2013-2014 Artist Residencies
CAP21's Artists Residency Program is awarded to emerging New York musical theatre artists. Check out the artists who are spending time with us this year and how they are contributing to the future of the arts.
CHRISTINE TOY JOHNSON & JASON MA
New Musical: Barcelona
Christine Toy Johnson is an award-winning screenwriter and playwright. Her play, THE NEW DEAL, was the first project to be developed by the Roundabout Theatre Company's "Different Voices" program in June, 2006. Other plays include PAPER SON, WELCOME TO TELEVISION, and SECONDARY IMPACT. A collection of her written work was included in the Library of Congress Asian Pacific American Performing Arts Collection in 2010.
BRANDON ANDERSON & JENNY STAFFORD
New Musical: The Artist and the Scientist
Brandon Anderson (Music) is an award winning singer/songwriter, writer, and composer. Brandon is the recipient of the 2007 ASCAP Foundation Frederick Loewe Award for his work in music composition for the theatre. His work has been performed in New York (Lincoln Center, Joe's Pub, The Laurie Beechman, The Zipper) and regionally.
Jennifer Stafford (Book & Lyrics) is a playwright, bookwriter, and lyricist, and a graduate of NYU's Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program. Her work has been featured in New York (Lincoln Center, Merkin Recital Hall, Joe's Pub, Birdland, Don't Tell Mama), Chicago (Columbia College, Theatre Building Chicago, Spotlight Youth Theatre, STAGES Festival of New Musicals), and regionally at Barrington Stage, as part of William Finn's Songs By Ridiculously Talented Composers and Lyricists You Probably Don't Know, But Should.
TERRY BERLINER
New Musical: In the Making
Terry Berliner's Broadway credits include The Lion King, The Tale of the Allergist's Wife, The Sound of Music, and The Red Shoes. Off Broadway: Time and Again, Captains Courageous, Violet, and Merrily We Roll Along. Directed productions of Next Thing You Know, Cloaked, and By Proxy for the CAP21 Theatre Company. Other NYC credits include The Maiden's Prayer, and One Thing I Like To Say Is…, Emma, The Mercy Seat, Spine, and Allegro at Encores Great American Musicals in Concert. Ms. Berliner received the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award for her production of Bingo (by David Holcenberg, Michael Heitzman and Ilene Reid). Her work in regional theatres has been seen at the La Jolla Playhouse, McCarter Theatre, Geva Theatre Center, The Human Race Theatre Company, Arena Stage and many others. Member of Off Broadway's Lucille Lortel voting committee, and the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society.
DEBORAH BREVOORT & STEPHANIE SALZMAN
New Musical: Crossing Over
Deborah Brevoort is a playwright and librettist/lyricist best known for THE WOMEN OF LOCKERBIE, which won the Kennedy Center's Fund for New American Plays Award and the silver medal in the Onassis International Playwriting Competition. She is the librettist of KING ISLAND CHRISTMAS with composer David Friedman, which won the Frederick Loewe Award, with productions at such places as the Paper Mill Playhouse and Lyric Stage. Deborah has received grants and commissions from the NEA, Rockefeller Foundation, NYFA, CEC Arts Link,among numerous other. She received the Joe Calloway Award and was a MacDowell Fellow. MFA in Playwriting from Brown University/MFA in Musical Theatre writing from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts where she currently teaches.
Stephanie Salzamn is a songwriter whose pop and musical theater music and lyrics can be heard nationally and internationally on recordings, in TV and Film, as well as in theater. Her songs have been recorded by multi-platinum legends Whitney Houston and Faith Hill. She wrote the score for LEFT TO OUR OWN DEVICES, an original dance musical for young audiences, which was a semi-finalist for the Ronald M. Ruble New Play Festival and was featured in Momentum Repertory Company's New Works Festival in June 2012. Recipient of numerous awards, including the National Academy of Popular Music/Abe Olman Award for Songwriting Excellence, ASCAP Popular Awards, and the John Lennon Songwriting Contest.
FENGAR GAEL & DENNIS MCCARTHY
New Musical: Soul On Vinyl
Fengar Gael's plays have been workshopped and produced at the InterAct Theatre of Philadelphia, New Jersey Repertory, Moxie Theatre, Seanachi Theatre, The Utah Shakespearean Festival, The Kitchen Dog Theatre, The Abingdon Theatre, and MultiStages. She is a recipient of the Craig Noel Award for Devil Dog Six, the Playwrights First Award for Opaline, a fellowship from the California Arts Council, and commissions from South Coast Repertory, the National New Play Network, and the Salt Lake Acting Company. Her play, Beggar at the Feast, was recently read at Reverie Productions' Wet Ink Festival.
Dennis McCarthy began his career working as music director for Glen Campbell and went on to compose Emmy award-winning scores for television's "MacGyver" and "Star Trek" franchises as well as scoring the Star Trek movie, "Generations." He continues to compose music for South Coast Repertory for "Of Mice And Men," "Much Ado About Nothing," "Dicken's Christmas Carol," the premier of Amy Freed's "The Beard Of Avon" and a new musical "The Italian Straw Hat" with John Strand. Dennis resides in California with his wife Patty and is within driving distance of their three children and their nine grandchildren.
DONNA KAZ & IONEL PETROI
New Musical: Live! Nude! Girl!
Donna Kaz (Book & Lyrics) has had her plays produced across the US and UK and in NYC at The Director's Company, HERE, New York Theatre Workshop, Tribeca PAC, New Georges and The York Theatre Company. Most recently she wrote the book/lyrics for LIVE! NUDE! GIRL! (music by Wayne Barker) and FOOD (music by Gerald Stockstill), both received developmental readings at the New York Musical Theatre Festival. Plays include JOAN – Edinburg Festival Fringe, Regis College and TNT where it received a Jason miller Awared; Performing Tribute 9/11: Ordinary People, Remarkable Stories – Tribeca performing Arts Center and Harlem Stage. She is the recipient of residency fellowships from Yaddo, Djerassi, The Blue Mountain Center, The Ucross Foundation and the New Lyric Institute for New Musicals. Alum of the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop. MFA Queens University of Charlotte 2014.
Ionel Petroi (Music) has written more then 70 orchestral, chamber music, ballet music, opera,instrumental ensemble works and film scores. His music has been performed by the Philharmonic Orchestra of Belgrade, the
Orchestra d'Ile de France, the Philharmonic Orchestra of Luxembourg, the Ensemble Barcelona 216, the Trio of Ensemble Modern, the Ambrosia trio of New York and the San Francisco Ensemble. Winner of the prestigious First Prize in Composition for "Stevan Hristic" at the Belgrade Conservatory in 1983.
ADRIEN ROYCE & MARK HOLLMANN
New Musical: Bigfoot and Other Lost Souls
Mark Hollmann won a Tony Award for writing the music and lyrics for Broadway's URINETOWN: THE MUSICAL. He is currently writing music and lyrics for the Broadway musicals based on the films SOAPDISH and MY MAN GODFREY. He is also developing two new musicals with Greg Kotis: YEAST NATION (the triumph of life), an original story that tells the tale of the dawn of life on Earth, and THE MAN IN THE WHITE SUIT, a musical version of the 1951 Alec Guiness film. He recently wrote the music and lyrics and starred with Greg Kotis in EAT THE TASTE at New York's Barrow Street Theatre. A former member of the Cardiff-Giant Theatre Company in Chicago, he played trombone for the Chicago art-rock band Maestro Subgum and the Whole and played piano for the Second City national touring company and Chicago City Limits. He attended the Making Tuners Workshop at New Tuners Theatre in Chicago and the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre workshop in New York. A member of the Dramatists Guild and ASCAP, he lives in Manhattan with his wife Jillian, and their son Oliver.
Adrien Royce's plays have been produced/workshopped by FringeNYC, Chicago Dramatists, Nuyorican Poet's Cafe, West Bank Downstairs Theatre, Love Creek Productions, and Turnip Theatre Company, among others. Her work has been honored in numerous festivals and awards programs including Jane Chambers, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, and The New American Theatre. Her shows include: BELIEVE IN ME, A Bigfoot Musical, NEUROTIC SPLENDOR, which received First Place honors in the 2003 Sonoma County Repertory Theatre New Works Festival and book and lyrics for the musical, EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENS IN THE WOODS IS REAL, which won Second Place honors.
KAIT KERRIGAN & BRIAN LOWDERMILK
New Musical: Tales from the Bad Years
Kait Kerrigan (words) and Brian Lowdermilk (music) made their off-Broadway debut in 2006 with their adaptation of Henry and Mudge, still touring nationally. In 2011, they released their first album Our First Mistake, which charted at #1 on the iTunes Singer/Songwriter chart. Their new album, Kerrigan-Lowdermilk Live, documents a concert tour that resulted from their breakout $35K kickstarter campaign and released this spring. Other musicals include The Unauthorized Autobiography of Samantha Brown, Tales from the Bad Years, The Woman Upstairs, Wrong Number, The Freshman Experiment, Republic and Flash of Time. Their songs have been recorded and performed internationally and their musicals have been developed at the Goodspeed's Norma Terris Theatre, Theatreworks Silicon Valley, La Jolla Playhouse, Perry-Mansfield New Works Festival, ASCAP/Disney Workshop, Manhattan Theatre Club, York Theatre, the Lark Playwrights Development Center, and Primary Stages. Together, they received the 2006 Larson Award, 2004-2005 Dramatists Guild Fellowship, and have held residencies at the Orchard Project and the MacDowell Arts Colony. Kerrigan received the 2009 Kleban Award for libretto-writing. As a playwright, she has written Disaster Relief (developed by Page 73), Imaginary Love (Hapgood Theatre 2011), Transit (Lark Playwrights Week 2010) and she is a member of Interstate 73. She teaches libretto writing at Primary Stages. Lowdermilk composed music for The Amazing Adventures of Dr. Wonderful and Her Dog (with playwright Lauren Gunderson at the Kennedy Center 2011) and Red (with librettist Marcus Stevens), which received the Alan Menken Award and 2005 Richard Rodgers Award. He was the writer-in-residence at Temple Shalom, during which he scored a full Shabbat service. Both are alumni of the BMI Musical Theatre Writing Workshop, co-founders of the digital sheet music company NewMusicalTheatre.com, and proud members of the Dramatists Guild and ASCAP.
TAMAR COLE
New Play: Variations on a Theme
Tamar Cole has written for stage, film and television. She juggles writing, coaching, family and a long career as a private investigator with other sundry money making ventures. She is thrilled and grateful to be participating in the CAP21 Residency.
JAMES STANLEY YATES
New Play: Etudes
James Stanley Yates completed his MFA at the Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program at NYU and received his BA in Theatre at UCLA. As a playwright, his works have been supported by the National Endowment of the Arts, and produced by The Powerhouse Theatre at Vassar College, NYU, UCLA, Adelphi University, and Mercury Summer Stock of Cleveland. He is the recipient of the 2007 Matz-Sosin Award for Musical Theatre Composition, and is a co-founder and head writer of Meridian 13 News, an international musical theatre podcast now featured on iTunes.
DANNY LARSEN & MICHELLE ELLIOTT
New Musical: Maiden Voyage
Danny Larsen (composer & co-lyricist) and Michelle Elliott (bookwriter & co-lyricist) graduated from NYU's Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program in 2005. Their most recent collaboration, Cloaked, received a workshop production at CAP 21 in June 2010 and was presented as part of the Village Theatre's Festival of New Works in August 2010. Cloaked received a 2011 Jonathan Larson Grant and Michelle was the recipient of the 2011 Kleban Prize for Most Promising Librettist for Cloaked. Their first musical, The Yellow Wood, received the 2006 Richard Rodgers Development Award and the Daryl Roth Award. The Yellow Wood was presented as part of the 2007 New York Musical Theatre Festival, was presented in the Village Theatre's Festival of New Works in 2008 and was part of the National Alliance of Musical Theatre Festival in October 2008. Danny and Michelle are currently writing an online musical for teens that is a response to the spate of suicides by gay youth. This new work, entitled The Hinterlands, comprises three episodes, which will be filmed in October 2012 and available online in early 2013.
NADINE BERNARD
New Play: The Way to Summer
Nadine Bernard is a playwright and actor currently residing in Montclair, New Jersey. Her play, In the Shadow of My Son, appeared at the New York International Fringe Festival in 2007 and has been produced in the past several years throughout the USA and Canada. A monologue from the play is published in the Smith and Kraus The Best Women's Stage Monologues of 2008. Other plays include, The Way to Summer, (Directors Company with Tovah Feldshuh and Russell G. Jones, Staged Reading, 2012, Lark Play Development Center, 2011, New Play Festival, Jewish Ensemble Theatre, 2009) Miss Valentine (Staged Reading, NYC, Ivy Austin Producer, 2013, Staged Reading, The Van Vleck House and Gardens in Montclair, 2010, Clifton Arts Center, Clifton, NJ, 2011)Waiting For Fame to Come, (Downstage, 2005), The Almost Baby, (Kitchen Theatre, 2001), The Jizo Story (Creative Theater, 1995). She is currently developing the play Veils, about a group of New Jersey women whose belly dancing class turns into a support group (Reading, HB Studios Playwrights Foundation, NYC 2013 ; Staged Reading, June Havoc Theatre, 2012; Developmental Reading, DreamCatchers, South Orange, NJ, 2011), and Then Let the Fish Go about our society's obsession with connecting through network marketing. She has a BA from Cornell University and an MFA in Theater from Sarah Lawrence College. She teaches theater at the Montclair Cooperative School in Montclair, NJ. She is the founder of Out of the Shadow Productions. She recently toured hospitals in New Jersey with her solo show of excerpts from In the Shadow of My Son.
