Neligh-Oakdale To Premiere An Original Musical Next Month

It’s an opportunity few actors get to experience. 

However, the young actors and singers at Neligh-Oakdale School will get the chance to premiere an original musical.  

The 2015 musical will be "BATTLE CROWN: The Legend of Princess Pink (an 8-bit Musical)."  The book, music and lyrics are written by Amanda Miller Dills, daughter of Neligh-Oakdale music teacher Patricia Miller. The show is inspired by video games of the ‘80s. The school musical will feature performances on Friday, March 20 and Saturday, March 21.  

Amanda Miller Dills received a Master’s Degree in Music Composition from Oklahoma City University in 2013, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Vocal Music Education from Augustana College in 2003. Her first full-length show, Fat Girlfriend: the musical, for which she wrote book, music, and lyrics, was produced by the Shelterbelt Theatre and won the 2009 Omaha Theatre Arts Guild award for best Original Script. In 2010, she was selected to participate in 8 Minute Musicals at the New York Musical Theatre Festival, where she co-wrote Taking the Plunge -- which went on to become a finalist in both the 2011 Samuel French Off-Off-Broadway Festival and the 2013 Davenport 10-Minute Musical Contest -- with collaborator Greg Edwards. In 2013, she wrote original songs for the children’s musical, Penny the Piano (based on a children’s book of the same name by Suzanne Jackson) which was performed at the Kennedy Center and the Snapple Off-Broadway Theatre in New York. Most recently, she collaborated with bookwriter and lyricist Ann Lacy to compose songs for the Lacy’s original musical, 7th Avenue.  

Amanda’s choral music and vocal arrangements have been performed across the Midwest, and her piano solo, “Tenth Piano Suite,” is available for purchase from Sheet Music Plus.

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