Download guest artists bios - Lied Center for Performing Arts

GROW A SHOW
The ASCAP New Musical Theatre Workshop and
Lied Center for Performing Arts New Musical Theatre Festival
GUEST ARTISTS BIOS
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Chad Beguelin
Chad Beguelin is the Tony Award Nominated bookwriter and lyricist of "The Wedding Singer",
which premiered on Broadway at the Al Hirschfeld Theater. He wrote the lyrics for the
Broadway musical "Elf", which also premiered at the Al Hirschfeld Theater. Along with his
writing partner Matthew Sklar, Chad has also written "The Rhythm Club" (Signature Theater
Company), "Wicked City" (American Stage Company, Mason Street Warehouse) and various
projects for Disney.
Chad has been the recipient of The Jonathan Larson Performing Arts Foundation Award, The
Edward Kleban Award for Outstanding Lyric Writing and the Gilman & Gonzalez-Falla Musical
Theater Award. He was also nominated for a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lyrics, as well
as a Tony Award for Best Original Score and Best Book of a Musical for "The Wedding Singer".
He currently lives in New York with his partner Tom and their Yorkshire Terrier Bailey.
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Matthew Sklar
Matthew Sklar has been working on Broadway since he was eighteen, as a rehearsal pianist, an
assistant or associate conductor (Miss Saigon 1991, Les Misérables 1994, Titanic 1997, Putting It
Together 1999, 42nd Street 2001, Caroline, or Change 2004), composer (The Wedding Singer
2006), and arranger (Shrek The Musical 2008). He has been writing original musicals with lyricist
and bookwriter Chad Beguelin for over fifteen years; their show The Wedding Singer earned five
Tony® nominations and eight Drama Desk nominations, including those for Best Original Score.
Sklar attributes his early success in composition to his eighth-grade music teacher at Edison
(New Jersey) Intermediate School, who prompted him to write a song for his middle-school
graduation. To round out the event, Matthew sent his song to Walt Disney Productions, where it
was recorded for the Mickey Mouse Club. He went on to Westfield High School, and spending
his weekends in New York at the Juilliard School Pre-College Division as a composition major. He
graduated from both schools in 1991, with honors from Juilliard, and conducted his own senior
project, Symphonics for full orchestra, at Lincoln Center with the Juilliard Pre-College Orchestra.
From 1991 to 1995 Sklar split his time between working on Broadway and studying at New York
University.
The Wedding Singer was the Broadway debut of Beguelin and Sklar, but other shows, The
Rhythm Club and Wicked City, have been produced in other venues. Sklar has also contributed
music to various Disney projects and to the Nickelodeon television series Wonder Pets. He coproduced the original Broadway cast album of The Wedding Singer. Aside from his Tony® and
Drama Desk nominations, Matthew Sklar has been honored with the Gilman Gonzalez-Falla
Musical Theater Award and the Jonathon Larson Performing Arts Foundation Award.
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Karen Morrow
Ms. Morrow is an award winning actress who has starred on Broadway in such productions as A
JOYFUL NOISE, I'M SOLOMON; MUSIC, MUSIC, THE SELLING OF THE PRESIDENT, THE GRASS
HARP and the Tony Award winning MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD. Her Off-Broadway credits
include her starring roles in SING MUSE, and THE BOYS FROM SYRACUSE. A favorite actress of
New York theater audiences, Miss Morrow appeared for five seasons with the New York City
Center during it's golden years of musical revivals, and most recently she stared in the National
Tour of Jerome Kern's SHOWBOAT.
Television audiences remember her from her starring role on THE JIM NABORS HOUR and her
starring roles in may television shows including FRIENDS, TABITHA, GOODNIGHT BEANTOWN,
SABRINA, THE TONIGHT SHOW, THE TODAY SHOW, TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT, ALICE,
LOVEBOAT, MURDER SHE WROTE, TRAPPER JOHN M.D. and countless others. She has received
an Emmy, Los Angeles Drama Critic's Award, the coveted Theater World Award, an Ovation
nomination and five Dramalouge Awards. Along with her theater, television, commercial,
concert and cabaret appearances, Karen conducts a bi-monthly Master Class in performance
and audition skills. She currently is on the faculty at AMDA-LA. Karen Morrow is a well sought
after teacher/performer who travels the U.S. conducting Master Classes for other Universities
and Arts Conferences.
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Michael Kerker
Mr. Kerker has been Director of Musical Theatre for ASCAP (American Society of Composers,
Authors and Publishers) since 1990. In addition to coordinating ASCAP's Musical Theatre
Workshop in New York, he works with DreamWorks Animation SKG to produce the
ASCAP/DreamWorks Musical Theatre Workshop in Los Angeles, (both of which are led by
composer/lyricist Stephen Schwartz). Together with Michael Feinstein, Michael Kerker produces
a regular series of concerts at Carnegie Hall highlighting the catalogue of both legendary and
contemporary songwriters. Michael is also producing a regular series of interview programs
entitled "Broadway: Up Close and Personal" for the Kennedy Center. Michael's onstage
conversations with some of our nation's most prominent songwriters have included evenings
with Jerry Herman, Alan and Marilyn Bergman, Charles Strouse, Sheldon Harnick, Marvin
Hamlisch, and Stephen Schwartz. Michael produces an annual songwriter's cabaret as part of
the Chicago Humanities Festival. Michael produced the ASCAP Foundation Jerry Herman Legacy
Program, which is a series of seminars, master classes and concerts featuring the legendary
composer/lyricist. The program has been presented nationwide in such cities as Chicago,
Sundance, San Francisco, Savannah, Miami and Pittsburgh. Michael is proud to be a member of
the Boards of the American Theatre Wing, the Johnny Mercer Foundation and the Songwriters
Hall of Fame.
The ASCAP New Musical Theatre Workshop and the surrounding festival are made possible by
generous support from the Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts and the Hixson-Lied
endowment, ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) and the UNL Arts
and Humanities Research Enhancement Program.