Coastal Carolina University's Department of Theatre will present a reading of "TOAST," a new musical adaptation of Rex Rose's novel "TOAST," on Friday, May 15, and Saturday, May 16, at 7:30 p.m. at the Edwards Theatre on the campus of Coastal Carolina University. The reading is free and open to the public.

Sam Carner wrote the lyrics and the book "TOAST," with music by Derek Gregor. The play will be directed by John Woodson, with music direction by Steven Gross.

"TOAST" is the story of Tania, a free-spirited young woman who comes back to New Orleans, her birthplace, in the wake of hurricane Katrina, with the mission of finishing a tattoo she had started years before. When Tania finds the tattoo artist dying, she makes it her new mission to make his last days meaningful and to give him an amazing funeral in true New Orleans style. Along the way, a community of misfits, still reeling from disaster, finds ways of making peace with the past and learning to celebrate life again.

The cast includes faculty, students and some CCU theatre alumni: Kelly Kapur, Sarah Stipe, Sarah Parker, DeJuan Thompson, Taylor Wright, Riley Phoenix, Ben Southerland, Corey Ryan, John Woodson, Adam Pelty, Robert Wallace, Kailey Mixer, Christina Daves, Melissa Cabey, Meagan Sharp, Ashlyn Inman, Emiline Phinney and Caitlen Patton.

The Edwards Theatre is located at 133 Chanticleer Drive in the Thomas W. and Robin W. Edwards College of Humanities and Fine Arts, Room 117. This is a non-ticketed event that is free to the public. There will be a post-show discussion following the performances.

Carner and Gregor won the 2014 John Wallowitch Award, and they were included in Playbill.com's 12 "Contemporary Musical Theatre Songwriters You Should Know." In addition, Carner won the 2015 Kleban Prize for "Most Promising Librettist." Seven of their songs have been nominated for Manhattan Association of Cabarets & Clubs (MAC) Awards, and their work has been performed in hundreds of venues around the world in six continents to date, including Antarctica.

Carner and Gregor's musical "Unlock'd" played an extended Off-Broadway run at the Duke Theater in 2013, having won a Richard Rodgers Award and "Best of the Fest" at the New York Musical Theatre Festival. Their musical "Island Song" was produced in 2014 at the Bloomington Playwrights Project, having had workshops around the U.S., as well as concerts at (le) Poisson Rouge in New York, Crawfish in Tokyo (in Japanese!), London's St. James Studio and the Comedie Nation in Paris.

As a team, they wrote additional songs for "Sheila Levine Is Dead And Living In New York" (book by Todd Graff, original songs by Michael Devon), which had a recent workshop with the Vineyard Theatre, directed by Susan Stroman. Their short children's musical "Love, Splat!" has toured the country since 2013.

Gregor writes country music with Laura Bell Bundy and has an original song featured on her album "Longing For A Place Already Gone." He composed music for the short movie musical "Grind," currently featured at film festivals around the world.