current projects
Winner of the 2024 Richard Rodgers Staged Reading Award
Developed at NYU Tisch, selected musical for the National Musical Theatre Alliances's 2024 New Musical Festival, winner of the 2024 Eugene O'Neill National Music Theater Conference, selected musical for the 2024 Rhinebeck Writer's Retreat, 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
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
more stuff here to come.
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 reckon with their agency— especially when, maybe the only agency they have? Is deciding how their story ends. Using a theatrical, narrational voice and musical fusion-genre we’ve entitled “gothic swamp cowboy,” Swamp Song is a rich kaleidoscope of intimate storytelling, offbeat humor, and the inherent grief of knowing the only time you get to truly live might just be in the folk stories that come after you.​
Book/Lyrics by abs wilson, music by James Powers.
DEAD ANY WAY
DEAD ANY WAY is a song cycle with lyrics by abs wilson and music by Veronica Mansour about forgotten sisters of famous artists and their rage, love, and art. This pop-punk spooky song cycle features Rosalie Poe, Katharine Wright, May Alcott, Willemien Van Gogh, and Maria Anna Mozart. This piece currently has 7 songs and is looking for a production or album home!
