32nd Annual Festival of New Musicals

Adesha Adefela started acting in musical theater at age five, starring alongside her mother Deltrina Johnson, a Beach Blanket Babylon alum. She continued starring in musicals produced by community theaters in her hometown, Oakland, CA. As a teen, she was to sign with Atlantic Records, but in an effort to uphold her personal values, she became an independent artist. That decision led to nominations, sold-out shows in the SF Bay Area, co-starring in a reality TV show produced by Warner Brothers, becoming a Billboard-charted artist, and sharing the stage with famous acts Jazmine Sullivan, Carl Thomas, Ledisi, Goapele and more.

In the performing arts world, Nicole Brooks  is beyond a triple-threat. Her extensive accomplishments include: filmmaker, director, performer, singer, playwright, composer, curator, teacher and ‘art-ivist’. Brooks has devoted over 20 years producing innovative content (for the stage and screen), with a focus on narratives that illuminate the peoples of the African Diaspora. In 2012, Brooks officially added playwright to her list of talents. Her debut theatrical work Obeah Opera—which she created, wrote, composed and performs in—has received critical acclaim and several award nominations throughout its various incarnations in Toronto, Canada between 2009 and 2019. 

Michelle Elliott has written seven musicals with collaborator Danny Haengil Larsen, including Cloaked, for which she was the recipient of the Kleban Prize for Most Promising Librettist. Michelle and Danny also received a Jonathan Larson Award for Cloaked, as well as a Richard Rodgers Development Award for their first musical, The Yellow Wood, which was also featured in NAMT’s 2009 Festival of New Musicals. Michelle is a graduate of NYU’s Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program.

Having performed on Broadway for nearly 2 decades, Josh Franklin is now making waves as a director, playwright, composer and lyricist. His credits include, “Royal Blood” (composer/lyricist), a hip hop Vampire musical comedy, “Jack: A Moral Musical Tale” (co-writer/director), “The Consoling Mechanism” (playwright/composer/lyricist), a story about a girl struggling with her new reality as a person with disabilities- selected for NAMT 2020, and “Searching For Santa” (playwright/composer/lyricist), a fun holiday musical for all. His acting credits include Broadway: The Prom, Anything Goes, Ghost, Legally Blonde and Grease. Off Broadway: Cyrano with Peter Dinklage. Tours: Bob Gaudio (Jersey Boys), Danny Zuko (Grease), Chad (All Shook Up), and Billy Crocker (Anything Goes-Helen Hayes nom). Albums: Josh Franklin, Spent, Grease, Anything Goes, The Prom. Owner of “Icons,” the first gay piano bar in Colorado Springs which celebrates queer culture through iconic influencers and live entertainment. Instagram: @joshuaandrewfranklin Website: josh-franklin.com

Justin Huertas (he/him) is a Seattle-based award-winning playwright, composer-lyricist, and actor. His first original musical Lizard Boy world-premiered at Seattle Rep, toured to San Diego’s Diversionary Theatre, and had two industry readings in NYC. Justin then wrote The Last World Octopus Wrestling Champion (co-composed with Steven Tran) for ArtsWest Playhouse & Gallery and Lydia & the Troll (co-created with Ameenah Kaplan) for Seattle Rep. He is composer-lyricist for The Lamplighter (co-authored by Sara Porkalob and Kirsten “Kiki” deLohr Helland) and for Book-It Repertory Theatre’s adaptation of Howl’s Moving Castle. As a Filipino-American artist-activist who grew up with fables and modern myths like the Power Rangers, Spider-Man, X-Men, and other superheroes, Justin has committed to dismantling and decolonizing American mythos one original fairy tale at a time. His mission is to break up the noise of white supremacy with affirmations of Black, Brown, and Queer joy, empowerment, and love.

Khiyon Hursey is a writer and composer primarily working to push musical theater into the contemporary world of popular music. He recently finished co-penning songs with Grammy Winners Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (Lala Land, Dear Evan Hansen) for SPIRITED, a major motion picture starring Ryan Reynolds, Will Ferrell and Octavia Spencer. He is currently co-writing LOVE IN AMERICA, a movie musical to be produced by Issa Rae at Universal. After Khiyon got his start as the music assistant on the off-Broadway and Broadway productions and the Grammy Award Winning Cast Album of HAMILTON, he’s since worked for/with Universal Studios, HBOmax, Netflix, Apple, Nickelodeon, Andre 3000, Issa Rae, and Kevin Hart on various music and tv projects. He is based in Los Angeles and New York.

Danny Haengil Larsen is a composer, lyricist, librettist and orchestrator. His musicals, co-written with Michelle Elliott, include: Hart Island, Maiden Voyage, Cloaked, The Yellow Wood, and several musicals for young audiences. Awards include The Jonathan Larson Award, the Richard Rodgers Award, NYMF Best Music Award, the Daryl Roth Award and the Kleban Prize. Their musical web series The Hinterlands was nominated for 4 IAWTV awards. Danny is currently working on a new semi-autobiographical show The Pain in My Gay-Mormon, Half-Korean Ass. His orchestrations have been professionally produced. MFA from The Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program at NYU.

Beau Lewis is an Emmy-winning writer, producer, viral media expert and entrepreneur from Seattle. Lewis’ music videos have over 250 million views online and his work has been featured in the New York Times, the Atlantic, Fortune, and on Good Morning America. He is the CEO of Rhyme Combinator, the media company dedicated to championing positive entrepreneurial culture. He co-founded and sits on the board of GoldieBlox, the award winning children’s multimedia company challenging gender stereotypes with the world’s first girl engineer character. Lewis graduated from Stanford with a BS in Engineering and a focus in International Relations from Oxford.

Molly Beach Murphy plays include: The Air Got Thick; IKE; Big Ben in the Red Dirt Desert. With core collaborators Annie Tippe + Jeanna Phillips, Molly co-creates experimental musicals such as Cowboy Bob, with two new pieces in early development. Molly’s work has been developed with New York Theatre Workshop, New York Stage & Film, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Ars Nova, the Alley Theatre, Page 73, The Civilians’ R&D Group, The Orchard Project, Ucross Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers’ Fund, Yale Institute for Music Theatre, Village Theatre Festival of New Musicals, Pipeline Theatre Company. Page 73 Playwriting Fellowship Semi-finalist; Drama League Beatrice Terry Resident; New Georges Affiliated Artist. Published works in Vol. 1 Brooklyn, The Hairpin, Santa Ana River Review and American Theatre Magazine.

Born and raised in Singapore, Cheeyang Ng is an award-winning singer-songwriter who writes at the intersection of queer, Asian and immigrant stories. They have performed around the world, including Lincoln Center with Carole King and Carnegie Hall with a cappella group Vocalosity and are the first Singaporean to headline a concert at Joe’s Pub and Millennium Stage at Kennedy Center. Musicals in development include Eastbound (Village Theatre Festival of New Musicals, NAMT ’20) with Khiyon Hursey and Māyā (Live & In Color, Hypokrit) with Eric Sorrels. BMus: Berklee. MFA: NYU. www.cheeyang.com

Ryan Nicole Austin is a Grammy-nominated polymath who finds her most fulfilling experiences at the intersection of art & activism.  Her California State Assembly-recognized career in music & media empowers community. Ryan is featured on TEDx San Francisco, ESPN’s NBA at Christmas with Daveed Diggs, & has performed for Google, Sony, LinkedIn, Apple & Barack Obama.  Ryan has led workshops, directed, and been the playwright-in-residence at New York’s Public Theater (BARS workshop), Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, California Shakespeare Theater, and American Conservatory Theater.  Ryan holds a B.A. in Sociology and Political Science from San Diego State University.

Jeanna Phillips makes and performs music and theatre for folks of all ages. Music for theatre: Cowboy Bob, with Molly Beach Murphy and Annie Tippe (Village Theatre, New York Stage and Film, Ars Nova, NYTW Adelphi Residency, Polyphone Festival); what’s this called, this spirit? with Alex Thrailkill (Ars Nova, Dixon Place); Cooking to me is Poetry with New Saloon (Galapagos Art Space); POE (The Morgan Library). She was selected as a 2019/2020 New Victory Labworks artist, and was a member of Fresh Ground Pepper’s 2019/2020 Playground PlayGroup. Her clown-cabaret alter ego Andréa Lloyd Webber has wreaked havoc at Caveat, Ars Nova, La MaMa, Dixon Place, Littlefield and Liberty Hall at the ACE Hotel. Alumna: The Civilians R&D Group, Yale Institute of Music Theatre. BFA NYU Experimental Theatre Wing.

Noam Shapiro is a New York-based director and the Producing Artistic Director of Three Hares. He is the SDC Foundation’s 2020 Kurt Weill/Harold Prince Directing Fellow, a member of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab, a former MTC Directing Fellow, a Drama League First Draft Resident Artist, and a winner of OPERA-America’s Robert L.B. Tobin Director-Designer Prize. Noam has developed work with the Drama League, Ensemble Studio Theatre, the LaGuardia Performing Arts Center, Access Theater, The Lark, New Dramatists and Fresh Ground Pepper. He has also guest directed at Yale, Johns Hopkins and Columbia. BA Yale.

Annie Tippe is a director and creator of new work, film and music theater. Recent: Premiere of Dave Malloy’s Octet at the Signature Theatre (Lortel Award for Best Direction, SDC Callaway Award Finalist) and Ghost Quartet (Premiere, The Bushwick Starr, etc…), Leslye Headland’s Cult of Love (Premiere, IAMA Theatre Company), Bess Wohl’s Continuity (Goodman Theatre), Molly Beach Murphy + Jeanna Phillips’ Cowboy Bob (Village Theatre; New York Stage and Film), James + Jerome’s INK (w. Rachel Chavkin, Under the Radar/Met Museum) and The Conversationalists (Bushwick Starr). Former Ars Nova Director-in-Residence, Drama League Directing Fellow, Williamstown Directing Corps.

Paulo K Tir√≥l is a composer, lyricist and bookwriter from Manila, Philippines. He is currently a Dramatist Guild Foundation Fellow and was an artist-in-residence at Access Theater with director Noam Shapiro. His projects include music and lyrics for On This Side of the World (NAMT Festival 2020, Prospect Theater Company’s IGNITE series, Access Theater); book, music and lyrics for Called; and orchestrations for Ma-Yi Theater Co.’s Felix Starro. His work has been presented at Joe’s Pub, Barrington Stage and more. Training: Berklee, NYU’s Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program (full-tuition scholarship), BMI.