Two of the three musicals to win this year's prestigious Richard Rodgers Awards competition for musical theater, administered by the American Academy of Arts and Letters, were written by alumni of the Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program. The annual competition is an important venue for discovering and encouraging new talent.
The projects that won the Richard Rodgers Staged Reading awards this year are To Paint the Earth, by '02 alumni Daniel Frederick Levin (book and lyrics) and Jonathan Portera (music); and Unlocked, by '03 alumni Sam Carner, (book and lyrics) and Derek Gregor (music).
The awards, given every year since 1980 by the American Academy, provide financial support for full productions, studio productions, or staged readings by nonprofit theaters in New York City. Richard Rodgers endowed the competition with a $1 million gift in 1978. The winners were chosen by a jury composed of academy members Stephen Sondheim, Jack Beeson, John Guare, and Francis Thorne, and advisors Lynn Ahrens, Sheldon Harnick, Richard Maltby, and Janine Tesori.
To Paint the Earth tells a fictionalized account of the life of the Warsaw Ghetto through the eyes of a young painter, Chaim. It speaks to the life, not the death, of a community, and shows how it was the strength they found in each other that eventually enabled them to fight back.
Set in the 18th century, Unlocked is based on a mock-epic poem by Alexander Pope, and tells the story of Belinda, who is a young, beautiful, and vacuous lady of the court adored by all the gentlemen. When Belinda’s favorite lock of hair is stolen, she discovers the world outside her sheltered existence.
Pictured, clockwise from top-left, are: Daniel Frederick Levin, Jonathan Portera, Derek Gregor and Sam Carner.
