for a PBS special, "Oliver Button is a Star." Shorter wrote additional music for the video. Directed by John Scagliotti and produced by Dan Hunt, the video explores bullying, tolerance and positive alternatives for expressing children�s gender differences. The film weaves animation, archival film, news stories and classroom activities with the chorus� performance. It features personal interviews with such well-known figures as arctic explorer Ann Bancroft, dancer Bill T. Jones and makeup artist Kevyn Aucoin. The celebrities tell about the defining moment in their childhoods when they were forced to confront conventional constructs of "masculine" and "feminine."

The video has been shown on PBS stations across the country including in Boston, Chicago, Dallas and Los Angeles.

Shorter came to UWSP in 2001 after a successful career in theatre. He was resident stage director and artistic associate at the Children�s Theatre Company of Minneapolis, the largest children�s theatre company in North America. He also was a freelance director in Minnesota.

Shorter first worked with dePaola at the Children�s Theatre Company of Minneapolis. Shorter also was asked to adapt and direct DePaola�s Stega Nona series which premiered in 1986 as an operetta. In 1991 the Children�s Theatre Company of Minneapolis premiered Shorter�s version of "Merry Christmas Strega Nona." He also wrote scores for two educational CDs, "The Art Lesson," based on the autobiographical book by dePaola, and "The American Girls" for The Learning Company.

Shorter is currently working on an adaptation of dePaola�s "Country Angel Christmas for the Heartland Men�s Chorus and a commission for the Fiftieth Anniversary of St. Mark Presbyterian Church in Dallas.

He holds a bachelor�s degree from Indiana University at Bloomington and a master of fine arts from Minnesota State University at Mankato.

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