3rd Annual Festival of New Musicals

Craig Bohmler is a composer whose works have been performed in Europe, North America and Japan. Primarily a composer for the Äúsinging theaterÄù and the solo voice, Craig has 3 operas and 14 musicals to his credit as well as 200 art songs, and numerous choral and orchestral works. His musicals ‘Gunmetal Blues’ (O’Neill Center -1991) and ‘Enter the Guardsman’ (Olivier Award Nominee for ÄúBest MusicalÄù 1998) have both played in London and Off-Broadway as well as in many regional and international theatres. He was composer-inÄìresidence for Arizona Opera from 2012-2017 where his western opera, ‘Riders of the Purple Sage’, premiered in February 2017. Craig is the recipient of the 2019 Arizona Governor’s Arts Award for Individual Artist. He is published by Theatrical Rights Worldwide, Santa Barbara Music Publishing, Concord Theatricals, E.C. Schirmer and Dramatic Publishing, and recorded by Columbus, Centaur, Original Cast, Naxos, and BMS records. www.craigbohmler.com

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 won the Tony AwardÆ, 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 AwardÆ 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 as well as on the Tony AwardÆ 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.