January 2013 Artists Residency

CHRISTINE TOY JOHNSON & JASON MA
New Work: 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.


Jason Ma (music and additional lyrics) wrote music, book and lyrics for GOLD MOUNTAIN (presented in concert at Hunter College by ReImagined World Entertainment and Actors' Equity Association in celebration of Asian Heritage Month, 2012) and is currently collaborating with Christine Toy Johnson on BARCELONA, writing music and additional lyrics. He won the "Award of Excellence" at the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival for his music, book and lyrics of BRUINHAHA.

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KEVIN PURCELL & VICTOR KAZAN
New Work: Mapmaker's Opera

Kevin Purcell is one of Australia's most eminent musical directors, having worked all over the world for producers including Cameron Macintosh and The Really Useful Group. He is also widely regarded as a theatre composer and orchestrator, having scored arrangements for leading industry figures including Stephen Schwartz, Lynn Ahrens & Stephen Flaherty, Ann Hampton Callaway and Raúl Esparza.

 

Victor Kazan has worked in the entertainment industry for over forty years. Born in London, he carved a distinguished reputation as a writer and director in British theatre and television before taking up residence in Australia in the early 1980s. Since then, he has worked primarily as a screenwriter and lyricist.

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ADAM OVERETT
New Work: My Life is a Musical and Popesicle

Adam Overett is a writer and performer living in New York City. He was a Jonathan Larson Fellow in Musical Theater at the Dramatists Guild (2010-2011), and a Lucille Lortel Award nominee for his contribution to the score of the Off-Broadway musical WE THE PEOPLE. He wrote the book, music and lyrics for POPESICAL, which received a developmental workshop production at the Lyric Theatre in Los Angeles in July 2012. His musical CALL IT COURAGE (based on the Newbery Medal-winning book by Armstrong Sperry) received its premiere production at the Zachary Scott Theatre in Austin, TX in April of 2010, where it was nominated for five B. Iden Payne Awards, including Outstanding Original Script and Outstanding Production of Youth Theatre.

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RYAN SCOTT OLIVER
New Work:We Foxes


Ryan Scott Oliver is a 2011 Lortel Award Nominee, 2009 Jonathan Larson Grant Recipient, 2008 Rodgers Award Winner. Music and lyrics for 35mm (Original cast recording avail. on Ghostlight Records), Darling (featured on NBC's The Apprentice), Mrs. Sharp (Playwrights Horizons July 2009 starring Jane Krakowski, dir. by Michael Greif), and Jasper in Deadland; a collection of his work, Rated RSO, played the Kennedy Center, Joe's Pub, New York Musical Theatre Festival; Off-Broadway and elsewhere: TheatreWorksUSA's We the People, Rosie O'Donnell's Theater Kids, and cabarets worldwide. Upcoming commissions include The Frog Prince, Cont. for Chicago's Emerald City Youth Theatre. Songbook now available: Music+Lyrics by Ryan Scott Oliver: Volume 1. More at www.ryanscottoliver.com.

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JENNIFER CHASE & JOHN E. CITRONE

New Work: La Caroline

Jennifer Chase:  Jenn's music has taken her performances and recording projects to France, Spain and Snegal, Africa.  As a performer here at home, she's opened for such Grammy winners as: the Doobie Brothers, The Rippingtons, and Lisa Lobe and released five albums of original music.  Her plays include dramas Handmaid and Artichoke Soup and musicals Majigeen  and La Caroline, which recently traveled to Nantes, France.  She has studied, written and performed abroad in Dakar, Senegal at the ACI Boabab Center through a Rotary Ambassadorial grant; at the University of new Orleans summer seminars in Madrid, Spain and throughout France.  She has a BA in International Studies and French from the University of North Florida and an MFA in Creative Writing/Playwriting from the University of New Orleans.  Jennifer is a Professor of English and Creative Writing at Florida State College at Jacksonville and also teaches English as a Second Language to refugee populations for Catholic Charities.

 

John E. Citrone is a musician and playwright who has created live-performance scores for silent films (The Flying Ace, Zorro), contributed musical pieces for the soundtrack to the documentary surfing film Pororoca, written the music ror the Jennifer Chase musical La Caroline, and has written music for the Jacksonville Jaguars, and various independent short films and TV shows.  John also directed Jenn Chase's historical musical Majigeen, and has written and directed his own work (All About Charlie at Atlantic Beach Experimental Theatre), Tony 'N' Tina's Wedding (Artificial Intelligence) and One Flew Over the Cukoo's Nest (Theater Jacksonville).  He recently wrote the score and script for the musical Another Sign.  As a drummer, John has performed with national touring project Greenness and the international Frank Zappa tribute band Bogus Pomp.  John is also the founder of his original performance-art project Dovetonsil and currently plays drums for local soul-core band All Night Wolves.

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NICKY PHILLIPS & THOMAS MORGAN JONES
New Work: Becoming Tussaud
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Nicky  Phillips is a composer, lyricist, and actor. This past year she was an auditing member of the BMI Musical Theater Workshop in NYC. Nicky is the composer and co-lyricist for the musical In Flanders Fields. First commissioned and produced by Smile Theatre Company, the show received its second production at Calgary's Lunchbox Theatre in 2010 and was nominated for a Betty Mitchell Award for Outstanding Production. Nicky's second musical, Central Park Tango, has received numerous readings at Theatre Aquarius, a reading at the Square One Series in New York and recently received a 5-week workshop as part of the inaugural season of the Canadian Music Theatre Project. Nicky was the first Canadian chosen into the Johnny Mercer Songwriter's Project in Chicago. Nicky has scored music for the following plays: The 39 Steps (Manitoba Theatre Centre) The Old Man and the River of Tears, a new play in development at Theatre Direct and upcoming she will be the composer for The Penleopiad, by Magaret Atwood (Manitoba Theatre Centre 2013).

Thomas Morgan Jones is a Toronto-based director, playwright, dramaturg, instructor, and movement coach. His productions have received six Dora Mavor Moore Awards and three nominations, he received the 2011 Dora Mavor Moore Guthrie (Stratford Festival), and has been nominated twice for the John Hirsch Award (2008 & 2011) and for the Pauline McGibbon Award. He has collaborated with companies including: Theatre Direct, The Stratford Shakespeare Festival, Theatre Passe Muraille, Cahoots Theatre Company, Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, Shakespeare in Action, Theatre Jones Roy, The CULTCH, The Charlottetown Festival, and many others. He holds a B.A. from the University of Guelph, an M.A. from the University of Toronto, and recently trained with

SITI in NYC. He is currently developing new plays with Cahoots Theatre (Sam in

Three), Carousel Players (The Forest In My Room), Cia Envieza (My Neighbour, My Saviour), and Theatre Direct (The Old Man and the River of Tears.) .

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JEAN WITTER & LISA RALIA HEFFTER
New Work: Mars: 2076

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Jean Witter: After studying dramatic criticism at the University of Manchester, England, and graduating from the University of Missouri with degrees in journalism and history, Jean Witter traveled to New York, where she found work as an editor.  She went on to receive a master's in creative writing from Columbia University.  For the past twenty years she has worked as a writer, editor, and communications consultant for clients ranging from publishing houses to foreign embassies, from arts organizations to law firms.  Witter is currently working with composer Lisa Heffter on Mars: 2076, a book musical based on the American Revolution of 1776.

 

Lisa Ralia Heffter: After receiving her master's degree from the Juilliard School, Lisa Ralia Heffter toured Europe with award winning French Manfred String Quartet.  The quartet travels whetted her her appetite to compose, so she came back to NYC and began writing – not only for the classical genre but also for musical theatre.  Heffter's first musical, Atom & Eve received a production at Westbeth Theater. Blood & Fire had several staged readings in New York and Halifax, and then won an ASCAP/Disney presentation in 2002 where the panel described Heffters' songs: "Each one is a hit out of the ballpark; way out of the ballpark!"  In July of 2012, Blood & Fire was performed in condensed version at "The Pitch" in Auburn, NY.  Some theater works include full accompanying score for the critically acclaimed Daryl-Roth Off-Broadway production of Esoterica (2004) and also Beast on the moon and Manuscript as well as original music in the soundtrack for Will Ferrell's Broadway hit You're Welcome, America.   
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KELLY IZZO
New Work: Alice Unraveled

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Kelly Izzo wrote the words and music for Alice Unraveled, which was produced at SUNY Purchase in 2012.  She graduated in 2012 from SUNY Purchase earning a BM in Studio Composition with honors.  Specialized in writing for theatre and created two of her own musical theatre independent study courses in conjunction with Professor James McElwaine, an acclaimed musician, composer and highly experienced orchestrator and musical director.  She won third place in the Woody Guthrie Songwriting Contest in 2009 and had the opportunity to play at the Woody Guthrie Festival in Okemah, OK that July.

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WAYNE BARKER & DONNA KAZ
New Work: Live! Nude! Girl!
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Wayne Barker (composer): has worked as a pianist, performer, composer, lyricist, arranger and orchestrator .  In 1997 he began writing arrangements for symphony pops; his work has been played by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Chicago, Minnesota, San Francisco, Baltimore, St. Louis, Pittsburgh symphonies, among many others.  In 2000 Wayne began his long association with international megastar Dame Edna Everage, as her on-stage pianist for her North American tours (including 2 weeks at the Mechanic in 2003), leading to her return to Broadway in Back With a Vengeance! For which Wayne also wrote the music and co-wrote the lyrics with Barry Humphries.  He has also appe3ared with Dame Edna onstage at the metropolitan Opera and in the Strelna, the summer mansion of the Russian President.  Wayne's songwriting for Edna includes "We've Made the Most of Melbourne" (Final of the 2006 Commonwealth Games) and "Fifty On The Stage" sung for Her Majesty the Queen at the 75th Royal Command Variety authorized stage version of The Great Gatsby, which opened the new Guthrie in Minneapolis.  He wrote the music for Broadway's Peter and the Starcathers for which he received a  Drama Desk Award and a Tony Nomination.

 

Donna Kaz (lyrics/book) 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.