EllaRose Chary

EllaRose Chary

ELLAROSE CHARY (she/hers) is an award-winning writer and advocate for inclusion in musical theater. She is a Richard Rodgers Award winner, Dramatists Guild Fellow, Drama League Award Nominee, NYFA Fellowship Playwriting/Screenwriting Finalist, Kleban Prize Finalist, Kernodle New Play Award Finalist, Doric Wilson Award Semi-Finalist, and winner of a BOH Cameronian Arts Award and the Weston Award for Musical...
ELLAROSE CHARY (she/hers) is an award-winning writer and advocate for inclusion in musical theater. She is a Richard Rodgers Award winner, Dramatists Guild Fellow, Drama League Award Nominee, NYFA Fellowship Playwriting/Screenwriting Finalist, Kleban Prize Finalist, Kernodle New Play Award Finalist, Doric Wilson Award Semi-Finalist, and winner of a BOH Cameronian Arts Award and the Weston Award for Musical Theater.

Her musical TL;DR: THELMA LOUISE; DYKE REMIX is a winner of the 2021 Richard Rodgers Award and has been developed at The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center (NMTC Incubator Residency, NMTC Finalist), Rhinebeck Writers Retreat (Triple R Residency), the UArts Polyphone Festival, was presented at the NAMT 33rd Festival of New Musicals, and was an HM for The Relentless Award. Her play THE WRONG QUESTION was selected for the 2021 Jewish Playwriting Contest. She is the bookwriter for the award-winning THE DOLL MAKER’S GIFT, which opened at The Rose Theater in 2019 (“Families should flock to this one.” – Omaha World-Herald) and her play THE SÉANCE MACHINE premiered off-off Broadway at Obie Award Winning The Tank in 2019. Her other projects include: COTTON CANDY AND COCAINE, HOW TO SURVIVE THE END OF THE WORLD (featured on Broadway.com, BroadwayWorld, Hollywood Soapbox, and 89.5 FM Star), THE LAKE AND THE MILL, QUEER. PEOPLE. TIME., PATRIETTES (The #FWord Finalist) and the Malaysian musical MARRYING ME. Her new musical THE SPELL OF RED RIVER is currently under commission by Millikin University and will be produced in their 2023-24 season.

She has been in residence at Ars Nova (Uncharted), Harvard ArtLab, Roundabout Theater, Bucks County Playhouse, Catwalk Institute, Millikin University, and has received an Anna Sosenko Grant and multiple NAMT Frank Young Fund grants. Her work has been produced, developed and commissioned by the Great Plains Theater Conference, the Drama League, Diversionary Theater, Theo Ubique, The Civilians (at City Center Encores! Off-Center, The WNYC Greene Space, and more), Theater C, AFO Solo Shorts, Prospect Theater, Joe’s Pub, and 54 Below. She was a guest lecturer and production studio lead artist at Harvard University in the Theater, Dance and Media department in Fall 2020.

She is an activist and advocate for inclusion in media both on and off stage. She has written for The Lilly Awards Blog, HowlRound, and Musical Theater Today (where she is a contributing editor). She has appeared on panels at NYMF and with Honest Accomplice Theater and co-curates Tankaret, a cabaret series for underrepresented voices. She believes the future of the American theater is universal healthcare. MFA: NYU, BA: Brown University. www.ellarosechary.com www.brandonandella.com

Plays

  • TL;DR: Thelma Louise; Dyke Remix by EllaRose Chary
    Cast: 
    6
    ·
    Genre: comedy, drama + 4 more
    ·
    Keyword: LGBTQIA+, musical + 7 more
    Genre: comedy, drama, fantasy, musical, political, romantic comedy
    Keyword: LGBTQIA+, musical, rock musical, riot grrl, romantic comedy, Fantasy, irreverent, meta, instruments
    Book and Lyrics by EllaRose Chary
    Music and Lyrics by Brandon James Gwinn

    T and L drive their convertible off the edge of a cliff and into a fantasy-driven, irreverent, queer, rock musical – TL;DR: Thelma Louise; Dyke Remix where strong female characters don’t “always gotta die.” With full-on Riot Grrl aplomb, the Kickass Band helps T and L find the queer happy ending they deserve.
  • THE SPELL OF RED RIVER by EllaRose Chary
    Cast: 
    14–20
    ·
    Genre: adventure, comedy + 6 more
    ·
    Keyword: university, college + 7 more
    Genre: adventure, comedy, drama, fantasy, movement/physical, musical, mystery/thriller, romantic comedy
    Keyword: university, college, magic, LGTBQIA+, women characters, Non-binary characters, intergenerational, coping with grief, spells
    Book and Lyrics By EllaRose Chary
    Music and Lyrics By Brandon James Gwinn

    THE SPELL OF RED RIVER is an intergenerational-witch-story about family, grief, and finding your magic. Stylistically, it’s Fried Green Tomatoes meets The Divine Secrets of the Ya-ya Sisterhood meets Practical Magic. It has a contemporary musical theatre/pop-country score with artistic influences such as Taylor...
    Book and Lyrics By EllaRose Chary
    Music and Lyrics By Brandon James Gwinn

    THE SPELL OF RED RIVER is an intergenerational-witch-story about family, grief, and finding your magic. Stylistically, it’s Fried Green Tomatoes meets The Divine Secrets of the Ya-ya Sisterhood meets Practical Magic. It has a contemporary musical theatre/pop-country score with artistic influences such as Taylor Swift, The Chicks, and Tammy Wynette.

    Vel is a witch who has an unique aptitude for psychometry - the ability to conjure memories about an event or person by touching inanimate objects associated with them. When she inherits a mysterious school building in her recently deceased mother’s hometown of Canonsboro, TN, she goes searching for the answers to questions about her family history that her mother took to the grave.
  • THE WRONG QUESTION by EllaRose Chary
    Recommendations: 2
    ·
    Cast: 
    5
    ·
    Genre: drama, faith-based + 1 more
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    Keyword: Anti-Semitism, anti-racism + 5 more
    Genre: drama, faith-based, political
    Keyword: Anti-Semitism, anti-racism, best friends, LGBTQIA+, progressive, Judaism Queer, Judiasm
    Lita (white, queer, not religious) and Vashti (black, straight, practicing) are best friends, organizing for progressive change at the Jewish Values Justice League. When a series of anti-Semitic incidents happen at a wealthy, predominately white, Ashkenazi, Jewish community center and synagogue in a gentrifying low-income black neighborhood, Lita and Vashti learn things about themselves and each other that change their friendship forever.
  • THE LAKE AND THE MILL by EllaRose Chary
    Cast: 
    6
    ·
    Genre: drama, fable/folktale + 2 more
    ·
    Keyword: midwest, Gary + 8 more
    Genre: drama, fable/folktale, movement/physical, political
    Keyword: midwest, Gary, Indiana, rust belt, environment, industry, Great Migration, racism, class and economic inequality, folktale
    Once upon a time there was a Lake (Michigan) and a Mill (U.S. Steel) and they had a beautiful City (Gary, Indiana) and everything was wonderful - until it wasn't. THE LAKE AND THE MILL weaves three narrative forms (folktale, investigation, and heightened naturalism) to explore the fate of the American rust belt through the lens of a divorce that splinters a family. But when The City realizes that this...
    Once upon a time there was a Lake (Michigan) and a Mill (U.S. Steel) and they had a beautiful City (Gary, Indiana) and everything was wonderful - until it wasn't. THE LAKE AND THE MILL weaves three narrative forms (folktale, investigation, and heightened naturalism) to explore the fate of the American rust belt through the lens of a divorce that splinters a family. But when The City realizes that this might not be her story, it becomes clear that her former babysitter Allie, who came North during the Great Migration, is the one who is truly left to pick up the pieces.

  • COTTON CANDY AND COCAINE by EllaRose Chary
    Cast: 
    12–20
    ·
    Genre: drama, experimental + 4 more
    ·
    Keyword: musical, gentrification + 5 more
    Genre: drama, experimental, immersive, movement/physical, musical, political
    Keyword: musical, gentrification, LGBTQ, class and economic inequality, technology, immersive, Electronic music
    Book and Lyrics by EllaRose Chary
    Music and Lyrics by Brandon James Gwinn

    COTTON CANDY AND COCAINE (CC &C) is an immersive electro-pop musical experience. It explores the effects of gentrification on the citizens of Main Street Las Vegas. A community of working people -costumed characters, waitstaff, street entertainers - faces off with a wealthy tech entrepreneur, Tad Park, who is...
    Book and Lyrics by EllaRose Chary
    Music and Lyrics by Brandon James Gwinn

    COTTON CANDY AND COCAINE (CC &C) is an immersive electro-pop musical experience. It explores the effects of gentrification on the citizens of Main Street Las Vegas. A community of working people -costumed characters, waitstaff, street entertainers - faces off with a wealthy tech entrepreneur, Tad Park, who is building sleek condos downtown. As Tad tries to placate union protestors on his construction site, the story hurdles towards a confrontation that will change Main Street forever. Inside the party atmosphere, the audience becomes complicit in the challenges of those struggling to survive in a world of imminent personal economic collapse.
  • QUEER. PEOPLE. TIME. by EllaRose Chary
    Cast: 
    5
    ·
    Genre: comedy, docudrama/historic + 5 more
    ·
    Keyword: queer, History + 1 more
    Genre: comedy, docudrama/historic, drama, musical, period, political, romantic comedy
    Keyword: queer, History, musical
    Book and Lyrics by EllaRose Chary
    Music and Lyrics by Brandon James Gwinn

    QUEER. PEOPLE. TIME. (QPT) is a time-travelling romance that tracks the evolution of queer community in the United States over the last 100 years. The show features a contemporary theater score rooted in American music found in queer spaces from the 1920s to the 2020s.

    It’s a 5 person ensemble, pop...
    Book and Lyrics by EllaRose Chary
    Music and Lyrics by Brandon James Gwinn

    QUEER. PEOPLE. TIME. (QPT) is a time-travelling romance that tracks the evolution of queer community in the United States over the last 100 years. The show features a contemporary theater score rooted in American music found in queer spaces from the 1920s to the 2020s.

    It’s a 5 person ensemble, pop chamber musical about Nelly's, a queer bar and the family formed within. On a night when ex-lovers collide, the fabric of time rips and Nelly's takes its children on a trip through the past, testing and prodding their relationships, through different possibilities of themselves - reminding them why they are one as they step into a questionable future.

    The show asks how do we find common ground across race, gender and socioeconomic lines? How do we find joy in a world where one day “it gets better” and the next day Proud Boys rip down our rainbow flags? In this stylish, modern musical “sometimes it’s a party and sometimes it’s a raid, but at Nelly’s, we’re drinking either way.”
  • THE SEANCE MACHINE by EllaRose Chary
    Cast: 
    3
    ·
    Genre: holiday, horror + 2 more
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    Keyword: horror, spooky + 5 more
    Genre: holiday, horror, immersive, science fiction
    Keyword: horror, spooky, halloween, Haunted House, immersive, ghost story, soundscape
    By EllaRose Chary and Brandon James Gwinn

    Do you believe in time travel? Do you believe in ghosts? Do you believe in... science?
    What if you could listen to the voices of the past as easily as you listen to your favorite podcast? You can in this unique theatrical demonstration - the unveiling of visionary scientist Dr. Carolyn Blau's Mechanical Wave Reassembly Hypercardioid...
    By EllaRose Chary and Brandon James Gwinn

    Do you believe in time travel? Do you believe in ghosts? Do you believe in... science?
    What if you could listen to the voices of the past as easily as you listen to your favorite podcast? You can in this unique theatrical demonstration - the unveiling of visionary scientist Dr. Carolyn Blau's Mechanical Wave Reassembly Hypercardioid Sequencing Module. The Seance Machine is an hour long, interactive theatrical experience. Our audience of scientific “colleagues” is invited to observe and participate in the first demonstration of an exciting new tool. A brilliant piece of machinery and engineering destined to revolutionize the study of the physics of sound and push the boundaries of the world we inhabit. The show features a unique soundscape to create the immersive, horror landscape. The play was part of the Tank's 2019-2020 Obie Award winning season.
  • THE DOLL MAKER'S GIFT by EllaRose Chary
    Cast: 
    11–20
    ·
    Genre: adaptation, musical + 2 more
    ·
    Keyword: musical, pogroms + 3 more
    Genre: adaptation, musical, period, young audiences
    Keyword: musical, pogroms, immigration, Jewish, imagination
    Book by EllaRose Chary and Fran Sillau
    Music by Brian Feinstein
    Lyrics by Sammy Buck
    Based on The Doll Maker’s Gift by Sashi Fridman

    Welcome to Zalushka’s Doll Shop, an imaginarium where even the darkest times can give way to hope.

    Set in a small village in Eastern Europe during the early 1900s, The Doll Maker’s Gift follows Nora, an irrepressibly creative...
    Book by EllaRose Chary and Fran Sillau
    Music by Brian Feinstein
    Lyrics by Sammy Buck
    Based on The Doll Maker’s Gift by Sashi Fridman

    Welcome to Zalushka’s Doll Shop, an imaginarium where even the darkest times can give way to hope.

    Set in a small village in Eastern Europe during the early 1900s, The Doll Maker’s Gift follows Nora, an irrepressibly creative little girl whose dolls guide and uplift her when the ethnic cleansing of Pogroms threaten her Jewish community in Russia.

    After their cousins’ village is attacked, Nora’s family is forced to flee to America. They discover at the last moment that they don’t have enough funds to pay for everyone’s passage. Young Nora will have to stay behind, with the threat of attacks ever increasing. She is left with a family friend, a kind doll maker who offers to care for her until they can earn enough money to pay for her journey to America. Together, with her ingenuity and his know-how, they hatch a plan to reunite Nora with her family.

    Featuring beautiful original music and an essential story drawn right from history, The Doll Maker’s Gift is an uplifting exploration of the power of kindness in the face of adversity.
  • Nora Ephron's Rom-Coms by EllaRose Chary
    Cast: 
    3
    ·
    Genre: comedy, fantasy + 5 more
    ·
    Keyword: nora ephron, romantic comedy + 6 more
    Genre: comedy, fantasy, farce, parody/spoof, political, romantic comedy, satire
    Keyword: nora ephron, romantic comedy, LGBTQIA+, gender non-conforming, political, comedy, ghost, short play
    Nora Ephron’s Ghost is trapped in the lady art lady box...will a multiracial, gender non-conforming love story free her? This short play was written for the Tank's Rule of 7x7: Lady Edition! in August 2018. Originally directed by Taylor Reynolds and performed by Sagan Chen, Vanessa Robinson and Anne Troup.
  • Deconstructing Ladyness by EllaRose Chary
    Cast: 
    3
    ·
    Genre: comedy, experimental + 2 more
    ·
    Keyword: feminist, short play + 4 more
    Genre: comedy, experimental, fantasy, satire
    Keyword: feminist, short play, comedy, 3 women, womanist, feminine structure
    This 10-Minute play was written for the Tank's Rule of 7x7: Lady Edition! in August 2016. Originally directed by Laura Brandel and performed by Joanna Carpenter, Monica Diaz and Allison Posner. It's a comedic, pop-culture filled, feminist rant for 3 voices trying to figure out their lady parts. It operates in a "feminine / feminist" structure as opposed to an Aristotelian "masculine" structure.