Amas Musical Theatre Unveils Recipients Of Eric H. Weinberger Award For Emerging Librettists

Amas Musical Theatre has revealed the recipients of the sixth Eric H. Weinberger Award for Emerging Librettists, a juried cash and production grant given annually to support the early work and career of a deserving musical theatre librettist. The award commemorates the life and work of playwright/librettist Eric H. Weinberger (1950-2017), who was a Drama Desk Award nominee for Best Book of a Musical (Wanda's World), and the playwright/librettist of Class Mothers '68, which earned Priscilla Lopez a Drama Desk Award nomination.

Daniel Cullen and James Cullen, Australian born brothers were selected from over 50 blind submissions for their full-length musical Dubbo Championship Wrestling. In addition to a check for $2,000 to help pay cost-of-living expenses, the brothers receive development assistance from the “Amas Musical Theatre Lab” of Amas Musical Theatre, culminating in the work being rehearsed and performed by New York theatre professionals in an Amas Lab production. Amas was the development home for several of Mr. Weinberger's musicals, which produced the World Premiere of Wanda's World and the New York Premiere of Tea for Three.

When an angry high schooler picks the wrong fight at school, she finds herself sent back to her rural hometown, and into a battle for her struggling family business: Dubbo Championship Wrestling.

“I started writing Dubbo Championship Wrestling in 2018 with my brother James as an adaptation of my favourite play As You Like It,” states Daniel Cullen. “We submitted it to New Musicals Australia in 2019, where we were selected for workshop development at the Hayes Theatre. In 2021, the Dubbo Championship Wrestling concept album was released on Spotify, featuring performances by Eddie Perfect, David Campbell and Lucy Durack. I have moved to New York to partake in the BMI workshop and seek out opportunities to develop Dubbo for the American stage. While the show is very Australian, at its core is a story about a strange and loving community fighting to survive. My goal is to retain DCW's Aussie charm while making it understandable to an international audience. I verify that I have full rights in the work.”

In an artistic statement for the submission, Daniel says “”I have always loved professional wrestling and its pageantry and melodrama make it a natural fit for musical theatre. In terms of looking like you're about to burst into song, I consider pro wrestlers up there with Mormons, and the performers are just as bizarre as their in-ring personas. While the core theme is ‘home is where the heart is', the show explores ideas of identity, reality, and wrestling's checkered history with race.”

“We are very happy to welcome Daniel and James to the Amas family,” says Donna Trinkoff, Artistic Producer of Amas Musical Theatre. “We are honored and grateful to continue to commemorate Eric's memory and are looking forward to the futher development of this piece.”

Bios

Daniel Cullen

(Book/Lyricist/Co-composer) Dan holds Arts and Law Degrees from Sydney University, where he spent most of his time writing sketches and parody lyrics for faculty and Jewish revues. During this time, he founded the 10,080 Project at Macquarie University, wherein small teams are tasked with writing a short musical in a week. Dan's first musical, Musical of Thrones, played the Sydney and Adelaide Fringe Festivals in 2016 & 2017. He played Jon Snow, and will trot out his Northern accent at any opportunity. With James, Dan received the 2017 Bright Ideas Grant for Dubbo Championship Wrestling, which was selected in 2018 for development from hundreds of submissions as part of the competition New Musicals Australia. Since then, Dan has workshopped the show through Hayes Creative Development, and run development workshops with the Victorian College of the Arts. Since 2023, Dan has been an active member of the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop. He is currently working with Conga Line Productions and Perpetual Entertainment adapting Australian stories for the screen, and holds a masters of fine arts from the National Institute of Dramatic Art.

James Cullen

(Co-composer) James trained at AIM (the Australian Institute of Music), where he received his Bachelor of Music. In 2020, he and Dan were selected for mentorship by Broadway composer Eddie Perfect, as part of the Sparrow Mentors initiative. During COVID he received recording experience at Free Energy Device Studios under Richard Belkner and Joe Accaria, helping to record the Dubbo Championship Wrestling concept album. James' and Dan's most recent work, Legends, a song cycle on Australian myth and folklore, received a workshop presentation at PACT in early 2024, and is in development for a full scale production in 2025. James holds a graduate diploma of education from the University of New England, has taught at The International School of Music, and works as a music educator.

Eric H. Weinberger

(1950-2017) was a playwright and musical theatre librettist. His credits include Class Mothers '68, starring Priscilla Lopez (Off Broadway and Luna-Stage/">Luna Stage - Star Ledger Award for Best New Comedy in NJ), Six Hands (Yale University and Luna-Stage/">Luna Stage), The Nightwatchman (Luna-Stage/">Luna Stage and On the Rock Productions, Key West), Tea for Three, with and starring Elaine Bromka (Amas Musical Theatre and touring the country since 2004, www.teaforthree.com), three children shows at Andy's Summer Playhouse in Peterborough, NH. Musicals: Wanda's World (Amas Musical Theatre, Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Book of a Musical, Lucille Lortel Award nomination for Outstanding Musical) and published by Theatrical Rights Worldwide, www.wandasworldmusical.com), …and Then I Wrote A Song About It (Luna-Stage/">Luna Stage and The Diversionary Theatre in San Diego, www.andtheniwroteasongaboutit.com), Brothers, Boyfriends and Other Criminals, (Zach Theatre in Austin, Texas), A Dog Story (Off Broadway and The Waterfront Playhouse, Key West). Workshop production of Giant Steps, an “urbean” version of Jack & The Beanstalk (U of Texas in Austin).