35th Annual Festival of New Musicals

Christopher Anselmo (Book, Music & Lyrics) is an award-winning songwriter and playwright. His musicals include Fable (NYMF), Atlantic (Edinburgh) and the New York Times Critic’s Pick adaptation of The Pout-Pout Fish, which premiered at the New Victory Theater in 2019 and continues to tour the nation with TheaterWorksUSA. His latest musical, Fountain, has received residencies through New Victory LabWorks and the O’Neill NMTC. In addition to his work as a writer, Anselmo serves as associate to composer Jeanine Tesori on her projects, most recently the Tony Award-winning Kimberly Akimbo and Soft Power. Member of ASCAP, Dramatists Guild, BMI Advanced Workshop and Northwestern alum. christopheranselmo.com

Clare Fuyuko Bierman (Lyrics) is a playwright and lyricist raised in a Japanese-Jewish home with some rabbits, a snake and a bunch of finches. Recent: Yoko’s Husband’s Killer’s Japanese Wife, Gloria (5th Avenue Commission, Civilians R&D, Orchard Project, O’Neill Conference), The People vs. American Cheese (American Opera Project), Theseus and the Minotaur and the Other Six (Youth Theatre Northwest Commission) and VISARE (New Voices Winner, Vivace Award Nomination). She has participated in the Johnny Mercer Songwriters Project, the Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Play Festival and Broadway’s Future Songbook Series. MFA New York University, Musical Theatre Writing. clarebierman.com

Faye Chiao (Music) is a composer of musical theater, opera and concert music. Chiao has received awards from The Presser Foundation and OPERA America. Chiao’s works have been commissioned, produced and developed by Houston Grand Opera, Syracuse Stage, The Duffy Institute for New Opera, Boston Chamber Symphony, Manhattan School of Music, Prospect Theater, The Playwrights Realm, Pittsburgh Festival Opera and The New Victory Theater Labworks program. Chiao is a member of Theatre Now New York’s Musical Writers Lab and the BMI Lehman Engel Advanced Workshop. Chiao holds degrees from The Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University. FayeChiao.com

Brandy Hoang Collier (Book) is a poet, playwright and paradox from deep in the heart of Texas. She unravels conventions and incites chaos through paradigm-shifting storytelling, radically compassionate work practices and general vibes. Selected works include Yoko’s Husband’s Killer’s Japanese Wife, Gloria (5th Avenue Theatre Commission, Civilians R&D Group, Orchard Project, O’Neill NMTC) and The Blazing World (Polyphone Festival). In 2020, she co-founded Root Beer Occasion Theatre Company with business partner Jessie Field and orchestrated several online productions at the height of the pandemic. Collier proudly identifies as Asian-American, disabled, queer and utterly charming. brandyhoangcollier.com

Rebecca Tourino Collinsworth (Book) is a Seattle-based playwright, dramaturg and director. As a teaching artist, she’s worked with Claire Trevor School of the Arts, Alliance Theatre, NYFA, Seattle University and SMU; she also spent several years working with prisoners at the Washington Correctional Center for Women as part of the Engaged Theatre Residency. She is the Founding Artistic Director of Parley, a robust new work developmental program in the Pacific Northwest providing unprecedented support to its associate artists. Through Parley, Tourino Collinsworth has developed, directed and produced more than 80 world premieres by underrepresented writers in the last decade.

Sam Columbus (Music) is a New York City-based composer, orchestrator and music director. WRITER: Freedom Summer (Baldwin Wallace University, New York Musical Festival, BW/Playhouse Square), Never Be King (the Never Be King E.P., developmental). ORCHESTRATOR/ARRANGER: Brilliant: The Musical (Broadway Bound Theatre Festival, Theatre Row), Boundless: The Musical. MUSIC DIRECTOR: Playhouse Square, Timber Lake Playhouse, Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival. BWMT 2019. www.samcolumbus.com for more.

Jared Corak (Book, Music & Lyrics) is a Brooklyn-based writer and lyricist, originally from sunny South Florida. His musicals include the New York Times Critic’s Pick adaptation of The Pout-Pout Fish, which premiered at the New Victory Theater in 2019 and continues to tour the nation with TheaterWorksUSA, and Fountain, which has received residencies through New Victory LabWorks and the O’Neill NMTC. He is the recipient of the Ellen Schwartz Award for Lyric Writing and the Jean Banks Award. When he is not writing musicals, he works on the CBS TV show FBI. Member of the BMI Advanced Workshop and Northwestern alum.

Anna Gilbert (Music & Lyrics), a singer-songwriter living in Portland, Oregon, composes songs about life, love and loss. She has made music with Grammy Award-winning producer Charlie Peacock (The Civil Wars, The Lone Bellow), Jeremy Larson (Sucré, Violents), Peter Hollens (Legendary Vocals), Troy Welstad (Pink!, Selena Gomez, A Fine Frenzy) and Grammy and Golden Globe- nominee Sam Ashworth (H.E.R., Leslie Odom). Gilbert’s current projects include working on her pop project, Shy Honey — an up-and-coming synth pop band in Portland — and writing the music for Mija. Gilbert also releases music monthly on Patreon as a creator (Patreon.com/annagilbert).

David’s plays American Guernica, Hotel Buzz and I Ragazzi are available for production through Broadway Licensing and Dramatists Play Service (www.dramatists.com). BROADWAY: Motown The Musical. WEST END: Motown The Musical, Imagine This (lyrics). NATIONAL THEATRE OF ISRAEL: Masada 1942 (book, lyrics). OFF-BROADWAY: Invisible Thread (Story Consultant), 2nd Stage Theatre, Diane Paulus, dir. LOS ANGELES: Having It All (book, lyrics), Ovation nominee, Best Musical, Best Book. DISNEY TV: “My Once Upon A Time” (lyrics) from Descendants 3. CARNEGIE HALL: Tribute To Stephen Flaherty (writer, curator, parody lyrics). David lives in Manhattan with his wife, Broadway’s Bryonha Marie. www.davidisawriter.com.

Tasha Gordon-Solmon (Book & Lyrics): Tasha’s writing has been developed and produced at the Humana Festival, Clubbed Thumb, Northern Stage, New Georges, Sun Valley Center for the Arts, The Playwrights Realm, Ars Nova, Theatre Now New York and The Flea. She is a recipient of the Dramatists Guild Fellowship, the Playwrights Realm Fellowship, a Puffin Foundation Grant, and an AFO Solo Collective Residency. Residencies include The Millay Colony, Bethany Arts Community, Barrington Stage Company and Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. She is a member of the TNNY Musical Writers Lab and the BMI Advanced Musical Theatre Workshop, and an alumna of the Clubbed Thumb Early Career Writers Group, Project Y Playwrights Group, New Georges Jam and Ars Nova Playgroup.

Evynne Hollens (Book) is a writer, singer and Artistic Director of One Voice Productions, a digital media company. She co-created Voices, a virtual and live a cappella show running on the largest theatrical venue at sea. Hollens co-founded Divisi, University of Oregon’s female-identifying a cappella group (inspiration for Pitch Perfect). She won a Contemporary A Cappella Recording Award for “Best Arrangement” of Divisi’s cover of Usher’s “YEAH!,” featured on Glee. Hollens made her Broadway debut at The August Wilson Theatre and performs at the Hult Center with the Eugene Symphony, Oregon Contemporary Theatre and the Shedd Institute.

Alphonso Horne (Music) is a composer, performer and educator. He is a two-time Grammy nominated trumpeter, named by Wynton Marsalis as a rising star of the next generation. Broadway: Orchestra for After Midnight and Shuffle Along. Music Director: Ziegfield’s Midnight Frolic, For The Last Time. Theater Composing: Paradise Blue by Dominique Morisseau (Long Wharf Theatre); the original musical Dee (New Dramatists); Antonio Award nomination for music in The Wedding Band (Theatre for a New Audience). He wrote and produced Mother Kofi: The Tale Of An African Princess, inspired by his family history. Florida State University (BM), The Juilliard School (MM). www.alphonsohorne.com

Jaime Jarrett (Book, Music & Lyrics) [he/they] is a Philadelphia and New York City-based composer, lyricist and librettist. Writing credits include: Wonder Boy (5th Avenue Theatre, Musical Theatre Factory), (You Can’t) Outrun the Monster (developed with The Ucross Foundation, Fresh Ground Pepper), Queer Baby Jesus (Dixon Place, co-written with Nina Roy), Normativity (Polyphone Festival, NYMF). They have participated in several writers groups including Musical Theatre Factory’s inaugural Makers Cohort, BMI Advanced Musical Theatre Workshop, and Theatre Now New York’s Musical Writers Lab. Jaime is currently pursuing his MFA in Musical Theatre Collaboration at Temple University. Rep: Lucy Powis, A3 Artists Agency.

Erika Ji (Music) is a cross-genre composer-storyteller who loves soaring melodies, dream worlds and stories that challenge our preconceptions about what is true, good or worth wanting. Her work has premiered at Lincoln Center and the Public. Recent projects, in addition to Gloria: VISARE (New Voices Winner, Vivace Award Nomination), Starsong (Rattlestick, Sound Bites). As conductor-pianist-vocalist, Erika performs on Broadway (Kimberly Akimbo) and national TV (CBS Sunday Morning). Johnny Mercer Foundation Songwriter, NYU Tisch MFA Fellow. The proud daughter of Chinese immigrants, Erika studied computer science & philosophy at Stanford and built products at Dropbox before deciding to follow the music. erikaji.com

Jesse L. Kearney, Jr. (Lyrics & Book) is an award-winning playwright and lyricist. Honors: ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshop; Jonathan Larson Musical Theatre Fellowship through the Dramatists Guild; Lazarus Family Musical Theater Award; 2022 Johnny Mercer Writers Grove at Goodspeed Musicals. Works: The Little Playhouse (LCT Directors Lab); The Lion In Love (music: Brian Feinstein); book for The Blind Man (lyrics: Peter Mills / music: Deborah Abramson). Kearney was a co-founder and the General Counsel of The STAGE Network, a streaming media platform devoted to the performing arts. J.D.: New York Law School. MFA: NYU Musical Theater Writing Program. BA: Dartmouth. Member: Dramatists Guild.

Dmitry Koltunov (Music & Lyrics) is a Ukrainian born singer-songwriter living in New York. His band played some of the best independent music stages of NYC before Dmitry focused on writing for theatre. When not writing, Dmitry runs a tech startup called Arbor helping families capture and share their history. In 2017 he became a resident writer with MTF/Playwrights Horizons, and New York Theatre Barn’s Emerging Voices program. In 2019 Dmitry received the ASCAP Scholarship for the NYMF Musical Songwriting Workshop. He was the runner-up for Taylor Louderman’s Write Out Loud contest in 2019 and 2020. Dmitry’s work has been performed at Joe’s Pub and 54 Below. Dmitry is a graduate of UPenn, where he majored in Economics and Computer Science while studying poetry and music composition.

Peter Mills (Lyrics & Additional Music) wrote music, lyrics and co-book for Off-Broadway’s The Hello Girls, nominated for three Drama Desk Awards and four Outer Critics Circle Awards. Other shows include Illyria, Golden Boy Of The Blue Ridge and The Honeymooners. He has won the Kleban Prize, the Fred Ebb Award, the Richard Rodgers New Horizons Award, the Cole Porter Award, a Jonathan Larson Performing Arts Foundation grant, the Donna Perret Rosen Award, and received two Drama Desk Award nominations for The Pursuit Of Persephone. ASCAP member, NYU’s Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program alum and faculty, and a founding member of Prospect Theater Company. www.PeteMillsMusic.com

Gaby Moreno (Music & Lyrics): Born in Guatemala, singer-songwriter-producer Gaby Moreno has released seven albums, earning two Grammy nominations (Alegoría, 2023 and Illusion, 2017), an Emmy nomination (co-writer, “Parks & Recreation” theme song), and won a Latin Grammy (Best New Artist, 2013). She won Grand Prize in the John Lennon Songwriting Contest, the first contestant in the Latin category to win Song of the Year. She sings the theme song and voices “Marlena” in the Disney series Elena of Avalor. Moreno has shared the international stage with Bono, Andrea Boccelli, Tracy Chapman, Ani DiFranco, Punch Brothers, Hugh Laurie, Calexico, David Gray, Oscar Isaac and many more. She was recently named the first UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador from Guatemala and works closely with various organizations that support those on the margins.

Charlie H. Ray (Music, Book & Lyrics) is a writer, composer and performer splitting time between NYC and Miami. WRITER: Freedom Summer (Baldwin Wallace University, New York Musical Festival, BW/Playhouse Square), Never Be King (the Never Be King E.P., developmental). ACTOR/MUSIC DIRECTOR: Casa Mañana, Playhouse Square, Beck Center for the Arts, Idaho Shakespeare Festival, Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival, among others. In addition to creating theatre, he is an avid marketer and Partner at Innoruptiv. Proud BWMT 2020. @charliehray

Cara Reichel (Book) has co-authored shows with Peter Mills including The Hello Girls (2019 Drama Desk Award nominations), The Flood, The Underclassman, Death for Five Voices and others. For Theatrical Rights Worldwide, she wrote The Olympians: A New Muse-ical, a female-forward jukebox show drawing on hits from the BMG music catalog. She is the bookwriter for Marion Adler and Peter Foley’s I Capture the Castle, and has developed work at the Goodspeed Johnny Mercer Writers’ Grove, Rhinebeck Writers’ Retreat, and the Bogliasaco Fellows program in Italy, among others. She is the Producing Artistic Director of NYC’s Prospect Theater Company. www.CaraReichel.com