ABOUT THE ARTISTS
KIT YAN (he/she/they) (Book & Lyrics) is a New York based artist, born in Enping, China, and raised in the Kingdom of Hawaii. Kit is a 2019 Bret Adams and Paul Reisch Vivace award winner, and has been a fellow at the Dramatists Guild Foundation, MacDowell, Playwright’s Center, Company One/Pao Arts, and the Musical Theater Factory. Their work has been developed/produced/commissioned by 5th Avenue Theater, Keen Company, Playwrights Horizons, American Repertory Theater, Mixed Blood, Diversionary, The Smithsonian, OSF, and the New York Repertory Theater. Yan’s recent works include Interstate (NAMT 2019, 2018 NYMF best lyrics) and Miss Step two new transgender musicals.
MELISSA LI (she/her/hers) (Music & Lyrics) is a Composer, Lyricist, Bookwriter, and Performer based in NYC and Baltimore. She is a recipient of the Jonathan Larson Award, a Dramatists Guild Foundation Fellow, a Lincoln Center Theater Writer-in-Residence, a 2019 Musical Theatre Factory Maker, a MacDowell Colony Fellow, a Company One Pao Arts Fellow, and a former Queer|Art|Mentorship Fellow. Musicals include Interstate (Mixed Blood Theatre, New York Musical Festival Winner “Outstanding Lyrics”), Miss Step, Cancelled (Keen Company), May Day, Surviving the Nian (The Theater Offensive, IRNE Award Winner for “Best New Play” 2007), and 99% Stone. Her works have received support from 5th Avenue Theatre, The Village Theater, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Musical Theater Factory, Playwrights Horizons, Keen Company, Weston Playhouse, NewYorkRep, Company One Theatre, National Performance Network, and New England Foundation for the Arts, among others.
JARED MEZZOCCHI (he/him/his) (Director & Media Designer) received his M.F.A. in performance and interactive media arts at Brooklyn College. He is currently on faculty at University of Maryland, College Park, where he leads the projection design track in the M.F.A. design program. He is a resident artist at Woolly Mammoth Theater Company in DC and has directed and designed at theaters across the U.S. and in Europe, including designing for Big Art Group, The Builders Association, Rob Roth, 3-Legged Dog, and HereArts Center. He made his Off-Broadway debut at Manhattan Theatre Club with his projection design in Vietgone, written by Qui Nguyen and directed by May Adrales. In 2012, he received the prestigious Princess Grace Award, the first Projection Designer to be honored with this national theater award. In 2017, he received the first Lucille Lortel Award for the category of Outstanding Projection Design (Vietgone, Manhattan Theater Club). In addition to the Lucille Lortel, he received a 2017 Obie Award and nominations for an Outer Critics Circle Award and a Drama Desk Award. In Spring 2017, he was accepted as a fellow to the Macdowell Colony. Most recently, he wrote and directed an adaptation of Oliver Jeffers’ book How To Catch a Star at the John F. Kennedy Performing Arts Center. He grew up in New Hampshire, where he returns every summer as a producing artistic director of Andy’s Summer Playhouse, an innovative children’s theater producing original work by professional artists from across the country.
IAN BRANDON (he/him/his) (Music Director) recently moved to San Diego from London where he worked as a Music Director, Composer, Actor, Vocal Teacher, Arranger and Orchestrator in the West End, London Fringe and National Tours. Additionally, he taught and Musically Directed at many of the top Drama Conservatories in London. Recent U.S. Musical Direction, Composing and performing credits include: Alice (Lamb’s Players Theatre), Chasing Fear (Finish Line, Cygnet Theatre), A Kind of Weather (Diversionary Theatre), Cat (Theatre Of Note, L.A.), Hall Pass (WOW Festival, La Jolla Playhouse), Heathers (OB Playhouse), Notes From My Shelf, The Winter’s Tale, The Old Man & The Old Moon, Cabaret (Coronado Playhouse), Xanadu, Frozen, A Thousand Cranes, A Wrinkle In Time, The Addams Family, Spring Awakening, The Lion King, Newsies (Francis Parker), Warm It Up (Canyon Crest), Wake Up Brother Bear (San Diego Junior Theatre, Case Del Prado Theater) and Ragtime (Arena Stage, Washington D.C.). Past favorite London credits include Spring Awakening, Parade, Bat Boy, Violet, Children of Eden, Crazy For You, Songs For A New World, Bare, Forever Plaid, Once On This Island and Pippin. |
