THE MAC/GMTWP Songwriters Showcase: 'New from NYU - Songs for Cabaret Artists' Set for 10/11

The event will be on Saturday, October 11, 2014 from 2:00-3:30 p.m. at the NYU Tisch School of the Arts, 721 Broadway in the Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program ("GMTWP") Black Box Theatre, 2nd floor, followed by a meet-and-greet with the writers and performers.

Featured in our showcase will be the songs of:

AMANDA YESNOWITZ, the first individual lyricist to receive the Jonathan Larson Award, is also a former Dramatists Guild fellow, a 7-time MAC Award nominee, a 2011 John Wallowitch Award finalist, and the winner of the 2013 Dottie Burman Award and the 2014 Jamie deRoy and Friends Award, both for excellence in songwriting. Last fall Amanda presented her work at the Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage. Current projects include an adaptation of the novel/film Somewhere in Time (Davenport Theatrical, music by Doug Katsaros), which had its pre-Broadway production at Portland Center Stage in May of 2013 (7 PAMTA nominations; NAMT finalist). Amanda (along with David Zippel and Sheldon Harnick) is also contributing lyrics to In the Name of Love, a revue with music by Don Oliver. Amanda's words have been performed by Broadway luminaries such as Susan Egan and Melissa Errico as well as musical icons like Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops on New Year's Eve at Symphony Hall in Massachusetts. A revue based on her song "Those 7 Little Words" (music by Mike Shaieb) enjoyed an extended run at Cleveland's Playhouse in the Square and a revue based on her song "Understudy Blues" (music by Brian Cimmet) garnered raves at the Galloway in Cape Town, South Africa. She has collaborated with many other illustrious composers including Larry O'Keefe, Skip Kennon, Brad Ross, Matthew Sklar, and Jason Robert Brown. Her lyrics have been part of the NAMT Showcase, New York Theatre Workshop's benefit honoring James Lapine, Broadway at Birdland, Lea Michele's cabaret debut in NYC and LA; quoted in Newsday, The Daily News, The Sydney Morning Herald, and Time magazine; and published by The New York Times and The Dramatist magazine. Other complete works include The Caucasian Chalk Circle(Hangar Theatre world premiere), The History of War (O'Neill Conference finalist; 2010 NYMF invited selection; music by Deborah Abramson, book by Chip "The Baker" Zien), By The Numbers (ASCAP and TRU showcases, music by Brian Feinstein), Four-Letter Words (York Theatre), Triptych (Provincetown Play Festival selection; ATB Flores Series), and Building a Wing (Best Musical at 2007 Short, Sweet & Song Festival in Sydney). Recordings: "Gotta Start Small" on Stephanie J. Block's This Place I Know (PS Classics), "Too Close to the Sun" on Steve Marzullo's Kiss Me While We Have the Chance and the title track of Steve Marzullo's Show Some Beauty (both on Yellow Sound Lab). Amanda holds degrees from Tufts University, The Boston Conservatory, NYU (where she teaches full-time as a Senior Lecturer in Art and Public Policy), and in addition to being a nationally ranked crossword puzzle solver, her debut as a crossword constructor was published in the magazine section of The New York Times on August 26, 2012...no ordinary Sunday.

RACHEL PETERS, her musicals include Only Children with Michael R. Jackson (NYU Tisch Mainstage, Lincoln Center Directors Lab, Dixon Place), Tiny Feats of Cowardice with Susan Bernfield (NYC Fringe Festival, Adirondack Theatre Festival), Write Left with John Walch (Playwrights Horizons Theatre School), Tomato Red (UC Irvine, Playroom Theater), Octopus Heart (NYU Steinhardt), f2m with Michelle Elliott, Public Domain. Operas: The Wild Beast of the Bungalow with Royce Vavrek (Hartford Opera Theater, Opera on Tap), Monkey Do(Rhymes With Opera), and an adaptation of Arthur Phillips's Companionship (Opera on Tap/American Opera Projects). Scores for plays:Stretch (a fantasia) (Living Theatre) and Tania in the Getaway Van (Huntington Theatre) by Susan Bernfield, What God Hath Wrought: A Transatlantic Farce by John Walch (Arkansas Rep), The Bacchae (Asolo Rep Conservatory), Unrequited (Public Theater Shakespeare Lab), Veritas (NYC Fringe Festival) by Stan Richardson. Concert works: Jack's Vocabulary, (Hartt SPASM, Make Music NY), I Live Here (Galapagos Art Space), Canon I (Two Sides Sounding), And Then (BayPath College), Fronds: The Wisdom of Fanny Fern (Walt Whitman Project). Art songs and cabaret songs at Lincoln Center, Second Stage, The National Opera Center, Symphony Space, NYMF, Ars Nova, and cabarets nationwide. She curates the Otherwise Unsung concert series at Cornelia Street Café. Awards: Anna Sosenko Assist Trust, ASCAPlus. Fellowships: New Dramatists Composer-Librettist Studio, American Opera Projects'Composers and the Voice, John Duffy Composers Institute. MFA, NYU; double B.A., Brandeis University. Upcoming: The Wild Beast of the Bungalow at Center for Contemporary Opera.

And

Sam Carner and Derek Gregor were included in Playbill.com's 12 "Contemporary Musical Theatre Songwriters You Should Know," and their work has been performed on at least 6 continents (including Antarctica). Their musical Unlock'd played an extended Off-Broadway run at the Duke Theater last summer. Previously Unlock'd won a Richard Rodgers Award and was produced at the New York Musical Theatre Festival in 2007, winning "Best of the Fest" and Talkin' Broadway citations for "Outstanding New Musical" and "Outstanding Original Theatrical Score." Their musical Island Song was produced this February at the Bloomington Playwrights Project in Indiana, having had workshops last summer at the Balagan Theatre in Seattle and the Indiana Festival of Theatre, following 2012 concerts at (le) Poisson Rouge in New York and at Crawfish in Tokyo (in Japanese!). Five numbers from Island Song have been nominated for MAC Awards. Derek composed music for the movie musical Grind, which is being featured at various international film festivals. Sam has lectured on various musical-theatre-history-related topics at Yale and taught musical-theatre history and analysis courses at NYU and Yale. Sam and Derek will be writers in residence at the Goodspeed Festival of New Musicals this January.

Arianna Rose (Lyricist and MAC Award Winner) and Thomas Honeck (MAC Board of Directors, General Manager of The Duplex Cabaret Theatre) will host.

Reservations are a MUST for this free event.

Please rsvp to macgmtwp@gmail.com asap with the names of all the people in your party no later than Friday, October 10th. Everyone must bring ID that matches the names on their reservation to be presented at the security desk at NYU Tisch School of the Arts, 721 Broadway.

Sign in with the Tisch guard at the desk, who will have your name on a list, then take the elevator ACROSS the floor from the security desk (not the elevators next to it), or the stairs across from the security desk to the 2nd floor. Follow the signs around to GMTWP to our lounge area - the Black Box entry door is off the lounge.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Arianna Rose & Thomas Honeck, Producers