JILL ABRAMOVITZ (Book/Lyrics, Dogs of Pripyat) BMI Workshop (Harrington Award), Dramatists Guild Fellow, Weston Playhouse New Musical Award (Dogs of Pripyat).  Contributing lyricist on It Shoulda Been You, past NAMT selectee now headed for the George Street Playhouse and The Village Theatre.  Currently adapting  Martha Speaks for Theatreworks USA with composer/husband Brad Alexander, with whom she is also adapting the film Bread and Roses.  Acting credits include 9 to 5 and Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me on Broadway, and many off-Broadway and regional credits including past NAMT shows See Rock City (Barrington Stage) and Band Geeks (Goodspeed).

ARON ACCURSO (Music, Dogs of Pripyat) Composer/Additional Lyricist: Strega Nona (commissioned by Weston.  Six productions including The Atlantic Theatre and a National Tour by Maximum Entertainment.)  Training: Dramatists Guild Fellow, BMI Workshop (Harrington Award). B’way:  Sister Act (Assistant Conductor), Little Mermaid (Keyboard 1), Billy Elliot (Casting, Rehearsal Pianist).  Regional: Calvin Berger at George Street (Incidental Music/Music Director). Workshops: Aladdin, Up Here, Newsies, Addams Family, Hello My Baby, Red Clay. TV: Regis and Kelly, and Wendy Williams with American Idol Finalists.  Education: BA in Music Composition with distinction from St. Olaf College.

ADAM GWON (Music/Lyrics, Bernice Bobs Her Hair) Adam Gwon's musical Ordinary Days (NAMT Festival 2008) made its NYC premiere at Roundabout Theatre Company, and has since been seen in London’s West End and across the U.S.  His musicals The Boy Detective Fails (book: Joe Meno) and Cloudlands (book/co-lyrics: Octavio Solis) will premiere this season at Signature Theatre (Arlington, VA) and South Coast Repertory, respectively.  Adam’s honors include the Kleban, Ebb, and Loewe awards, the ASCAP Harold Adamson Award, and the MAC John Wallowitch Award, as well as commissions from Signature Theatre, South Coast Rep, Broadway Across America, and the EST/Sloan Project.  Recordings: Ordinary Days (Ghostlight Records).  Fellowships: MacDowell Colony, Dramatists Guild.  Education: BFA, NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.  Adam is a member of ASCAP and the Dramatists Guild.  www.adamgwon.com

JOE ICONIS (Book/Music/Lyrics, Bloodsong of Love) has been nominated for two Drama Desk Awards, a Lucille Lortel Award, and is the proud recipient of an Ed Kleban Award and a Jonathan Larson Award.  He is the author of Bloodsong of Love, The Black Suits, ReWrite, The Plant That Ate Dirty Socks and We The People.  His concert act, The Rock and Roll Jamboree, frequently plays The Laurie Beechman Theater and Joe's Pub and the Original Cast Recording of Things To Ruin, Joe's theatrical rock concert, is available on Sh-K-Boom/Ghostlight records.  Joe is greatly inspired by Robert Altman, Dolly Parton, The Rolling Stones, whiskey, The Muppets, and The Family of artists he frequently surrounds himself with.  www.MrJoeIconis.com

DAVID JAVERBAUM (Book/Lyrics, Watt?!?) has won 11 Emmys for his work as head writer and executive producer of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. He was a principal author of its best-sellers America (The Book) and Earth (The Book). He is also a Kleban Award-winning lyricist whose work includes 2008’s Cry-Baby, for which he was Tony-nominated; eight original Christmas songs for the 2008 television special, A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All!  for which he won a Grammy; and "Broadway: It's Not Just for Gays Anymore!”, the opening number to the 2011 Tonys. He also collaborated with God on His upcoming memoir, The Last Testament.

JULIA JORDAN (Book/Lyrics, Bernice Bobs Her Hair) musical books include Sarah Plain and Tall (NAMT Festival 2003)and The Mice, both written with Larry O’Keefe and Nell Benjamin. Upcoming musicals: Storyville and Murder Ballad.  . Plays include Smoking Lesson, Tatjana in Color, St. Scarlet, Boy, Dark Yellow, and Jones.  Currently in development, the film Tell Me Something I Don’t Know with Glen Luchford slated to direct. Kleban Award, Francesca Primus Prize, Lucille Lortel Playwriting Fellowship, Manhattan Theater Club Fellowship, Jonathan Larson Award, Heideman Award and LeComte Nouy Award. She is one of the founders of The Lilly Awards and sits on the Council of the Dramatists Guild.

MICHAEL KOOMAN (Music, Dani Girl) and CHRISTOPHER DIMOND (Book/Lyrics, Dani Girl) received a 2010 Jonathan Larson Grant.  The duo’s other works include Golden Gate (Williamstown Theatre Festival), Homemade (London’s Ambassadors Theater), and the family-friendly Christmas musical Junior Claus. Michael and Chris were Dramatists Guild Fellows, received a fellowship at The O’Neill National Music Theater Conference, attended the Johnny Mercer Songwriting workshop, and are two-time finalists for the Fred Ebb Award. Between them, they have received the Burton Lane Award, the Harold Adamson Award, the KC/ACTF Musical Theatre Award, an Anna Sosenko Grant, and numerous ASCAPLUS Awards.  They are currently working on an original musical commissioned by the Kennedy Center.  Michael and Chris are proud graduates of Carnegie Mellon University, and are members of the Dramatists Guild, ASCAP, and the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theater Workshop.  Their debut album, Out of Our Heads, which features an all-star lineup of Broadway performers, is now available on iTunes.  koomandimond.com

GORDON LEARY (Book/Lyrics, Pregnancy Pact) is a bookwriter and lyricist from Chagrin Falls, Ohio.  His musicals with Julia Meinwald include Disappeared (2009 Lincoln Center Directors Lab), and One-Man Show (2010 DanceNOW [NYC]).  Other musicals include Cheer Wars (2009 Richard Rodgers Award), Across the River (2009 Daegu International Musical Festival) and Sled Ride (Auckland Art Gallery.)  Gordon was a 2009-2010 Dramatists Guild Musical Theater Fellow.  He holds a BA from Vassar College and an MFA. in Musical Theatre Writing from NYU/Tisch School of the Arts.

DAN LIPTON and DAVID ROSSMER (notes to MariAnne) are longtime collaborators who have created several original musicals, jointly writing all music, book and lyrics. Their musical comedy The Blonde Streak was commissioned by Broadway Across America and developed at the Orchard Project. Their form-bending musical satire JOE! (NAMT Festival 2000) was seen at the Kennedy Center’s Theater Lab and Chicago’s Equity Library Theatre.  JOE! is currently in development as a 3-D movie musical. 

Rossmer & Lipton are currently working for Araca Group on adapting a bestselling memoir, with playwright Jessica Provenz.  Their sketch comedy musical Rated P… for Parenthood, written with Sandy Rustin, premiered at SOPAC in NJ and is optioned for production off-Broadway.  Other projects include:  a Depression-era book musical with television writer Janis Hirsch, a futuristic concept musical with Kirsten Guenther, and a biographical show about B-movie king Roger Corman with Wayne Rawley. 

JULIA MEINWALD (Music, Pregnancy Pact) Julia Meinwald's music has been heard at venues including Joe’s Pub, Ars Nova, the York Theatre, and Barrington Stages. Her one-act musical, Disappeared, with Gordon Leary, was produced at Prospect Theatre Company and workshop-ed as part of the Lincoln Center Director's Lab. Her musical Jack Perry Is Alive (and Dating!) with Harrison Rivers and Daniella Shoshan is a 2011 NYMF Next Link selection.  Julia is a proud participant in the New Dramatists 2008 Composer Librettist Development Program, a 2009-2010 Dramatists Guild fellow, and a 2008-2010 resident artist with American Lyric Theatre.  BA, Music,Yale University, MFA, NYU Tisch's Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program. www.juliameinwald.com.

PETER MILLS (Book/Lyrics, The Golden Boy of the Blue Ridge) received the 2010 Kleban Prize for Lyrics, the 2007 Fred Ebb Award, the 2003 Richard Rodgers New Horizons Award, and a 2002 Jonathan Larson grant.  Since 2000, Peter has written 11 new musicals.  As composer/lyricist, his shows include The Pursuit Of Persephone (2006 Drama Desk nominations: Best Music, Best Orchestrations), Illyria, The Flood, and The Taxi Cabaret.  Peter wrote lyrics for Iron Curtain (NAMT Festival 2009), with composer Stephen Weiner and bookwriter Susan DiLallo.  He has an MFA. in Musical Theater Writing from NYU.  Peter is a founding member of Prospect Theater Company.  www.pcmills.com.

LEAH NAPOLIN (Book, The Dogs of Pripyat) made her Broadway playwrighting debut in 1975 with Yentl, produced by Cheryl Crawford and the Chelsea Theatre Center.  In 2003, Yentl returned to New York for a successful run at the Folksbiene Yiddish Theater. In 1979, Ms. Napolin completed her second play Lost Island, about monks and nuns in the eleventh century, followed by Trash and Treasures (1981); Aristophanes' Retreat (1985); Split at the Root, a Novel in Three Acts (2010); and Twister (2011).  She is a member of P.E.N. and the Dramatists Guild, and the winner of the John Gassner Memorial Playwriting Award for The Dogs of Pripyat (2004).