The University of Dayton will present a staged reading of its new musical, “Spectacle,” about founder Blessed William Joseph Chaminade at the 2017 Lay Marianist Assembly. The musical itself will premier in 2018.

Co-written by Associate Director of Campus Ministry Nick Cardilino, the show will feature a variety of musical types and styles and will tell the story of Chaminade, who survived persecution during the French Revolution, and his friends and co-founders of the Marianists, Venerable Marie-Thérèse Charlotte de Lamourous and the Venerable Adèle de Batz de Trenquelléon.

A priest in revolutionary France, Chaminade refused to swear an oath to the French government rather than the Vatican. Instead, with help from Marie-Thérèse, he risked death by secretly continuing to work as a pries, before eventually fleeing to Spain. After his return, Chaminade and Marie-Thérèse founded a sodality of lay people to “re-Christianize France.” The Daughters of Mary Immaculate began in 1816 under the leadership of Mother Adèle to help the sodality grow. A year later, for the same purpose, Chaminade founded the Society of Mary, which sponsors the University of Dayton. In May, Pope Francis signed the beatification decree for Mother Adèle. The title is taken from Chaminade’s hope to restore the Catholic faith to France through “the spectacle of a people of saints.”

The reading will features seven UD undergraduates participating in the College of Arts and Sciences Dean’s Summer Fellowship program.

The full production, a collaboration between the University theatre, dance and performance technology program and the department of music, will feature a full cast and will be staged in spring 2018. Both the initial staging and the full performance will be funded by alumnus John Alberici (class of 67) and his wife Natalie, who have invested in several Broadway shows and support theater in St. Louis, Mo., where they now live.

Cardilino is a singer-songwriter who has released four CDs and co-wrote the theme songs for the 2007 and 2011 National Catholic Youth Conferences. His co-writers are  Jim Ford, executive director of the Marianist Retreat Center near St. Louis, and Marianis  Brother Stan Zubek from Cape May, N.J.

Time approximate; exact time and room will be posted here closer to the event date.