Kirsten Childs, Grey Henson, Eric Ulloa and More Lead 4th Season of Barn on Fire Residency
The final presentation of the 10-day intensive residency in Fire Island Pines for original musicals in development will be on Saturday, June 21, 2025.
By: Stephi Wild Jun. 11, 2025
This summer, New York Theatre Barn and the Fire Island Pines Arts Project will join forces for the 4th annual season of Barn on Fire. The final presentation of the 10-day intensive residency in Fire Island Pines for original musicals in development will be on Saturday, June 21, 2025, at 6PM in Whyte Hall’s Brandon Fradd Theater.
Award-winning musical theatre writer Kirsten Childs (The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin, Bella: An American Tall Tale) serves as mentor to the residency, which includes the original musicals Lewis Loves Clark and Sunken Cathedral.
Joining the writers for the residency are actors Grey Henson (Shucked, Mean Girls), Eric Ulloa (On Your Feet!), Jasmine Aiyana Garvin (Poker Face), Kiana Kabeary (Empire), Skie Ocasio (Bombay Dreams), Luis Villabon (Destiny of Desire), Michael Wordly (Miss Saigon, Goodpseed’s Ragtime), Steven Alan Black, Ben Houghton, and Carley Lovito. Sirius XM Radio’s Julie James will host the final presentation with New York Theatre Barn’s Héctor Flores Jr., which will be directed by Artistic Director Joe Barros, with music direction by Patrick B. Phillips (The Wiz, A Strange Loop), and Molly Conklin is the stage manager.
The new musical Lewis Loves Clark, written by Richard Rodgers Award-winning writers Mike Ross and Dylan MarcAurele, is a funny, fast-paced epic about the famous Corps of Discovery expedition told through a queer lens. The show was featured in the 2024 NAMT Festival of New Musicals, and co-writer Dylan MarcAurele (Pop Off, Michelangelo!) is the recipient of the 2024 Jonathan Larson Grant.
The new musical Sunken Cathedral, written by Taylor Fagins and Chase Uram, is a musical journey of contending worlds, exploring the unhoused community, dementia, and familial caretaking. Michelle Feza Kuchuk serves as dramaturg for Sunken Cathedral.
Under the mentorship of Tony Award-winning director/choreographer Jerry Mitchell and Tony nominated director/choreographer Jeff Calhoun for its first three seasons, the residency previously supported eleven original musicals, including Martin Storrow’s King of Pangea which will open at London’s King’s Head Theatre this summer and Joriah Kwamé’s Little Miss Perfect will play Maryland's Olney Theatre Center in 2026.
The Barn on Fire residency is made possible with generous support from Dalip Girdhar + Paul Austin (The P. Austin Foundation), Straighten Your Crown Productions, Jonathan Lewis and Matt Boethin, Henry Robin and Bob McGarity, John Krawchuk and Vinnie Petrarca, David Kneuss, Denise Lucy and Francoise Lepage, Isaac Namdar and Andrew Mitchell-Namdar, Carlos de la Puente and Simeon Kline, Gary Clinton and Don Millinger, Richard Winger, and Matthew Woolf.
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