In the News

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OPERA America

My wonderful collaborator Julia was one of eight composers award a Discovery Grant for Female Composers by OPERA America to support further development of REB+VoDKa+ME! We are so excited and honored that our show has been recognized in the opera world, especially in the company of friends and colleagues. We can’t wait to dive back into our theatrical Tumblr over the next year! Check back here for more updates as planning gets underway…

Read a little bit more about both the organization and the grant:

OPERA America draws on resources and expertise from within and beyond the opera field to advance a mutually beneficial agenda that serves and strengthens the field through programs in the following categories: creation, presentation and enjoyment. The association provides members with an array of publications and online resources, regional workshops, an annual conference and network-specific services such as conference calls, listservs and direct contact with staff with expertise in opera production, administration and education. OPERA America provides members with tools to maximize the effectiveness of financial and human resources, expand the scope of repertoire and programs, and extend their reach to new and diverse audiences. Founded in 1970, OPERA America has an international membership that includes nearly 150 Professional Company Members, 300 Associate and Business Members, 2,000 Individual Members and over 16,000 subscribers to its electronic news service.

OPERA America’s Opera Grants for Female Composers program provides financial assistance to identify, support, and help develop the work of female composers writing for the operatic medium, raising their visibility and promoting awareness of their compositions to the field. Funding for this program is provided by the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation Program for Commissioning Women in the Performing Arts.

While you wait for more information, you can always tide yourself over by listening to the new complete demo!

2018 Interstate 73

Another year, another new project!

I’m proud to be a member of the 2018 Interstate 73 Writers Group and excited to get started on a new project with Julia. We get to join (clockwise from the top) Michael R. Jackson, Eleanor Burgess, Daniel K. Isaac, Emily Feldman, Darrel Alejandro Holnes, Gary Winter, and Amina Henry for a year of creating! Read all about them here.

More details about the new project will be coming soon, but for now we’re just basking in the talent we get to observe for a whole year. Thanks to the wonderful folks at Page 73 for including us in this year’s group!

DGF Writers Alliance Grant

I’m so honored that the upcoming production of The Loneliest Girl In the World has been awarded one of the inaugural Dramatists Guild Foundation‘s Writers Alliance Grants. The grants provide “$5,000 to a nonprofit theatre’s production of a new work and another $5,000 directly to the writer being produced.” According to Playbill, “DGF selected writes whose work ‘pushes boundaries and shows tremendous promise’ and theatres with ‘superlative ethical standards in supporting the livelihoods and careers of writers.'” Julia and I started writing together thanks to our time in the Dramatists Guild Fellows program, and we’re thrilled for their continued support!

Twan in The Times!

To round out 2016, Pregnancy Pact got a shout-out in The New York Times!

Margo & Twan, second and third from the left, in the Weston production.

Twan Baker, the baby-prop-performer extraordinaire, is currently co-starring with Margo Seibert in the Broadway production of In Transit. The two first met in our 2012 world premiere of Pregnancy Pact at the Weston Playhouse, and they’re back together as mother and child once again. I can’t wait to see them both in the show!

(The Times first referred to the show as Pregnancy Pact: The Musical, but graciously corrected the title after a quick email request.)

((Also, how fun to have worked with so many of the other wonderful people mentioned in this article!))