Hailing from Cape Cod, Troy is deeply grateful to have found a creative home in LA at New Musicals Inc. He thanks Elise, Scott, Catie, and Ron for their consistent support and encouragement. In addition to acting and singing (and now co-directing!), Troy produces for indie films and new media. His favorite hobby is behind-the-scenes photography. Find him on Instagram to say hello! @troytroytroybarboza

Ron is an LA based composer and Director of Music at Saint Mark’s Episcopal Church, Glendale and a member of New Musicals Inc., North Hollywood. Full length musicals: The Fish Whisperer (Northern Sky Theatre, Fish Creek, WI 2023), Manson’s Girls (book by Scott Guy, lyrics by Mitch Glaser, Hollywood Fringe, 2018), When Butter Churns to Gold, (book by Peter Welkin, lyrics by Randi Wolfe, Northern Sky Theatre, 2015), Around the World in 80 Days, (book and lyrics by Julianne Homokay, Fulton Theatre, Lancaster, PA 2007) A Christmas Carol (book and lyrics by Barry Kornhauser, Fulton Theatre, 2001, published by Dramatic Publishing Company), and Last Lists of my Mad Mother (book by Julie Jensen, lyrics by Julianne Homokay). Choral music published by MorningStar and GIA.

Wendy Braff (She/her) has been a television and film writer for over 30 years.  A graduate of the Warner Bros. Writers Program, she started her sitcom career writing on ABC’s Growing Pains and NBC’s Empty Nest then sold her first feature The Governess to Columbia Pictures with Jennifer Lopez attached to star.  Her feature Just Swipe, starring Jodie Sweetin (Full House) was released in 2021.  Growing up, Wendy was a proud musical theater geek and performed in every musical production her school did.  She spent her summers at Stagedoor Manor, the world-famous musical theater training camp in the Catskills. She would like to thank her friends and family for putting up with her during this past year at NMI, and her sons for allowing her to (sometimes) sing in the car.

A native of Brooklyn, New York, John Coppola is a multi-talented director and acting coach, whose clients have starred on HBO, Showtime, ABC, CBS, NBC, CW, Netflix, FX, AMC, USA, Lifetime, Fox, WB, TNT and Showcase. As a director, John has helmed more than 100 theatrical productions in New York, Los Angeles and abroad. His credits include groundbreaking productions of Shakespeare, Brecht, John Patrick Shanley and Caryl Churchill, as well as critically-acclaimed adaptations of Puccini’s Madame Butterfly, the musicals Cabaret, Sweeny Todd, Anything Goes, and Godspell. As a film director, John’s accolades include the award for Best Director at the New York International Film & Video Festival for his film, Possibility, which also took the Grand Jury Prize for short film In Los Angeles. Then, he directed Bourbon Street, a New Orleans television pilot for Rampart Entertainment. Most recently, he directed In the Basement, a short film that is scheduled for screening at festivals across the country. John began his career as an actor, whose career took him from the footlights of Broadway to the soundstages of Hollywood. After attending Yale’s drama program, John first appeared on Broadway in Neil Simon’s Brighton Beach Memoirs, followed by Biloxi Blues, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, American Buffalo, and the National and European revival tours of Hair,  West Side Story, Grease, and Anything Goes.

Kevin Cloud is a composer/lyricist whose songs have been performed across the country, including at The Ebell Theatre (Los Angeles), The Green Room 42 and Rockwood Music Hall (New York), The White Theater (Kansas City), and the Illinois Holocaust Museum (Chicago). His most recent musical, Vilna: A Resistance Story, has performed sold out concerts in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Vilna: A Resistance Story will be presented at a 29-hour industry reading in New York in September of 2024. Kevin’s first full length musical, Roar, won Best of Fringe Festival at the Kansas City Fringe Fest in 2021. It was also awarded the ArtsKC Inspiration Grant and the Kansas Creative Arts Industries Commission. Kevin’s other shows include The Nashville Chronicles, Something More, and Kristmas vs. Krampus Inc. Kevin graduated with a Music Degree from the University of Kansas, and studies songwriting at Berklee School of Music. Kevin is a proud member of BMI and the Dramatists Guild. www. kevincloud.com

Artistic Director of New Musicals Inc., Elise (she/her) has been involved in the development of new works for over forty years: as an actor/singer, as a director, as a dramaturge, and as a writer. While living in Toronto, Elise served as the Assistant Artistic Director of the Muskoka Festival; the Co-Ordinator of the festival’s annual Musical Theatre Writer’s Colony, the Associate Dramaturge of the Canadian Stage Company; the Resident Dramaturge of the Smile Theatre Company; and was the co-founder of Toronto’s Script Lab. Elise spent many years touring Canada with Nine Months – a one-woman musical which she commissioned from writers Carl Ritchie and Stephen Woodjetts. Elise and Carl also co-wrote Any Body Home?, which was produced by the Cordova Bay Theatre in Victoria, British Columbia, and published by Dramatic Publishing. Elise joined ANMT as Associate Artistic Director in 2003; joined Founding Artistic Director John Sparks as Co-Artistic Director in 2010; and became Artistic Director of New Musicals Inc. in 2013. Elise is also the author and evaluator of the Book Lab and the Outlining Lab, offered online through www.writingmusicaltheatre.com, and publishes a monthly blog on the craft of musical theatre available at https://nmi.org/elises-video-blog/

Veronica Driscoll (She/her) is a Los Angeles-based writer, singer, and actor for live theatre and film. She is pursuing theatre professionally through her love of writing and through work at the nonprofit organization the Los Angeles Women’s Theatre Festival. She is enriched by all forms of art and is constantly inspired by social justice, community movements, and intersectionality. Her most recent piece is a musical called MONA 1.0 that is expecting a performance at New Musicals Inc. in Los Angeles July 8 and 9, 2024. For more information about Veronica or if you need a seamstress,  you can follow her on instagram @Veronica.seams.right.

Charlotte Emma (She/Her) is a 23-year-old writer from London, England. Previously known as a singer and pop lyricist under her stage name, “Tiarlie”, she pivoted professionally to the world of musical theatre at the beginning of 2023 when she adapted the Oscar-winning short film “The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse” into her first musical. In partnership with the BBC, the show has been and continues to be performed in schools across the UK and is soon to be adapted again for children’s TV. In 2024 she signed with Sony Publishing and is currently acting as creative consultant on the live production of The Greatest Showman in London’s immersive theater scene, set to open in the fall of this year. Charlotte continues to work privately on her newest adaptation and credits her time at NMI as a turning point in her journey having fallen in love with book-writing and the encouragement she’s received from Elise and the company over her time with them. 

Vanessa (She/Her) is a passionate vocal coach/arranger and choir director who ran her own voice studio for several years. Her students went on to book national tours, Broadway, and win scholarships to musical theater programs.  While getting her master’s in music therapy from NYU Steinhardt, Vanessa served as a music director at TADA! and her private students consistently rated highly at NYSSMA. She studied musical theatre songwriting with Joseph Church at NYU, Daniel Zaitchik through Roundabout Theatre Co., and attended the Music Director Intensive at Goodspeed Musicals. She has served on the music team at several musicals in the Los Angeles area including The Lonely Few at the Geffen. Currently, Vanessa is the choir conductor for the Voice III Choir at The LAUSD Performing Arts Conservatory and music director for Ink and Paint which will be included in the SheLA Festival. While she has loved bringing other writer’s music to life, she is so excited to finally be writing her own show under the tutelage of NMI.

Ben Barahona Ginsberg is an L.A.-based pianist, composer-songwriter and music director. Many of his songs have been performed at the Las Vegas Composers’ Showcase. He has written music, book and/or lyrics for Minoru Scrapes The Sky (with Momo Akashi), Ramin (with Thalia Ranjbar), City of Hope (with Zoe Ray Prawda), View from the Moon (with Stacey Weingarten and Richard Holland), and Chessica’s Wayward Adventures in Buttfishland (with Brian Morales). He was a songwriting fellow at the Johnny Mercer Foundation Songwriters Project in 2022, and his original song “Heaven” premiered on American Idol, Season 17.  He has worked with many theatres, choirs, churches and film companies across California, Seattle and New York, including Center Theatre Group, Loyola Marymount, Interlochen, the L.A. Gay Men’s Chorus, and the NYC Metropolitan Synagogue. With the Santa Barbara Youth Ensemble Theatre he has music directed and performed twice for Oprah Winfrey. B.F.A. Piano (CalArts), M.A. Music Industry Administration (CSUN); M.F.A. Musical Theatre Writing (N.Y.U. Tisch).

Joseph Gregorio (he/him) is a composer, lyricist, conductor, husband, father of two children, and long-suffering Phillies fan. Though once he could be spotted on stage as Bobby Child (Crazy For You) and George M. Cohan (George M!), life after high school brought him pencils, staff paper, and a conducting baton instead of roles, much to the relief of audiences. Gregorio’s compositions have been performed in venues as diverse as the Kennedy Center, the Basilica di San Marco in Venice, and a decommissioned nuclear reactor at the Hanford Site in Washington. He directed the choirs at Swarthmore College from 2013-2023 and was the founding artistic director of award-winning choir Ensemble Companio. Music directing credits include school productions of Mean Girls, Annie KIDS, and 101 Dalmatians KIDS. Gregorio is honored to be included in the 15MM project; he thanks everyone involved in the production, teammates Michael and Veronica, NMI’s staff, and his family.

Scott is the Executive Director of New Musicals Inc. where he supervises the development of musicals for live and digital platforms.  For his work in television, Scott has six Emmy nominations, and over 100 produced television scripts for Warner Bros., FOX-TV, Disney, Discovery Channel, PBS, etc. He created the Lyric Lab over fifteen years ago and has supervised the development of hundreds of musicals.  He has been Winner/Finalist for the Richard Rodgers Award, Eugene O’Neill Musical Theatre Award, four-time winner for Stages Musical Theatre Festival, and many other accolades.  His theatre scripts, including The Fish Whisperer, Just-So Stories, Der Strunkenwhitenlieder, and Rootabaga Stories have had multiple productions throughout the United States. 

 Shara is proud to be a part of the 15 Minute Musical extravaganza, performing as the alto for 3 pieces (Catch & Release, Mona 1.0, Off the Grid!). She recently worked in the animated series  Hailey’s On It and Pokemon Horizons: The Series. Shara studied theatre at Wayne State University, where she received her BA. When she isn’t on stage, in front of a camera, or in a 4×4 booth for voiceover, Shara writes multi-genre pieces and streams video games on her Twitch channel. She’d like to thank her acting coach / director, John Coppola, for introducing her to New Musicals Inc!

Evan McNamara was born and raised in the suburbs of Philadelphia where his career as an actor began in the third grade playing the Pied Piper of Hamelin. Dreams of a professional acting career brought him to Los Angeles where he has worked on stage, in film and on television. He’s had the pleasure of working with director Johnny Coppola many times, most notably on Evan’s solo show: I Get Knocked Down.  Local theater credits include Amadeus, You Can’t Take It With You and The Shadow, among others. Film & Television work includes The Soup, ER, Taprooting, Silence and The Last Bad Neighborhood. Evan has done voice work for Disney and NBCUniversal, among others. McNamara has been a company member of ARTEL, Shakespeare by the Sea, L.A. Troupe and Sudio C Artists. You can also catch Evan singing carols every December with the Tinseltone Carolers.

Kathleen Mills (She/They) is a Queer composer, lyricist, bookwright, and performer from Toronto, Canada. She has a strong passion for telling stories and a deep love for Canadian Musical Theatre, and holds an Honors Bachelor of Musical Theatre Performance with a focus in Writing for Stage from Sheridan College. Her original musical The Storyteller has had several workshops, a fringe performance, and been picked up by a local company for a run in 2023. She has worked as a composer/lyricist for Skylark! a queer superhero musical with book and additional lyrics by Jeremy Foot, and is working with Foot again on their new musical Train to Nowhere which will be premiering at the Halifax Fringe festival this summer. Currently Kathleen is working as the librettist for The Snow Queen, a new choir musical/Operetta with music and arrangements by Joanna Mills. Kathleen enjoys exploring new genres, working collaboratively with creative teams and artists, and is excited to be part of the next generation of theatre performers, creators, and educators, working to make it even more accessible, safe, and inspiring!

Stephen Nolly is a biracial, Japanese/Jewish Air Force brat who cut his teeth in New York’s theater scene. After graduating from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, he was a resident artist at TriBeCa’s Flea Theater (Drama Desk, OBIE Award). After his start in downtown theater, Stephen found that the film & television world was lacking the diversity of stories that he wanted to tell - and he realized he was the only person suited to tell them. Stephen is a Finalist for the Paramount Writers Mentorship and the Warner Brothers Writers’ Workshop Finalist. He is currently a Fellow at the RespectAbility Entertainment Lab, was accepted into Soho House Script House Lab (with Barry Jenkins and Lulu Wang), received the CA Individual Artist Fellowship, won the Thriller Genre in the ISA Fast Track Fellowship, and been included on The Naughty List, and The Originals Bureau. His scripts have advanced at the Austin Film Festival, Sundance Episodic & Feature Labs, Slamdance, PAGE, and most recently been a Finalist for Film Pipeline, WeScreenplay Diverse Voices, and the Circle of Confusion Discovery Fellowship. Stephen enjoys high-concept, socially conscious stories, is an amateur locksmith, dabbles in horology (watchmaking), writing musical theater, was a competitive international ballroom dancer, and a member of Mensa. 

Catie is a staff producer for NMI and a freelance theatre and film director, producer and educator. She has spent over 10 years working on the artistic team in the industry, directing dozens of critically acclaimed professional productions across the United States and at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.  Favorite productions include Ruddigore and The Mikado with Milwaukee Opera Theater, Arlington and Hostage Song with Music Theater Madison, Amadeus with The World’s Stage and The Belle of Amherst at Renaissance Theaterworks in Milwaukee, A Klingon Christmas Carol at Commedia Beauregard in Chicago, The Guthrie’s premiere of Roman Holiday (directing intern).  In LA, she directed a reading of a new musical with After Hours Theater Company called Y2K: An Immersive Musical and two productions in the Hollywood Fringe Festival, Stilettos & Steel, and So Proudly We Hailed: The Veterans’ Project (director and producer). Her film In The Cloud has been named as an official selection at the London Shorts film festival. She is an alumni of Lincoln Center Directors Lab in New York, Directors Lab West in Los Angeles and Chicago, and holds a BA in theater and music from the University of Miami, FL.

Lia Peros (she/her) is thrilled to be working on the annual 15 Minute Musicals project again! Over the years, she has participated in countless developmental readings, workshops, and classes at New Musicals, Inc. playing everything from a teenage pimp to a jar of glitter!  Favorite NYC and SoCal credits include Pennywise (Urinetown), Missy (The Marvelous Wonderettes), Rona Lisa Peretti (25th …Spelling Bee), Smitty (How to Succeed), Mrs. Phagan (Parade), The Secret Garden, The Addams Family, South Pacific, My Fair Lady, A Christmas Carol, and the award-winning Manson’s Girls at the Hollywood Fringe Festival. Lia also can be heard on the popular sci-fi podcast Ars Paradoxica as Petra, the time-traveling test subject. During the holiday season, Lia can be seen strolling around Los Angeles in full Dickensian garb singing with the Yuletide Carolers by Michetti/Knowles Entertainment. She would like to thank the entire NMI team for continuing to let her play over all these years. Special thanks to Chris and her family for their support. Proud NYU Steinhardt grad.

Stephy Rojo is a multifaceted artist based in Los Angeles, California, with a diverse background in singing, acting, and writing. She holds a BFA in Musical Theatre from AMDA College and Conservatory of the Performing Arts, where she honed her craft. Since graduating, Stephanie has collaborated with CASA 101, New Musicals Inc., The Monologue Room, Beat by Beat Press, and Creativiva Show Creation Worldwide. Beyond her artistic pursuits, Stephy is also passionate about her work as a Behavioral Therapist, as well as playing guitar, writing, and painting. Driven by a proactive approach and fueled by curiosity, Stephy describes herself as a woman who takes action, constantly creating her own opportunities. Stephy Rojo’s credits include Short & Sweet Festival Hollywood, NMI Concert Readings, Show & Tale Play Films & Arts Festivals, The Voice Lesson, Chicanas Cholas y Chisme Series, The American Dream, Crimes and Misdemeanors 15 Minute Musicals, 9 of Swords Short Film, In the Shadows of Zapata, Lead Vocalist with CREATIVIVA, Sally Sells Seashells AND YOU CAN TOO!, Heathers The Musical, Fallen Saints: Dia De Los Muertos, and Her Turn. For inquiries, Stephy can be reached via email at stephanierojo5678@gmail.com or followed on Instagram @stephy.rojo 

Jan Roper is a composer, music director and native Southern California girl. Her own original work City of Light, was in the ASCAP/Stephen Schwartz Workshop (2015) and the sheNYC Festival (2017), where it won Best Score. América Tropical, won the Raise Your Voice Award in 2020. The show has had 3 staged readings produced by McCoy-Rigby at the La Mirada Theatre,  Musical Theatre West’s New Works Festival and the Lin-Manuel Miranda-funded Latiné Musical Theatre Lab in NYC. Another new work, The Path to Catherine, was produced by Write Act Repertory in 2022 at LA’s Brick House Theater with a 6-week run. The Path to Catherine is currently recording a concept album with 3 well-known Broadway actresses: Caitlin Kinnunen, Krystina Alabado and Sharon Wilkins. Jan also won the L.A. Scenie Award in the 2019-2020 and 2022-2023 seasons for Best Music Director and was nominated for a L.A. Drama Desk Award in 2023.

Oliver Rotunno (tenor) is an actor, singer, writer, cat/rabbit dad, and horse trainer who loves bringing new work to life. He was last seen at The Hollywood Fringe Festival as St. Andrea in The Rabbit Queen Oedipus Rex in Public Domain: The Musical, and Edward in The London Rose, which he produced. He is on Hulu Oxygen in Buried in the Backyard and Amazon Prime in As The Village Sleeps. Other stage credits: Theatricum Botanicum’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Geffen Playhouse in Beneath the Bowtie, WVPH as Japheth in Two By Two by Rodgers and Hart, and as Jon Snow in the national tour of Musical Thrones. He also works as a singing waiter at Miceli’s Italian Restaurant and as a holiday quartet caroler with the TinselTones. He holds a BFA in Musical Theatre from Roosevelt University: CCPA where he appeared in Hair and other productions. IG: @oliverrotunno