Nomi is a pianist, composer, Founder of the 501(c)(3) Female Composer Safety League and patent holder of the double keytar (NORY®). As a world-touring piano prodigy, Nomi made her concert debut with the Orange County Chamber Orchestra when she was five. Nomi’s notable credits include transcriptions and score preparation for Marvel’s Thunderbolts* and piano on the Grammy®-nominated album, Sékou Andrew’s and the String Theory. She attended the Mannes School of Music (the New School) in NYC at age eight. Raised on Mel Brooks, South Park, and Beethoven, Nomi played Oliver (dramatic production) in her local community theater, joined the Long Beach Shakespeare Company, and attended the Orange County School of the Arts (OCSA)’s musical theatre department. Nomi attributes her desire to compose musical theatre to memorizing the tap dance in “The Spanish Inquisition” in History of the World and convincing her parents to let her watch South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut too young. Thanks, Mom!

Megan has a passion for theatre. She has volunteered in many theatre roles such as student advisor, prop mistress, stage manager, and assistant director. Megan has written three original plays that promote disability inclusion and acceptance. One of which she directed and was produced by the Robertson County Players in Tennessee. The New Musicals Inc’s Core Curriculum course has been her first experience with musical theatre writing. Megan hopes to transform one of her plays into a musical in the near future. She received an Associate’s degree in 2011 from Volunteer State Community College. Megan would like to thank her family for all of the support and encouragement.

Having grown up in a black box theater watching his mother deliver the sharply witted A Midsummer Night’s Dream, perform beside a man in full body paint jump-roping fire in the outdoor frontier drama Horn in the West, or portray “Red,” a stoic military veteran turned bank robber in Steal Away, Nick found the theater to be a lifelong refuge for expression and wonder. Coupled with an early love for music and composition—ranging from Bach and Ravel to Joe Zawinul, Wayne Shorter, Jimi Hendrix, and James Brown, thanks to his father’s eclectic palette—musical theater became a natural home. Mentored by the outstanding faculty and staff at New Musicals Inc., including the incomparable Scott Guy and the unflappable Elise Dewsberry, Nick has been inspired to pursue a life devoted to the enrichment of the human spirit through storytelling. His work draws from the potency of life itself, striving to illuminate the emotional truths that connect us all. Special thanks to his co-writer, Abhi! It’s been a ride, but we got it done! “Save it for the next draft…” Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo  nickalstonmusic.com  “To live is to listen.”

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.

Emily didn’t hesitate to sacrifice her chill at the altar of telling stories. She published a novel at sixteen years old and hasn’t calmed down since. When not working in the writers’ room for studios like DreamWorks, you can find her at the piano, bringing her unhinged shower concerts to life. As a lifelong lover of musical theatre, Emily is thrilled to achieve her dream of seeing her work on stage. She’s come a long way from playing Yente in her high school production of Fiddler on the Roof! Many thanks to Elise, NMI, and her wonderful collaborators in this cohort for helping her grow as a creative. Special shoutout to Teresa Bernadette and Robert Intriligator—nothing is more fun than turning heaven into hell with these two. Most importantly, Emily would like to thank her parents, Steven and Ellisa, for never making her study Finance. 

Teresa is a multidisciplinary fine, performing, and literary artist from exotic Culver City, California. An alum of the CCHS Academy of Visual and Performing Arts, the Santa Monica College Art Mentor Program, and the UC Irvine Claire Trevor School of the Arts, Mx. Bernadette regularly appears far off of Broadway, performing a revue of showtunes, Disney numbers, and the occasional aria [at work in the kitchen when they think no one is listening]. Teresa has treasured this opportunity to collaborate with their fellow writers in the 2024-25 NMI cohort, and wishes to thank Elise especially, co-writers Emily and Robert, the enthusiastic professionals in our cast and crew, and everyone joining us in the audience for making this all possible. May you find one good thing each day to hold onto.

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.

Elise has had a varied career as an actor/singer, a director, and as a dramaturge. Elise spent over a decade touring Canada with the one-woman musical Nine Months, which she commissioned and developed with writers Carl Ritchie and Stephen Woodjetts. Since moving to Los Angeles, Elise has performed in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (Musical Theatre West and Cabrillo Music Theatre); Suburb! The Musical and Ernest in Love (Long Beach Playhouse); Frogs in the Living Room (NoHo Arts Center); and in the one-woman musicals Mother’s Mothers’ Day and Queen Mab’s Alarmingly Mandatory Bridal Shower (Hollywood Fringe Festival). Elise has also appeared in NMI’s 15 Minute Musicals in 2008 and 2015; and directed the annual 15 Minute Musicals eight times between 2006 and 2022. 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 is currently the Artistic Director of New Musicals Inc. where she has shepherded the development of new musicals for over twenty years, and is also the author and evaluator of the online Book Lab and Outlining Lab, and publishes a monthly vlog on the craft of musical theatre (all available at nmi.org). Elise has been ecstatically married to cellist Stephen Green for 43 years, and they are the proud parents of social activist Rebecca Rose, and thrilled to be in-laws to middle school English teacher Ihab Gabra.

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. 

Angela is an eight-time Emmy Award-winning Writer, Producer, and Director whose career bridges factual programming, scripted development, and branded entertainment. Her work spans Channel 7 News in Boston, PBS, Comedy Central, STX Entertainment, and Hollywood development labs and writers’ rooms. She has created content for major brands like Google and YouTube, while also building community-driven media that elevates authentic voices and untold stories. Outside of production, Angela is a vintage collector, drummer, and lifelong musical theater enthusiast, and she is thrilled to be participating in the 2024–2025 NMI workshop.

Dana holds degrees in music composition from UCLA (PhD), San Francisco Conservatory of Music (MM) and Carnegie Mellon University (BFA). His teachers included Leonardo Balada, William Critser, Nancy Galbraith, Paul Chihara, David Conte, Roger Bourland and Ian Krause. He grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and pursued dual degrees in composition and clarinet performance before moving to California to continue studies.Dana Howell currently serves as Instrumental Music Director at Highland Hall Waldorf School. Since coming to Los Angeles in 2005, he has been an active composer, performer, conductor and teacher, previously holding positions as Music Director at St. John Eudes Church and organist at Echo Park United Methodist Church. He taught composition and theory at the Brevard Music Center summer festival from 2008 to 2012 and studied at the American Conservatory in Fontainebleau. Recent compositions have included three operas, The Last Confession of Don Fray Juan Zumarraga, and The Tales of Peter Rabbit and Benjamin Bunny and The Shoemaker’s Gift, as well as several young adult musicals and chamber music.  

Robert is a classically trained composer and songwriter based in Los Angeles whose work spans musical theatre, pop, holiday songs, film scoring, and orchestral music. He studied at Oxford University and earned his B.A. in Music, Philosophy, and Rhetoric from Sarah Lawrence College. He has also trained at The Juilliard School, UCLA, and BMI’s Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop. His music has been commissioned or licensed by Disney, ABC Television Network, Hulu, and Amazon. With a growing catalogue and a passion for storytelling through song, he continues to develop new works for stage and screen.  Robert extends heartfelt thanks to Elise Dewsberry for her brilliant guidance; to Emily Beaver and Teresa Bernadette for such a fun, dynamic collaboration; and to the talented cast and crew for bringing these shows to life. He’s also grateful to the 2024–25 NMI Core Curriculum cohort — it’s been a pleasure creating and learning with you. Special thanks to my family and friends for their love and encouragement throughout my journey — and to you, the audience, for being here to share in this moment with us.   www.robertintriligator.com

Kim is a LA County native who has been stage managing live and virtual events all over California for the better part of 14 years. Recent projects: Archy & Mehitabel, Moby Dick: Rehearsed, Love, Loss, and What I Wore, Putting it Together, An Adult Evening of Shel Silverstein. You can also catch her as an animated performer at Universal Studios Hollywood, where she is also a member of the Entertainment Production team for their Fan Fest Nights event.

David is a lyricist obsessed with capturing deep truths in cages of mundane moments. Born in France, and having lived across the United States, David enjoys a unique perspective as a perpetual and contented outsider. David lives in Azusa, CA, where his day job involves medical writing and teaching chemistry at the local community college, and his hobbies include ultimate frisbee, reading, and of course writing musical theater. David is supported by his wonderful family who is always challenging him to grow while upholding him in love.