J Adrian Verkouteren

J Adrian Verkouteren

I grew up in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. During high school I studied theory and composition with Leo Sowerby and while in college wrote "James, the Dragon Slayer," a musical adaptation of Heywood Broun's "The Fifty-First Dragon." More recently I composed music for the 2012 Capital Fringe Festival's Best Overall Show, "Where in the World: the Untold Story of Camilla...
I grew up in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. During high school I studied theory and composition with Leo Sowerby and while in college wrote "James, the Dragon Slayer," a musical adaptation of Heywood Broun's "The Fifty-First Dragon." More recently I composed music for the 2012 Capital Fringe Festival's Best Overall Show, "Where in the World: the Untold Story of Camilla Sanfrancisco," and since 2005 I have contributed songs to Hexagon: Washington's Only Original, Political, Satirical, Musical Comedy Revue presented to benefit a charity each March.  I am a member of ASCAP and the Dramatist Guild, and an alumnus of DC's Playwright's Forum.

Plays

  • Princess Georgie
    A young princess, trying to escape what she considers the stifling expectations of her mother, the Queen, tries to raise a baby dragon in secret; but the dragon just keeps growing larger. A story of trust and friendship and taking responsibility.
  • This Is The Life (Amy and Gussie, part 1)
    Adapted from "At Geisenheimer's" by P. G. Wodehouse

    A young lady is working at a New York dinner club/dance hall in the early decades of the 20th century. when a chance acquaintance from her past re-enters and throws her life into turmoil.
  • Extricating Gussie (Amy and Gussie, part 2)
    Gussie (Augustus Mannerling-Phipps) has been dispatched to New York to find and marry a wealthy heiress to rescue his family's fortunes. When Aunt Agatha Gregson learns that he has instead become infatuated with a vaudeville starlet, she sends his cousin Bertie Wooster to New York to quash the engagement and put Gussie back on track. What could possibly go wrong?
  • JAMES THE DRAGON SLAYER
    Based on Heywood Broun's "The Fifty-First Dragon," an ambitious headmaster sends a bookish student to slay dragons after giving him a magic word. After slaying fifty dragons, the student finds his magic word was never magic. Then he must face his fifty-first dragon. Written for middle-school students with three adult rolls and a band of eleven instrumentalists. (Cast of 16 may be enlarged with additional chorus members.)