A 20 minute excerpt of On This Side of the World, with Music & Lyrics by Paulo K Tiról featuring Marc delaCruz (Broadway: Hamilton), Jaygee Macapugay (Broadway: School of Rock), Diane Phelan (Broadway: The King and I), Michael Protacio (Regional: West Side Story), Vincent Rodriguez III (TV: “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend”), and Kay Trinidad (Broadway: Hadestown) will be presented on Thursday, November 19 at 3:30 p.m. EST as part of the National Alliance for Musical Theatre’s (NAMT) 32nd Annual FESTIVAL OF NEW MUSICALS.
Due to the pandemic, the Festival has been reimagined and will be shared online through Broadway On Demand. The NAMT Fall events kicked off on November 17 with the Fall Conference, and will be followed by the Festival of New Musicals on November 19 & 20.
Noam Shapiro (Off-Broadway: On This Side of the World) will direct with Steven Cuevas (Broadway: Once On This Island) serving as Music Director and musicians Jonathan Cuevas and Brandon Ilaw.
Stories of overseas workers, young lovers, and gossipy church ladies. Snapshots of undocumented immigrants, millennial princesses, and first-generation Americans. In On This Side of the World, six actors give voice to Filipino immigrants navigating old lives and new beginnings, as a one-way ticket sends them on a journey 8,000 miles from home.
Noam Shapiro is a New York-based director and the Producing Artistic Director of Three Hares. He is the SDC Foundation’s 2020 Kurt Weill/Harold Prince Directing Fellow, a member of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab, a former MTC Directing Fellow, a Drama League First Draft Resident Artist, and a winner of OPERA-America’s Robert L.B. Tobin Director-Designer Prize. Noam has developed work with the Drama League, Ensemble Studio Theatre, the LaGuardia Performing Arts Center, Access Theater, The Lark, New Dramatists and Fresh Ground Pepper. He also has guest directed at Yale, Johns Hopkins and Columbia. BA Yale. www.noamshapiro.com
STEVEN CUEVAS @stevenmcuevas (Music Director, Keyboard) was most recently the Music Director/Conductor of the first national tour of the Tony Award-winning revival of Once On This Island. Broadway: Once On This Island, Anastasia, Kinky Boots. Off-Broadway: I Spy a Spy, We Are The Tigers, Trip of Love, Closer Than Ever. Tours: Kinky Boots, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, Spring Awakening, My Fair Lady (Singapore). Recordings: Once On This Island, Grinch…, Monstersongs. Chair of Local 802 AFM Diversity Committee. Proud member: AEA, Recording Academy, Filipino American community. BFA Musical Theatre: Emerson College.
JONATHAN CUEVAS @jonathancuevas_ (Cello, Guitar, Mixing Engineer) is a Filipino-American audio engineer, multi-instrumentalist, and singer-songwriter. His credits range from short film score compositions, a cappella albums for the NYU Mixtapes, musical theatre recordings for Broadway Barkada, and his own original songs such as his debut album “Sunset,” which is available on all streaming platforms.
BRANDON ILAW @brandonilaw (Bass, Drums, Percussion) is a versatile multi-instrumentalist and enjoys an eclectic performing schedule in the classical, theater, and dance worlds. He was most recently on tour with the Broadway production of Les Misérables as percussionist. After winning 2nd prize in the 2014 TROMP International Percussion Competition, he completed a two-year fellowship with Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect. His band, Empire Wild, won the Ambassador Prize at the 2020 Concert Artist Guild Competition. Brandon holds a bachelor’s degree from Boston Conservatory and a master’s degree from Juilliard, where he was the recipient of the William Schuman Prize for Outstanding Achievement and Leadership. www.brandonilaw.com.
Lia Chang is an actor, a multi-media content producer and co-founder of Bev’s Girl Films, making films that foster inclusion and diversity on both sides of the camera. Bev’s Girl Films’ debut short film, Hide and Seek was a top ten film in the Asian American Film Lab’s 2015 72 Hour Shootout Filmmaking Competition, and she received a Best Actress nomination. BGF collaborates with and produces multi-media content for artists, actors, designers, theatrical productions, composers, musicians and corporations. Lia has appeared in the films Wolf, New Jack City, A Kiss Before Dying, King of New York, Big Trouble in Little China, The Last Dragon, Taxman. She stars in and served as Executive Producer for the short independent films Hide and Seek, Balancing Act, Rom-Com Gone Wrong, Belongingness and When the World was Young. She is also the Executive Producer for The Cactus, The Language Lesson, The Writer and Cream and 2 Shugahs.
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