27th Annual Festival of New Musicals

JEFF BIENSTOCK was born in Santa Monica, California and has a Masters in Composition from NYU Steinhardt. His first musical, The Morning After / The Night Before, was included in the 2010 NYC Fringe Festival and won a Best-of-Fest Award for Outstanding Music and Lyrics. In 2012, Jeff participated in the Johnny Mercer Songwriters Project at Northwestern University, where he was mentored by Craig Carnelia and Andrew Lippa. He also met composer Andrea Daly, a future collaborator on Legendale. In 2015, Legendale was selected for the NAMT Annual Festival of New Musicals, and was also presented at the ASCAP Workshop the following year. It received its world premiere at Denmark’s Fredericia Teater in March of 2017, and its American premiere at Dayton, Ohio’s Human Race Theatre in September of the same year. Jeff is an alumnus of the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop. He currently lives in Brooklyn.

Andrea Daly is a New York-based composer, writer, and vocalist.

Andrea is composing the score for the Broadway adaptation of Silver Linings Playbook, with Rick Elice (book) and Sara Cooper (lyrics). She wrote music, book, and lyrics for the new original musical NEXT, commissioned by Barbara Whitman Productions and Grove Entertainment, collaborating with Grammy-winning producer Dominic Fallacaro (co-music/orchestrations). Andrea’s first musical, Legendale (with Jeff Bienstock, book/lyrics), received its World Premiere in Europe in 2017 at Denmark’s Fredericia Theater (Disney’s Tarzan, Disney’s Hunchback of Notre Dame), followed by an American Premiere in Ohio the same year. In 2022, the American Theatre Wing named Andrea a Jonathan Larson Grant Finalist, and the Broadway Women’s Fund has listed her as a Woman to Watch on Broadway.

Andrea trained as a composer of concert music, completing her PhD in Music Composition at Stony Brook University in New York, where she was awarded The Ackerman Prize in Music, The President’s Award in Teaching, and the university’s prestigious Graduate Council Fellowship. Her commissioned choral work ÄúBelovedÄù was featured in the Ohio Choral Director’s Association 2020 Conference.

As a pop vocalist/songwriter, Andrea has taken the stage in numerous storied New York City venues throughout the last decade, independently releasing four EPs and signing a publishing deal with Warner/Chappell Music before joining the Concord Music family in 2017. She remains an active performer, freelancing as a session singer, live singer, bandleader, audio editor, and collaborating with Grammy-winning artists, producers, and engineers.

Andrea is a member of The Dramatists Guild of America and Maestra Music, and a voting member of The Recording Academy. In 2020, she joined Temple University’s faculty as the Assistant Adjunct Professor of Composition in Temple’s graduate program in Musical Theatre Collaboration. Andrea has written at the Goodspeed Musicals Writers’ Colony and Johnny Mercer Songwriters Project, and her work has been featured in the NAMT Festival of New Musicals, the ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshops (in Los Angeles and New York), and the NAMT Songwriters Showcase. In 2016, The ASCAP Foundation honored her with The Harold Arlen Musical Theatre Award.

Daryl Lisa Fazio is a playwright and theatre graphic designer hatched in Mississippi. Her plays include Split in Three (world premiere, Florida Rep), Greyhounds (Off Broadway) and Georgia Out of My Mind (Minnesota Fringe Festival), as well as the musical POPart (NYMF) with composer Aaron McAllister. Her latest project, Free Spirits, is a commission for Horizon Theatre in Atlanta. Daryl studied Acting at Northwestern University, got her MFA in Graphic Design from the University of Memphis, is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild and lives in Atlanta, GA. darylsplays.com Ģ darylfazio.com

Michael Federico has worked as a playwright and actor in Dallas, Chicago and Austin. His produced plays include Talent Show 1989, Ben Franklin: A Metal Opera (co-written with Cameron Cobb & Spencer Driggers) and Propaganda!. His cosplay/dance-club version of Faust (co-written with Jeffrey Schmidt) premieres in Dallas this October. He has served as an Artistic Company Member of Dallas’s Kitchen Dog Theater since 2007 and is a recipient of multiple Dallas/Fort Worth Theatre Critics Forum Awards both as a playwright and actor. 

Timothy Huang: Composer. Lyricist. Asian dude. Recent works include: Koi Story, Peter and the Wave (DG Fellowship) American Morning fka Costs of Living (Winner: B-Side New American Musical Award, Richard Rodgers Award, ASCAP MT Workshop, BMI Master Class with Steven Sondheim, NAMT 2015, 2016 Village Theater Festival of New Works) A Relative Relationship (2013 Sound Bites Festival Winner: Best Musical), Missing Karma (Finalist 2015 Samuel French OOB Festival, City Theater Summer Shorts) Timothy Huang: Chinese or Crazy?(NYTB), Crossing Over (NAAP) Other works include: LINES: A Song Cycle (NYMF), The View from Here Death and Lucky (MacDowell Fellowship). 2013 Jerry Harrington Award, Dramatist Guild Fellowship, 2019 NYSCA/NYFA fellow, 2020 NYMF Fellowship. www.timothyhuang.net

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.

Seth Magill is a co-founder of indie-rock band Home By Hovercraft, whose nationally acclaimed LP Are We Chameleons? features music from On The Eve. Seth received DFW Theatre Critics awards as a playwright and actor for his work in On The Eve. A member of the Actors’ Equity Association, Seth was last seen as “Fred” in Dallas Theater Center’s production of A Christmas Carol, as “Chase Spacegrove” in On The Eve at Theatre Three Dallas and in many memorable roles with Dallas Children’s Theater, Kitchen Dog Theater and Shakespeare Dallas. He has his BFA in Acting from Southern Methodist University.

Shawn Magill has recently worked as composer and executive music producer for feature film Sunny In The Dark, as music director for A Christmas Carol at The Dallas Theater Center, as composer/sound designer for Nocturne at Second Thought Dallas and as composer/producer for her solo-piano album, The Imaginations of Man. Shawn is a co-founder of indie-rock band Home By Hovercraft, whose nationally acclaimed LP Are We Chameleons? features music from On The Eve. The DFW Theatre Critics Forum awarded her honors as playwright and composer/performer for On The Eve. Shawn serves as Director of Product at Chideo, The Charity Network.

Aaron McAllister is the resident musical director and conductor at The Fulton Theatre. He has musically directed and conducted more than 70 musicals around the country and is a highly sought after vocal coach/performance clinician. As a composer, Aaron has written the scores to two additional original musicals (POPart and Blackout), which have been developed around the country including Off Broadway and has contributed songs, arrangements and orchestrations to several other original theatrical works. He is a graduate of SUNY Geneseo (BA in vocal performance and conducting) and the University of Maryland (MM in conducting). 

Rebekah Greer Melocik’s current projects with collaborator Jacob Yandura include Feral (book by Victor Lesniewksi), based on John Bishop’s Borderline, and a commission from New York City Children’s Theater Wringer, based on the novel by Jerry Spinelli. Recent recognitions include: Ars Nova’s two-year UNCHARTED residency, the 2014 Johnny Mercer Writers Colony at Goodspeed Musicals, The York Theatre's NEO 2014 residency, 2013 Yale Institute for Music Theatre, the 2012-2013 Dramatists Guild Fellowship, the 2012 Johnny Mercer Songwriters Project, Rhinebeck Writers Retreat, Cap21’s Writers Residency and ANT Fest 2013 (The Fearful Earful). BA: University of Southern California; MFA: NYU.

GQ co-created, co-directed, and starred in the original productions of A Q Brothers Christmas Carol and Funk It Up About Nothin'. G also co-wrote and starred in the Off Broadway smash hit The Bomb-itty of Errors. Along with his brother and the other Bomb-itty guys, G wrote and starred in a hip-hop/sketch comedy TV show, “Scratch and Burn” (MTV). G’s screen credits include the movies Drumline, Taxi, I Think I Love My Wife and Werner Herzog’s Rescue Dawn. He wrote, directed and starred in the film Just Another Story (Showtime), has had prominent roles in “Chicago PD” (NBC), “Boston Public” (Fox), “Numbers” (CBS) and co-starred in the one-hour drama “Johnny Zero” (Fox) and John Herzfeld’s pilot, “S.I.S” (Sony). Together with his brother JQ, he recorded The Feel Good Album of the Year. Originally from Chicago, he received his BFA from the Experimental Theatre Wing of Tisch School of the Arts at NYU.

JQ made his Off Broadway debut when he laid down the beats as DJ/Composer for the smash Shakespearean "ad-RAP-tation", The Bomb-itty of Errors. Along with his brother, GQ, he co-created, co-directed, composed and starred in the original productions of A Q Brothers Christmas Carol and Funk It Up About Nothin'. J co-wrote and starred in the hip-hop/sketch comedy TV show, “Scratch and Burn” for MTV. For his brother’s film, Just Another Story (Showtime), he created the score and original soundtrack. J produced the solo hip-hop album Foul Mouth Poet under his moniker J.A.Q., and other albums including Smashing (The Grommits) The Good Thief (Postell), Go Strong And Call It Awesome! (Stop, Revolt) and The Feel Good Album Of The Year (The Q Brothers). He was the lead singer of Them vs. Them, a Chicago rock band, and is currently co-host (with oldest brother TQ) of “Smallflower TV,” a video blog about natural health and body care based on Merz Apothecary, the other family business.

Harrison David Rivers is the winner of a GLAAD Media Award, a McKnight Fellowship for Playwrights, a Many Voices Jerome Fellowship (Playwrights’ Center), a Van Lier Fellowship (New Dramatists), an Emerging Artist of Color Fellowship (New York Theatre Workshop), the New York Stage & Film’s Founders Award and has been a finalist for the O’Neill National Playwrights Conference. He is a Usual Suspect at NYTW and an alumnus of the Emerging Writers’ Group at the Public Theater. He received his BA from Kenyon College and earned an MFA in playwriting from Columbia University.

Duncan Sheik Selected theatre credits; Spring Awakening (eight 2007 Tony Awards and Grammy Award), American Psycho (2016 Broadway debut), Because of Winn Dixie (Delaware Theatre Company, 2015), Whisper House (The Old Globe, 2011), Alice by Heart (National Theatre London, 2012). Other works currently in development include Nero and The Nightingale. Recorded works: Legerdemain (Fall 2015), Covers 80s (2011), Whisper House (2009), White Limousine (2006), Daylight (2002), Phantom Moon (2001), Humming (1998), Duncan Sheik (Grammy Nomination, 1996).

Jeff Talbott’s play THE SUBMISSION was the inaugural recipient of the Laurents/Hatcher Award and was produced off-Broadway by MCC Theater; it also received the Outer Critics Circle John Gassner Award for New American Play. Other plays: THE MESSENGER, THE GRAVEDIGGER’S LULLABY, ÄúiÄù, CIVICS AND HUMANITIES FOR NON-MAJORS, A PUBLIC EDUCATION, THE UNSURPRISING AND YET SOMEHOW INEVITABLE UPWARD TRAJECTORY OF JOSH, WHITE GUY FROM OHIO, SAMARITANS, JOSEPH COOK, THREE RULES FOR THE DRAGON, HOW TO BUILD A CITY, ELLIOT and ALL THE STARS IN THE MIDNIGHT SKY. He writes musicals with composer Will Van Dyke: IMAGINE HARRY (NAMT 2015), WINTERSONG (2017 NAMT Finalist), SEVEN BROKEN HEARTS, THE CIRCLE AND THE WHEEL, TEN BRAVE SECONDS and FUZZY. Together, Jeff & Will were finalists for the 2019 Fred Ebb Award and the 2021 Kleban Award. Jeff graduated with honors from the Yale School of Drama. www.jefftalbott.com

Will Van Dyke (Music & Lyrics) is a New York based composer/lyricist and music director and a 2021 Grammy Award Nominee for his work on the off-Broadway revival of LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS. He writes musicals with Jeff Talbott: IMAGINE HARRY (NAMT 2015), WINTERSONG (NAMT 2017 Finalist), SEVEN BROKEN HEARTS, THE CIRCLE AND THE WHEEL, TEN BRAVE SECONDS and FUZZY. Will’s compositions include WINNIE THE POOH, KIDS (Disney), THE LION KING, JR. & KIDS (Disney), THE DEVIL’S BITCH (Playbill), ONE SMALL STEP FOR MELVIN (Wine & Cheese Club Prod.), and THE GIRLS I’VE LIKE LIKED (Ars Nova), as well as the scores for the off-Broadway plays STRAIGHT and THE GRAVEDIGGER’S LULLABY and the plays ‘i’ and THE MESSENGER at Pioneer Theatre Company. Besides his work with Jeff Talbott, upcoming works include MAGNIFICENT CLIMB (with Rick Elice) and WRITING KEVIN TAYLOR (with Josh Halloway). www.willvandyke.com

Jacob Yandura’s current projects with collaborator Rebekah Greer Melocik include Feral (book by Victor Lesniewksi) based on John Bishop’s Borderline and a commission from New York City Children’s Theater Wringer, based on the novel by Jerry Spinelli. Recent recognitions include: Ars Nova’s two-year UNCHARTED residency, the 2014 Johnny Mercer Writers Colony at Goodspeed Musicals, 2013 Yale Institute for Music Theatre, the 2012-2013 Dramatists Guild Fellowship, the 2012 Johnny Mercer Songwriters Project, Rhinebeck Writers Retreat, Cap21’s Writers Residency and ANT Fest 2013 (The Fearful Earful). BA: Kenyon College; MFA: NYU.