This year’s developmental music stand presentations will include:

The Josh White Project excerpts from a new play by Donnetta Lavinia Grays

The Josh White Project was commissioned by the SC New Play Festival and the presentation of excerpts will precede a public town hall on the impact of Greenville, SC on Josh White’s life and legacy. Donnetta Lavinia Grays is an award-winning playwright and actor, whose work has been seen on Broadway and at theaters across the country. She is the recipient of The Whiting Award for Drama, Helen Merrill Playwright Award, The National Theater Conference’s Stavis Playwright Award, Lilly Award, Todd McNerney National Playwriting Award, and the Doric Wilson Independent Playwright Award. Josh White was a prominent blues and folk musician who rose to fame in the 1930s and 1940s performing with legends such as Billie Holiday, Woody Guthrie, and Lead Belly, and on Broadway and in Hollywood. He was a key figure in the civil rights movement before his career was negatively impacted by the House Un-American Activities Commission.

All the World’s a Stage a new musical by Adam Gwon

Adam Gwon made his off-Broadway debut in 2009 with Ordinary Days at Roundabout Theatre Company; a 2018 revival by the Keen Company was nominated for a Drama League Award for Best Revival of a Broadway or Off-Broadway Musical. His musicals have been produced on six continents in more than half-a-dozen languages, including the Off-Broadway hits Scotland, PA (Roundabout Theatre – Drama Desk Award nomination, NYT Critic’s Pick) and Old Jews Telling Jokes (Westside Theatre, NYT Critic’s Pick). All the World’s a Stage was commissioned by Keen Theater Company, NYC (Jonathan Silverstein, Artistic Director). The show tells the story of closeted Math teacher Ricky Alleman and the high school senior who cajoles him into coaching her for the 1996 State Thespian Competition with a monologue from "Angels in America". Soon, Ricky has trouble navigating his carefully compartmentalized life, between his outspoken new boyfriend and the conservative Principal of the High School where he teaches. All the World’s a Stage is a funny and heart-wrenching new musical about being true to yourself in a polarized world.

A Trip Around the Sun a new play by Jake Brasch

Jake Brasch (he/they) is a queer sober clown from Colorado and a graduating playwriting fellow at The Juilliard School. The World Premiere of his play The Reservoir, also directed by Shelley Butler, will be presented in 2025 as a co-production between the Denver Center, Alliance Theatre, and Geffen Playhouse. Jake is a member of the 2024 Page 73 Writers Group and a 2023-2024 Alliance/Kendeda Finalist. He is the winner of the Kennedy Center's 2024 Paula Vogel Playwriting Award. Their work has been developed by New York Stage and Film, The Ensemble Studio Theatre, The Farm Theater, ArtHouse Inkubator, Letter of Marque Theater Company, Eden Theater Company, and LAByrinth Theater Company. BFA from NYU Tisch (Experimental Theatre Wing/New Studio on Broadway). Trip Around the Sun is a dark comedy about a couple of Parrotheads in Florida planning the remaining time they have left on Earth.

The Dark Lady a new musical by Sophie Boyce and Veronica Mansour

Sophie Boyce is the winner of the Eugene O'Neill National Musical Theatre Conference, a finalist for the Kleban Prize, Write Out Loud and the Stiles & Drewe Song Prize. Veronica Mansour is a 2024 Richard Rodgers Award Winner and Jonathan Larson Grant winner, was recently nominated for a Marvin Hamlisch International Music Award and was selected as one of four writers for DreamWorks Theatricals, MTI & NBCUniversal Emerging Writers Program. The Dark Lady is an electrifying synth-pop spectacle that uplifts the story of Emilia Bassano: a woman theorized by some to be the true, uncredited author of Shakespeare's works. Audacious and joyful with an effervescent wit, The Dark Lady brings this "what if" scenario to life in a gleefully subversive celebration of theatre. 

Stuntboy, a new TYA musical by Melvin Tunstall III and Greg Dean Borowsky

Melvin Tunstall’s show Polkadots: The Cool Kids Musical won the Off-Broadway Alliance Award for Best Family Show in 2018. Greg Dean Borowsky is a songwriter and producer from South Africa behind some of South Africa’s biggest SAMA (SA Grammy) winning artists and is the co-writer and producer of the official “20 Years of Freedom” song for the South African Government.  Stuntboy, a commission from Theatreworks USA, is based on the book “Stunt Boy in the Meantime” by Jason Reynolds and Raúl the Third, and used with permission of Pippin Properties, Inc. Stuntboy follows the middle-schooler, Portico Reeves, whose superpower is making sure his parents and two best friends stay safe from bullies. He lives in the biggest apartment building on the block, a building with fifty doors, all of which would be swell except for the secret that Portico’s parents are about to divorce. All this stress gives Portico “the frets”, which his mom calls anxiety. Plus, like all superheroes, Portico has an arch-nemesis determined to prove that there is nothing super about Portico at all. TheaterWorksUSA has led the Theater for Young and Family Audiences movement for over half a century through its mission to create exceptional, transformative theatrical experiences that are accessible to young and family audiences in diverse communities throughout in New York City and across the United States. Since 1967 TheaterWorksUSA has been a trailblazer in the not-for-profit theater industry and has reached more than 100 million audience members nationwide. (www.twusa.org).