Authors

Photo by Jeff Donfeld

NOELLE DONFELD, a lyricist and bookwriter, had six musicals produced in 2010. THE SPARK, Hannah Senesh, (music: Sandy Shanin, book and lyrics: Noelle Donfeld) at the Pierson Playhouse, Pacific Palisades Playwrights Festival; THE REVOLUTION OF BETSY LORING (music: Denise Wright, book and lyrics: Noelle Donfeld) was read at Encore Theater in Dayton, Ohio, and included on the www.musicalworld.us website of the theatre; THE ANTIQUE SHOP (book: Peter J. Kuo and Noelle Donfeld, lyrics: Noelle Donfeld, music: Nathan Wang) was read as part of Friday Night Footlights of the Dramatist Guild, and received an outstanding review in the July/August 2010 issue of The Dramatist; SQUEAK (book: Sachi Oyama, lyrics: Noelle Donfeld, music: Brian Leader) premiered at the La Canada Theatre; GHOST(S), (book: Kincaid Jones, lyrics: Noelle Donfeld, music: Brian Woodbury) was selected for a reading produced by the Lyric Theatre in L.A.; and POWDER PUFF PILOTS (book: Marian Partee, lyrics: Noelle Donfeld, music: Cindy O’Connor) was part of the University of Irvine Musical Theatre Festival in September. UCI hopes to produce it during its 2011 – 2012 season.

In 2009, she had two musicals produced. CARJACKED (music: Bonnie Janofsky) premiered at the 10 by 10 at the Triangle, of the Arts Center, Carrboro, N.C. and THE SPARK, Hannah Senesh, which opened the Monday Night Musicals series at Theatre Building Chicago.

Noelle had seven musicals, including two commissions, produced in 2000 – 2008. HANDS (co-music: Nathan Wang, co-music, book and lyrics: Noelle Donfeld) was selected for Stages 2000 at Theatre Building Chicago; THE REVOLUTION OF BETSY LORING was selected for the Tomorrow Project by Casa Manana Theatre, Ft. Worth; TWAS (book: Guy Toubes, lyrics: Noelle Donfeld, music: Tom Bahler) was commissioned by Nextstage Productions, Las Vegas and Houston (Stuart Ostrow, producing); SHAHRAZAD, HEADS OR TALES?, (co-book: Stephen Oles and Noelle Donfeld, lyrics: Noelle Donfeld, music: Sandy Shanin) was read at the Century City Theatre, Los Angeles and at the Theatre Museum, London, by Mercury Musicals, and workshopped by Playwrights Arena at the LATC; and MISS VULCAN 1939, (book: Marian Partee; lyrics: Noelle Donfeld, music: Jan Powell) which premiered at Red Mountain Theatre in Birmingham, Alabama, and was produced again the following year.

She is currently working on A MATCH MADE IN HEAVEN, (book: Marian Partee; music: Lisa Bloom Cohen) Affiliated with the Dramatist Guild, the Academy for New Musical Theatre, ALAP, LAFPI and ASCAP, she is a triple semi-finalist of the Eugene O’Neill Musical Theatre Project for THE REVOLUTION OF BETSY LORING , FORBIDDEN CITY (book: Sachi Oyama; lyrics: Noelle Donfeld, music: Nathan Wang), and THE SPARK, Hannah Senesh.

Photo by Stephen Johnson

MARIAN PARTEE’s musicals, operettas, and plays have been produced by Actor’s Co-Op (Hollywood), Theatre Building Chicago, Red Mountain Theatre Company (Birmingham, AL), City Lights Theatre Company of San Jose, the Great American Melodrama (Oceano, CA), Northwestern University (Evanston, IL), California Institute of the Arts (Valencia), and High Tech High (L.A.). She is a member of the Academy for New Musical Theatre and the Dramatists Guild. She holds a B.S. from Northwestern University (summa cum laude) with a major in Theatre and a minor in Creative Writing for the Media, and an M.F.A. in Acting from Cal Arts.

Photo by Christopher Graham

Cindy O’Connor is a composer, songwriter and performer. Her original musicals include All That He Was (Kennedy Center ACTF Winner, published by Samuel French); 40 is the new 15 (NoHo Arts Center 2010); Powder Puff Pilots (UC Irvine Festival of New Musicals); Moving On (Stages finalist), and a popular series of murder mystery musicals . Her opera Crime + Punishment was a recent Eugene O’Neill Conference finalist. Cindy has composed original music for two Off-Broadway plays, In The Air and The Crying Woman/La Llorona. She is currently writing Beautiful, a modern musical adaptation of Hedda Gabler with an acoustic rock/Southern folk-flavored score. In the film and TV world, her music can be heard in Once Upon a Time (ABC series), Crash (the Starz series), The Black Donnellys (NBC), Forgiving the Franklins (Sundance 2006), and many others. As a keyboard player and vocalist, Cindy has toured with Pat Benatar, Mark Isham, and Petra Haden and the Sellouts, and appeared on VHI’s “Women Who Rock”, “Good Morning America” and “Charmed”.