Yale Institute for Music Theatre to Develop AFTERLAND and CLOUDS ARE PILLOWS FOR THE MOON

The YALE INSTITUTE FOR MUSIC THEATRE has selected two original book musicals to be developed in an intensive lab setting in New Haven, June 3-15. Afterland, with music and lyrics by Benjamin Velez and book and lyrics by Kathryn Hathaway, will be directed by Mark Brokaw; and Clouds are Pillows for the Moon, with music by Tidtaya Sinutoke and book and lyrics by Ty Defoe, will be directed by Leigh Silverman. The Institute culminates with open rehearsal readings of each project, presented as a part of the International Festival of Arts & Ideas, on June 14 and 15.

ABOUT THE 2014 SELECTIONS

AFTERLAND
Music and Lyrics by Benjamin Velez
Book and Lyrics by Kathryn Hathaway
Directed by Mark Brokaw

A moving story of renewal and regeneration, Afterland takes place in a post-apocalyptic world and follows two eccentric, wayward tribes as they stake out their territory and attempt to create a new civilization and world order where none exists.

Benjamin Velez (Music and Lyrics) is a composer/lyricist and recent graduate of Columbia University, where he studied film and wrote music and lyrics for the 114th Annual Varsity Show. He is a member of the Advanced BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop, where he received the Jerry Harrington Musical Theatre Award for the 2nd-year workshop. His work has been featured at New York Musical Theatre Festival, New Emerging Outstanding!, and the Cutting Edge Composers concert series. Originally from Miami, Benjamin now lives and composes in Brooklyn.

Kathryn Hathaway (Book and Lyrics) is an interdisciplinary artist based in Brooklyn. Her plays and musicals have been performed and developed at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, The Flea Theater, New Dramatists, The Bushwick Starr, Dixon Place, The Prelude Festival, New York Musical Theatre Festival, Joe's Pub, and the BMI Musical Theatre Workshop. She is a MacDowell Colony fellow, an alumna of Barnard College, and received her MFA in playwriting from Brooklyn College.

Mark Brokaw (Director) Broadway credits include Rogers & Hammerstein's Cinderella, The Lyons, After Miss Julie, Reckless, The Constant Wife, and Cry-Baby. New York premieres include works by Douglas Carter Beane, Charles Busch, Lisa Kron, Kenneth Lonergan, Craig Lucas, Nicky Silver, Wendy Wasserstein, and Paula Vogel. His regional credits include the Sondheim Celebration at the Kennedy Center, the Guthrie, Center Theatre Group, Steppenwolf, Seattle Rep, La Jolla Playhouse, Yale Rep, Sundance Theatre Lab, and the O'Neill Theatre Conference. His work has also been seen on the West End, at London's Donmar Warehouse and Menier Chocolate Factory, Dublin's Gate Theatre, and Sydney Opera House. Mark is an Associate Artist of the Roundabout Theatre in New York and a Yale School of Drama graduate.

CLOUDS ARE PILLOWS FOR THE MOON
Music by Tidtaya Sinutoke
Book and Lyrics by Ty Defoe
Directed by Leigh Silverman

Two outsiders-17-year-old Ella, from the Ojibwe reservation in Wisconsin, and P., an exchange student from Thailand-embark on a rite-of-passage road trip that will leave their childhoods behind forever. Clouds Are Pillows for the Moon features a haunting score that mixes contemporary American sounds with music from the Ojibwe and Thai cultures.

Tidtaya Sinutoke (Music) is a New York City-based composer, writer, and musician originally from Thailand. Her music has been featured at the Signature Theatre, 54 Below, The Duplex, Tribeca Performing Arts Center, Goodspeed, Lincoln Center's Songbook Series, National Dramatist Guild Conference (Chicago), and Central Square Theatre. Tidtaya has performed at Tribeca Performing Arts Center, Avery Fisher Hall, and the Thailand Cultural Arts Center (Bangkok), among other venues. She won second prize in the Thailand National Youth Music Contest. Tidtaya is a graduate of Berklee College of Music in Boston (BM) and NYU's Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program at Tisch (MFA) and is an adjunct faculty member at the Borough of Manhattan Community College.

Ty Defoe (Book and Lyrics), of the Oneida and Ojibwe tribes, received a Grammy Award for his work on Come to Me Great Mystery: Native American Healing Songs. Other work: Heather Henson's Flight: A Crane's Story, TICK-TICK (Prospect Theater Company's Musical Theater Lab), and Wounded Knee (Johnny Mercer Foundation Writers Colony at Goodspeed Musicals). He has been recognized by the Indigenous Heritage Festival, the NEA, Robert Rauschenberg Foundation (artist residency), and TCG (Leading the Charge: Diversity and Inclusion Fellow). Ty is a graduate of CalArts (BFA), Goddard College (MFA), and NYU's Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program at Tisch. He serves as mentor at the Alaskan Cultural Heritage Center and the Pine Ridge Playwrights Project and is a member of the Dramatists Guild.

Leigh Silverman (Director) Broadway credits include Chinglish and Well. Recent Off-Broadway credits include Violet (Encores); The Call (Playwrights Horizons); Up from Here (Drama Desk nomination), The Madrid (Manhattan Theatre Club); Golden Child (Signature Theatre); No Place to Go (The Public Theater; Two River Theatre); In the Wake (Center Theatre Group/Berkeley Repertory Theatre and The Public Theater, OBIE Award, Lortel nomination); Blue Door, Go Back to Where You Are (Playwrights Horizons, OBIE Award); Yellow Face (Center Theatre Group/The Public Theater); Coraline (MCC Theater/True Love); Well (The Public Theater, Huntington Theatre, American Conservatory Theater); Danny and the Deep Blue Sea (Second Stage Theatre). Recent regional credits: American Hero (Williamstown Theatre Festival) and Chinglish (Goodman Theatre, Jeff nomination; West Coast and Hong Kong tour). This season: The (curious case of the) Watson Intelligence (Playwrights Horizons); Kung Fu (Signature Theatre); and the Broadway production of Violet (Roundabout Theatre Company).