Production History
We began writing Signs of Life in the fall of 2002. We did a lot of research of Terezín, but we felt we needed a deeper understanding of the place and its history. With help from Virginia Criste, a lawyer in California whose grandparents had been Terezín inmates, we traveled to the Czech Republic to visit the camp and to interview Terezín survivors living in the nearby city of Prague. With what we learned there, we were able to ground our story much more firmly in the daily life of the time and place; in fact, there are details in the show that, as far as we know, haven't appeared in any published accounts of Terezín.
In the summer of 2006, we had a reading just outside of Seattle at the Village Theatre, known around the country as a cradle of new musicals; a year later, again with the help of Virginia Criste, the Village did a three-week production of the show (then titled Terezín). The artistic director of Amas Musical Theatre was in the audience and got in touch to say she was interested in producing Signs of Life in New York.
Which is where you come in.
Over the next few years, we had a series of staged readings—presentations without sets, costumes or lights designed to show the writers what parts of a show work and what parts need to be rewritten—culminating in our appearance in the New York Musicals in Concert series sponsored by the Melting Pot Theatre. The presentation featured a number of Broadway veterans such as Danny Gurwin, David Hibbard, Donna Vivino, Barbara Walsh, and Stuart Zagnit; we were honored when a Terezín survivor in the audience said that our show had "the ring of truth."
Creative Team
JOEL DERFNER (Composer)
is from Charleston, South Carolina, where his great-grandmother had an affair with George Gershwin. He graduated from Harvard with an A.B. summa cum laude in linguistics and from NYU with an M.A. in musical theater writing. His musical Blood Drive, with words by Rachel Sheinkin, has been produced at the Bridewell Theatre in London, the Provincetown Playhouse in New York, and the Theatre Latte Da in Minneapolis. Joel has been in residence three times at the O'Neill Music Theater Conference, and 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, knits, and is the author of Gay Haiku (Random House, 2005) and Swish: My Quest to Become the Gayest Person Ever (Random House, 2008). He has written for a number of national periodicals, including Out, Genre, and The Advocate. He can be found on the web at joelderfner.com.
LEN SCHIFF (Lyricist)
Works for theater: Usher Falling (composer Randall Eng), produced at Dixon Place in NYC as part of their 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 Sondheim Review. Education: MFA, Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts; BA with Honors in the Western Tradition: Irish Studies, Queens College; BMI Advanced Workshop. Professional affiliations: Dramatists Guild and NYC Writing Project. Len teaches English and American Culture Studies at North Shore High School on Long Island, NY. He lives in Queens with his wife, Jennifer, and son, Adam.
JEREMY DOBRISH (Director)
Off Broadway: Drift (NYMF), Spain (SPF), In the Wings (Promenade), The Joys Of Sex (Variety Arts), The Tutor (York), Class Mothers '68 (Drama Desk nomination, best solo performance, Priscilla Lopez), the complete works of william shakespeare (abridged) (Century). Regional: Sleuth (Hangar), The Girl In The Frame (Goodspeed), Terezin (Village Theatre). Theatreworks USA: Curious George (writer/director) and Paul Revere. Jeremy is the artistic director of adobe theatre company, for which he has written and/or directed over 20 plays. Jeremy's plays include Notions In Motion, The Handless Maiden, Blink Of An Eye, Superpowers, Orpheus & Eurydice, and Eight Days (Backwards) which was produced by the Vineyard Theatre (dir. Mark Brokaw). He lives in Maplewood with his wife Beth and daughters Clea and Quinn. jeremydobrish.com.
PETER ULLIAN (Bookwriter)
has received awards for his dramatic writing from the Gilman & Gonzalez-Falla Musical Theatre Foundation, the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays, and the Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia. Peter wrote the libretto for Eliot Ness in Cleveland, produced at 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 the Prince Music Theatre in Philadelphia and the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles. His 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 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 and Caleb. They live in Beacon, NY, in the Hudson Valley.