16th Annual Festival of New Musicals

JEREMY DESMON is an award-winning writer whose stories have played on stages throughout the world.

THE GIRL IN THE FRAME earned him the Edward Kleban Prize for Bookwriting and THE LAST SUPPER, a darkly-comic and politically-charged new musical just complete its successful 2022 out-of-town run, and PUMP UP THE VOLUME, his Broadway-bound rock musical based on the 1990 Christian Slater film, debuts next season at The Citadel Theatre.

Other recent credits include the hit ÄúrevisalÄù of GOOD NEWS for Goodspeed Musicals, a musical re-imagining of Simon & Schuster’s iconic NANCY DREW, the post-modern musical comedy THE OLIVER EXPERIMENT, the hilarious touring tuner LADIES IN THEIR PRIME, the One-Hit-Wonder-filled jukebox musical ONE HIT WONDERĶ plus a brand-new holiday show, WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD, which debuted last Christmas at Timberlake Playhouse.

Non-musicals include 7Ω WONDROUS ACT(S) OF TRUE LOVE and MUDD, a historical comedy about Äî what else? Äî the Lincoln assassination.

Award-winning composer Ray Leslee wrote Avenue X, the acappella musical about racial tensions in New York, produced at Playwrights Horizons, the Kennedy Center and over 50 theatres around the world, winning Best Musical awards in Philadelphia, Dallas and Los Angeles; Standup Shakespeare, directed by Mike Nichols on Broadway featured F. Murray Abraham, Alfred Molina and Alice Ripley in recent productions; A Steady Rain at the Guthrie in 2015; A Good Man at the Vienna Chamber Opera and NAMT 2004; The Three Musketeers national tour; Educating Rita at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre; Twelfth Night at Theatre For A New Audience; Palestine at New York Theatre Workshop; and A Chamber Christmas Carol, an adaptation of the Dickens classic for five musicians and five actors at the Morgan Library & Museum. Ray is a long-time panelist for the Richard Rodgers Awards (chaired by Stephen Sondheim). As a teenager he was a pianist with legendary rock groups including The Platters, Jay and The Americans, The Shirelles, Lesley Gore and The Drifters, to name a few.
Current project: The Learned Ladies, a new musical based on the play by Moliere, libretto by Brian Dykstra.

On Broadway, Rob composed the score for Carol Burnett’s autobiographical play, HOLLYWOOD ARMS (directed by Harold Prince.)
Rob’s Off-Broadway musicals are FLIGHT OF THE LAWNCHAIR MAN, OPAL, and HONKY-TONK HIGHWAY.
Regionally, his musicals include ELIOT NESS (directed by David Esbjornson) and FLIGHT OF THE LAWNCHAIR MAN (3HREE), (directed by Harold Prince) which played in Denver, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles.
He composed the dance and instrumental arrangements for Stephen Sondheim’s musical BOUNCE which premiered at the Kennedy Center and the Goodman Theatre, all directed by Harold Prince
Rob is the recipient of the Richard Rodgers Award, the AT&T Award, and the Gilman Gonzalez-Falla Award given at Lincoln Center.
He has also collaborated with Arthur Miller, Joss Whedon and written five projects for Disney Feature Animation.
A Robert Lindsey-Nassif Songbook was performed at Lincoln Center in 2016.
His work is published by Samuel French, Inc., Theatrical Rights Worldwide, and Hal Leonard.

Brendan Milburn is a music teacher (voice, keyboards and occasionally mandolin, guitar, bass, or drums as the need arises). In his former life he toured in a rock band called GrooveLily for about 15 years, and wrote a lot of musicals which were produced in NYC and at regional theatres around the country. He also has songs in live shows running at Disneyland, Disney World, and Disneyland Paris. in four movies about Tinker Bell (Disney). Awards: Jonathan Larson, ASCAP/Richard Rodgers, LA Ovation (best musical, best music direction), LA Drama Critics Circle (best score of a musical), LA Stage Raw (best musical). Proudest productions: sixteen-year-old Mose, five-year-old Arlen, and 3-year old Rory.

Based in Chicago, Pluess and Sussman have been collaborating as sound designers/composers for over 15 years. Projects include productions for Lookingglass Theatre and Tony Award-winning director Mary Zimmerman for whom they designed the Broadway/regional/international productions of Metamorphoses, as well as her adaptation of the Chinese folk-tale The White Snake. Additional Broadway credits include sound designs for I Am My Own Wife and 33 Variations (with director Moises Kaufman), as well as the score for the Lincoln Center Theater production of The Clean House. Their musical Winesburg, Ohio (recipient of both Joseph Jefferson and Barrymore awards for outstanding musical) was a selection for the NAMT Festival in 2004, and has been produced at Steppenwolf/About Face, the Arden Theatre and Kansas City Repertory Theatre. Currently, they are composing the scores for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s productions of A Streetcar Named Desire and The Tempest, as well as designing sound for The Jungle Book for the Goodman Theatre in Chicago. They have received numerous awards for composition and sound design including eleven Joseph Jefferson Awards, an Ovation Award, a Barrymore Award, Lortel/Drama Desk Nominations and a Drama Critics Circle Award.

As book writer and sometimes lyricist, she has been part of the creative teams of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Striking 12 (also with Milburn/Vigoda at NAMT Fest ’04), Little House on the Prairie, Serenade and Blood Drive. She received Tony and Drama Desk Awards for the book of Spelling Bee. Rachel is interested in independent-minded musicals and loves the form when it is adventurous, inventive and nourished rather than limited by convention. She teaches on the part-time faculties of Yale School of Drama and NYU Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program.

Based in Chicago, Pluess and Sussman have been collaborating as sound designers/composers for over 15 years. Projects include productions for Lookingglass Theatre and Tony Award-winning director Mary Zimmerman for whom they designed the Broadway/regional/international productions of Metamorphoses, as well as her adaptation of the Chinese folk-tale The White Snake. Additional Broadway credits include sound designs for I Am My Own Wife and 33 Variations (with director Moises Kaufman), as well as the score for the Lincoln Center Theater production of The Clean House. Their musical Winesburg, Ohio (recipient of both Joseph Jefferson and Barrymore awards for outstanding musical) was a selection for the NAMT Festival in 2004, and has been produced at Steppenwolf/About Face, the Arden Theatre and Kansas City Repertory Theatre. Currently, they are composing the scores for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s productions of A Streetcar Named Desire and The Tempest, as well as designing sound for The Jungle Book for the Goodman Theatre in Chicago. They have received numerous awards for composition and sound design including eleven Joseph Jefferson Awards, an Ovation Award, a Barrymore Award, Lortel/Drama Desk Nominations and a Drama Critics Circle Award.

Valerie Vigoda uplifts and connects with people through her unique combination of gorgeous vocals and electric violin, heartfelt musical storytelling, and fierce buoyancy. Her epic life journey has taken her: around the world on rock tours with Cyndi Lauper, Joe Jackson, the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, and her own indie band GrooveLily; to New York as an award-winning writer and performer in multiple hit musicals; and into the hearts of millions as a prolific Disney songwriter.
With the acclaimed show STRIKING 12, Val and her indie bandmates became pioneer Äúactor-musiciansÄù; she has continued to carve her own creative path, partly thanks to the discipline she learned both at Princeton and as a lieutenant in the US Army. Awards include: Jonathan Larson, LA Ovation (Best Musical: SLEEPING BEAUTY WAKES), ASCAP Richard Rodgers, and Off-Broadway Alliance (Best Musical: ERNEST SHACKLETON LOVES ME). Val lives in LA with her son Mose.