ASHLEY GRIFFIN
Creator/Book/Music/Lyrics
Ashley is most well known as the creator of the pop culture phenomenon Forever Deadward (New World Stages.) As a writer, Ashley’s plays have been produced off-Broadway in New York, as well as in Los Angeles, and Chicago. Highlights include: Theater: Changed For Good (for which she also wrote the book, with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz which had its premier in 2006, and is currently in development at the York Theater Company, Trial, Fairy Tales, The Death of Emily Webster, Subtext, Twilight: The Unauthorized Musical Parody, as well as Alice...in Wonderland (in collaboration with Joel Jeske) and Lyra: A Dark Fairy Tale (both currently in development.) Film/T.V/Web: The 8th Square (currently in preproduction: Doug Jones and Pat Carroll attached), Blank Paige. Music: Ashley has contributed music and lyrics to several musicals including Twilight: The Unauthorized Musical Parody, and has written and performed many original pieces as a singer/songwriter. Recently three of her songs were featured at the Comix Comedy Club’s Epic Fail: Broadways Future Flops concert in NYC.
Ashley was the recipient of 2007 outstanding playwriting commendation from the NY International Fringe Festival, and a Grand Prize winner in the Los Angeles Shakespeare Festival's Literary Competition. Ashley has taught Musical Theater History at NYU (Tisch,) and was the 2011/2012 Artist in Residence at Dreamcatcher Entertainment. She is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild. As a performer, Ashley has performed on Broadway and is a proud member of AEA. www.ashleygriffinofficial.com
CREATIVE TEAM
GABRIEL BARRE
Director
Gabriel Barre is an internationally acclaimed director having just returned from Seoul, Korea where he directed the world premiere of the Frank Wildhorn musical, Tears of Heaven. In Prague, Czech Republic, he directed another original musical, Carmen, now in itʼs third sold out year, as well as a hit revival of Jesus Christ Superstar. His credits in the United States include the New York productions of The Wild Party by Andrew Lippa (nominated for 13 Drama Desk Awards and 5 Outer Critics Circle awards, both including Best Director and for which he won the Calloway Award), Summer of ʼ42, Stars in Your Eyes, Honky-Tonk Highway, john & jen and Almost, Maine. He directed the US and Canadian tour of Pippin, as well as the national tour of Rodger and Hammersteinʼs Cinderella, starring Eartha Kitt. His regional theatre credits include, Private Lives at Seattle Repertory Theatre, Tom Jones, Camelot and the world premiere productions of Memphis, at the North Shore Music Theatre in Boston and at Theatreworks in California; Sweeney Todd, Finianʼs Rainbow, Houdini and many other new musicals at the Goodspeed Opera House; Stand By Your Man at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville; Hay Fever and Pericles at the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey; Little Shop of Horrors and Flower Drum Song at the American Musical Theatre of San Jose; as well as Tommy, Hair and Loveʼs Labours Lost at the Connecticut Repertory Theatre. As an actor, he has been nominated for a Tony Award as Best Actor in a Musical and appears often in film and on TV. www.gabrielbarre.com
JEREMY EZELL
Additional Music and Lyrics
"A Jeremy Ezell song is high drama and pop contagion. His songs are emotional stories of heartbreak, headlines, and faith that follow, unapologetically, in the musical footstepsof futurists like Phil Collins, Muse, Radiohead." says Elizabeth Cline (New York Magazine and author of Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion)
Currently the frontman and co-writer for Atlanta pop quartet The Well Reds, he has performed with artists ranging from Tom Kimmel and Angie Aparo to Andy Grammar, Hot Chelle Rae, and Switchfoot. In 2011 he contributed music and lyrics to the nationally acclaimed off broadway musical Forever Deadward and his piano arrangements of hot jazz hits, Pretty Baby, Black Coffee, and others, appeared in a New York production of A Street Car Named Desire. Follow, Listen, Like Jeremy: on twitter and, facebook and The Well Reds: on twitter and facebook.
DAVID MALLAMUD
Additional Music
David Mallamud's music was recently heard in Bill Nelson's All-Male Review (Barrington Stages, directed by William Finn), on the York Theatre's Neo Benefit, and has long been a staple of the classical-rock ensemble, The Dogs of Desire. He is currently working with Madeleine George on an adaptation of Treasure Island for The Children's Theatre Company in Minneapolis and a short piece for orchestra and Irish Dancers for The Albany Symphony. With Kim Scharnberg, he recently finished a new orchestration of Les Miserables for the Flat Rock Playhouse, and was honored to orchestrate You'll Never Walk Alone for Brian Stokes Mitchell to perform for Obama at the 2013 Ford's Gala. He is also a prolific composer of concert music whose work has been performed by a variety of ensembles including The Harrisburg Symphony, The Albany Symphony, The New World Symphony, and The Westchester Philharmonic. Education: B.M. Eastman, M.M. Juilliard, M.F.A. Tisch. www.davidmallamud.com
MICHAEL SUTHERLAND
Additional Music and Lyrics
Michael Sutherland- Composing work includes: The Red Bull Theater reading of A Woman Killed with Kindness starring Michael Emerson, the NYU mainstage Buried Treasure, and A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Stella Adler Studio and own singer-songwriter work that no one ever hears. BFA in drama from NYU Tisch, MA from LAMDA. michaelsutherland.com
MARTIN LANDRY
Musical Director/Arrow/1st Keyboard
New York credits include Forever Deadward (New World Stages), Son of a Gun (Theatre Row), Dear Edwina (DR2 Theatre), The Ohmies (Peter Jay Sharp Theatre), and Brunch - The Musical (ATA - Chernuchin) and the upcoming It's a Wonderful Life - A Live Radio Play (Harbor Lights Theatre Company, Dec. '13) He also appeared in the world premiere of Of Mice and Manhattan at the Kennedy Center, debuting previously unheard Frank Loesser songs. Other favorite theatrical credits include Pump Boys and Dinettes (L.M.), Forever Plaid (Smudge), Into the Woods (Cinderella's Prince/Wolf), A Midsummer Night's Dream (Nick Bottom), and Urinetown (Officer Lockstock). Additionally, Martin is a published composer/lyricist, and a member of the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop. Thanks to Ashley and Gabe, and love to Janice (always).