About the Playwrights

  writers

 

 GREG KOTIS (book and lyrics) is a New York-based playwright, who specializes in dark, disturbing comedies with socially relevant themes. He is a veteran of the Neo-Futurists, creators of the long-running, on-going attempt to perform 30 plays in 60 minutes entitled TOO MUCH LIGHT MAKES THE BABY GO BLINDJOBEY AND KATHERINE, his play about fish, toast and a love stronger and grimmer than death, enjoyed runs in New York and Chicago in 1997. as a member of the Cardiff Giant Theater Company in Chicago, he appeared in countless anarchic improvisations and co-authored six plays including LBJFKKK, LOVE ME andAFTERTASTE (THE MUSICAL). He holds a B.A. in political Science from the University of Chicago. He won 2002 Tony awards for Best Book of a Musical and Best Original Score for URINETOWN. Most recently his new play Pig Farm has just finished it’s run at the St. James theatre in London.

MARK HOLLMANN (music and lyrics) won a 2002 Tony Award and 2001 Obie Award, and received two Drama Desk nominations for his music and lyrics for URINETOWN, THE MUSICAL. He also wrote music and lyrics for JACK THE CHIPPER (Greenview Arts Center, Chicago); I THINK I CAN and DEAL WITH IT! (The Berkshire Theatre Festival); FARE FOR ALL (Mount Vernon Hotel Museum and Garden, New York City); KABOOOOOM! (University Theatre, University of Chicago) and COMPLAINING WELL(1991 national Alliance for Musical Theatre’s Festival of New Musicals). As a founding ensemble member of the Cardiff Giant Theatre Company in Chicago, he co-wrote and co-produced three full length plays and two musicals. He played trombone for the Chicago art-rock band Maestro Subgum and the Whole, played piano for the Second City national touring company and NYC’s Chicago City Limits, and taught composition at Columbia College, Chicago. As a composer/lyricist, he attended the New Tuners Theatre in Chicago and the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop in New York. He received his A.B. in music from the University of Chicago, where he won the Louis J. Sudler prize in the creative and performing arts. He is a member of The Dramatists Guild of America and The American Society of Composers, Authors and Lyricists (ASCAP).