JOEL DERFNER (composer) is from Charleston, South Carolina, where his great-grandmother had an affair with George Gershwin. His one-act musical Blood Drive, with book and lyrics by Rachel Sheinkin, has been produced at the Bridewell Theatre in London and Theatre Latte Da in Minneapolis. His cabaret show, Spontaneous Combustion: In Which Our Heroes Realize That It’s Okay to Be a Completely Neurotic Homosexual so Long as You Don’t Run Out of Hair Product, was the first show to open in New York’s new cabaret space Upstairs@Red. He wrote the music and lyrics for Spirit Child, with book and additional lyrics by John Herin, as a commission from the Thomas Pullen Performing Arts School in Washington, D.C., where it premiered last year; he has also written songs for the 52 nd Street Project. Joel has been in residence twice at the O’Neill Music Theater Conference; his work from his first year there has been heard at the Duplex and Joe’s Pub in New York. Joel is a grateful alumnus of the Graduate Musical Theater Writing Program at NYU, where he is now on the faculty. He also teaches aerobics and is the author of Gay Haiku, published by Random House.

LEN SCHIFF (lyricist) Works for theater: Usher Falling (composer Randall Eng), produced at Dixon Place as part of Opera Vindaloo series; Zach in Progress (composer Georgia Stitt); Æthernity (composer Chris Sidorfsky); and Strange Creations, produced as part of the Second Avenue Songbook series at NYU. Residencies: Ragdale Foundation, Lake Forest, IL; Anderson Center for Interdisciplinary Studies, Red Wing, MN; New Musical Festival, Lewes, DE. Publications: articles in The Island Ear and The Stephen Sondheim Stage. Education: MFA, Graduate Musical Theater Writing Program at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts; BA in Honors in the Western Tradition: Irish Studies, Queens College. BMI Workshop, Advanced Workshop. Professional Affiliations: Dramatist Guild; NYC Writing Project. Len teaches English and American Culture Studies at North Shore High School on Long Island. Len lives in Queens, NY with his wife and son.

PETER ULLIAN (bookwriter) has received awards for his dramatic writing from the Gilman & Gonzalez-Falla Musical Theater Foundation, the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays and the Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia. Mr. Ullian wrote the libretto for Eliot Ness in Cleveland, produced at both the Denver Theatre Center and the Cleveland Playhouse. He also wrote the libretto for 3hree: The Flight of the Lawnchair Man, directed by Harold Prince at both the Prince Music Theatre and the Ahmanson Theatre. Mr. Ullian’s play Hester Street Hideaway: A Lower East Side Love Story was produced off-Broadway by En Garde Arts. Other plays have been produced around the country and in New York. He has written screenplays for both independent and major studios, and his short fiction has appeared in periodicals and anthologies. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild and the WGA, East. He and his wife, Michele, are the proud parents of Alexander, born February 1, 2001, and Caleb, born February 10, 2004. They live in Beacon, New York, in the Hudson Valley.