PROJECTS

Dramaturgs do many things. I am a new work dramaturg - I love to read new plays and musicals and then offer feedback on the structure, style, themes, and anything else. I would need to have a professional relationship with any writer/director before I agree to work on a project but I am always open to receiving your unsolicited play scripts and always open to forming new relationships! Look below for some past shows I’ve worked on as a writer or dramaturg:

Word Nerd

Bookwriter & Producer

Bob Otto is America’s second-favorite cruciverbalist (someone skillful in creating or solving crossword puzzles) and the host of his very own syndicated television game show, Word Nerd. But when the show’s producers devise a questionable plan to boost the show’s falling ratings, Bob is faced with a difficult choice. Should he maintain his personal and professional integrity, or do whatever it takes to save the show from its imminent cancellation?

Word Nerd was a Semifinalist for the 2023 and 2024 National Music Theatre Conference, and its first act was performed at the 2022 American Crossword Puzzle Tournament at the personal invitation of Will Shortz, earning a mention in The New York Times. The original musical was also a Finalist for Normal Ave’s 2023 NAPSeries festival. The book was written with Will Wegner, with Music by Charlie Romano, and lyrics by Will Wegner. Directed by Bibiana Torres.

Onward & Upward

Dramaturg

In 1982, Walter Griffin made national headlines after flying 16,000 feet in the sky with a lawnchair and a cluster of weather balloons. 17 years later, a surreal visit from his idol, wirewalker Philippe Petit, blurs the line between reality and fantasy in this intimate chamber musical adapted from Up (The Man in the Flying Chair) by Bridget Carpenter.

Onward & Upward received the Eric H. Weinberger Award for Emerging Librettists and has been developed at the Phoenix Theatre Company and in a workshop in New York City produced by TPTC and Amas Musical Theatre. The musical was also a Semifinalist for the 2023 and 2025 National Music Theatre Conference at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center. Written by Charlie Romano and Will Wegner, based on the play “Up (The Man in the Flying Chair)” by Bridget Carpenter.

Education

Yale University

B.A. Theater & Performance Studies

Highlighted Coursework: Current Trends in Musical Theater, New Play Development, Writing about the Performing Arts, Lyric Writing, Libretto Writing, American Musical Theater History, Creation of a New Musical

Professors included: Hal Brooks, Dan Egan, Margaret Spillane, Marsha Norman, Michael Korie, Deb Margolin, & Annette Jolles.

B.A. Ethics, Politics, & Economics

Thesis: “What You Own: Investigating and Applying Intellectual Property Theory and History in Copyright Issues of the American Theater”