Download 2015 National Music Theater Conference

2015 National Music Theater Conference
Writer Bios
Adele Ahronheim
Book & Lyrics, Slaughterhouse Five
Book/lyrics: Musical adaptation of Alexander Pushkin’s The Captain’s Daughter (O’Neill Center
collaboration with Russian composers André Petrov and Olga Petrova; productions at The Boston
Conservatory Theatre and at the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Russia, celebrating the city’s 300
(composer Ben Schaechter; York Theatre, NYC; winner of ASCAP’s Bernice Cohen Memorial Award).
Variations on an Old Refrain (composer Albert Ahronheim; “mini­musical” commissioned by NYC’s Public
Theatre). Plays: Lake Country, A Melting Spell, The Man Up Front, Leaving the Stage, Out of Synch, Into
the Garbage (one-act, part of Patriot Acts, The Urban Rock Project, Fringe Festival, NYC) and co-author
of the children’s play Friends of Conscience, written for the Wilton Meeting, Wilton, CT. Songs written with
various composers performed in revues and cabarets in NYC and around the country. University of
Michigan, acting student of Uta Hagen, playwriting with Corinne Jacker, member of Herbert Berghof’s
Playwriting Workshop, resident playwright and actress in Providence Theatre (NYC) New Play
Development Workshop, MacDowell Fellow. Member of the Dramatists Guild and ASCAP.
Jed Feuer
Music, Slaughterhouse Five
In 2004, Kurt Vonnegut asked Feuer to try turning Slaughterhouse-Five into an opera. Feuer suggested
that Vonnegut give him both the operatic and musical theatre rights and see what popped out, if anything.
Vonnegut agreed. After attempting an opera, Feuer thought better of it and, after realizing that Adele
Ahronheim would be the perfect librettist, turned to a musical theater version.
Born in Los Angeles, Jed Feuer moved to New York City when five weeks old. At seven years, trumpet
studies began with Joe Wilder (later with Carmine Caruso). Piano with Joseph Kahn and later, Eugene
Istomin followed which led to an immersion in harmony, theory and counterpoint. In 1982, his first OffBroadway musical, American Princess was produced (INTAR Theater, New York City). In 2005, he
founded the jazz quintet, Bipolar. Film and television scores include The Joy that Kills (American
Playhouse, PBS, 1984), Memorial Valley Massacre, The First Day of Summer, The Last Day of Your Life
(The Motion Picture Corp. of America, 1988), No Means No (CBS Schoolbreak Special, 1988), The ‘60s
(NBC mini-series 1999), Someone Like You (partial score) 20th Century Fox, 2001, The Healing Gardens
of New York (PBS, July 2006)
Patrick & Daniel Lazour
We Live In Cairo
The two have been brothers all their lives, but have been writing and producing musical theater since 2007.
Their works Tribulations of the Millionaire, Robynn McCree, and Affairs of a French Afternoon premiered at
Calliope Theater in Boylston, Massachusetts. In 2012, the Boston College Dramatics Society and
Contemporary Theater selected their musical The Grand Room to be presented at the Robsham Theatre Arts
Center. A number of their works have also premiered at Columbia University, including their original song cycle
ExPat and Chacarera performed by the Daedalus Quartet.
In addition to We Live in Cairo, they are currently working on an adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s This Side of
Paradise. Patrick holds a BA in Theater Arts and Political Science from Boston College. Daniel is studying
Music Composition at Columbia University.
2015 National Music Theater Conference
Writer Bios
Mark Hollman – New York, NY
Music & Lyrics, ZM
Mark Hollmann received the Tony Award®, the National Broadway Theatre Award, and the Obie Award for his
score to Urinetown the Musical, which had its start in the 1999 New York International Fringe Festival. It won
Outer Critics Circle, Drama League, and Lucille Lortel Awards for best musical in addition to garnering 10 Tony
Award® nominations. Other shows as composer/lyricist include Yeast Nation (2011 New York International
Fringe Festival, Perseverance Theatre, American Theatre Company, and Ray of Light Theatre), Bigfoot and
Other Lost Souls (Atlantic Stage and Perseverance Theatre), The Man in the White Suit (New York Stage and
Film), The Girl, the Grouch, and the Goat (University Theatre, U. of Kansas), Alchemist the Musical (Seattle
Fringe Festival), Jack the Chipper (Greenview Arts Center, Chicago), Kabooooom! (University Theater, U. of
Chicago), I Think I Can and Deal with It! (Berkshire Theatre Festival), and Fare for All (Mount Vernon Hotel
Museum & Garden, NYC). Actor and/or co-writer for the Cardiff Giant Theater (Chicago) productions The
Rack, Theater of Funny, The Mercy Ripper, LBJFKKK, Love Me, All Eight Die, and After Taste, the last of
which he also directed. TV: songs for Disney Channel’s Johnny and the Sprites. He has served on the Tony
Nominating Committee, serves on the Council of the Dramatists Guild of America, and is a member of ASCAP.
He is also a member of Sure Foundation Lutheran Church in Woodside, Queens, where he serves as a parttime pianist. He and his wife Jilly live in Manhattan with their sons, Oliver and Tucker.
Greg Kotis – New York, NY
Book & Lyrics - ZM
Greg Kotis is the author of many plays and musicals including Urinetown (Book/Lyrics, for which he won an
Obie Award and two Tony® Awards), Give the People What They Want, All Your Questions Answered, Michael
von Siebenburg Melts Through the Floorboards, The Boring-est Poem in the World, Yeast Nation (Book/Lyrics),
The Truth About Santa, Pig Farm, Eat the Taste, and Jobey and Katherine. His work has been produced and
developed in theaters across the country and around the world, including Actors Theatre of Louisville,
American Conservatory Theater, American Theater Company, The Apollo (West End), the Eugene O’Neill
National Theater Conference, The Geva Center, Henry Miller’s Theatre (Broadway), Manhattan Theatre Club,
New York Stage and Film, Perseverance Theatre, Roundabout Theatre Company, Soho Rep, South Coast
Rep, and The Old Globe, among others. Future projects include a musical adaptation of The Sting, as well as
plays involving salad bars, desert hide-outs, and lost children. Greg is a member of the Neo-Futurists, the
Cardiff Giant Theater Company, ASCAP, and the Dramatists Guild. He grew up in Wellfleet, Massachusetts
and now lives in Brooklyn with his wife Ayun Halliday, his daughter India, and his son Milo.