BABA YAGA & THE FIREBIRD (2-8flex)
book & lyrics by Anton Dudley, music by Faye Chiao
The funny yet moving original story of a princess and a pauper who take a fantastical journey to beg the Russian witch, Baba Yaga, for a firebird. Along the way, the wonder of the natural world and the enchanting people who inhabit it come alive through a musical form that is both unique and rooted in the oral tradition of storytelling.
2024 New Victory Theater, NY
2022 Little Island NYC
2018-2020 developed in residency at New Victory Labworks
MARGUERITE (1F)
book & lyrics by Anton Dudley, music by Michael Cooper
Cast album available on Broadway Records.
Based on the heroic, adventurous life of fearless 17th century pioneer and Canada's first female saint, Marguerite Bourgeoys, this one woman musical recounts Marguerite's death-defying journey to bring liberated women to the New World and help build the city of Montreal.
"Four stars! Enthralling!"
- Musical Theatre Review (London)
"Extraordinary!"
- Virginian-Pilot
"Joyous"
DC Metro Theater Arts
"A Night to Remember"
- AltDaily
"First rate! A work of genuine and long lasting focused importance."
- Veer
"Compelling! Vivid and engaging!" - Qns
“Much more than a detailed narrative of Marguerite’s life. It is a tribute to one woman’s strength and self-sacrifice through extremely trying times... catch Marguerite while you can!" - BOASTNY
“Beautiful. A religious experience!” - Hi! Drama”
2021 Original Cast Album released by Broadway Records
2019 Astoria Performing Arts Center, NY, featuring TONY-award winner Cady Huffman
HOME (2-4 flex)
book & lyrics by Anton Dudley, music by Faye Chiao
Told from a child’s perspective, using elements of vaudeville, realism, and puppetry, Home illuminates the experience of emigrating to a new community. The show moves like a pop-up book and lives like an afternoon spent with good friends in both play and heartfelt discussion. If you’re feeling lost in life, place, community, or self, this 45-minute musical will take you on a ride of discovery.
"Such a fun and heartwarming musical... we highly recommend checking out."
- Westchester Family Magazine
2023 Presented by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and New Victory Theater LabWorks at the Pocantico Arts Center, NY
Photo: Anton Dudley
REMEMBERING TOMORROW: THE LIVES OF EDGAR CAYCE (4F, 4M)
book & lyrics by Anton Dudley, music by Michael Cooper
In one evening, famed psychic Edgar Cayce does a life-reading on himself, taking himself through eight of his most influential incarnations. As healer, teacher, bandit, and child, he discovers what makes a soul, and in doing so, the essence of our humanity.
Commissioned by the Association for Research & Enlightenment and Zeiders American Dream Theater
2020 Zeiders American Dream Theater, VA, featuring A.J. Shively & Anthony Wayne
RHYME & PUNISHMENT (1F, 2M)
book & lyrics by Anton Dudley, music by Faye Chiao
Three college Juniors fail a poetry class just days before their Spring Semester Abroad. As they scatter across the globe in this one-act musical comedy, the jilted Juniors go on a journey of self-discovery with only a stack of poems as their guide. Through songs modeled after international poetic forms (Haiku, Sonnet, Sapphic verse, etc.), the friends navigate near-death experiences, romantic trysts, foreign sports, and foreign brews, only to find poetic pleasure in what first seems like punishment.
2017 "As I Am By You" performed in Aria Entertainment's From Page to Stage Song Writers Showcase, The Other Palace Studio, London, U.K.
2017 Hatchery Series, Zeiders American Dream Theater, Virginia Beach, VA
2016 Next Edition Series, Playwrights Realm, NY, featuring A.J. Shively and Maria-Christina Oliveras, directed by Marlo Hunter
GIRLSTAR (5F, 2M)
book & lyrics by Anton Dudley, music by Brian Feinstein
Legendary record producer Daniella Espere is searching for her next international sensation. She discovers it in her long-lost niece, Tina, who dreams of being a world-famous pop star. Despite warning signs that all may not be as it seems, the two eagerly forge a mother/daughter bond and Daniella transforms Tina’s image, voice and talent into star quality – but not by the usual means.
"(5 Stars) The Treat of the Season."
- DC Theatre Scene
"A Scrumptious Sugar-High Evening ... An Appealing Delight."
- DC Metro Theater Arts
"A Fantastical New Fairy Tale for the Modern Girl ... An Electrifying New Musical."
- TheatreBloom
"Highly entertaining"
- MDTheatreGuide
2015 Signature Theatre, VA, directed by Eric Shaeffer, orchestrations by Doug Besterman, choreography by Lorin Latarro
Photo: Donna Migliaccio & Desi Oakley
HOPPER (5M, 5F)
book by Anton Dudley, music & lyrics by Jonatha Brooke
Being a Prince Isn't All It's Croaked Up to Be. It's Halloween in Salem, Massachusetts, home of the infamous Salem Witch Trials. Hopper is cursed with poor hygiene; Lily is about to become a woman. Something's about to get dirty in this contemporary re-imagining of The Frog Prince.
2015 Olmsted Theater, Adelphi University, directed by Maggie Lally, music direction by Debra Barsha, choreography by Lorna Ventura
2013 The Cherry Lane Theater Studio, featuring Taylor Louderman, directed by Stephanie Yankwitt
Photo: Amar Biamonte & Najee Gabay-Knight
UNFRAMED (4-15 flex)
Four short musicals by Ruth Chan, Faye Chiao, Michael Cooper, Anton Dudley, and Khiyon Hursey
Each fifteen-minute musical is inspired by a different work of art in a different medium (photography, drawing, print, and sculpture), and responds to issues of racism, immigration, urbanization & climate change, and the nature instinct in artificial society.
"Unflinchingly original, transcending traditional theatrical expectations."
- The Collegian
2019 Gund Gallery, Kenyon College, OH
Photo: Jonathan Tazewell, Rebecca Mucheru & Carl Mackey
THE SHADOW SPARROW (1F, 1M)
book by Anton Dudley, lyrics by Charlie Sohne, music by Keith Gordon
A woman in search of stardom. A man in search of his mother. In Paris' famed Pere La Chaise cemetery, on the grave of Edith Piaf, both will discover their destiny.
2012 Momentum Festival, City Theatre, featuring Candy Buckley, directed by Matt M. Morrow
2011 Eugene O'Neill Musical Theater Conference, featuring Barbara Walsh, directed by Joe Calarco
2010 Olympus Theatricals, Roundabout Studios, featuring Bobby Steggert and Christiane Noll
2010 The Lark Play Development Center, featuring Bobby Steggert and Julia Murney
THE CLINIC (3F, 1M)
book & lyrics by Anton Dudley, music by Faye Chiao
A young society woman clashes with her mother, when she breaks from expectation to volunteer as a Red Cross nurse in a 1920's Lower East Side clinic. Her mother rushes downtown to retrieve her daughter, only to be stopped by a woman in disguise and the ghost of a lost love that haunts her."
2017 Prospect Theater Company's WORLD VIEWS, The Times Center, NY, featuring Maria-Christina Oliveras
WE CAN DO IT! (9F, 9M)
book by Elizabeth Hemmerdinger, lyrics by Anton Dudley, music by Robert Cioffi
It's the summer of '43, a Brooklyn broad, stuck between childhood and the dreams of the woman she could become, works several jobs to make ends meet. Across the river, Eleanor Roosevelt grows frustrated over a labor shortage, now that America has entered the war. Beneath the colored lights of Coney Island, their lives collide, forever altering the image of the American woman. We Can Do It is the rollicking origin story of American legend, Rosie the Riveter.
2017 developed at the Eleanor Roosevelt House for Public Policy Institute, featuring Cady Huffman and Bill Youmans
2016 Theater Residency, Museum of Jewish Heritage, NY
OPERA
KATIE: THE STRONGEST OF THE STRONG
libretto by Anton Dudley, music by Faye Chiao
Based on the life of world famous weightlifter Katie Sandwina, this 45 minute opera is the story of a woman who defies gender norms and the limitations of the human body to take the title from the strongest man in the world. Born into a circus family in 1884, Katie Brumbach was benching three-hundred pound barbells by age sixteen and went on to lift horses, a half-ton cannon, juggle cannon balls, bend iron bars, and break chains. Through it all, she charmed the press, as an ideal symbol of beauty, motherhood, and women’s suffrage. The Strongest of the Strong illuminates a remarkable woman from the darkness of history, one who proved that women are equal to men and, in many instances, stronger.
2024 produced by Opera Saratoga
2023-2024 HGO Opera to Go! tour produced by Houston Grand Opera
2021 produced by Manhattan School of Music Community Outreach Program
2020 filmed production available online at Houston Grand Opera
2018 commissioned by Houston Grand Opera
ISLAND OF THE MOON
libretto by Anton Dudley, music by Faye Chiao
Mahina Moku is sinking. Its queen has arranged a marriage for her son, Akoni, to the princess of a neighboring island, in hopes of moving her people there. Akoni worries the move will mark the end of their historic culture. Knowing that certain death will come if they stay, the Queen sets an impossible task for the island: shatter the moon.
2022 staging development at John Duffy Institute for New Opera/Virginia Arts Festival
2019 concert development at John Duffy Institute for New Opera/Virginia Arts Festival
2017 recipient of development grant from Opera America and the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation
THE SECRET CODE OF MARY BOWSER
libretto by Anton Dudley, music by Faye Chiao
Inspired by the life of Civil War spy Mary Bowser. A young mathematician looks to history for a hero whom she resembles, what she discovers is an overlooked woman whose intelligence and ingenuity changed the course of a war.
2024 presented at Houston Grand Opera
2018 commissioned and presented by Pittsburgh Festival Opera
BANDING TOGETHER
libretto by Anton Dudley, music by Faye Chiao
Banished from the barnyard for being different, a ragtag group of animals form their own family in this magically musical family tale.
2018 premiere at Boston Chamber Symphony