Piper Theatre's Alumni-Led REWIND FESTIVAL To Debut This June

For 25 summers, Piper Theatre Productions has turned Brooklyn's parks, playgrounds, and gymnasiums into stages of wonder-crafting wild-hearted, sweat-streaked, and fiercely original theater for and with young people, new playwrights, and emerging artists. Founded in 2000 by Artistic Director John P. McEneny, Piper has grown into a crucible for emerging voices, bold experiments, and unforgettable summers. This anniversary season is more than a milestone-it's a handoff. The artists leading Rewind Festival 2025 were once the kids in the wings. Now they return, not to look back, but to push forward-with new musicals, soul-deep plays, and a raw, riotous energy that feels unmistakably Piper.

Piper Theatre Awards 2025 "Musicals Now Prize" to Composer James Steinman Gordon for Beanstalk: Ionu? and the Sânziana Flower

Piper Theatre Productions has named ames Steinman-Gordon as the recipient of this year's Musicals Now Prize, a $2,000 commission awarded to an emerging composer creating bold new musical work for young audiences. James will compose the original score for Beanstalk: Ionu? and the Sânziana Flower, a lyrical Romanian folk fantasy written by Tiberiu Gavris and directed by Bailey Nassetta, premiering in June 2025 with free performances for NYC DOE students and families.

James began his theatrical journey with Piper at age eleven in The Music Man and never looked back. A homegrown artist of range and soul, he became a beloved actor and, later, one of Piper's most trusted collaborators-serving as music director on Disney's The Little Mermaid Jr., Gorbal Woods, Billy Ragamatag, Colors of My Bedroom, and this summer's upcoming raucous youth adventure, Something Rotten Jr.

Now, he returns to Piper as a composer - bringing with him a résumé as rich as his melodies. A Brooklyn-based pianist and composer, James studied vocal music at the renowned LaGuardia High School for Music & Art and Performing Arts, and later earned a degree in Piano Performance from the prestigious Berklee College of Music, graduating Summa Cum Laude.

He has performed across New York City and beyond with artists including Avangelia, Eugie Castrillo, T.3, Satica, and Latin Diaspora and has graced stages such as Rockwood Music Hall, Public Records, and The Bitter End. As a composer, James draws from modal jazz, jazz fusion, modern classical, and global traditions from Eastern Europe, the Celtic world, and Latin America. He also curates The Brownstone Concert Series, showcasing original works with guest artists.

His theatrical credits include music direction for cabarets at The Slipper Room, KGB Bar, and Club Cumming, and recent work on Bradaret at Brooklyn Art Haus and with The Gallery Players.

Beanstalk: Ionu? and the Sânziana Flower is a swirling tale of enchanted seeds, dragon-guarded grief, talking harps, and a boy who dares to climb beyond loss. At its center: a score built from James's singular musical voice-part fairytale, part fire.

BEANSTALK: Ionut and the Sânziana Flower

A Play for Young Audiences
By Tiberiu Gavris

Original Music by James Steinman-Gordon (Musicals Now Award Winner 2025)

Directed by Bailey Nassetta

In a crumbling Romanian village, young Ionu? dares to climb a beanstalk toward a world of dragons, shadow circuses, and shimmering harps with attitude. Armed with enchanted seeds, a fading lion, and a flatulent fairy godmother, he battles grief, illusion, and a father's myth. Beanstalk: Ionu? and the Sânziana Flower is a raucous, lyrical reimagining-bursting with music, poetry, and fire-breathing redemption. The real magic isn't the beanstalk-it's the show you build when you come home. Stage Management by Kaelin Elizabeth Fuld. Production Design by Lucy Livingston. Featuring: Michael Galligan, Samuel Schell, Justin Picado, Jared Palmer Kirsch. DOE Performances June 17, 18, 20, 24 at 10 am / June 21 at 3 pm / June 25 at 11 am Park Slope Center for Successful Aging / June 27 at 4 PM at Old Stone House.

Piper Unleashes Bold New Work Ahead Of International Premiere at the 2025 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

CADEL: Lungs on Legs

One Actor. One Bike. One Hour. The epic true story of Cadel Evans, the first Australian to win the Tour de France, live on stage. The grit, gears and glory of the most challenging road race on earth rides into Brooklyn for two previews ahead of a much anticipated season with Underbelly at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, this August. CADEL: Lungs On Legs, is a new play co-written and performed by Australian-born, New York-based actor Connor Delves, co-written by Scottish playwright Steve McMahon, and directed by Mark Barford. Delves performs this grueling solo show, pedaling for an hour from the saddle of the same BMC bicycle that Evans rode to victory in the 2011 race. June 13 & 14 at 7 pm.

KNOW FEAR: A new musical

by Mark Galinovsky and Lily Ali-Oshatz. New Yorkers are not new to living in fear. Whether it's fear of coming up with rent money every month or fear of staying safe on the subway, we are constantly in a state of high alert. In Know Fear, longtime Pipers Mark Galinovsky (Hedwig, Sweeney Todd, Priscilla) and Lily Ali-Oshatz (Prospect Hill, Peter Pan) return with an evening of song and soul. It's a battle cry, a balm, a gathering. Old fears. New music. A reminder that the only way to overcome our fears is to call them out and face them head-on. Featuring Lily Ali-Oshatz

Jonathan Cruz, Laura Dillman Frank, Theresa Linnihan, Lindsey Moore, Gina Simone Pemberton, Zach Wobensmith, Ryan Michele Woods. Directed by Madeline Wall (Producer Prospect Hill, Costumer Priscilla, Peter Pan, Director, Charlotte Lucas is 27 and Not Dead.) June 13 & 14 at 8:30 pm

CREEK'S EDGE

A new play by Patti Veconi (Nolan's Wake). Set in 1970s rural Pennsylvania, Creek's Edge by Patti Veconi is a poignant family drama about land, legacy, and survival. As the Hopkins-Forton family grapples with economic hardship, mental illness, and environmental disaster, deep rifts emerge between generations. With biting humor and lyrical memory, the play explores what we inherit, what we choose, and what we lose. A grape farm becomes a crucible-and a once-joyful creek, the site of reckoning. Featuring longtime Piper favorites Annie Montgomery (Bloody Ballad of Bette Davis, Splitfoot, Mother Sauvage), Aaron Novak (Moreau, Frankenstein, Hamlet, They Should have seen the Lights Already, Maeve Mollaghan (HarpAlb, DNA), Christopher May (Memory's Kiss, Nolan's Wake), and Zack Palomo (Pinnochio). An elevated staged reading will be held on June 20 & 21 at 7 pm.

CUNNINGHAM PROJECTS

Two of Piper's longtime friends, both of whom grew up in Piper education programs, will bring to life two short plays, The Campaign that Failed: A Theatrical Reimagining of Mark Twain's Short Story by Allison Snyder. Directed by Jessie Kleuter. Six young men enter the backwoods of the American South seeking meaning, valor, and great adventure. If only they could figure out how far they are from home. Mark Twain's satirical account of his two-week stint fighting in the Civil War is freshly reimagined in Allison Snyder's hilarious and insightful new play, and Girl's Room by Daisy Garrison directed by Delia Cunnigham, explores the fragile alliances and fierce loyalties of teenage girls navigating identity, friendship, and survival behind closed doors. Featuring Healy Knight, Clara Napolitano, Georgia Garrison, and Emma Callahan. June 26 & 27 at 7 pm.

JEREMY BITES PEOPLE

is a surreal, high-octane musical comedy about seven teens and one extremely strange boy navigating the apocalypse at a cursed summer camp. As reality breaks, so do their façades-revealing heartbreak, trauma, resilience, and, weirdly, a lot of oatmeal. With razor-sharp humor, haunting ballads, and brain-eating absurdity, this chaotic ensemble journey explores what it means to survive when the world ends-and how to connect when everything else disconnects. Part biting satire, part heartfelt coming-of-age story, Jeremy Bites People is equal parts Lord of the Flies, Dear Evan Hansen, and your weirdest fever dream. It's a campfire horror story wrapped in a hug, with a machete tucked inside. You'll laugh. You'll cry. You might get bit. An original youth production created by and performed by members of our advanced Piper Youth Program, Josh Cantone, Luca Fortuna, and Daniel Herper. Directed by longtime Piper Eva Sheehy-Moss (Wendy Darling, Priscilla, Newsies, Bloody Ballad of Bette Davis). June 28 & 29 at 1 pm.

EDUCATION PROGRAMMING