Challenge Accepted! 2025

Premiering the winnings songs of:

JUDAH BROWN
11th Grade
Owasso Preparatory Academy
Tulsa, Oklahoma

GWENDELLYN DOERFLER
12th Grade
Dewitt High School
Dewitt, Michigan

SYDNEY GRAY
12th Grade
Fairhope High School
Fairhope, Alabama

LEELA KUMAR
11th Grade
Howell High School
Marlboro, New Jersey

ALI LEWIS
12th Grade
Mercy McAuley High School
Cincinnati, Ohio

SADIE SHAPIRO
12th Grade
Montclair Kimberley Academy
Montclair, New Jersey

ELAINA STUPPLER
11th Grade
Lakeridge High School
Lake Grove, Oregon

KARSTEN WALLACE
11th Grade
Bob Jones High School
Madison, Alabama

And songs by Program Mentors:

ANDREA DALY
TIMOTHY HUANG
DYLAN GLATTHORN
JAIME LOZANO

In order of appearance:

Betsy King Militello
Executive Director
National Alliance for Musical Theatre

Ouida Maedel & Ian-Julian Williams
Theater & Musical Theater Specialists
National Endowment for the Arts

Frankie Dailey
New Works Director
National Alliance for Musical Theatre

“Second Chances” by Elaina Stuppler
Orchestrations: Anessa Marie Scolpini
Challenge Mentor: Andrea Daly
Featuring Amina Faye

“Why Not?” by Ali Lewis
Orchestrations: Faye Chiao | Challenge Mentor: Andrea Daly
Featuring Gabi Carrubba & Florencia Cuenca
With Amina Faye, Claire Kwon & Carson Stewart

“Dancing Through A Dream” by Leela Kumar
Orchestrations: Teresa Lotz | Challenge Mentor: Andrea Daly
Featuring Claire Kwon
With Michelle Dowdy & Gabi Carrubba

“Midnight Honeybees”
Written & Performed by Andrea Daly

“The Way Iamb” by Sadie Shapiro
Orchestrations: Faye Chiao | Challenge Mentor: Timothy Huang
Featuring Gabi Carrubba

“Hello World” by Karsten Wallace
Orchestrations: Faye Chiao | Challenge Mentor: Timothy Huang
Featuring Luke Islam & Michelle Dowdy

“Bigger Than Us” by Timothy Huang
Featuring Luke Islam & Carson Stewart

“Georgia from Florida” by Dylan Glatthorn & Will Lacker
Featuring Michelle Dowdy
With Claire Kwon & Carson Stewart

“Fall” by Sydney Gray
Orchestrations: Teresa Lotz | Challenge Mentor: Jaime Lozano
Featuring Luke Islam

“Fool” by Judah Brown
Orchestrations: Teresa Lotz | Challenge Mentor: Jaime Lozano
Featuring Carson Stewart

“Older” by Gwendellyn Doerfler
Orchestrations: Anessa Marie Scolpini | Challenge Mentor: Jaime Lozano
Featuring Amina Faye
With Florencia Cuenca, Claire Kown & Luke Islam

“Wings” by Jaime Lozano & Neena Beber
Featuring Florencia Cuenca & Jaime Lozano

The Band

Anessa Marie, Music Director & Keys
Jakob Reinhardt, Guitar
AJ Kostromina, Drums
Magda Kress, Bass
Adrianna Mateo, Violin
Laura Masferrer, Cello
Dylan Glatthorn, MTSC Music Supervisor

For NAMT

Betsy King Militello, Executive Director
Adam Grosswirth, Member Services Director
Frankie Dailey, New Works Director
Skye Cone Ivey, New Works Associate
Emily Vortherms, Operations & Communications Associate
Amanda Freedman, Program Assistant
Justin Cantu, Development Manager

For Challenge Accepted!

Livestream & Capture provided by Apples & Oranges Arts
Skye Cone Ivey, Senior Producer
Amanda Freedman, Associate Producer
Theo Karras, Line Producer
Michael Cassara, CSA, Casting Director
Will Bennett, Audio Supervisor

Meet the Artists

Judah Brown (“Fool”) is a musical theatre writer, performer and multi-instrumentalist based in Tulsa, Oklahoma. A lifelong musician, he began acting in fifth grade with Oliver! and has been telling stories through stage and song ever since. His current project is Feathered: The Musical, an original work reimagining the Greek myth of Icarus. Judah is a proud member of Clark Youth Theatre, which he calls his artistic home. He is currently a junior at Owasso Preparatory Academy, concurrently pursuing a liberal arts degree at Tulsa Community College and a certificate in Performing Arts Industry Essentials from NYU Tisch.

Gwendellyn Doerfler (“Older”) is a senior at Dewitt High School in Dewitt Michigan. She is a songwriter across multiple genres including jazz, country, pop and musical theatre. As a solo performing artist, Gwen constantly seeks to create connection with her audience through vulnerability and authenticity. Her performances around her hometown and beyond have made her well known in the Lansing area. She is committed to attend Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee in the fall for a degree in Commercial Music; Songwriting.

Sydney Gray (“Fall”) is a Senior at Fairhope High School and plans to attend the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts in the Fall as an Acting (Musicianship) Major. She’s been writing songs since she was 10 years old, and is currently working on many projects, including her original musical Anavaly, which includes her two award-winning songs “Little Miss Heard But Not Seen” and “Fall.” After winning the NAMT Songwriting Challenge last year, Sydney began posting her songs online, and has started using her platform to spread awareness about teen mental health.

Leela Kumar (“Dancing Through A Dream”) is a junior at Howell High School in Monmouth County, New Jersey. She loves performing and songwriting, and has written, produced, directed and starred in an original musical called Dancing Through a Dream at her school. She continued to expand and evolve her work during her time at the Iowa Young Writers’ Studio and through her experiences at Juilliard. When she’s not composing musicals or rewriting lyrics at 2 a.m., she enjoys tempting fate by ordering avocado handrolls despite being highly allergic to sushi.

Ali Lewis (“Why Not?”) is from Cincinnati, Ohio, and she is a senior at Mercy McAuley High School. Her musical, The Lost and Found, features sixteen original songs and she hopes to publish this work in her future. When Ali is not at the piano composing, she enjoys performing in musicals—and she has won three regional awards for various roles that she has portrayed. Ali hopes to use these performance abilities as a tool to help her as a composer, and she will be studying music composition at Miami University.

Sadie Shapiro (“The Way Iamb”) is a songwriter and playwright from Scotch Plains, New Jersey. She has been writing since she was five years old, and has been involved in many different aspects of theatre for over a decade. She attends Montclair Kimberley Academy, and will be a freshman at Smith College in the fall. She has also been successfully sticking to her New Year’s resolution from 2024, when she decided to write at least one song per month.

Elaina Stuppler (“Second Chances”) is a composer, singer and multi-instrumentalist creating music with themes of positive change. She was recently featured on NPR’s “From the Top” as a Musicians & the Environment Fellow, and selected for the Seattle Symphony’s “Dear Humanity” Concert. She is a three-time YoungArts Winner, DownBeat’s Outstanding Jazz Composition Award recipient, and Luna Composition Lab Fellow. Elaina participates with the Portland Youth Philharmonic and is All Classical Radio’s Young Artist in Residence. Her compositions have been played by the Oregon Symphony and the International Contemporary Ensemble. She has performed at Carnegie Hall, the Sydney Opera House and the Hollywood Bowl.

Karsten Wallace (“Hello World”) is a junior at Bob Jones High School in Madison, Alabama. He loves playing piano and guitar, singing and songwriting in his free time. His favorite artists are Childish Gambino and Tyler, the Creator and his favorite musical theatre composers are Alan Menken and Robert Lopez. His favorite musicals are The Book of Mormon, Newsies, and Hamilton.

Dylan Glatthorn (Challenge Music Supervisor) is a Brooklyn-based composer, lyricist, and arranger. He has worked with Grammy- and Tony-winning performers and producers, and his music has been described by the New York Times as “assured” with the “steaminess and drive of Janacek” and the “harmonic allure” of Debussy. His original musicals include: The Pelican (Musical Theatre West’s New Works Fest ’24, NAMT Festival of New Musicals ’22, Frank Young Fund Grant ’20-’21) Pottersfield (National Foundation for Musical Theatre Grant ’24), Edison, and Republic as well as one acts including Peach Melba (Prospect’s MT Lab ’23), Starshine, and Bittersweet Lullaby (licensed through Music Theatre International). He has written music for eleven feature films, numerous shorts and webseries, and commercially for brands such as Lindt, Nickelodeon, Oakley, Red Bull, Alessi, PBS, and the Tokyo Metro. He is a proud member of Theatre Now’s Musical Writers Lab, ASCAP, and The Dramatists Guild of America, Inc. He is the resident music supervisor for NAMT’s Musical Theater Songwriting Challenge.

Anessa Marie Scolpini (Challenge Music Director) is a music director, composer, orchestrator and pianist based in the NYC area. She is currently serving as Associate Conductor for the Broadway revival of Cabaret. Broadway: Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club, Moulin Rouge, Aladdin, Chicago. Off-Broadway/Regional: White Girl In Danger, A Beautiful Noise, The Griswolds’ Broadway Vacation, Joy, The Office Musical Parody, Far From Canterbury.

Faye Chiao (Challenge Orchestrator) is a versatile musical artist whose work as a composer, orchestrator, arranger, music director and performer spans musical theatre, opera and concert music. Faye’s work has been recognized with awards from The Presser Foundation, The Puffin Foundation and OPERA America. She has also been an artist-in-residence at The John Duffy Institute for New Opera at the Virginia Arts Festival, the Boston Chamber Symphony and a Labworks artist at The New Victory Theater. Additionally, Faye has received residencies at Barrington Stage Company, Millay Arts, Bethany Arts Community and Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Her compositions have been commissioned, produced and developed by Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera, Two River Theater, Syracuse Stage, Kenyon College, The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Manhattan School of Music, Prospect Theater, The Playwrights Realm, Single Carrot Theater, Hear Her Song, Pittsburgh Festival Opera and The 24-Hour Musicals. Faye is a proud member of ASCAP, Theatre Now New York’s Musical Writers Lab, BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Advanced Workshop, Maestra and MUSE. She is currently on faculty at BerkleeNYC and holds degrees from The Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University. @fayechiao

Teresa Lotz (Challenge Orchestrator) is an award-winning playwright and composer-lyricist whose work includes She Calls Me Firefly (2019 New York Innovative Theater Award Winner Best Original Short Script); Akira & The Merpeople (Polyphone Festival 2020); Red Emma & the Mad Monk (NY Times Critic’s Pick, 6 NYIT Nominations, LadyFest 2018); ThreeTimesFast (Florida Festival of New Musicals 2019, O’Neill Theater Festival Semi-Finalist); The Awakening (O’Neill Theater Festival Semi-Finalist, MTF Developmental Series at Playwright’s Horizons 2016).  Speranza Theatre Company’s Women’s Playwrights Circle (current); New Perspectives Theater Company’s Women’s Work Lab (alumni); New Dramatists Composer-Librettists Studio (alumni). 2020 Finalist for the Jonathan Larson Grant. Musical Theater Writing, M.F.A. NYU. TeresaLotz.com

Andrea Daly (Challenge Mentor) is an award-winning composer working at the intersections of musical theatre, pop, and classical music. After completing a Ph.D. in Composition at Stony Brook University in 2014 and releasing four EPs as a pop singer/songwriter with Warner/Chappell Music, Andrea used both styles to inform the score of her first original musical, Legendale (with bookwriter/lyricist Jeff Bienstock); Legendale was featured in NAMT’s Festival of New Works and Stephen Schwartz’s ASCAP workshops before a successful World Premiere in Denmark and American Premiere in Ohio, both in 2017. Andrea has since been commissioned to write book, music, and lyrics for an original near-future love story called NEXT, with collaborator Dominic Fallacaro (co-music/orchestrations) and will soon be releasing footage from a sold out Joe’s Pub concert of the music, featuring Broadway stars. Visit www.AndreaDalyMusic.com for more projects, and follow Andrea at @andreadalymusic.

Timothy Huang (Challenge Mentor) is the multi-award winning composer/lyricist/librettist of the musicals The View From Here, Peter and the Wall and A Relative Relationship. His musical American Morning was the recipient of the 2015 New American Musical Award, and the 2016 Richard Rodgers Award making him the first and (so far) only Asian-American triple-threat composer/lyricist/librettist winner in the latter’s history.  Other works include And the Earth Moved LINES: A Song Cycle, Missing Karma, Gates of Remembering and Koi Story.  Timothy is a two-time Larson Grant finalist, a two-time Fred Ebb Award finalist, a 2019 NYSCA/NYFA grant recipient and the selected 2020 NYMF Fellow.  As a teaching artist he’s spoken and mentored at universities across the country and for Lincoln Center Education’s Songwriting in Schools program, as well as mentored for the Musical Theater Songwriting Challenge hosted by NAMT and the National Endowment for the Arts. He has served on the Dramatists Guild National Council, the Creative Council for the AAPI Caucus of the DNC, the Rhinebeck Writer’s Retreat Sounding Board and the NAMT Alumni Writer’s committee. Proud husband to Laura and father to Haven. www.timothyhuang.net

Jaime Lozano (Challenge Mentor) is a Mexican multi-hyphenate musical theatre storyteller considered by Lin-Manuel Miranda as the “next big thing” on Broadway. American Theatre Wing’s Jonathan Larson Grant 2022. Rhinebeck Writers Retreat 2025. Goodspeed Opera House’s Johnny Mercer Grove Writers 2025. Dramatists Guild Fellow 2024-2025. Lincoln Center Resident Artist 2023. Joe’s Pub Working Group 2020-2022. The Civilians R&D Group 2020-2021. JACK Resident Artist 2021. Lincoln Center Resident Artist 2023. Selected works: El Otro Oz -formerly The Yellow Brick Road– (Off-Broadway & National Tour), Carmen La Cubana (European Tour), Children of Salt (NYMF 2016 “Best of Fest” Production), A Never-Ending Line (Comédie Nation in Paris, France & Off-Broadway), Desaparecidas (JACK). Albums: “A Never-Ending Line,” “Jaime Lozano and the Familia: Songs by an Immigrant” released by Broadway Records. “Songs by an Immigrant Vol. 2,” released by Concord Theatricals Recordings. Film: “In The Heights” (orchestrations), “Tick, Tick… Boom!” (cameo in Broadway composers scene). His project “Jaime Lozano & The Familia” has performed sold out concerts at venues such as Joe’s Pub, 54 Below, The Green Room 42, Two River Theater, and as part of the prestigious Lincoln Center’s American Songbook Series. Currently working on Frida, The Musical, ROJA and his anticipated new album: “Songs by an Immigrant Vol. 3”. BFA: Music & Composition, Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León; MFA: NYU/Tisch, Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program (Full Tuition Scholarship); part of the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop. Proud member of the Dramatists Guild of America, AFM Local 802, BMI and GRAMMY and Latin GRAMMY member.

GABI CARRUBBA (Challenge Cast) is an actor/director/storyteller from New York. Broadway: Dear Evan Hansen. TV: Dead Ringers, Law & Order, SVU. She has also directed theater & film (MTC, The Brick, Soho Playhouse, The Flea). Most recently, she directed the world premiere of Pretty Perfect Lives by Gage Tarlton at The Flea Theater and SMUTA by Jacob Wasson.  Her short films can also be streamed on nobudge.com. @gabrielle.carrubba

FLORENCIA CUENCA (Challenge Cast) Actress, singer, writer and director Florencia Cuenca made history with her Broadway debut this spring in “Real Women Have Curves” as the first Mexican immigrant to originate a leading role in a Broadway musical. Off-Broadway: Children of Salt (NYMF2016 Best of Fest), A Never-Ending Line (album available at Broadway Records). In New York, she has also performed as a singer-songwriter at prestigious venues including Lincoln Center, Joe’s Pub, 54 Below, MASS MoCA, and Washington Performing Arts. Her latest album, “Broadway in Spanglish,” where she sings Broadway hits with mariachi musical arrangements, jointly created by Jaime Lozano, was released in 2024 by Concord Theatricals. As a creator, artist, and director, Florencia is passionate about developing projects that celebrate the intersection of diversity, women, and the Latine communities.

MICHELLE DOWDY (Challenge Cast) Broadway: Hairspray (Tracy Turnblad). National Tour: Les Miserablés (Madame Thèniarder). Off-Broadway: The Marvelous Wonderettes (Betty Jean), Night of the Living Dead! The Musical! (Betty Lou/Robin Graves). Vocalist/Host of The Girlie Show: Circus & Burlesque (Chicago, Portland). MAC Award winner (2017 Piano Bar Entertainer of the year). Her debut album, A BRASS ACT, Broadwayworld named “Album of the Decade” and is available on iTunes. She is very proud to have recently received an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from Five Towns College. So you can call her Doctor now. MichelleDowdy.com @howdymissdowdy

AMINA FAYE (Challenge Cast) was recently seen in Six as Jane Seymour in the Six Boleyn Tour. She also played Robin in Suffs at The Public and originated the Role of Susannah Son in Love in Hate Nation at Two River Theater. Amina will be playing Gladys Antrobus in the upcoming production of The Seat Of Our Pants at The Public.

LUKE ISLAM (Challenge Cast) first gained national attention on Season 14 of America’s Got Talent, earning a Golden Buzzer from Julianne Hough for his performance of “She Used to Be Mine” from Waitress. He went on to star as Koob in Disney+’s The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers and as Carlos in Netflix’s 13: The Musical. He appeared as Christopher L in Theater Camp, which premiered in theaters and is now streaming on demand. Luke made his Off-Broadway debut as Earworm in The Last Bimbo of the Apocalypse with The New Group. He also performed two sold-out solo concerts at 54 Below and The Cutting Room.

CLAIRE KOWN (Challenge Cast) is currently a vacation standby for Claire at MAYBE HAPPY ENDING on Broadway! Broadway: ALMOST FAMOUS (Band-Aids/Swing), Off-Broadway: TEETH (Promise Keeper Girl Swing), Regional: GALILEO (Berkeley Rep), LIFE AFTER (Goodman), Workshops: A FAMILY ALBUM (La Jolla Playhouse), YOKO’s (O’Neill), DIVE (Julia Riew). Other Performances: Theatreworks, Playbill, NAMT, Symphony Space. She is also a voiceover artist and has worked with brands like Chase Sapphire, Pringles, Coke Zero, LG, etc. Rep: Soffer Entertainment, proud Northwestern ‘22 alum! Follow her journey :) @clairekwon_

CARSON STEWART (Challenge Cast) is honored to join Challenge Accepted: Winners of the Musical Theater Songwriting Challenge for High School Students. BROADWAY: The Notebook (dir. Michael Greif & Schele Williams; music by Ingrid Michaelson). OFF-BROADWAY: The Gospel According to Heather. A proud graduate of Northwestern University with a degree in English and Theatre, Carson is deeply grateful to NAMT for producing this remarkable evening and for the opportunity to celebrate these brilliant young writers. @thegingerbreadboy