NYU Students Tackle Plagiarism, Conservation, and Sexuality, With Evening of Short Puppet Musicals

Students of the NYU Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program put together an evening of short puppet musicals with puppets made of all kinds of trash dealing with themes of plagiarism, conservation, and sexuality.

Plastic Lover (A Sex Toy Story)

by Annabel Mutale Reed & Kim Jinhyoung

Meet Lela, a vibrator on her quest to find her soulmate and finally feel useful. Will she make it off the shelf and into her lovers arms (or... wherever)? Will she learn that it is not only her limited edition packaging that makes her special? Will she help her new friends Ivan iPad2, Issy iPhone4 and Nigel 1984 to escape from the terrifying 'drawer of useless things'? Our puppets answer all of these questions and more in a raunchy romp of a 10 minute musical!

Rime of the Ancient Grog

by Briana Whyte Harris & J.M. Gates

Revere Beach garbage gets a dose of much-needed variety when an old bottle of grog washes up amongst the usual beach trash. Through Grog's stories, they all learn an important lesson about recycling and/or plagiarism.

Plastic Island

by Andi Lee Carter & Jess Newman

Poland Spring is looking for a place to fit in after being tossed away and floating in the ocean, he finds a new home in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch called Plastic Island, where everything is plastic and everyone is happy, but something seems off in the strange new world on the sea.

Directed by Annabel Mutale Reed

Music Directed by Kim Jinhyoung & Jess Newman

Produced by Andi Lee Carter

CAST: Jamie Elizabeth Maletz, Nathan A. Fosbinder, Jack Trzcinski, Celine Snippe, Elyse Anderson, Erin J. Reifler, Justin Gates, Michael Meketa, Annabel Mutale Reed, Andi Lee Carter, Briana Whyte Harris

Annabel Mutale Reed (Book/Lyrics, Plastic Lover) is from London and graduated from the University of Oxford last year. Her directing credits include Anything Goes (Oxford Playhouse), Cabaret, Seven, Taming of the Shrew, and STOP (Oxford Production, Edinburgh and National tour). She is a Lyricist and Playwright. Her new musical STOP was nominated and shortlisted for best musical at Edinburgh Festival and won Best Score and had its most recent professional workshop at the London Transport Museum. She is in first year at NYU reading for an MFA in musical theatre writing.

Kim Jinhyoung, preferred as Kim, (Composer, Plastic Lover) is a writer and composer based in New York. Kim started his career as a composer from Seoul, South Korea, debuting with musical Where Is Jesus' Dick? (Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture residency), Sheman (Seoul Youth Art Institute residency) and Wonderhuman. He is currently pursuing a Masters degree at New York University's Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program. Having artistic background as a cellist, painter and graphic designer (BA in Graphic Design), Kim holds the keys to the heart of the audience when it comes to presenting his art works. As a writer Kim is working on his song cycle Wait...ing alongside with other ongoing musical projects. Kim seeks to find aesthetic ways to narrate stories in any form of Art. Instagram @mynameiskimyeah

Briana Whyte Harris (Book/Lyrics, Rime of the Ancient Grog) is a Brooklyn-based librettist/lyricist/comedy writer. She is the creator of the webseries Princess the Cat and co-writer for the webseries MunchCo Calling! Her sketch comedy has been performed at Upright Citizens Brigade, and she has also performed stand-up at Caroline's. Her most recent production was Savoy! Dancing Through The Swing Era, an interactive, community-based dance revue that was performed in Queens in July 2017 and January 2018. She is a member of the BMI Librettists Workshop and a current student at the NYU Tisch Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program, class of 2019. She's also a part-time mermaid with the Brooklyn BombShells.

J.M. Gates (Composer, Rime of the Ancient Grog) J.M.'s real name is Justin, and he knows his headshot is melodramatic. It's from Instagram. He grew up on a farm and now he writes musicals, apparently about trash, and went to undergrad at Berklee College of Music (hence the Revere Beach connection). He's excited to write more with his peers at the Tisch GMTWP. Thanks to Andi for setting this up, to Briana for introducing him to his new love of sea shanties, and to the casts for being being classy-trashy."

Andi Lee Carter (Book/Lyrics, Plastic Island) is a New York-based playwright, composer, lyricist, singer, and comedian. He is a first year student in the NYU Tisch Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program. His first original full-length musical Rent A White Guy was dubbed "often very funny" by The New York Times. Andi performs regularly at the People's Improv Theatre with his sketch comedy troupe Adam's Summer Class. He is an Artistic Associate with Random Access Theatre performing in the hit series Drunk Restoration Comedy. He is a proud member of the Dramatist Guild of America and founding member of the Musical Theatre Factory and moderator of its monthly Women/Trans Writers Representation Round Table. www.andileecarter.com

Jess Newman (Composer, Plastic Island) is an award-winning composer, lyricist and performer. He was a winner of the 2017 New York City Center Encores song-writing competition, for which he performed an original song for Stephen Sondheim. His major musical EINSTEIN had its first premiere in Melbourne, Australia in 2016 and was selected by The Age as one of the highlights of the year in theatre. ALL THE TIME, a new song-cycle for which Jess wrote music and lyrics premiered at Mudfest in 2015. Jess has also composed music for a number of short-films including the animated musical OUT OF THE WOODS, which premiered at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image in 2015. Jess graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts with a Bachelor of Music in 2016 where he was mentored by renowned Australian composer Iain Grandage, West-End composer Warren Wills and Broadway Composer John Bucchino. He is currently completing a Masters of Musical Theatre Writing at Tisch, New York University. www.jess-newman.com