Deborah Brevoort

In 1937, legendary singer Marian Anderson gave a concert in Princeton, NJ and was refused a room at the Nassau Inn because she was black. Albert Einstein invited her to stay at his home beginning an intimate friendship between the two that would last a lifetime.

Two years later, Anderson was denied the right to sing at Constitution Hall in Washington DC, which led to her historic concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and the beginning of the civil rights movement.

Inspired by actual events, My Lord, What a Night is a full-length play that explores the struggles faced by two icons of the 20th century who dealt with the injustices of Jim Crow and the rise of anti-Semitism during a highly divided era in American history.

A woman's awakening throws a remote island community and the local fundamentalist church into chaos in this two-act play set in an isolated Alaskan fishing town. At the height of the crisis, a mysterious man is washed ashore, setting the town and it's inhabitants on fire in more ways than one. Into the Fire explores betrayal, rebirth, and community in a style that can be best described as Magic Realism with an Alaskan twist.

On a magical night in New Jersey, the stars talk to Abe, Sal gets a tattoo and a journey begins. Abe and Sal take off across the country, following the stars and looking for Birth and Life. Signs of Life is loosely inspired by the Sarah and Abraham story from the Old Testament--set on the Interstate highways of the American West. This two-character play is a comic meditation on faith, doubt, fertility and spirituality. Described as a “funny, bittersweet comedy about life, dreams and the power of love,” Signs of Life “coils together comedy and drama, leaving the audience at constant odds whether to laugh or cry.” “Signs of Life is an eloquent statement of hope.” “Totally enchanting, beautifully written.”

Book and Lyrics by Deborah Brevoort; Music and Lyrics by Stephanie Salzman. Rebecca, an Amish girl, loves to sing but she lives in a world where solos and self-expression are forbidden. When she meets Reverend Blue, an itinerant hip-hop preacher – and former gang member – she connects with his music and joins him in his street corner “Hymn Hop” only to draw media attention and the anger of her family and community. Rebecca and Reverend Blue land a recording deal in NYC; Rebecca is thrown headlong into the world of pop culture with its idolization of celebrity, narcissism and materialism – values that are in stark contrast with her Amish way of life. Crossing Over explores the conflicts and cross-cultural relationships at the heart of contemporary American life.

Lyrics by Deborah Brevoort; music by David Friedman. Based on a true story from the Bering Sea of Alaska. The North Star freighter, carrying the village priest, is anchored in the Bering Sea on Christmas eve, on it’s last arctic voyage before the winter ice closes in around King Island. The waves are too high for the villagers to go out and fetch the priest in their walrus skin boats; without him, there will be no Christmas celebration. In a communal effort, the villagers triumphantly carry their oomiak over a mountain to the calmer waters of the lee, and bring the priest ashore. Christmas is celebrated on King Island. King Island Christmas is a heartwarming story about the power of community and the ability of the human spirit to overcome adversity. Length: 1 hour 15 minutes. A cast album, with Chuck Cooper and Marin Mazzie, was produced by 12-time Grammy winner Thomas Z. Shepard, and is available on amazon.com. King Island Christmas can be presented concert style (with singers on book) or staged like a musical. Roles for men, women and children and a chorus of any size. Over 50 productions to date. Winner of the Frederick Loewe Award in musical theatre. For more info, log onto www.kingislandchristmas.com

Book & Lyrics by Deborah Brevoort; Music by Scott Davenport Richards. An original musical comedy that tells the story of the creation of the world and the evolution of man. Five actors play eight characters ranging from Mosquitoes and Slugs to Brown Bears and Eagles taking the audience on a comic romp through the stages of life, including birth, coming of age, falling in love and death. Inspired by trickster tales from around the world, Coyote Goes Salmon Fishing is suitable for audiences of all ages. Winner of the Frederick Loewe Award in musical theatre. Coyote Goes Salmon Fishing can be produced using a synthesizer, with the arrangements created by the composer. A fully arranged demo tape is available.

A mother from New Jersey roams the hills of Lockerbie Scotland, looking for her son’s remains, which were lost in the crash of Pan Am 103. She meets the Women of Lockerbie, who are fighting the US Government to obtain the clothing of the victims found in the plane’s wreckage. The women, determined to convert an act of hatred into an act of love, want to wash the clothes of the dead and return them to the victim’s families. The Women of Lockerbie is loosely inspired by a true story, although the characters and situations in the play are purely fictional. Written in the structure of a Greek tragedy, it is a poetic drama about the triumph of love over hate. Silver medal, Onassis International Playwriting Competition; winner Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays award. Translated into 10 languages; over 400 productions to date.

It’s matinee day at the National Theatre. The house is packed with audience members who have come to the theatre on “culture coupons” to see the artistic director’s latest production. But when the show begins and the audience becomes bored, they rise up in protest and begin a performance of their own. The Velvet Weapon is a riotous farce that stages a comic battle between the forces of highbrow and lowbrow art and tells the story of what happens when the audience takes over the show

A funny and moving drama about sacrifice, service and the power of community, The Comfort Team focuses on the women left behind to tend to the home front while their husbands are away at war. Set during the surge of Iraq, the play follows a group of military spouses drawn from every segment of American society who transcend their differences and stand by each other as they go through a dramatic crisis that changes their lives.

When President Kennedy announced that America would send a man to the moon, the job fell to a group of maverick engineers who, until that moment, were the outcasts of the American scientific establishment. Thrust into the limelight and lacking a road map for accomplishing the President’s mandate, this group developed an unorthodox, imaginative process called “blue-skying.” They turned to inspirations such as Buck Rogers comic books, stories from Greek mythology, Louis Leakey’s writings on paleontology and fictional and historical characters such as Snoopy, Galileo, Icarus and the Red Baron.

The Blue-Sky Boys dramatizes the “encounters” between NASA’s Apollo engineers and these characters and the imaginative leaps that were taken to get to the moon. A story about the intersection of creativity and science, The Blue-Sky Boys is a comedy/drama in two acts with an all-male cast. It was originally commissioned by the Ensemble Studio Theatre/Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Science and Technology project.

Professor Sarah Middleton arrives in Denmark to teach at the University of Copenhagen, only to find her life irrevocably thrown off course when she stops by the Vermundsgade Pizzeria. She falls in love with the pizzamaker, Soran Saleen, a Kurdish refugee who wins her heart with his unconventional pizzas. Sarah and Soran’s unlikely courtship arouses the curiosity and passions of everyone around them (an assortment of Danish, Arab and American characters) setting in motion a rash of culinary courtships, cross cultural misunderstandings and a chaotic comedy of errors.

“In an entertainment industry woefully inept at accurate and humane portrayals of Arabs, Muslims and Iraqis, The Poetry of Pizza is a romantic feel-good (and taste-good) comedy that spans cultural gulfs while celebrating heartfelt human connection. This is a sit-back-and-smile farce replete with Danish agoraphobics, Middle Eastern pizza chefs, and busy-body voyeurs, all in love with the idea of finding true love.” —Mixed Blood Theatre, Minneapolis