current projects
Winner of the 2024 Richard Rodgers Staged Reading Award
Developed at NYU Tisch, selected musical for 2025 Lucille Lortel 121 Project, selected musical for The Orchard Project's 2025 Summer series, honored finalist for the 2025 WAM Collaboration Award, selected musical for the National Alliance of Musical Theater's Alliances's 2024 Festival of New Musicals, winner of the 2024 Eugene O'Neill National Music Theater Conference, selected musical for the 2024 Rhinebeck Writer's Retreat, selected musical for Millikin University's 2025 New Musical Workshop, winner of Syracuse University’s New Works, New Voices developmental reading program, a finalist for the 2023 Eugene O'Neill National Musical Theatre Conference, finalist for the Olney Theatre Center Vanguard Arts Fund, song "Runaway Girl" one of the three winners of Taylor Louderman's Write Out Loud Songwriting Contest, featured on the NAMT Playlist, featured in the Vanguard Theater Illuminating New Voices New Work Festival, featured in New York Theatre Barn's New Works Festival, featured production at St. Olaf College Winter 2024
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With book/lyrics/story by abs wilson and music/story by Veronica Mansour, LIGHTHOUSE is a 6-women, fourth-wall-breaking pop country musical following our unreliable narrator "Bus," an 18 year old girl who wants nothing more than to escape her small Minnesota town.
But what Bus really wants to escape? Herself— and everything she fears she could become.
With a cast ranging from ages 18-73, LIGHTHOUSE explores anxiety and OCD, the lives of women in rural, conservative communities, and what it means to be yourself for the rest of your life. Ultimately, LIGHTHOUSE celebrates the idea that maybe, just maybe— every version of yourself is worth being.
Photo by Rebecca J Michelson
UPCOMING
Photo by Rebecca J Michelson
RAT KING
When I was 11 years old, I sat down to email my friends this:
“Guys, I got this creepy weird feeling that something big or special just might be about to happen. I intend to find out what this feeling is, and I’m inviting any if u to join me. All these days have been the same, the same, the same. I say it’s up to us to make something big happen. Tell me if this feeling is wrong, but it’s Been nagging me for a while”
My friend responded:
“I haven’t told anyone this, but whenever I wake up I am afraid God has already come and I am still on Earth. I brake into a sweat just thinking about it.”
It’s 2011. There’s a group of 11 year old girls. We go to a religious private school that warns us that, if a school shooter enters the building and asks if we’re christians, we should say yes and be shot.
And it’s time to start growing up.
These are my real emails.
Maybe even our souls.
Swamp Song
SWAMP SONG is a chamber-style folk musical that follows the intertwining stories of 4 women (and 1 dude) from classic southern folktales as they hurtle towards their inevitable, tragic ends, facing the final dire question— what kind of doom would you accept just for the chance to be loved? Using a theatrical, narrational voice and musical genre we’ve entitled “gothic swamp cowboy,” SWAMP SONG is a rich kaleidoscope of intimate storytelling, dark comedy, and the inherent grief of knowing that the only time you get to truly live might just be in the stories that come after you.
Book/Lyrics by abs wilson, music by James Powers.
KELLY NOWAK
"KELLY NOWAK," a musical framed as an adaptation of documentary, details the unexplained disappearance of 16 year old Kelly Nowak and her family's theories about what happened to her. The show is divided into three developing sections, following Kelly's mother, father, and little sister as they explain what THEY believe happened to Kelly. Kelly's realist mother believes Kelly is dead, her conspiracy-believing father believes she's still out there, fighting to come home, and Kelly's isolated sister believes there is something far more supernatural afoot. And whatever happened, all three are certain that THEIR theory is correct, and certain that their theory is the only belief any sane person would hold. Ultimately, the show features a story without answers. When someone vanishes or dies in an unresolved way, entire worlds can be built around their death and legacy, worlds that might never have existed had they died in a more "natural" or explainable way. We want to explore one of those worlds, and pulling apart the all-encompassing desire to hold any kind of tangible truth, no matter the rationality or cost. Story/Music by Adam LaPorte and book/lyrics/story by abs wilson.
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"The Frame" is sung by Jean Nowak, Kelly's mother. At this point in the show, Jean has laid out the entire timeline of the day that Kelly went missing. The final time is at 1:08am, when a red light camera got several pictures of Kelly driving as she ran a red light. Right before this moment, Jean has been prompted by the interviewer to provide her theory for what she believed happened to Kelly— Kelly's empty car was found the next day by the lake, the popular belief being that Kelly drowned in the lake and her body was never found. However, Kelly's mom refuses to engage in speculating about what happened, and explains why in this song. For context, the red light camera took 4 pictures— the third picture, the 1:08 picture, is the last picture that shows Kelly. Jean is holding this picture when the song begins.
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more to come.
In this immersive, concert style indie-pop musical, the girl band trio of historic poets Sara Teasdale, Emily Dickinson, and Sappho come together to answer (with the help of the audience) a single question: how do you handle loneliness when you aren't sure when that loneliness will ever end? Weaving together their poetry, comedy, and the kinds of conversations you can only have at 3am when the world seems small, "All We Know of Love & Fire" is a joyful, intimate— and sometimes mournful— exploration of community, art, and what keeps our inner flames alive. With book/lyrics by abs wilson and music by Wren Mied, the piece uses the original poetry of the three poets (with a bonus cameo by Amy Lowell) in its songs.
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Developed initially at NYU Tisch's Graduate Musical Theater Writing MFA Program, this piece has been performed at the Brick Theater, the Tank, and with Paper Kraine. We have both a 20-minute version and an hour long version— the pictures and videos shown are all from our small production at the Tank. We're currently looking for further production or licensing opportunities— reach out if you're interested in having this piece done at your theater or school!
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Photos by Addie Symonds at @symondsaddie
Videos by Shuhei Hayashi @shuhei_hayashi
