TV Exclusive: CUTTING-EDGE COMPOSERS CORNER- Van Hughes Sings Hathaway & Velez's 'Before the End'

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This week we are excited to share the song "Before the End" from the new musical Afterland written by Benjamin Velez and Kathryn Hathaway. The talented Van Hughes, with backup vocals from PJ Adzima and Gerianne Perez, performed the song at our concert at 54 Below.

"Before the End is a song from our new musical Afterland. Afterland takes place in a post-apocalyptic world and follows two eccentric, wayward tribes as they stake out their territory and attempt to create a new civilization and world order where none exists. We wrote this song for Topher, a bumbling mess of a human, to convince the love of his life that they can still have a full, wonderful life together, even if it's different than the kind of life they envisioned when they were kids.

We just got back from workshopping Afterland at the Yale Institute for Music Theater which was all of the dreams come true."

Benjamin Velez (Music and Lyrics) is a composer/lyricist and recent graduate of Columbia University, where he studied film and wrote music and lyrics for the 114th Annual Varsity Show. He is a member of the Advanced BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop, where he received the Jerry Harrington Musical Theatre Award for the 2nd-year workshop. His work has been featured at The Yale Institute for Music Theater, New York Musical Theatre Festival, New Emerging Outstanding!, and the Cutting Edge Composers concert series. Originally from Miami, Benjamin now lives and composes in Brooklyn.

Kathryn Hathaway (Book and Lyrics) is an interdisciplinary artist based in Brooklyn. Her plays and musicals have been performed and developed at The Yale Institute for Music Theater, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, The Flea Theater, New Dramatists, The Bushwick Starr, Dixon Place, The Prelude Festival, New York Musical Theatre Festival, Joe's Pub, and the BMI Musical Theatre Workshop. She is a MacDowell Colony fellow, an alumna of Barnard College, and received her MFA in playwriting from Brooklyn College.