33rd Annual Festival of New Musicals

Melis Aker is a writer, actor and musician from Turkey. Her scripts have been commissioned by and developed at the Atlantic Theater (Middle Eastern Mixfest), Ars Nova (Play Group member), NYTW (2050 fellow), O’Neill, Cannes Film Festival, IFP, New Group, Dramatists Guild (DGF fellow), Roundabout, Lark (MEA writers room), Noor, 24 Hour Plays and Magic Theatre in the U.S., as well as the Finborough and Park theatres in London. Previously: developed a screenplay with Revelations Entertainment headed by Morgan Freeman, wrote teleplay “Fractio Panis” starring Brian Cox for Homebound Project/No Kid Hungry and released her NYT-reviewed radio-play “Scraps and Things” on Playing On Air, starring Carol Kane. Selected acting credits include “The Equalizer” (CBS), “The Blacklist: Redemption” (NBC), “Seneca” (HBO Max), Love in Afghanistan (Arena Stage & Roundabout). Currently developing a musical play with Benjamin Scheuer, and a commission by Ars Nova. Her play Field, Awakening (Kilroy’s List) will receive its world premiere at the Finborough Theatre (COVID-19 pending). Melis is a recipient of the Sundance Interdisciplinary Program grant. Training: Columbia (MFA), RADA (Acting). Representation: CAA and Brillstein Entertainment Partners. www.melisaker.com

Greg Dean Borowsky is a Grammy-nominated songwriter and music producer from South Africa, signed to Sony Music Publishing. Greg’s debut album, was nominated for a MetroFM Best RnB Award, and his single, Chocolate Vanilla, was nominated for a Best RnB Channel O Africa Award. In 2014, Greg was commissioned to co-write and produce South Africa’s official 20 Years of Freedom song. Shortly thereafter, Greg moved to New York to develop MANDELA – The Musical, which will be premiering at The Young Vic Theatre in London 2022 and releasing a Broadway/West End all-star album through Sony Masterworks in 2022.

ELLAROSE (she/hers) is an award-winning-writer-and-advocate for inclusion in media. She is a Richard Rodgers Award Winner, Drama League Award Nominee, Dramatists Guild Fellow, O’Neill, Kleban, NYFA and Kernodle Finalist, Doric Wilson Award Semi-Finalist, Rhinebeck Writers Retreat Triple R, Ars Nova, Theatre C (supported by a NAMT grant), Milikin University and Catwalk resident and a former Harvard TDM Guest Lecturer / Resident artist. Her work has been featured by NAMT, The Civilians (Joe’s Pub), GPTC, The Rose Theater, Encores! Off-Center, & UArts Polyphone Festival. Her play THE SÉANCE MACHINE was part of the Tank’s 2019 Obie-Award winning season. As part of her advocacy, she has written for The Lilly Awards Blog, HowlRound, and Musical Theater Today (where she is a contributing editor) and has appeared on panels at NYMF and with Honest Accomplice Theater. She believes the future of American theater is universal healthcare. MFA: NYU Tisch, BA: Brown University. www.ellarosechary.com

Jacinta Clusellas is a composer, guitarist and singer-songwriter based in New York City. Originally from Buenos Aires, Argentina, Jacinta brings together South American folklore, jazz and chamber music, in the context of songs influenced by poems, literature and nature from South America. She is the composer-arranger of the bilingual musical AZUL, inspired by her concept album El Pájaro Azul, which was published in Japan under the record label Inpartmaint Inc. She has toured across the US (Lincoln Center, SXSW) and internationally in Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Canada, Greece and Italy. She has arranged for A.R. Rahman (Boston Symphony Hall) and Alejandro Sanz. Jacinta is a Teaching Artist at the Very Young Composers Program for the New York Philharmonic. www.jacintaclusellasmusic.com

Georgina Escobar is a queer Mexican playwright and maker of sci-femme narratives, ultra-human mythos and Frontera-funk stories. She works textually with the impossible to excavate Latin American perspectives & create genre-fiction with heart. She is a MacDowell Fellow, Djerassi Artist and recipient of the Darrell Ayers Award. Her work has been featured in the Kilroys List, The Texas Review, Los Bárbaros, McSweeney’s Anthology and New Passport Press. Her plays have been produced across the USA and internationally in Mexico, UK, Italy, Denmark and Sweden. Her work has been performed at INTAR, New York Children’s Theatre, Project Y, Clubbed Thumb, Lincoln Center, Bushwick Starr (NY), Two Rivers, Milagro, Aurora Theatre and the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center.

BRANDON JAMES GWINN (he/they) is a 2021 Richard Rodgers Award winning composer-lyricist, performer and producer. Solo albums: BULLIT (Queer Global Arts Festival Winner), NOT TOO LATE Music producer: TWO BIRDS & ONE STONE (Billboard #1) by Trixie Mattel (RuPaul’s Drag Race Allstars 3) LOVE FOOL by Alexis Michelle (Drag Race Season 9) for Broadway Records. Theatre: THE SEANCE MACHINE, TL;DR. THELMA LOUISE; DYKE REMIX (Rodgers Award, Rhinebeck Writer’s Triple R Residency, UArts Polyphone, O’Neill, NAMT), COTTON CANDY & COCAINE (Theatre C), QUEER.PEOPLE.TIME. (Catwalk Residency, Dramatists Guild Fellowship), MATCHMAKER MATCHMAKER, I’M WILLING TO SETTLE (ART, NYMF) SMALL TOWN STORY (NAMT Writer’s Residency Grant, finalist Richard Rodgers award, Village Theatre Seattle, World Premiere: American Theatre Group .) He has been an artist in residence at Ars Nova. 2015-2016 Dramatists Guild Fellow. Proud NARAS Grammy Voter, American Federation of Musicians and ASCAP Member. MFA from NYU’s Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program.

Robi Hager began his career in NYC as an actor/singer and appeared on Broadway with Spring Awakening, How to Succeed in Business…, Bye Bye Birdie, Doctor Zhivago and in National Tours such as Fun Home and Spring Awakening. Regionally, he appeared in Ragtime, Next To Normal (Arden) and Bonnie & Clyde (TUTS). As a composer, he wrote songs “Quiero Soñar” and “Maduros” along with friend Alex McCabe, and they have appeared in both films Top Five and Can You Ever Forgive Me?. Robi is the creator and producer of the LGBTQ musical, Basic Witches, for which he received a Barrymore nomination for Best Original Score. He is the composer for a new musical called Silueta being developed with Power Street Theatre Co. in Philadelphia.

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

Eamonn O’Dwyer is an award-winning composer and an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music. He has written original music for Lady Chatterley’s Lover (UK Tour); Twelfth Night & Henry V (Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre, York); It Never Happened (ArtsEd); Mrs. Beeton Says… (Bristol Old Vic Theatre School); The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (NYMT, The Other Palace); The Comedy of Errors & Julius Caesar Re-imagined (RSC, Swan); Flesh & Bone (National Theatre Studio); Grimm Tales & Peter Pan (Chichester Festival Theatre); Jeeves & Wooster (Barn, Cirencester); Stones in His Pockets (Dukes, Lancaster); The Glass Menagerie (Theatre Chipping Norton). The score for his original musical The House of Mirrors & Hearts won the MTM Award for Best New Score at the Edinburgh Festival in 2010, and after its critically acclaimed run at the Arcola Theatre in 2015, it has now been performed in Australia and the US. For more info, visit www.eamonnodwyer.com

Marshall is a writer and director for theater, and is the proud owner of a wildly untrained, but ultimately well-meaning terrier-mix. He directed, composed and co-wrote the Off-Broadway musicals Who’s Your Baghdaddy, which was a two-time NY Times Critic’s Pick, and Triassic Parq, which went on to win the Ovation Award for Best Musical for its LA premiere. Other select writing includes Loch Ness (Best Musical/Best Director ’19 BWW Awards); Claudio Quest (six NYMF Awards for Excellence); Shrek the Halls (DreamWorks Theatricals); The Magic School Bus (TheaterWorks USA). Film Veggie Tales: Noah’s Ark starring Wayne Brady (Original Songs). He’s written and directed for RKO Stage, Atlantic Theater Company, PBS and lots of other cool places. Graduate of Yale University. www.marshallpailet.com

Tatiana Pandiani is a Latine writer & director-choreographer who works in English and Español. She serves as the Associate Director of the Broadway tour of What the Constitution Means to Me. Recent: Blood Wedding at Yale. Upcoming: multilingual Our Town at Dallas Theater Center. Tatiana has directed new work at the Park Theatre (London), Long Wharf, Cleveland Playhouse, NYTW, IATI, Primary Stages, Signature. As a choreographer, Tatiana works with Latine artists in concerts & music videos. Tatiana is the New Works Director at Miami New Drama and a professor at Hofstra University and the Atlantic Acting School. Member of SDC. MFA: Columbia. Reps: Paradigm. www.tatianapandiani.com

Kyle Puccia is a Platinum-selling songwriter, composer and musician. His co-write, “Kids In Love,” debuted at #1 on Billboard’s Top Dance/Electronic Albums chart. Kyle earned a Swedish Grammy nomination in 2018, and his songs have charted on Billboard’s Top 40 Hot Dance Club Play & Top 10 UK Commercial Pop Charts. Kyle has composed dozens of scores for Microsoft and T-Mobile commercials. He has garnered song placements on such TV shows/films/brands as HBO, World Of Dance, Pretty Little Liars, Legacies, The Titan Games, Love Island, Siesta Key, The Vineyard and Naomi & Ely’s No Kiss List. He has music-directed and/or created vocal arrangements for TV’s Lucifer (Netflix), LA workshop productions for Rock of Ages and Romy & Michele’s High School Reunion, The Musical.

Kalani Queypo is an award-winning screenwriter for Ancestor Eyes, his self-directed short film that played at nearly 40 festivals, winning 14 awards. He is currently developing his episodic comedy, When You Miss Aloha, and his feature-length drama, Stored and Safe; both showcasing his birthplace and culture as the backdrop in his character driven projects. Kalani is the recipient of the 2019 Native Voices Playwrights Retreat, the 2020 Rhinebeck Writers Retreat and the 2021 Johnny Mercer Writers Grove at Goodspeed Musicals. Kalani can be seen acting in the Oscar-nominated film, The New World, Steven Spielberg’s Emmy winning Into the West and Slow West(Sundance GRAND JURY PRIZE). Television credits include Trickster, Jamestown, Fear the Walking Dead, Mad Men, Hawaii Five-0, Nurse Jackie and Bones. www.kalaniqueypo.com

SEVAN is an award-winning London and NYC-based actor-writer. His work has been seen in London and New York at The Public Theater, New York Theatre Workshop, The Flea Theater, The Sheen Center, The Bush Theatre, Theatre Royal Stratford East, Theatre503, Rich Mix, The Old Red Lion, The Space and Access Theater. He was a member of the Bush Theatre inaugural 2015 Emerging Writers’ Group; The Public Theater 2011 Emerging Writers Group; NYTW Usual Suspect; Rising Circle Theater Collective 2010 InkTANK Writer’s Lab. NYTW 2011/2012 Teaching Artist. 2021 Orchard Project Performance Lab Fellow. 2017 O’Neill National Playwrights Conference Finalist. 2014/2015/2016 Princess Grace Award Semi-Finalist. 2014 Papatango Playwriting Prize Shortlist. 2014 Saroyan Social Justice/Human Rights Playwriting Award Finalist. 2010/2012 William Saroyan Playwriting Prize Finalist. He has won the 2016 Kondazian Playwriting Award for Armenian Stories and the 2016 Arch and Bruce Foundation Playwriting Prize. www.justsevan.com

Originally from Tennessee, Eric Sorrels is an award-winning songwriter and professional choral singer. He is a member of the choirs of St. John the Divine and Temple E-Manuel in New York City, and he has sung at the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, and sacred spaces here and abroad. His songs have been heard throughout New York City’s cabaret spaces. Musicals in development include Māyā (Live & In Color, Hypokrit) and Only Us (Drama League Residency) with Cheeyang Ng. Eric’s first solo EP will debut in 2022. BA: University of Tennessee. MFA: NYU. www.ericsorrels.com

Melvin Tunstall, III is an Off-Broadway Alliance Award-winning playwright for penning the book of the TYA phenomenon Polkadots: the Cool Kids Musical. Seen in over 50 productions worldwide, the show also took home the Naledi Award, South Africa’s equivalent to the Tony Award. Melvin resides in New York City, where he is currently working on the musical adaptation of the YA Novel The Supadupa Kid for Barrington Stage Company, and an original movie musical based on the story of the famed Greensboro Four entitled One Week at Woolworth’s. Melvin is represented by William Morris Endeavor.