The REP Theatre in Seaside will raise the curtain in 2018 by diving into a multi-disciplinary performance schedule in conjunction with Escape to Create.

In partnership with Seaside’s nationally acclaimed arts residency, Escape to Create, The REP’s 2018 season opens Jan. 9 at 7:30 p.m. with a one-night only performance by musicians already redefining their genres as emerging artists.

Miami virtuoso pianist Jacob Mason, UK violinist Andrew Samarasekara, and Venezuelan-American cellist Sebastian Ortega represent the next generation of international classical music artists. They have each achieved international recognition while current students at the prestigious New England Conservatory of Music. Their performance of classical and jazz repertoire as The Escape Trio showcases individual virtuosity and eloquent interpretation.

Fresh from his European summer tour and following select appearances on the West Coast, Kansas City’s ascending star, the neo-folk harpist and singer-songwriter Calvin Arsenia, defies categorization. At 6-foot, 5-inches tall, the multi-instrumentalist is a commanding presence on stage and his alluring five-octave range voice leaves audiences transfixed.

International sculptor John K. Melvin up-cycles discarded plastics to create ecological sculptures exhibited across the world. A 2016 artist resident of the World Monuments Fund (Plastic Pollution), Siem Reap Cambodia, Melvin will co-host a screening of the awarded adventure documentary film, "A Plastic Ocean" on Jan. 27 at 4 p.m. Filmed in 20 locations across the globe, the epic adventure follows a filmmaker and a world record-holder free diver during their four-year search for the elusive blue whale and their discovery of what lurks just below the surface.

Brooklyn based playwright/performer Caitlin Saylor Stephens turns her fearless eye on the dark and most vulnerable aspects of human nature in a new Americana drama, "JOLEY," the compelling new work awarded the 2018 Goody Playwright Fellowship by Escape to Create and The REP Theatre. Set in Appalachia, the play centers on a Tennessee mountain woman who, after a long separation, reunited with a lover one hot and heavy evening in a seedy bar. When Oprah-obsessed Joley reveals her battle wounds from a particularly violent episode of domestic abuse, the two are challenged with the task of confronting their wrongs, unearthing their truths, finding forgiveness, and burying a body. The REP company will perform a dramatic script-in-hand reading on Jan. 28. Meet the playwright during the talk-back session and reception that will follow the performance.

Tickets and more information available at www.LoveTheREP.com.