21st Annual Festival of New Musicals

Broadway: Gettin’ The Band Back Together (music & lyrics) with Ken Davenport (Belasco Theatre; John Rando, dir.) Regional: Tinyard Hill (music) with Tommy Newman (NAMT Festival 2007, Human Race Theatre 2008, Theatreworks, Palo Alto 2008, Goodspeed Musicals), Band Geeks! (music) with Newman, Gaby Alter, and Gordon Greenberg (NAMT Festival 2009, Goodspeed Musicals 2010) and The Joker’s Game (music) with Louis St. Louis and Jim Racheff (Beijing, China 2010). Mark has also has created award winning music for TV, Film and dozens of TV commercials. Mark is a past recipient of the Jonathan Larson Grant (2009), Frederick Lowe Award (2007) and ASCAP Max Dreyfus Award (2005).

GABY ALTER is the recipient of a Jonathan Larson Grant, both the San Diego and San Francisco Critics’ Circle Awards for Best Original Score, an ASCAP Plus Award in Musical Theater, and the ASCAP Composer’s Spotlight at the LA Film Festival. He is a two-time NAMT alum: BAND GEEKS (music and lyrics) which later premiered at Goodspeed Musicals and is now licensed by MTI, and NOBODY LOVES YOU (music and lyrics) with Tony award winner Itamar Moses, which was produced at Second Stage and was a Critics’ Pick at both the New York Times and TimeOut New York. Other works include STARS OF DAVID (Daryl Roth Theatricals), produced Off-Broadway at the DR2 theater; THIS SHOW IS MONEY, developed at The Civilians’ R&D group; and the song “The Frigate That Flies” for the Disney animated feature TINKERBELL AND THE PIRATE FAIRY, sung by Tom Hiddleston; music for PBS and MTV.

The Orphan Train (book and lyrics by Susan Nanus published by Samuel French).  She also composed the music for an adaptation of A Christmas Carol for The Acting Company Salon Series. A proud participant in the York Theater’s NEO 2 concert, The Songwriter’s Showcase for NAMT, Monday Night New Voices and Musical Mondays.  Her music has been performed at benefits and concerts in New York and throughout the country.  Her song “All Join Together” raised over $40,000 for the New York Times 9/11 Fund.  Member of the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theater Workshop (advanced).

Clay McLeod Chapman is the creator of the rigorous storytelling session “The Pumpkin Pie Show”. He is the author of rest area, a collection of short stories, and miss corpus, a novel — both published by Hyperion books. He teaches writing at The Actors Studio MFA Program at Pace University.

Recent highlights: Perpetual Sunshine & the Ghost Girls, NAMT (2022), Richard Rodgers Award (2022), Rhinebeck Writers Retreat (2021), NYTB New Works Series (2021), 5X15, Beck Center/Baldwin Wallace (2021), NAMT 15-Minute Challenge winner (2020); The ASCAP Foundation Lucille and Jack Yellen Award (2021); Commercial musical adaptation of a major motion picture (TBA); HoT, Goodspeed Festival of New Musicals (2022), Johnny Mercer Foundation Writers Grove (2020), New York Theatre Barn New Works Series (2020); The Memory Show, LAMB Theatre (2022), New Bard, London (2016), Transport Group, The Duke on 42nd Street (2013), WaterGateMedia, Seoul (2012-2013), Barrington Stage Company (2010), NAMT (2010); Barrington Stage Company Spark Grant (2020); Polyanna, TV pilot, Grand Jury Prize, Barnstorm Media (2020); Elevator Heart, Moxie Arts (2019), USF (2018), Tisch New Musicals (2016); Fault Lines, The Kennedy Center (2018), American Opera Initiative (2017). Jonathan Larson Grant (2014). MFA Graduate Musical Theatre Writing, NYU. Dramatists Guild, ASCAP. http://saracooper.me

SUSAN DILALLO (Lyrics) wrote book and lyrics for Once Upon a Time in New Jersey, produced worldwide and licensed by TRW; Barbie Live! In Fairytopia, a Mattel/Clear Channel production; Fancy Nancy The Musical, and two Angelina Ballerina musicals. She wrote libretto for Onanov Broadway, developed during a residency at the Eugene O’Neill Music Theater Conference; the revised libretto for A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, and co-libretto for Fancy, a country jukebox musical premiered at the Meadow Brook Theater. When she’s not writing musicals, Susan co-authors thrillers with James Patterson. She is a member of New York Women in Film and Television, ASCAP, and the Dramatists Guild.

Directing/Writing includes: Working (Drama Desk Award, 59 E 59, Old Globe, Broadway in Chicago, Asolo), Jacques Brel… (Zipper Theatre, Drama Desk, Drama League, Outer Critics Award nominations), Band Geeks! (co-writer, Goodspeed, Human Race Theatre Co., NAMT Fest ‘09), Pirates! (Huntington, Paper Mill, Goodspeed, MUNY), The Baker’s Wife (Goodspeed, Paper Mill), Disney’s Believe (Disney Creative Entertainment), Happy Days (First National Tour). Current projects include: Scramble Band! (co-writer, Disney Channel), Rags (Roundabout), Guys & Dolls (Chichester Theatre Festival UK 2014), Johnny Baseball (Williamstown) and developing new musicals for Universal Pictures and the pop group Fun. Education: Stanford University, NYU Film School, Lincoln Center Directors Lab. www.gordongreenberg.com

Brian Hargrove was a writer on the television shows Dave’s World, Caroline in the City, Holding The Baby, and Maggie.   He co-created the show Titus, which ran over three years on Fox, where he also executive produced Wanda at Large.  He created the sit-com Nora for TBS.  He wrote the book My Life as a Dog a mock-ography of Moose, the dog that played Eddie on Frasier – which he later turned into a television movie for NBC. He also co-wrote a new narration for Camille Saint-Saëns’ Carnivale of the Animals, performed at the Hollywood Bowl. 

CREIGHTON IRONS’ musicals have been on stage at ACT (San Francisco), Goodspeed, NAMT’s Festival of New Musicals, Boston Conservatory, Pace University, and more. His show FACTORY GIRLS (with Sean Mahoney) was recently produced by Amuse, Inc in Kyoto and Osaka, Japan; another work, THE MOON AND THE SEA (with bookwriter Douglas Lyons), will be produced at Adirondack Theater this summer. His latest show, LOST LETTERS (book by Jonathan Karpinos), received its world premier at Bloomington Playwrights Project in December 2019. He also performs with his wife, singer/songwriter Dawn Landes; their collaborations include a musical (BOOMTOWN, TN), a daughter (Callan), and beloved mutt (Scout). Irons lives in Chapel Hill, NC and received an MFA from NYU/Tisch’s Graduate Musical Theater Writing Program.

Kyle Jarrow is a Brooklyn-based writer who creates work for the stage, film and TV. His work includes A Very Merry Unauthorized Children’s Scientology Pageant (OBIE Award), Hostage Song (NAMT 2010), Love Kills, Whisper House (also with Duncan Sheik), as well as the upcoming Fallout (with Nick Blaemire) and Ana and the American Dream (with Josh Schmidt). Kyle wrote the film Armless which was an official selection of Sundance Film Festival. Kyle plays in the rock band Sky-Pony alongside his wife, actress Lauren Worsham. They’ll be releasing their album Beautiful Monster (Knitting Factory Records) in November. www.landoftrust.com.

Michael Mahler is the Chicago-based composer/lyricist of How Can You Run With A Shell On Your Back? (with Alan Schmuckler) and Knute Rockne: All-American (with David H. Bell and Buddy Farmer). He has contributed to The American Dream Songbook (Next Theater); What U Will (La Red Productions) and others. His musical reviews 5 to 9 and Moving Forward, Looking Back have been performed at The Beechman in NY, Northwestern University, and St. Olaf College. His songs have been featured in NAMT’s 2005 New Works Summit and 2007 Songwriters’ Showcase, in MAC/ASCAP songwriter showcases in NY and Chicago, in The New Composer Project at CCM in Boston, in Ballads. Also, Uptempos at Ars Nova, and in Chicago’s Monday Nights, New Voices series. Projects in development include an adaptation of The 9/11 Report (with Jessica Redish) for La Red Music Theatre; and Boyfred, a musical TV series (with Alan Schmuckler, Jarrod Zimmerman and Blake Silver). www.michaelmahler.com

SEAN MAHONEY is a musical theater writer based in Telluride, Colorado. He holds an MFA in Musical Theater Writing from NYU-Tisch School Of The Arts and a BA from the University of New Hampshire. His work has been performed at Joe’ss Pub, 54 Below, Birdland, Ars Nova, Merkin Hall, Bruno Walter Library at Lincoln Center, The Laurie Beechman Theater, and Symphony Space. Shows include FACTORY GIRLS (with Creighton Irons) NAMT 2009, Tokyo/Osaka 2019, Tokyo 2023, University of New Hampshire, 2023; The Invincible Three and The Great Telluride Bank Robbery of 1889 (book, music, and lyrics), Telluride Theater co-production, August, 2022; Prep School Musical (with Sam Forman), Sweetwater (with Patricia Noonan), Sweet Cassandra: A Greek Rock Opera (with Amy Burgess) and the ten-minute musical Diaper Derby (with Janet Allard).

Peter Mills (Lyrics & Additional Music) wrote music, lyrics and co-book for Off-Broadway’s The Hello Girls, nominated for three Drama Desk Awards and four Outer Critics Circle Awards. Other shows include Illyria, Golden Boy Of The Blue Ridge and The Honeymooners. He has won the Kleban Prize, the Fred Ebb Award, the Richard Rodgers New Horizons Award, the Cole Porter Award, a Jonathan Larson Performing Arts Foundation grant, the Donna Perret Rosen Award, and received two Drama Desk Award nominations for The Pursuit Of Persephone. ASCAP member, NYU’s Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program alum and faculty, and a founding member of Prospect Theater Company. www.PeteMillsMusic.com

Duane Nelsen worked as composer-in-residence for off-Broadway’s Equity Library Theatre before starting his own music production company in 1988, scoring national TV spots for McDonald’s, Kellogg’s, Disney, Pillsbury and many others. Ripper was presented at the 2004 STAGES festival, and received it’s first commercial reading in New York in March 2007. Other shows include The Last Charade, Division Street and the new musical comedy Spa. His concert music has been performed by orchestras here and abroad. Professional affiliations: ASCAP, SAG, Dramatists Guild. He lives in Chicago with his wife, Catherine Hug, and their two sons. www.ripperthemusical.com

Tommy is a published playwright, composer and lyricist from Alabama and a 2013 ASCAP Foundation Cole Porter Award Winner. He is a recipient of an Anna Sosenko Assist Trust Grant, and a 2014 Kennedy Center ACTF National Musical Theatre Award Winner. His works include: The Single Girl’s Guide with Gordon Greenberg (NAMT (2013), Band Geeks! (Published by MTI, NAMT Fest ‘09), Tinyard Hill with Mark Allen (NAMT Fest ‘07). Off Broadway: We the People: America Rocks (Theatreworks, USA), El Otro Oz with Jaime Lozano (Theatreworks, USA) and 29 with Gaby Alter. Recent works: The Teacher from the Black Lagoon and Other Stories (Theatreworks, USA), The Odyssey Suite, Savage, Jenny’s Damned Ex, and With Bell On. He holds a BS in Music Education from Troy University and an MFA in Musical Theatre Writing from NYU. Tommy is a full-time professor with Troy University’s Department of Theatre and Dance in Troy, AL.

Zach Redler is an active composer, pianist, arranger, copyist, musicologist and musical director in and out of New York City.  Recent productions: Memory Is The Mother Of All Wisdom (reading, Barrington Stage Company); May Day (GMTWP Reading); Adeyele (short musical, GMTWP Reading); Perez Hilton Saves the Universe(Best Musical Fringe Festival 2008 and Best Musical in the Talkin’ Broadway 2008 Summer Theatre Festival Citations).  He is a member of ASCAP, Local 802 and recent graduate of NYU Tisch’s Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program.

Alan Schmuckler has contributed music and lyrics to What U Will (La Red Productions); Plus One (Duplex); and The Out-of-Towners and Performers for Peace (Triad). His songs have been featured in NAMT’s 2005 New Works Summit and 2007 Songwriters’ Showcase, and in Chicago’s Monday Nights, New Voices series. Projects in development include The Emperor’s New Clothes (with David Holstein) for Chicago Shakespeare Theater; an adaptation of Charles L. Mee’s Summertime (with Jessica Redish) for La Red Music Theatre; and Boyfred, a musical TV series (with Michael Mahler, Jarrod Zimmerman and Blake Silver).

STEPHEN WEINER (Music) Recent scores include “Penelope” at the York Theatre, “The Rivals” at the Bristol Riverside Theatre, and in development, “Monte Cristo” (Peter Kellogg, Book and Lyrics.) Other scores include “The Honeymooners” at Papermill Theatre (Peter Mills,Lyrics and Bill Nuss and Dusty Kay, Book), “Iron Curtain” (Peter Mills, Lyrics and Susan DiLallo. Book), “Once Upon a Time in New Jersey” (Susan DiLallo, Book and Lyrics), “Rocket Science” (Patricia Cotter, Book and Jason Rhyne, Lyrics), “The Hudsucker Proxy” (Glenn Slater, Book and Lyrics), “newyorkers” at MTC (Glenn Slater, Lyrics), and “Spittin’ Image” (Karin Kasdin, Book and Laura Szabo Cohen, Lyrics.) Steve is member of ASCAP and The Dramatists Guild.