3rd Annual Festival of New Musicals

Craig Bohmler is a pianist and composer whose works have been frequently performed in Europe, America and Japan. Mr. Bohmler has composed four operas, twelve musicals, 200 art songs and numerous choral, orchestral, and band works. His musicals ENTER THE GUARDSMAN (which won first prize in the International Musical of the Year competition and was nominated for an Olivier Award for “best musical”) and GUNMETAL BLUES and have both played in London and Off-Broadway; both past participants in NAMT’s New Works Festival. He has written operas for Houston Grand Opera, Opera San Jose, and Arizona Opera, which premiered RIDERS OF THE PURPLE SAGE in 2017 and remounted it in 2020. The recipient of several grants (including three NEA grants), his works are published by Theatrical Rights Worldwide (TRW), Santa Barbara Music Publishing, Samuel French, and Dramatic Publishing, and recorded by Columbus, Centaur, Original Cast, and BMS records.

Jack Helbig is a writer living in Oak Park, Illinois. He has written numerous plays, including Thinking of Her Made Him Think of Her and Snow White, who is also called Becky, no Rebecca, and the Frog Prince. He has translated several operettas into English, including The Merry Widow. The musical he wrote with Mark Hollman, Wild Goat, was part of the 1991 NAMT New Musicals Festival.

MARK HOLLMANN (music & lyrics) won the Tony Award®, the National Broadway Theatre Award, and the Obie Award for his music and lyrics to URINETOWN THE MUSICAL, which went from the 1999 New York International Fringe Festival (FringeNYC) to receiving 10 Tony Award® nominations and 11 Drama Desk Award nominations and winning the Outer Critics Circle Award, the Drama League Award, and the Lucille Lortel Award for best musical. His other shows as composer/lyricist include THE STING (Paper Mill Playhouse), ZM (Village Theatre Beta Series), YEAST NATION (FringeNYC 2011) and BIGFOOT AND OTHER LOST SOULS (Perseverance Theatre). For TV, he has written songs for the Disney Channel’s JOHNNY AND THE SPRITES. He is a member of the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) and the Dramatists Guild of America and has served on the council of the Dramatists Guild and the Tony Award® Nominating Committee.

Si Kahn is in his 52nd year as a professional civil rights, union and community organizer, musician, and author. Si has had full productions at the Berkeley, Milwaukee and Tennessee Repertory Theatres; Goodspeed Musicals’ Norma Terris Theatre; the Asheville (North Carolina) Fringe Arts Festival; the Tennessee Performing Arts Center (TPAC) in Nashville; the Playgroup in Knoxville; Piccolo Spoleto Fringe in Charleston, South Carolina; Perseverance Theatre in Juneau, Alaska; Central Square Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts; the Warehouse Performing Arts Center in Cornelius, North Carolina; and the Subversive Theatre Collective in Buffalo, New York. He has had staged readings for three different musicals, SILVER SPOON, MOTHER JONES IN HEAVEN (AND HELL), and HOPE at The York Theatre Company (Off-Broadway).

As theatre composer, Doug contributed material to A. . . My Name is
Alice, Diamonds, Just So, Abie’s Island Rose, Elisabeth & Essex, Moby
Dick, and Lingoland (all Off-B’way). He also wrote music for The End,
Valadon (TRU Theatre Festival), Great Expectations (Mill Mountain,
VA), Merton of the Movies (winner of the Main Street Musicals Award)
and Orphan Train (NYMF, NY Theatre Institute, Grand Central Terminal’s
100th anniversary). He writes special material for Ringling Brothers
Circus, Macy’s 4th of July Fireworks and their Thanksgiving Day
Parade, winning the Emmy for Best Original Song. Doug has also served
as arranger, orchestrator, MD, and conductor for many theatrical
productions.