Alec Baldwin Fellowship at Singers Forum Announces First Recipients

Singers Forum, in conjunction with Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning actor/producer Alec Baldwin, have announced the four projects chosen for the first-annual Alec Baldwin Fellowship at Singers Forum. A year-long program devoted to the individualized workshopping process of each project, the Fellowship is an opportunity for emerging artists to hone and craft their work in a safe and nurturing environment. A Festival of the completed works will be presented in the Fall of 2013.

“The pieces chosen for the Fellowship represent the future of theatre in New York,” says Baldwin, who made his Broadway debut in 1986. “As we are inundated with 'TV shows as musicals' and a steady stream of revivals, these four pieces illustrate that original, character-based storytelling will always be the paradigm of theatre.”

Of the hundreds of initial submissions, the projects chosen are:

HARLOWE by Jennifer Lane: When a young woman loses her sense of touch after suffering a potent physical trauma, she tries to find a way to reconnect with her family -- and her own body -- during her convalescence.

Jennifer Lane is an Astoria-based writer from Troy, Michigan. Most recently, her multidisciplinary solo show, Convergence, premiered at the soloNOVA Arts Festival. Other plays include The Seer and the Witch (workshopped at the New Ohio Theatre); Harlowe (performed at 3LD, developed under the mentorship of Sarah Ruhl); Psychomachia (performed at Theatre 54); and The Would-Be Room (produced in NYC, Chicago and Washington D.C.) She is the Administrative Director for the League of Professional Theatre Women, the Literary Manager for APAC and an alum of the terraNOVA Collective's Groundbreakers Playwriting Group. MFA: Columbia University; BA: Sarah Lawrence College. .

THE DUDLEYS! By Leegrid Stevens: A recent death in the Dudley family is understood and coped with through the world of a classic 8-bit video game. While dodging ghosts, zombies and evil Aunts side-scrolling through the neighborhood, the Dudleys attempt to rewrite history and ultimately win a game they lost long ago.

Leegrid Stevens left his hometown of Spicewood, TX at the turn of the century, Leegrid and has been writing and producing plays in downtown NY theatres (HERE Arts Center, Incubator Arts Project, Theatre for the New City, CSV Cultural Center among others). His plays have been developed by the Lark Theatre, Spring Theatreworks, Incubator Arts Project, and Tutto Theatre in Austin. You can find some of his plays in print including Post-Oedipus (Playscripts), Leda's Swan (Stage Tribes, Theater-Verlag Desh Publishers), Sun Stand Thou Still (Plays and Playwrights 2004), and Lovers In The Park (Brooklyn Publishers).

WHIFFMAN, ON THE MOUND by Joseph Koenigsburg: On the day his restaurant is foreclosed (and his toilet explodes), Walt "Whiffman" Rigaletti -- a broke, foul-mouthed, former big league closer -- discovers the MVP slugger who hit the World Series-winning home run off of him (effectively ending Walt's career) has just admitted to using steroids.

Josh Koenigsberg’s plays have been produced/developed at Ars Nova, The Atlantic Theater, Naked Angels, The Old Vic, The Public Theater, and Williamstown Theater Festival. His plays include Al’s Business Cards, Dance Lessons (both published by Samuel French), Herman Kline’s Midlife Crisis (published by Indie Theater Now), The Mnemonist of Dutchess County and more. He’s a member of Ars Nova’s Play Group, The Living Newspaper, Old Vic New Voices, and At Play. He writes for “Naked Radio,” a monthly podcast produced by Naked Angels. His burrito recipe “Josh’s Famous Burritos” was published in the New York Times. B.A. Bard College, M.F.A. Columbia University.

‘TIL DEATH DO US PART by Allen Mogol (book) and Bobby Cronin (music & lyrics): A full-scale contemporary Broadway musical that explores what compels Grace, a vibrant young preacher’s wife and mother of two, to end her seemingly perfect marriage with murder.

Allen Mogol (book) is a librettist in the BMI Lehman Engle Musical Theatre Workshop. He is a winner of the BMI Foundation Jerry Harrington Musical Theatre Award For Outstanding Creative Achievement. In addition to working on 'Til Death Do Us Part, Allen is writing the book for a musical about the events leading up to a notorious murder in the early twentieth century. He is a member of The Dramatists Guild of America, Inc.

Bobby Cronin (music & lyrics) is an award-winning composer/writer. His musical Welcome to my Life (W2ML) with co-bookwriter Alicia Dempster is under a Broadway option. The first American commissioned to pen an original musical (The Concrete Jungle) for London’s esteemed ArtsEd School (Andrew Lloyd Webber, President). Daybreak (add’l material by Brett Teresa; 2011 New Jersey Playwrights Contest winner) premiered in NJ & London’s Tristan Bates Theatre, June 2012. Other: Lincoln Center Songbook Series, Birdland, Symphony Space, London’s The Players Theatre, more. "Reach The Sky: Live at The Beechman" on iTunes. Yale graduate, Member of ASCAP, Dramatists Guild.

Located in the historic Flatiron neighborhood of Manhattan, Singers Forum is a non-profit musical oasis committed to providing the highest quality vocal training for New York City residents. Along with Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning actor/producer Alec Baldwin, Singers Forum draws from it’s long and illustrious 33-year history to create a safe haven for artists of all types.