Perry-Mansfield Performing Arts Camp |

For emerging composer/lyricists
and composer/lyricist teams

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Perry-Mansfield's COMPOSER'S STAGE PROJECT in Musical Theater recognizes that there is a strong need to find, nurture and train composers and lyricists capable of producing quality works for the stages of Broadway, off-Broadway and regional theaters around the country. Following the overall philosophy of the Composer's Stage Project, where talented, emerging artists study with a master teacher, the Musical Theater division has selected composer/lyricist, Craig Carnelia, to provide leadership for this training program. In addition to his successful career as a composer and lyricist of songs in the musical theater tradition (read his full bio below), Craig provides the special talents of an articulate and inspiring teacher. A major contributor to ASCAP's Musical Theater Development Workshops and the leader of the Chicago edition of ASCAP’s program, Craig brings his extensive experience in the theater to the task of mentoring gifted musical theater composers and lyricists.

For seven days, our selected composers and lyricists will examine the very specific craft of writing for the stage. Participants will engage in daily writing exercises and examine the roles of music and lyrics in this unique storytelling medium. They will receive expert guidance as they continue to develop their writing talents and learn new skills. The weeklong process-centered experience examines how a rigorous understanding of craft helps the individual creative voice develop and grow with the aim of creating new works that resonate with artistic integrity. A resident musical director and four singers, all talented professionals, will be on hand to facilitate the process, so composers and lyricists will be able to hear their work on a daily basis.

Craig Carnelia is known primarily for his work as a songwriter in the theater, having had four shows produced on Broadway. Working with composer Marvin Hamlisch, he wrote the lyrics for two recent offerings: Sweet Smell of Success, written with John Guere, starring John Lithgow and Brian D’Arcy James; and Imaginary Friends, written with Nora Ephron, starring Cherry Jones and Swoosie Kurtz. Hamlisch and Carnelia received Drama Desk and Tony Award nominations for their score for Sweet Smell of Success, and Carnelia received a Drama Desk nomination for his lyrics in Imaginary Friends.

As both composer and lyricist, Craig wrote the score for the Broadway musical Is There Life After High School? and contributed four songs to Studs Terkel’s Working, for which he received his first Tony nomination. Off-Broadway, he wrote the music and lyrics for Three Postcards at Playwrights Horizons, and also appeared in the play. Three Postcards, written with Craig Lucas, was named one of the year’s 10-Best in Time magazine and is included in the Burns-Mantle anthology, Best Plays of 1986-1987 as Best Musical of the Season. Also Off-Broadway, he has had a collection of songs titled Notes presented at the Manhattan Theater Club and contributed single songs to The No-Frills Revue, A…My Name Is Still Alice and Diamonds.

Recent regional credits include the new musical Actor, Lawyer, Indian Chief, for which Craig wrote music and lyrics, and in which he appeared at the Goodspeed Opera House’s Norma Terris Theater, and The Good War, which had its premiere at Northlight Theater in Chicago. The Good War was co-authored with David H. Bell and marks Craig’s second collaboration with Studs Terkel, author of the book on which the musical was based.

Craig has won a number of major songwriting awards, including the Johnny Mercer Award as “Emerging American Songwriter,” the first annual Gilman and Gonzalez-Falls Musical Theater Award and the prestigious Kleban Award for distinguished lyric writing.

As a mentor to young writers, Craig serves as artistic director of the ASCAP Musical Theater Workshop in Chicago, and often steps in for Stephen Schwartz as artistic director of the workshops in New York and Los Angeles. He has also served as a mentor in the Dramatists Guild Musical Theater Program and for a number of years at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center Musical Theater Conference.

Andrew Levine has established a multifaceted career in the arts that allows him to express his talents as a producer, musician, and educator. While serving as head of the Musical Theater department at Perry-Mansfield School for the Performing Arts, he created the pre-professional musical theater program, the musical theater component of P-M's Festival of New Works, The Art of Cabaret, and The Composer's Stage Project. He is the executive director of Flying Machine Productions, for which he produced The Blue Flower, an innovative multimedia work by Jim and Ruth Bauer presented at the New York Musical Theater Festival in 2004. As a founding member of Body Politic Theater, he recently produced Lemkin's House by Catherine Filloux at the McGinn-Cazale in New York. Andrew teaches for both the Hartt School and PACE University and has worked professionally for American Place Theater, Jewish Repertory Theater, Westchester Broadway Theater, Cleveland Playhouse, New American Theater, and Candlewood Playhouse. He holds a BMus. in piano performance from Manhattan School of Music and a MMus in composition from Georgia Southern University.