24th Annual Festival of New Musicals

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.

ARTHUR LAFRENTZ BACON (Composer). Arthur had just completed composing the music for A HERO’S TALE which was in rehearsals for its world premier at The Fredericia Theater in Denmark in April 2020 when the production had to be cancelled due to COVID-19. He composed the music for BLEEDING LOVE, available as a podcast on The Broadway Podcast Network (NAMT Winner 2012 Festival of New Musicals). BLEEDING LOVE premiered in 2015 at The Fredericia Theater. Other musicals Arthur composed include the rock/R&B musical SALVAGE (O’Neill NMTC Finalist) and BILLY SLEEPYHEAD (Center Stage). Arthur has written hit songs for Joey Lawrence, Marion Raven, and the Latin supergroup CD9. Arthur has appeared on TV as a member of the “Groovy Little Band” on The Caroline Rhea Show on NBC. He also has written music for over 100 national television and radio commercial spots and has won two Clio Awards for Best Original Music.

The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin Obie, Kleban, Audelco, Richard Rodgers, Gilman Gonzalez-Falla awards; Rockefeller and Jonathan Larson Grants; Lortel, NAACP, Drama Desk nominations. Bella: An American Tall Tale Frederick Loewe Award, Edward M. Kennedy Prize Finalist, 4 Audelco Awards. Fly with Rajiv Joseph, Bill Sherman and director Jeffrey Seller. Washington Square with Ben Wexler. Edge of Night radio play, Soundstage, Playwrights Horizons. 2021 Vineyard Theater commission. New Group commission with Gordon Greenberg. Funked Up Fairy Tales. Miracle Brothers. Lucky Boy Penn State Commission. NEA, Larson grants. American Songbook series. New Electric Company. Disney’s Believe and Disney’s Wishes. Guggenheim Museum Works & Process. Songwriter for Dianne Reeves (with Billy Childs).

Ben Clark hails from Floyds Knobs, IN. Ben has been writing music since 14 and The Circus in Winter marks his full length musical debut. He is a recent graduate of Ball State University (’11) with a degree in Musical Theatre Performance. Ben currently lives and works in Chicago as a recording artist/composer.

Dan Collins’ other works with Julianne Wick Davis include: Wood  (NYMF, starring Tony Award winner Cady Huffman), Our Lady of the Viaduct and Time to Kill (The York Theatre Company), and When We Met (co-conceived with performers Sally Wilfert and Michael Winther), which was selected for development at The O’Neill this summer. Other recent projects include book for Our Country with composer/lyricist Tony Asaro (produced at NYMF and Planet Connections Theater Festivity, where it was honored with awards for Best Book and Best Musical) and lyrics for Professor Von Awesome’s Traveling Caravan of Cautionary Warnings and Johnny 15, both with composer Nick Sula and The Serious Theater Collective. Dan’s work has been published in Plays and Playwrights 2010 (NYTE Small Press) and he was selected along with Julianne Wick Davis as a 2011-2012 Dramatist Guild Fellow. Dan holds an M.F.A. in Musical Theatre Writing from Tisch School of the Arts, NYU and a B.F.A. in Playwriting from The Theater School of DePaul University.

Harris Doran is a NAMT alumni for BLEEDING LOVE, developed at Goodspeed and produced in Fredericia. He was shortlisted for the Independent Spirit Awards’ for his award-winning feature film BEAUTY MARK. He made the short THE STORY OF MILO & ANNIE featuring Alysia Reiner and Cathy Moriarty and produced Dave Solomon’s PHOTO OP starring Randy Harrison. Screenplays: ATTICUS BROWN IS STILL HERE (Sundance, Tribeca Sloan finalist), COG (Nicholl quarterfinalist), IN THE WAKE (Austin semifinalist), et al. Harris produced and wrote the political concert BROADWAY BLUE WAVE FOR NY directed by Rachel Chavkin, starring Taylor Shilling, Edie Falco, Laura Benanti. He wrote the musical SALVAGE, pop songs including “Falling Away”(#1 European Billboard), and the series “I LOVE YOU BUT I LIED” (Lifetime). As an actor Harris has been seen in projects ranging from Broadway to TV to indies. Harris is a professor at Columbia University (MFA Film). Training: Juilliard.

Justin Levine works as a writer, composer and performer in and around NYC. Writing credits include Bonfire Night (book, music & lyrics), Tell Me Tomorrow (music & lyrics), Jump Jim Crow (music & lyrics), Naked Radio (music), and Pepper and Sam: Death by Vaudeville (co-creator). Musical direction: Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson (Broadway and The Public), Missed Connections (Ars Nova), Here Lies Love (MASS MoCa, Public Theater), Murder Ballad (MTC), Robber Bridegroom (Roundabout),  Love’s Labors Lost (Public),  Mo(or)town (Choreographer: Doug Elkins), Like Water For Chocolate (Sundance). www.justinlevineonline.com

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.

Thomas Mizer has written lyrics and collaborated on the book for musicals including The Legend of Stagecoach Mary (NAMT Fest ‘08), The House of the Seven Gables (ASCAP Workshop) and The Bus to Buenos Aires (EST). An honors graduate of Northwestern University, he received a 2009 Jonathan Larson Grant and has twice been an artist in residence at the National Music Theater Conference. In addition to his theater work, he is a copywriter at Comedy Central, edits The Broadway Blog and writes features for national travel magazines. www.thomasmizer.com

Curtis Moore recently returned from conducting and performing in Sam Mendes’ production of Richard III starring Kevin Spacey.   With lyricist Thomas Mizer, he was awarded a Jonathan Larson Grant in 2009; together, they wrote The Legend of Stagecoach Mary (NAMT Fest ‘08) and The Bus to Buenos Aires (EST). His new musical Venice (with Matt Sax and Eric Rosen) will be produced next spring at The Public Theater in New York, where he recently composed the score for Timon of Athens.  He wrote and performed songs in the Todd Solondzʼs film Palindromes and composed the score for Clear Blue Tuesday.

Itamar Moses is the author of the full-length plays Outrage, Bach at Leipzig, Celebrity Row, The Four of Us, Yellowjackets, Back Back Back and Completeness, thecollection of short plays Love/Stories (or But You Will Get Used To It) and the musical Fortress of Solitude (with Michael Friedman). His work has appeared Off Broadway and at regional theaters across the country, and is published by Faber & Faber and Samuel French. Itamar has taught playwriting at both Yale and NYU. On television, he has written for both TNT’s Men of a Certain Age and HBO’s Boardwalk Empire.

Jason Schafer wrote the acclaimed indie hit Trick (Fine Line Features), which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. In addition to being a staff writer and co-producer for Showtime’s GLAAD Media Award-winning Queer as Folk, Jason has written for Warner Bros., Paramount, ABC and Fox Television.  Upcoming projects include the film Princess and a screenplay for director Carl Byrd. Works for the stage: I Google Myself (Theatre Askew) and Notes on the Land of Earthquake & Fire (FringeNYC Playwrighting Award). He holds a B.A. in Music Composition from UCLA and an MFA from NYU’s Department of Dramatic Writing.

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.

Beth Turcotte is a Professor of Theatre at Ball State University and received her MFA from Southern Methodist University.  During her tenure at Ball State University, Beth directed three productions (Company, Cabaret and Jesus Christ Superstar) for the American College Theatre Festival. This past January, The Circus in Winter was selected to participate in and honored by The American College Theatre Festival/The Kennedy Center with eleven awards including Outstanding New Work and Director of a New Work.  Internationally, Beth has directed and taught throughout China, Korea and Japan.

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 “actor-musicians”; 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.

Julianne Wick Davis; Jonathan Larson 2012; Billie Burke Ziegfeld, 2018; Fifty Women to Watch 2020; 2020 Lotte Lenya Competition Songbook Series Award. TREVOR (music), with Dan Collins (book and lyrics) Writer’s Theatre, Jefferson Award Outstanding New Musical; off-Broadway 2021. SOUTHERN COMFORT with Collins, The Public Theatre, NY Times Critic’s Pick, Lortel, Outer Critics Circle Nominations Outstanding Musical; 2012 NAMT; Barrington Stage; reading at Playwrights Horizons; CAP21 (GLAAD Media Award, TimeOut NYC, NY Times Critic’s Pick). THE PEN, Inner Voices with Collins, NY Times Critic’s Pick. WHEN WE MET (music & lyrics), O’Neill Musical Theater Conference, York NEO Development Series, Broadway Bound Concert Series, CAP21. THE WILLARD SUITCASES (book, music, & lyrics) American Shakespeare Center 2019, Top Ten 2019 Theatrical Events by the Washington Post, Broadway Bound Concert Series. LAUTREC AT THE ST. JAMES (music) John Dietrich (book and lyrics), NAMT 2019 Conference, Applause Concert Series, Olney Theatre Center in 2021.