25th Annual Festival of New Musicals

Kevin Del Aguila is the book writer of the hit Off Broadway musical Altar Boyz (NY Outer Critics Circle Award, Lortel and Drama Desk nominations). Other works include his stage adaptations of the DreamWorks film Madagascar (Radio City Music Hall), Skippyjon Jones (Lortel nomination) and Click Clack Moo (Lortel and Drama Desk nominations). He received the Heideman Award for his play The Greekest of Tragedies (Actors Theatre of Louisville) and took top prize at the FringeNYC with his comedy 6 Story Building. Theatergoers may know him as ÄúSmeeÄù from the Broadway and Off Broadway companies of Peter and the Starcatcher. www.delaguila.info

Anthony has worked professionally as a lyricist and book-writer for almost 40 years with composer George Stiles. His most well-known shows are Honk! and the new songs and additional lyrics for both Mary Poppins and Half A Sixpence. Other work with Stiles includes Betty Blue Eyes, Just So, The Wind in the Willows, Travels With My Aunt, Peter Pan – A Musical Adventure, Soho Cinders, The Three Little Pigs, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, The Three Billy Goats Gruff, and Soapdish. More recent work includes Becoming Nancy and Identical. Independently of Stiles, Drewe has also written lyrics for A Twist Of Fate and The Card. He completed the book for a version of the Frank Loesser musical, Where’s Charley? as well as a revised book for Peter Pan – A Musical Adventure.

Directing work includes Snoopy, The Thing About Men, You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown, Honk! and Just So.

Paul Gordon co-wrote the Broadway musical Jane Eyre, nominated for five Tony Awards including Best Musical and Best Score. He won a 2009 Ovation award for his score to Daddy Long Legs and won the 2007 Bay Area Critics Circle Award for his book to the musical Emma (NAMT Fest ’06) which has played all across the country. Daddy Long Legs, written with John Caird, has had productions all over the world including London and Tokyo. Being Earnest, written with Jay Gruska, premiered at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley this April. Little Miss Scrooge, written with John Caird and Sam Caird, will premiere at the Rubicon Theatre in Ventura this Christmas. paulgordonmusic.com

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 Äò09), 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

David Hein is an award-winning, Canadian singer/songwriter who has played festivals across North America and released four CD’s. With Irene Sankoff, he co-wrote and starred in My Mother’s Lesbian Jewish Wiccan Wedding (based on his mother’s true story and the same-sex marriage movement) winning more awards than any other show at NYMF 2010, 3 SALT awards and a Bryden ÄúOnes-to-WatchÄù award, among others. Proud ASCAP members, they were featured in the ASCAP LA musical theatre showcase last year. www.sankoffandhein.com or Twitter @sankoffandhein

Stacey Luftig is a lyricist, librettist, playwright, and occasional television writer. Honors include the Kleban Prize (Lyricist); the Fred Ebb Award; the Jerry Harrington Award for Outstanding Creative Achievement as a Librettist; Gramercy-Saltzman Opera Award; National Children’s Theatre Festival Award; BMI Jerry Bock Award; O’Neill National Playwrights Conference (Finalist); and Outer Critics Circle Award (Nominee). Stacey’s work includes lyrics for My Heart Is the Drum (NAMT, Village Theatre); book and lyrics for Understood Betsy (Actors Playhouse); libretto for Story of an Hour (Portland Chamber Orchestra, Gramercy Opera), and episodes for Pinky Dinky Doo, produced by the Sesame Workshop. She is also a contributor to That’s Life, a revue produced Off Broadway and in cities nationwide. Stacey has developed work at the VCCA, NY SongSpace, Rhinebeck Writers Retreat, and the Johnny Mercy Writers Grove (Goodspeed Musicals). Member: BMI Workshop, ASCAP, Maestra, and the Dramatists Guild. www.staceyluftig.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 Äò09), Tinyard Hill with Mark Allen (NAMT Fest Äò07). 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.

Richard Oberacker is the conductor for Cirque Du Soleil’s ÄúKAÄù. As a composer and co author, he has collaborated with Robert Taylor on the Broadway musical Bandstand, which won director/choreographer Andy Blankenbeulher (Hamilton) his third TONY Award for Best Choreography. Their new musical Bruce premiered at the Seattle Repertory Theater while another new musical, Angel of Arkansas is in development with director/choreographer Susan Stroman. Oberacker & Taylor’s darkly comic musical The Sandman had its American premiere at the Majestic Repertory Theatre after its European premiere in Denmark’s Fredericia Theatre. Other original musicals include Ace at the Old Globe Theater, Cincinnati Playhouse and the Signature Theater, Journey to the West at the New York Musical Theater Festival and The Parenting Project at The Ensemble Theater of Cincinnati. Mr. Oberacker composed the score to a musical adaptation of The Great Gatsby which premiered in Tokyo, Japan before a Japanese National Tour.

Phillip Palmer is the winner of the 2015 Fred Ebb Award for Musical Theatre Songwriting and the 2017 BMI Jerry Bock Award, as well as a finalist for the 2016 Richard Rodgers Award and the 2020 Jonathan Larson Grant, for My Heart Is the Drum, his first musical (book by Jennie Redling, lyrics by Stacey Luftig). Drum received its world premiere at Village Theatre in 2016, and was developed at the NAMT Festival of New Musicals, the Goodspeed Johnny Mercer Writers Colony, Kent State University, and the BMI Lehman-Engel Musical Theatre Workshop. Phillip is currently working on Amelia and Me (book and lyrics by Stacey Luftig), which has been developed at New York SongSpace and the Rhinebeck Writers Retreat. He wrote the music for The Weatherman (book and lyrics by Alisa Klein Hauser, Clear Space Productions, and Network One-Act Festival).

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.

Tim Rosser is a composer and music director. Credits: MD for BC/EFA’s Broadway Backwards (2013) at the Palace Theatre; keyboards for The Addams Family on Broadway and Carrie; MD for Making Books Sing and The Water Coolers. Composing (book and lyrics by Charlie Sohne): The Profit of Creation (Yale Institute for Music Theater, Johnny Mercer Songwriters Workshop) and Political Speeches (Culture Project’s IMPACT). Concerts: a sold-out show at 54 Below, Cutting Edge Composers IV at Joe’s Pub and more. Alumnus of Oberlin Conservatory, advanced class of the BMI Workshop.

Jennie S. Redling is a recipient of BMI’s Jerry Harrington Musical Theatre Award for Outstanding Creative Achievement as a Librettist, the national Stanley Drama Award for her play Gone Astray and the Arlene R. and William P. Lewis Playwriting Award for Women for her play A Rape in Glorious. A past resident of Goodspeed Opera’s Johnny Mercer Writers Colony, she is a finalist for the 2020 American Theatre Wing’s Jonathan Larson Grant, the 2016 Richard Rodgers Award for Musical Theater, the 2020 Ensemble Studio Theatre Alfred P. Sloan Project, the O’Neill National Playwrights Conference and the Arts & Letters Prize for Drama. Jennie is the book writer for the musical My Heart is The Drum (with composer Phillip Palmer and lyricist Stacey Luftig), recipient of Fred Ebb and Kleban awards, which premiered at Village Theatre in 2016. It was developed at the NAMT Festival of New Musicals, the Goodspeed Johnny Mercer Writers Colony, Kent State University, and the BMI Lehman-Engle Musical Theatre Workshop. Drum was featured in NAMT’s 46th Minute Concert in October 2017 and Prospect Theaters Good to Go Festival of New Music by Women in 2018. All productions of My Heart is the Drum were directed by Schele Williams (Mandela, The Wiz, Aida). Jennie’s screenplays include Zone One with Mark V. Olsen, creator/writer of HBO series, Big Love and her screenplay, The Six Candles. Among theatres where her plays were performed are Soho Rep, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Mint Theater, Urban Stages, Abingdon Theatre, The Barrow Group, Penguin Repertory Theater, Chicago’s Organic Theatre Company, Buffalo’s Alleyway Theatre and New Jersey Repertory Theatre.

Her first musical, My Mother’s Lesbian Jewish Wiccan Wedding (co-written and performed with David Hein) won Outstanding New Musical and Best Book (NYMF ’10) and was nominated for a Canadian Comedy Award. Their newest show, Mitzvah (about a family dealing with the pressures of having a son with autism as he prepares for his Bar Mitzvah) was workshopped at the Finger Lakes Musical Theatre Festival. Irene holds an Acting MFA (New School for Drama) and a Writing/Psychology degree (York University). www.sankoffandhein.com or Twitter @sankoffandhein

Stage: Out of My Range (and Other Age-Related Performance Issues); Alexander’s House (winner 2013 Washington Area Music Award: Best Classical Recording); Through a Glass, Darkly; Go-Go Beach (dir. John Simpkins, NYMF 2006). Film: Brief Reunion (dir. John Daschbach); Last Days of Left Eye (VH1 Rock Docs); Waking Dreams (starring Ben Shenkman). Choral: Kushner Trilogy, commissioned by Twin Cities Gay Men’s Chorus for the Guthrie Theater 2009 Tony Kushner Festival. Upcoming films: Decay (dir. Joseph Wartnerchaney, starring Rob Zabrecky, Jackie Hoffman, Lisa Howard); co-producing a documentary about NYC Youth Pride Chorus. MFA from NYU’s Tisch Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program. fatlabmusic.com

With composer Tim Rosser: The Profit of Creation (Yale Institute for Music Theater, Johnny Mercer Songwriters Workshop) and Political Speeches (NYTB, Culture Project’s IMPACT). Lyricist: Tina Girlstar (book – Anton Dudley, music – Brian Feinstein; NYSAF, Olympus Theatricals) and The Shadow Sparrow (book – Anton Dudley, music – Keith Gordon; The O’Neill NMTC). Concerts: 54 Below, Joe’s Pub and Second Stage, among others. Song with David Gaines named Top 25 in the Directory of Contemporary Musical Theater. Advanced class of the BMI Workshop, Dramatists Guild.

With lyricist Anthony Drewe: Cameron Mackintosh/Disney’s stage production of MARY POPPINS; HONK! (Olivier Award for Best New Musical, NAMT Festival 1999); HALF A SIXPENCE; THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS; TRAVELS WITH MY AUNT; SOHO CINDERS (NAMT Festival 2016); BETTY BLUE EYES; PETER PAN Äì A MUSICAL ADVENTURE; JUST SO and their trilogy THE THREE LITTLE PIGS (NAMT Festival 2013), GOLDILOCKS AND THE THREE BEARS and THE THREE BILLY GOATS GRUFF.
In development: SOAPDISH; BECOMING NANCY.
With lyricist Paul Leigh: MOLL FLANDERS, THE THREE MUSKETEERS (NAMT Festival 1999), and TOM JONES.

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.

Co-lyricist/librettist Robert Taylor has collaborated with Richard Oberacker on several new musicals. Their†TONY Award winning musical Bandstand, which premiered on Broadway at the†Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre, was filmed for nationwide release, and launched a National Tour. Their musical Bruce, based on the behind-the-scenes mayhem of the filming of Jaws, recently premiered at Seattle Rep, and is now slated for production in the UK, while their musical, Angel of Arkansas is in development with five-time TONY winning director/choreographer Susan Stroman. Their darkly comic musical The Sandman received its American premiere at the Majestic Repertory Theatre after its European premiere in Denmark’s Fredericia Theatre. Other musicals include Ace at the Old Globe, Cincinnati Playhouse and Signature Theater, Journey to the West at New York Musical Theater Festival, and The Parenting Project at Ensemble Theater Cincinnati. Robert Taylor is a member of the Dramatist’s Guild.

Andrew White is a founding member of Lookingglass Theatre Company, where he served as Artistic Director from 1990Äì92, 2010Äì16, and currently serves as the Director of Community Engagement in the company’s Department of Curiosity. As a Lookingglass ensemble member and performer, he has participated as an actor, writer or director in more than forty Lookingglass productions. He wrote the book and lyrics for Lookingglass’ 2012 production of Eastland: A New Musical (2013 NAMT Festival), received a Jeff Award for his 2004 adaptation of George Orwell’s 1984, and wrote and directed Of One Blood for Lookingglass in 1989.