Jeanne Drennan (book and lyrics) is a playwright, librettist, lyricist and songwriter. Her full-length plays Asparagus, Limoges, Medea at Athens, 12 Dogs, Waxworks, Atlas of Longing, and Get Out of Dodge have been produced or developed at theatres across the U.S., some tiny and unheated but also the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and Bay Area Playwrights Festival. Get Out of Dodge was a winner of the AACT New Play Fest-2016 and was produced at the Venice Theater, Venice, FL, and subsequently published by Dramatic Publishing. Her latest gigs have been in producing: first, a new full-length musical for MTAP—Musical Theatre Artists of Pittsburgh, in October of 2021, then in 2022 six new 10-minutes musicals, collectively called Hot Metal Shorts, by collaborating teams of MTAP members.
Jeanne’s musical Dear Boy, with composer David Berlin, has had several public readings and continues in development. Her most current works include the full-length plays Left Luggage and Whiteface and the musical comedy Juiced!, for which she wrote book, music, and lyrics. Juiced! had a public reading in 2019 and also continues in development. Up next will be Flounder, a musical for dark times in a watery world. The Pennsylvania Council on the Arts has awarded her seven individual artist fellowships in playwriting. She is a member of the Dramatists Guild and of the Playwrights Center in Minneapolis, and makes her home in Pittsburgh, PA.
Director Stacey Cabaj consults composer
David Berlin during a rehearsal.
David Berlin (music) is a composer and music educator, with many collaborations in dance-theatre and multi-artist performances. His collaborations with poet Rosaly Roffman and choreographer Holly Boda-Sutton, including "Furoshiki," "After the Fall," "M. C. Richards Sound Fugue, and "Out of the Deep," have been performed at the Carnegie Museum of Pittsburgh, Indiana University of PA, and many other locations. With Rosaly Roffman and choreographer Karen Clemente, he collaborated on "The Little Match Girl" and "Landscape of Sorrow," both performed in Philadelphia. With Rosaly Roffman and storyteller Stephany Fromm, he collaborated on "Lada in the Linden," a site-specific piece created for the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts. He has collaborated on numerous occasions with the choreographer Pat McKeown, creating music for works such as "Doctor Zoology," "Memoirs," "Clippings," "Modnoc," "Characters and Critters," "Christopher's Quest" and "No More Masks." With poet Lynn Emanuel, McKeown Interarts Co. and a collection of puppet makers and visual artists, he collaborated on "Hotel Fiesta" and "Palindromos." He created music for Linda Miller of the Pittsburgh Dance Alloy, the dance company “Orchasis” and dancer Celeste Beerman of Bowling Green University (Ohio) for an international electronic music festival.
Dear Boy, with librettist/lyricist Jeanne Drennan, was his first of several collaborations in musical theatre. The show has evolved through a number of readings, including one working with undergraduates taking an introductory class in musical theatre at the University of Pittsburgh. He has also collaborated on two additional new musicals.
David’s orchestral and chamber music compositions have been performed by such groups as the Orchestra Society of Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Classical Symphony Orchestra, the Laureate Woodwind Quintet, the Renaissance City Woodwind Quintet, the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, and the Sterbrooke Ensemble at Carnegie Hall in Manhattan, and at the Galapagos Art Space in Brooklyn. Internationally, his work has been performed by the Cuarteto de Saxófones de Barcelona in Spain and by Ensemble HND in Sweden. He is a member of ASCAP and of the Society of Composers.