Piper Theatre Productions Announces Winner Of 2022 Musicals Now Festival

Piper Theatre Productions, now in its 22nd year of providing meaningful opportunities for emerging artists, will produce a second brand new musical that will be developed over four weeks and presented free to the community. This year's musical will be Charlotte Lucas is 27 and Not Dead, a two act romantic-comedy with a contemporary rock/pop score juxtaposed against a 19th Century regency setting. The story is a queer retelling of Pride and Prejudice told from the perspective of Charlotte Lucas, Elizabeth Bennet's pragmatic best friend who famously explains to her friend: "I'm not a romantic, you know."

Charlotte Lucas is 27 and Not Dead is written by Jessie Field and James Martinez Salem, who will be Piper's Artists in Residence developing this new play. Performances are tentatively scheduled for June 24, 25, 26 / July 1, 2, 3. Creative and Production teams are now avidly being sought.

Over 80 new musicals were submitted and were vetted over by a team of six: John P. McEneny, Julia Hurn, Mickey Heller, Rachel Wood, Dionne McClain-Freeney, Lily Ali-Oshatz (last year's Artist in Residence for her musical, Prospect Hill, co-written with Mark Galinovsky.) Musicals Now has awarded second place to Naked, book and lyrics by Germaine Shames and Music by Tareq Auissa.

Meet our new Artists in Residence:

JESSIE FIELD (she/her) is an award-winning queer NYC playwright and director. In Summer 2021, her musical Madam President (with Gabrielle Mirabella [book] and Lucy O'Brien [music]) was workshopped as part of the New Musicals Lab at Ferguson Center, in conjunction with CNU. In October 2021, Jessie's musical Charlotte Lucas is 27 and Not Dead (co-written & composed by James Salem) had a sold-out workshop reading at The Dixon Place Theatre in conjunction with All Out Arts. She has written book and lyrics for numerous projects in collaboration with her brother - composer Jared Field - including La Maupin (WINNER 2018 International MUT Competition, WINNER Audience Favorite - 2017 Fresh Fruit Festival) and Rachel (2018 JDT Lab Selection, WINNER Outstanding Musical - 2015 Fresh Fruit Festival, 2013 Harold and Mimi Steinberg Prize for Best Original Play). Jessie has also written TYA straight play To The West, which was a finalist in the Growing Stage's New Play Reading Festival and was presented as the school play at Randolph High School in 2018. Jessie served as the 2015-'16 Directing Apprentice at Capital Stage in Sacramento, California, and has directed numerous plays in the Boston and New York areas. Jessie is a co-creator (with James Salem) of the YouTube musical webseries Is This Art Now? and a co-founder (with Brandy Hoang Collier) of Root Beer Occasion Theatre Company. She earned her MFA at NYU Tisch's Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program in May, 2020. www.jessiefield.com

James Martinez SALEM (he/him) is a Puerto Rican/Syrian Jewish queer bookwriter, lyricist, and composer. In Spring 2021, James was a finalist, with Josh Ben-Ami, for the Marvin Hamlisch International Music Award for emerging musical theatre artists. In October 2021, his musical Charlotte Lucas is 27 and Not Dead (co-written with Jessie Field) had a sold-out workshop reading at The Dixon Place Theatre in conjunction with All Out Arts. James' first musical Bending All the Rules (co-written with his brother, composer Joseph Salem) was produced in 2013 at the June Havoc Theatre in the Midtown International Theatre Festival. Theatremania praised Bending's "nuanced lyrics" and "fresh" book. James also wrote book/lyrics for Among the Hidden (awarded a staged reading grant in 2015), #Masc4Masc:A Totally Masculine Musical (a queer and inclusive romantic comedy with music by Josh Ben-Ami), and Camp Cut-the-Cord (a comedy about screen-addicted teens with music by Jackson Brothers). In 2020, James co-created the musical webseries Is This Art Now? with Jessie Field. James wrote words and music for the series, alongside a plethora of contributing composers including Josh Ben-Ami, Lydia Breckon, Elspeth Collard, Sean Eads & Jared Field. James holds an MFA from NYU Tisch (2020), a JD from NYU Law (2016), and a BA from CUNY Hunter (2013). James is also a licensed and practicing attorney. James was born and raised in Brooklyn. www.jamessalemmusicals.com

For more about Piper Theatre Productions, visit https://pipertheatre.org/.

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