33rd Annual Festival of New Musicals

Melis Aker is a writer, actor and musician from Turkey. Her plays have been commissioned by and developed at Atlantic Theater, Ars Nova (Play Group member), NYTW (2050 fellow), O’Neill, New Group, Dramatists Guild (DGF fellow), Roundabout Space Jam, LaMaMa, The Lark, Noor, Golden Thread Productions, 24 Hour Plays, Magic Theatre in the US, as well as the Finborough and Park theatres in London. She has also worked on developing a screenplay with Revelations Entertainment, headed by Lori McCreary and Morgan Freeman, and recently released her short play Scraps and Things on Playing On Air, starring Carol Kane. Melis is developing a musical play with Benjamin Scheuer and Jemima Williams based on their illustrated book Hundred Feet Tall and a new play commission from Ars Nova. Her play Field, Awakening (Kilroy’s List) will receive its world premiere at the Finborough Theatre (COVID-19 pending). Training: Columbia (MFA), Tufts (BA), RADA (Acting).

Greg Dean Borowsky is a songwriter and music producer from South Africa, signed to Sony ATV. Greg is currently developing MANDELA – The Musical, which will be premiering at The Young Vic Theatre in London in 2022 and releasing a Broadway/West End all-star album through Sony Masterworks in 2021. Greg’s last producer album, The Greg Dean Project, reached #1 on the UK Soul Chart and remained on the USA Billboard RnB Chart for six weeks in 2016. He made his debut as a musical theatre composer with Polkadots: The Cool Kids Musical, which has had over 50 separate licensed productions staged around the USA, and was produced Off-Broadway by The Atlantic Theater Company, winning an Off-Broadway Alliance Award for Best New Musical in 2017, as well as a Naledi Award in South Africa (Best Production for Young Audiences, 2018).

EllaRose Chary (she/her) is a writer and advocate for inclusion in media. She likes telling stories with music and building community through artistic practice. She is a Richard Rodgers Award Winner, Drama League Award nominee, Dramatists Guild Fellow, Ars Nova Uncharted resident, O’Neill NMTC Finalist/Incubator Resident, Rhinebeck Writers Retreat Triple R Resident, NYFA Fellowship Playwriting/Screenwriting Finalist, Kleban Prize Finalist, a New Georges Affiliated Artist, recipient of the Anna Sosenko Grant and a NAMT Grant. Her work has been seen at The Civilians/City Center, UArts Polyphone Festival, The Great Plains Theatre Conference, Theatre C, The Rose Theater, Joe’s Pub, Feinstein’s/54 Below, Prospect Theater and more. She co-curates Tank-aret and her play with Brandon James Gwinn, The Séance Machine, was part of the Tank’s 2019 Obie-Award winning season. This semester she was a guest lecturer and production studio lead artist at Harvard University. www.ellarosechary.com

Jacinta Clusellas is a composer, guitarist and arranger from Buenos Aires, Argentina, based in New York. Jacinta’s debut album El Pájaro Azul was published in Japan under the record label Inpartmaint Inc. She has served as music director-composer-arranger for the development of AZUL. Jacinta has performed at Lincoln Center, Bebop Club (Buenos Aires), Mesón Nerudiano (Santiago de Chile), Estación (Quito), MAAC (Guayaquil), Atheneum Kelari (Athens) and Vlatos (Crete), to name a few. She has performed at SXSW (Austin, TX), Lanesboro (MN), ART (MN), Brush Creek Foundation for the Arts (WY), Tofte Lake Emerging Artists Residency (MN) and Westben Residency (Canada). 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. She holds a BA from Berklee College of Music. Upcoming: Second album, produced by West One Music (London).

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 is a composer-lyricist, performer and producer. His debut album, Not Too Late, is available now wherever music is sold. His award-winning musicals writing with EllaRose Chary include How to Survive the End of the World (now streaming at www.brandonandella.com ), Cotton Candy & Cocaine, Queer. People. Time. and TL;DR, which received the Rhinebeck Writers Retreat Triple R Residency. He has been a Rodgers Award finalist, an O’Neill finalist, an Anna Sosenko Grant recipient, a Dramatists Guild Fellow and a Live Nation touring artist. He has been in residence at The Tank, Ars Nova, the Catwalk Residency and The O’Neill Theater Center Incubator Residency. Brandon has produced numerous recordings, including two Billboard and iTunes #1 albums by drag artist Trixie Mattel. Proud member of MAC, ASCAP, Dramatist Guild and a Grammy Voting member of NARAS. www.brandonjamesgwinn.com

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 hold an MFA from New York University and a BMus from Berklee College of Music. They are the first Singaporean to headline a concert at Joe’s Pub and Millennium Stage at Kennedy Center, showcasing their original music. Creator of podcast East Side Story and vocal group The Lunar Collective, they have won multiple vocal awards all across Asia, including Singapore, Taiwan and China. Musicals in development include Eastbound (Village Theatre Festival of New Musicals, NAMT Festival ‘20, NYTB IMPACT Award) with Khiyon Hursey and Māyā (Live & In Color, Hypokrit) with Eric Sorrels.

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 South American writer & director-choreographer who works in English and Spanish. She serves as the Associate Director for the Broadway tour of What the Constitution Means to Me by Heidi Schreck. Recent screen projects: Fractio Panis (Homebound, starring Brian Cox) and What the Constitution Means to Me (Amazon Prime). Other recent: When My Mama was a Hittite By Melis Aker (Park Theatre, London) and Christina by Alexis Sheer (Cleveland Playhouse). Tatiana directed the tour of Negrophilie by Zakiya Markland (Frank Collymore, Barbados; Ubumuntu Festival, Rwanda; Kampala International Festival, Uganda). She has developed AZUL at the O’Neill Center, Musical Theater Factory, Tofte Lake, NYTW, The Drama League. Upcoming: Torera by Monet-Hurst Mendoza (Long Wharf), LEMPICKA (Associate to Rachel Chavkin, La Jolla). Tatiana is a professor at Hofstra University, a Teaching Artist at the Atlantic Theater. Fellowships: NYTW 2050, NDF. MFA: Columbia. Member of SDC. Representation: 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 a founding member of SAG-AFTRA’s National Native American Committee and serves on the Advisory Council for Native Voices Theater at the Autry. Kalani is an award-winning screenwriter for Ancestor Eyes, his self-directed short film that played at nearly 40 festivals, winning 14 awards. Kalani entered into the world of Musical Theater with Missing Peace, enjoying two developmental workshops with Native Voices Theater. He received a 2020 Rhinebeck Writers Residency, and was recently featured on Broadway for Biden: In Our America: A Concert for the Soul of the Nation. 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 Jamestown, Fear the Walking Dead, Mad Men, Hawaii Five-0, Nurse Jackie, and Bones. This coming January, Kalani will be starring in the new CW series, Trickster.

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

Hailing from Lebanon, Tennessee, Eric Sorrels is a New York-based performer, songwriter and music director. As a singer, he has performed with professional ensembles at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, The Bard Music Festival and places of worship throughout Manhattan. As a music director, he has helmed several cabarets and concerts at The Duplex and Feinstein’s/54 Below. His songs have been showcased at The Duplex and Joe’s Pub. He has a BA in Theatre from UT Knoxville and an MFA from NYU’s Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program. Projects in development include Māyā and Only Us with Cheeyang Ng, and the song cycle Yas, Queen! @eric.sorrels

Melvin Tunstall 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. A proud participant in the Yale Institute for Music Theatre, Melvin took a small break from writing to make his Broadway debut in Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. The acting bug now quenched, Melvin returned to writing with commissioned adaptations of the Broadway musicals Wonderland and The Wiz. 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.