More 2008 Retreat Participants!

RICHARD MALTBY, JR.
BROADWAY: Conceived and directed two Tony Award winning musicals: AIN’T MISBEHAVIN’ (1978: Tony, N.Y. Drama Critics, Outer Critics, Drama Desk Awards — also Tony Award for Best Director); FOSSE (1999: Tony, Outer Critics, Drama Desk Awards); and RING OF FIRE, The Johnny Cash Musical Show, (2006); With composer David Shire, director/lyricist: BABY, (1983, book by Sybille Pearson; seven Tony Award nominations); lyricist: BIG, (1996, book by John Weidman; Tony nomination: Best Score); lyricist/conceiver, TAKE FLIGHT (book by John Weidman), world premiere 2007 at the Menier Chocolate Factory in London, also produced in Japan the same year. Co-lyricist: MISS SAIGON (Evening Standard Award 1990; Tony nomination: Best Score, 1991). Co-bookwriter/lyricist: THE PIRATE QUEEN (2007). Director/co-lyricist: American version of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s SONG & DANCE, (1986 Tony Award for star, Bernadette Peters.) OFF-BROADWAY: director/lyricist STARTING HERE, STARTING NOW, (1977 Grammy nomination); CLOSER THAN EVER, (1989, two Outer Critics Circle Awards: Best Musical, Best Score), both written with composer David Shire. REGIONAL: director, MASK (2008, Pasadena Playhouse); director, THE 60′S PROJECT (2006, Goodspeed Opera House). FILM: Screenplay, MISS POTTER, (2007) about Beatrix Potter, starring Renee Zellweger and Ewan McGregor (Christopher Award, best screenplay.). Contributes devilish crossword puzzles to Harpers Magazine. Son of well-known orchestra leader; Five children: Nicholas, David, Jordan, Emily and Charlotte.

DAVID SHIRE
David Shire, an Oscar and Grammy winner and multiple Tony and Emmy nominee, has composed prolifically for the theatre, film, television and recordings. On Broadway, he and lyricist Richard Maltby wrote the scores for the musicals Baby (Tony nominations for Best Score and Musical) and Big (Tony nomination for Best Score). His off-Broadway scores, also written with Maltby, include Starting Here, Starting Now (Grammy nomination), Closer Than Ever (Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Musical and Score), Urban Blight at the Manhattan Theater Club, and the off-Broadway musical The Sap of Life. He also wrote the incidental scores for As You Like It (NY Shakespeare Festival), Peter Ustinov’s The Unknown Soldier and His Wife (Lincoln Center), Donald Margulies’s The Loman Family Picnic (MTC), Schmulnick’s Waltz and Visiting Mr. Green. Maltby and Shire’s current project, the musical Take Flight, has been workshopped at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center, presented in concert versions in Russia and Australia, and produced in London, at the Menier Chocolate Factory, and in Japan in 2007. With librettist Gene Scheer, Shire recently completed a one-act opera, A Stream of Voices, a commission from the Colorado Children’s Chorale, which recently premiered in Denver.

Shire’s many feature film scores include Norma Rae (Academy Award for Best Song, lyrics by Norman Gimbel), Francis Coppola’s The Conversation, All the President’s Men, The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3, Short Circuit, 2010, Farewell, My lovely, The Hindenberg, Return to Oz and Saturday Night Fever, for which his work earned him two Grammy Awards. He most recently scored David Fincher’s Zodiac. His numerous television scores have garnered five Emmy nominations. He also composed the theme song, with lyrics by Marilyn and Alan Bergman, for the long-running Linda Lavin NBC series Alice.

His songs, with lyrics by Maltby, Gimbel, the Bergmans, Carol Connors or himself, have been recorded and/or performed by Barbra Streisand (who has recorded five of them, including “Starting Here, Starting Now,” which was the opening number of her recent world tour concert), Maureen McGovern, Melissa Manchester, Mariah Carey, Jennifer Warnes, Julie Andrews, John Pizzarelli, Vanessa Williams, Glenn Campbell, Johnny Mathis, Kiri Te Kanawa, Kathy Lee Gifford, Robert Goulet and Michael Crawford, among many others. His “With You I’m Born Again” (lyrics by Carol Connors) was an international Motown hit for Billy Preston and Syreeta, and he and David Pomeranz co-wrote “In Our Hands,” the theme song for the United Nations World Summit for Children.

Mr. Shire is a graduate of Yale, serves on the executive council of the Dramatists Guild of America and is a trustee of the Rockland Conservatory of Music. His eldest son, screenwriter Matthew Shire lives in Los Angeles, and he, his wife actress Didi Conn, and their teenage son Daniel, make their home in the Hudson Valley.

JOHN WEIDMAN

John Weidman wrote the book for Pacific Overtures, (Tony nominations, Best Book, Best Musical, Best Musical Revival) score by Stephen Sondheim, directed on Broadway by Harold Prince and in 2005 at the Roundabout Theatre by Amon Miyamoto. He co-authored, with Timothy Crouse, the new book for the Broadway revival of Cole Porter’s Anything Goes directed at Lincoln Center Theater, (Tony Award, Best Musical Revival) by Jerry Zaks and at the Royal National Theatre by Trevor Nunn (Olivier Award, Best Musical Production). Weidman wrote the book for Assassins, score by Stephen Sondheim, directed Off-Broadway by Jerry Zaks, in London (Drama Critics’ Award for Best Musical) by Sam Mendes, and three seasons ago on Broadway (Tony Award, Best Musical Revival) by Joe Mantello. Weidman wrote the book for big (Tony nomination, Best Book), score by Richard Maltby, Jr. and David Shire, directed on Broadway by Mike Ockrent, and co-created with choreographer/director Susan Stroman the musical Contact (Tony nomination, Best Book; Tony Award, Best Musical). He wrote the book for Take Flight, score by Richard Maltby, Jr. and David Shire, which had its world premiere last summer at the Chocolate Factory in London. His new musical, Bounce, score by Stephen Sondheim, directed by John Doyle, goes into rehearsal at the Public Theater this fall. He and Susan Stroman are currently at work on a new musical, commissioned by Lincoln Center Theater, with a score by Scott Frankel and Michael Korie. Since 1986, he has written for Sesame Street, receiving twelve Emmy Awards for Outstanding Writing for a Children’s Program. Weidman is President of the Dramatists’ Guild of America.

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