Jan 29, 2007

Monday, January 29 at 9pm
Triad Theatre
158 West 72nd Street
New York, New York 10023
http://www.triadnyc.com/
January 29th concert featured Michelle Blakely (Annie Get Your Gun, Grease), Matt Castle (Company), Darius de Haas (Carousel, Rent, Kiss of the Spiderwoman, Marie Christine), Megan McGinnis (Beauty and the Beast, Parade, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Les Miserables), Maurice Murphy (Spelling Bee),
and Katie Clarke (The Light in the Piazza), Lauren Molina (Sweeney Todd).

Featured Composers:

J. OCONER NAVARRO recently earned his MFA from the Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program at NYU, where he was the 2005 recipient of the Paulette Goddard Award and a Tisch School of the Arts Scholar. His premiere musical, Awakening, based on the classic novella by Kate Chopin and written in collaboration with Joel B. New, is being further developed with Margo Lion, Ltd.

Jay has served in the music department of numerous New York productions, including Avenue Q, The Apple Tree, Mary Poppins, Ricky Ian Gordon’s Art/Song/Dance, Kander & Ebb’s Curtains, and Henry Krieger’s The Flamingo Kid, amongst many others. Regionally, he was music director for Travels With My Discontent (The Music of Deborah Abramson) at Barrington Stage Company, directed by William Finn.

Jay additionally works as an arranger, accompanist, audition pianist, and vocal coach; he is also a proud faculty member of Applause Theatrical Workshops/Broadway Babies. Love and thanks to family, friends, the singers, and Dreamlight Theatre Company for supporting the work of new writers!

For more information, please check out www.joconernavarro.com

BENJ PASEK & JUSTIN PAUL are emerging as a new songwriting team with a fresh voice in contemporary musical theatre. Collaborating since their freshman year, Pasek and Paul are Musical Theatre majors at the University of Michigan, class of 2007.

In the spring of 2005, the team premiered a revue of their work entitled EDGES. Originally billed as a one-night event at the University of Michigan, the material was enthusiastically received, spurring performances in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Connecticut, and New York City in venues such as The Kimmel Center and the June Havoc Theatre. EDGES has since been performed over 60 times across the country, produced at various colleges including The Boston Conservatory, Carnegie Mellon University, Emerson College, University of Miami, Westminster Choir College, New York University and many more. It has enjoyed professional productions in New York City, Portland Maine, California, and with Northwestern University’s American Musical Theatre Project. EDGES is now available for licensing through Music Theatre International.

In May of 2006, BECOME: The Music of Pasek and Paul was presented at Joe’s Pub in New York City. The two sold-out concerts featured a host of Broadway performers, including Gavin Creel, Billy Porter, Celia Keenan-Bolger, Daniel Reichard, Cheyenne Jackson and Karen Mason. Benj and Justin then made their Ars Nova debut that July selling out two shows with special guests Mary Faber and Shoshana Bean, for whom they are writing special material for her upcoming pop album.

The duo was honored along with 12 selected writers as participants in the first ever Johnny Mercer Songwriting Festival. Pasek and Paul are writers for John Tartaglia’s Disney Channel program “Johnny and the Sprites”, and contributed music to upcoming Off-Broadway's WHITE NOISE, A Cautionary Musical. Current projects include several new book musicals, one of which with collaborator Alexandra Cunningham, a writer and producer of the hit ABC series, DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES.

More information can be found on the team’s website, www.pasekandpaul.com.

MICHAEL WARTOFSKY’s music creates an eclectic, unique sound that incorporates elements of classical training and traditional musical theater with popular styles such as jazz, R&B, and soul. Michael’s music and lyrics are featured in The Man in My Head, which premiered at the 2006 New York Musical Theatre Festival. A one-man musical conceived for Darius de Haas and directed by Schele Williams, The Man in My Head was developed through readings directed by Kent Gash at NYU in March 2005, and directed by Wes Savick at MIT in 2006.

Michael has been twice commissioned by North Shore Music Theatre (NSMT) to collaborate with fellow NYU alum Kathleen Cahill. In August 2006, NSMT produced a full-length Equity reading of their time-traveling, seafaring adventure The Navigator at Shetler Studios, New York City, directed by Daniella Topol and music directed by Matt Castle. Kathleen and Michael also wrote Friendship of the Sea, which was toured to young audiences with both Equity and non-Equity casts in 2002-2003.

Darius de Haas has performed Michael’s songs in his opening act for Vanessa Williams, in concert at Birdland, The Duplex, live on WERS 88.9 in Boston, and for several NYMF promo spots, press conferences, and on a podcast entitled Broadway Bullet, available on i-Tunes. Michael and guests performed his song “Your Time Will Come” at the Boston Opera House in its inaugural Hard Hat Concert in June 2004. That song and others were featured in the Boston Sings Boston cabaret, on the Boston Sings Boston CD, and in numerous other concerts and cabarets including the Lila Theatre cabaret at the Empire Plush Room in San Francisco. In February 2004, Michael premiered his rock `n roll Shakespeare settings in a full production of The Winter's Tale, directed by Tina Packer of Shakespeare and Co., at Brandeis University.

Alumnus: NYU Graduate Musical Theatre Writing ‘97, New England Conservatory ‘94, and Harvard College ‘91; currently Associate Professor, Berklee College of Music; Founding Artistic Director, NOMTI (New Opera & Musical Theater Initiative); Founder, Birth of a Musical Festival (Boston).