Brief Bios
Carmel Dean is a Composer, Arranger, Musical Director and Pianist. She most recently wrote the Vocal Arrangements for La Jolla Playhouse's world premiere production of Hands on a Hardbody. She was also Musical Director of American Idiot on Broadway and performed with Green Day on the Grammy Awards in 2010. Prior to American Idiot, she was the Vocal Arranger and Associate Conductor of Broadway’s The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. Off-Broadway credits include Everyday Rapture, Vanities and Elegies – A Song Cycle by William Finn. International credits includeChicago (Hong Kong) and the 2000 Olympic Games Opening and Closing Ceremonies (Sydney). Carmel has also served as Chita Rivera’s Musical Director for many national and international appearances.
As a composer, her work includes A Girl Called Vincent; music for the Disney TV show Johnny & the Sprites; and Songs of Innocence & Experience (co-composed with William Finn, Deborah Abramson, Vadim Feichtner & Gi-hieh Lee.) Carmel is a native of Perth, Western Australia and received a B.Mus. from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA). In 2001 she was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study in the United States and subsequently graduated from NYU’s Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program with a Masters in Musical Theatre Writing.
Sarah Underwood is a lyricist, bookwriter, and playwright from Cincinnati, Ohio. Her musical The Star Child (lyrics, book by Jenny Stafford, music by Josh Freilich) was a finalist in the Ronald M. Ruble New Play Festival at Caryl Crane Children's Theatre (Huron, OH), and has been presented at Tada! Theatre (NYC) and the French Woods Festival for the Performing Arts (Hancock, NY). Her play, gravesongs, was presented by Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati in the Cincinnati Fringe Festival, where it won Audience Pick of the Fringe, two ACCLAIM awards and was nominated for two Cincinnati Entertainment Awards. Her work has also been seen at Lost Theatre (London, UK), The Duplex Theatre (NYC) and Barrington Stages (Pittsfield, MA). She is a graduate of Eugene Lang College the New School for Liberal Arts and the Graduate Musical Theater Writing program at NYU Tisch. Sarah is a proud member of the Dramatists' Guild.
Bobby Cronin is a award-winning composer/writer whose pop/rock musical with co-book writer Alicia Dempster called Welcome To My Life (W2ML) is currently under a Broadway option. As the winner the 2011 New Jersey State Playwrights Contest, DAYBREAK will premiere in Wayne, NJ in June 2012 for a limited run and Daybreak will open at the Tristan Bates Theatre in London in early June as well. Other projects: 'Til Death Do us Part (book by Allen Mogol); Kelly Nichols' Ten Reasons I Won't Home With You (winner of Outstanding Music & Lyrics at MITF, 2010); and Thank You, Next web-series for which Bobby was awarded "Best Original Web Score, Mockumentary Division". Bobby is the first American writer to pen an original piece (The Concrete Jungle) for the esteemed London ArtsEd School (Andrew Llyod Webber, President), which will also open in June 2012. Bobby headlined the March 2009 Lincoln Center Songbook Series, made his Los Angeles debut in May 2010 at Show at Barre and made his London debut in February 2011 with a sold out concert at The Players Theatre. His CD Reach The Sky: Live at The Beechman is available on iTunes. Yale graduate, Member of ASCAP, Dramatists Guild and NewMusicalTheatre.com, and three time ASCAP PLUS award winner.
Kyle Ewalt and Michael I. Walker are co-creators of Behind the Music-al with 92YTribeca. Most recently, their show Separate: Battle Songs of Youth was seen at Ars Nova and their latest musical, Bromance: the Dudesical, was shown at Caroline's on Broadway. Together, they have completed four musicals and their music has been seen around NYC and the country, notably at 92YTribeca, Joe's Pub and Playwrights Horizons. Kyle studied songwriting at Berklee College of Music and Michael received his bachelor's degree from Yale and his master's degree from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and King's College in London. Michael's play, Letter from Algeria, recently completed an Off-Broadway run at the Abgindon.
Ken Davenport is a Broadway producer whose credits include Godspell, Chinglish, Oleanna starring Bill Pullman and Julia Stiles, Speed-the-Plow, Will Ferrell's You're Welcome America, Blithe Spirit starring Angela Lansbury and 13, as well as Altar Boyz, My First Time, The Awesome 80s Prom and Miss Abigail’s Guide to Dating, Mating, & Marriage Off-Broadway. He also recently released These Magnificent Miles: On the Long Road with Red Wanting Blue, a documentary on one of the top unsigned rock bands in the country. Ken was featured on a national commercial for Apple's iPhone and named one of Crain's “40 Under Forty.” Combined, Ken's productions have grossed more than $100 million worldwide and are being produced internationally in over 25 countries including Germany, Mexico, France and Korea. He created and developed the Broadway board game Be A Broadway Star, recently seen on The Today Show and a smartphone app called AT THE BOOTH™, which gives a listing of available shows at the famed TKTS® booth in Times Square. AT THE BOOTH™ has been featured on Entertainment Weekly’s “Must List” and called “Ingenious! The best thing to happen to New York theater since, well, the introduction of the TKTS® booth!” He also runs a number of theatrical websites including DidHeLikeIt.com and YourBroadwayGenius.com. Current projects include bringing the first ever revival of A Few Good Men to Broadway and adapting the novel and film Somewhere in Time into a Broadway musical. His blog, TheProducersPerspective.com, has been featured in Vanity Fair, New York Magazine, The Gothamist and more. He has written articles for Forbes, Mashable, Imedia and others. For more information, visit www.DavenportTheatrical.com.