Graduate Musical Theatre Writing

Biography

As a librettist and lyricist, Donna DiNovelli’s work has been presented at the New York City Opera, the Public Theater and Joe’s Pub.  She has collaborated with Randall Eng for many years, most notably on Florida (New York City Opera; Lyric Opera Cleveland; and a Frederick Loewe Foundation Reading, directed by David Herskovits). She is currently working on a new musical theater piece, Prairie with composer Rachel Portman, directed by Francesca Zambello. Prairie Workshop:New York Stage and Film, July 2006. She has written text for the Los Angeles Modern Dance and Ballet (Twelve Dancing Princesses) and book & lyrics for Hildegard: A Measure of Joy, commissioned by the Grammy Award winning vocal ensemble, Chanticleer. She has been invited to the  National Musical Theater Conference, the Mac Dowell Colony, and theAtlanticCenter for the Arts. She recently returned from a residency inBellagio,Italy courtesy of the Rockefeller Foundation to work on a new opera with composer Christopher Theofanidis, commissioned by David Gockley.  Her stage play, The First Eff (Mark Taper Forum) was excerpted in “New Monologues For Women; by Women”, Heinemann Press. She has won commissions and fellowships from the Manhattan Theater Club, ASCAP, Mabou Mines, Houston Grand Opera and the BBC.  Besides teaching in the Graduate Musical Theater Writing Program at Tisch, she teaching playwriting at the O’Neill Theater Center, and was a visiting professor at Brown University where she earned an MFA working with Paula Vogel.  www.donnadinovelli.net.