Nora Schell, Jaime Lozano, Adesola Osakalumi will be part of Rhinebeck Writers Retreat's 2026 Residency Cohort
Four public “Meet the Writers” events will be held throughout the summer.
Rhinebeck Writers Retreat announced the twenty-six musical theatre writers selected for 2026 Summer Residencies. Together they make up the most genre-spanning residency cohort to date, bringing roots in hip-hop, Afro-Caribbean dance, indie folk, Indian classical music, contemporary pop, and New Orleans funk to the musical theatre art form.
RWR addresses a critical need faced by musical theatre writers: dedicated, uninterrupted time and resources to write. This summer RWR will host nine private, weeklong residencies for writing teams in the idyllic Hudson Valley, with all expenses covered including travel, food, writing supplies, a stipend for each writer, a dedicated artistic mentor from RWR’s Sounding Board, and a $1,000 Kathy Evans Writers’ Choice Grant to support further development. The organization is a powerful industry pipeline; since 2011 it has supported over 250 writers developing 130 musicals that have gone on to fill stages across the country and grow the musical theatre canon.
The 2026 residency cohort is made up of creators with an astonishing range of experience across artistic media, developing nine new musicals that tell a beautiful breadth of stories. The writers include Broadway performers, award winning playwrights, and renowned music artists. Their musicals trace: a queer Indian-American woman across seven karmic lifetimes; Black British love told through 1970s lovers’ rock reggae; a young Puerto Rican girl whose magical powers are threatened by the seductions of assimilation; the Wild West’s most notorious female outlaw, as told by her sister; and Amish teenagers on Rumspringa navigating faith in the modern world, to name a few.
Participating Writing Teams and Lead Supporters
Amanda D'Archangelis and Sami Horneff: Bandit Queen
Lead Supporter: Liz Armstrong
Jaime Lozano, Florencia Cuenca, and Adrian Alexander Alea: Él y Ella
Lead Supporters: Concord Theatricals & Pam Hurst-Della Pietra and Stephen Della Pietra
joseph webb, Cris Eli Blak, Igmar Thomas, and Adesola Osakalumi: Lovers’ Rock
Lead Supporters: The ASCAP Foundation Bart Howard Fund & Ruth and Stephen Hendel
Selda Sahin and Derek Gregor: Modern
Lead Supporter: Howard Ashman Trust for Theater Arts
Chief Joseph Boudreaux Jr. and Kevin Merritt: The Rumble
Lead Supporters: Steve and Paula Reynolds
Jocelyn Mackenzie, Jeremy Lloyd-Styles, and Neena Beber: Rutka
Lead Supporters: Grove Entertainment & Matt Benjamin and Yeeta Yeger
Emielyn Das and Harrison Lewis: Seven Steps Around The Fire
Lead Supporter: The Noël Coward Foundation, in honor of Geoffrey Johnson
Samora la Perdida, Josiah Handelman, Mobéy Lola Irizarry, and Matthew Zwiebel: Spanglish Sh!t
Lead Supporters: The National Foundation for Musical Theatre & Damon Suden
Eric Emauni, a.k. payne, Ashley M. Thomas, and Nora Schell: Sweet Canaan
Lead Supporter: The Stephen Sondheim Foundation
Four public “Meet the Writers” events will be held throughout the summer thanks to underwriting from Board Chair Molly McEneny. Exact dates and details forthcoming.
The residency teams were selected from 192 applications, which were reviewed in two rounds by panels of new work development experts. The final round readers were Anika Chapin, Director of Artistic Development at Signature Theatre, DC; Iyvon Edebiri, dramaturg, creative producer, and Artistic Director of The Parsnip Ship; Jen Hoguet, Tony nominated producer at FourthWall Theatrical; Khiyon Hursey, composer, lyricist, and librettist; Barbara Pasternack, Producing Artistic Director of TheaterWorksUSA; and Blair Russell, Tony nominated producer and co-founder of Resounding.
RWR’s 2026 Summer Residencies will take place from June 14 through August 16. Full bios and synopses for the residency teams and their musicals, as well as the full list of finalists, can be found at rhinebeckwriters.org.
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