Liana Asim loves stories. She tells them, reads them, and writes them in the same way that she chooses to live -- with love and light. She is the Co-Book/Lyricist for The Hairy Scary (a musical swamp odyssey co-written w/Jabari Asim and Joshua Stephen Kartes).

Photo by Indigo

Jabari Asim is the Distinguished Professor of Multidisciplinary Letters at Emerson College. A Guggenheim Fellow and the author of 23 books, he loves theater in all its forms, including musicals, experimental works, and plays for children.

Photo by Larry D. Moore

Joshua Stephen Kartes (Composer) is a new resident of Denver, after two decades living and working in New York City and Chicago. He is a composer, arranger, pianist, and vocalist, as well as a co-creator of the critically acclaimed Broadway Sings concert series.

Blythe Inanna (she/her/hers) is a theatre artist with a BA in Musical Theatre and Playwriting from Columbia College, where she and her writing partners first conceived RWI as a school project. Originally from the Bay Area, she‘s currently based in Chicago where she is a professional child wrangler (works in a preschool), makes cool things (stares at blank Word documents) and plays dnd…a lot (that one’s true).

Summer is honored to be working with the New Musical Project! In her daily life, she works in the Chicago mayor's press office; practices Tae Kwon Do; and reads, writes, and sings using everything she learned in her double B.A. in journalism and playwriting from Columbia College Chicago.

Deven Duphare is a composer and performer based in Chicago. In addition to musicals, he has composed music for chamber orchestra, solo instruments, dance performance, and film. As a performer, Deven has a background as a jazz saxophonist and classical pianist.

Katherine McGuinness has been working on various original musical theatre projects since her first year of high school, in between brewing cups of tea, memorizing shark facts, writing poems, and pursuing a degree in Zoology from Colorado State University. This is the first time her work has been produced in any capacity, so she is thrilled to be participating!