Cast and Loose

I’ve known actor/writer/producer/all-around-good-people Lynne Rosenberg since we were undergrads at Vassar, and I’ve always been a fan. I feel really lucky to have finally gotten to work with her on my work recently with The Magnificent Seven, and now I feel even more lucky to have gotten to write a song for her amazing series Cast and Loose Live at Joe’s Pub.

Cast and Loose Live! (an offshoot of her amazing Tumblr of the same name) is “an evening of the worst casting breakdowns the internet has to offer, brought to life by stars of the stage and screen.” This particular evening dealt with issues of the body in casting, and woo boy was it an eye-opener on how far our industry has to go.

As a finale, Lynne asked Julia and I to write a song about the dominance of (and deference to) “cisgender, able-bodied, straight, white men” in the industry – and it just so happens that that term scans as a perfect hook!

You should check out the whole evening below, and you can hear the song about an hour and five minutes into the video.

Follow Cast and Loose on Facebook so you can see the next performance yourself!

REB + VoDKa + MTF

Come down to the Musical Theatre Factory for the first chance to see a staged excerpt from REB + VoDKa + ME!

On Monday, February 13, we’ll be presenting the first 15 minutes of the show alongside excerpts from three other musicals. We can’t wait to get a little bit of this show up on its feet and in front of an audience!

(Julia and I had the chance to do an excerpt of The Loneliest Girl in the World in a 2014 4×15 and the experience was amazingly instructive.)

Grab your tickets here and I hope we’ll see you at the Robert Moss Theatre at 440 Lafayette!

Grabbing back

I’m so happy that the wonderful Ally Bonino is including a special version of Julia and my song “My Body Is” from The Magnificent Seven in this wonderful benefit concert on Monday night. Check out the event page on FB and stop by Loft227 to check it out!

2016.

What a year this has been! Two new musicals are well underway, while another had new life breathed into it. Three writers groups, a few writing retreats, some new songs… And a whole lot of wonderful people and collaborators who made this year possible:

Shaleah Adkisson, Delaney Amatrudo, Robert Ariza, Collin Batten, Michael Berresse, Ally Bonino, Jen Brissman, Michael Bush, Nikki DiLoreto, Hanako Greensmith, Sam Heldt, Ciera Iveson, Benjamin Kamine, Kelsey Lake, Amy Linden, Ellen Macy, Evan Maltby, Lauren Marcus, Megan McClain, Eric William Morris, Elexis Morton, Gillian Munsayac, Brynn O’Malley, Matthew Oster, Andrew Neisler, Allison Posner, Alex Ratner, Ned Riseley, Lynne Marie Rosenberg, Keith Rubin, Sara Sahin, Jaclyn Scoville, Libby Servais, Johnny Shea, Rich Silverstein, Adam Stasiw, Dana Steingold, Dustin Sullivan, Pearl Sun, Nikola Tomic, Elinor Vanderburg, Emily Walton, Jeremy Yaddaw, and Andrew Zinsmeister… I’m so grateful to you all!!

And of course, I’m so grateful that I got to go through everything this year with my collaborator extraordinaire, Julia Meinwald.

I can’t wait to see what 2017 holds!

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!))