John Mercurio
JOHN MERCURIO is the recipient of an award from both the Jonathan Larson and the Gilman & Gonzalez-Falla Musical Theater Foundation for his work in musical theatre. This past summer his musical Myth was developed at the Eugene O'Neill National Music Theater Conference where it received the Georgia Holof Award for lyric writing. He wrote the score and co-wrote the book to Diva Diaries which ran for three months at the Lakeshore Theatre in Chicago. Before that, it played at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center and the Broward Center for the Performing Arts. With collaborator Tajlei Levis, he wrote Glimpses of the Moon which played in the famed Oak Room at the Algonquin Hotel where it will return by popular demand this fall. Also with Ms. Levis, he wrote the music for A Time to Be Born, based on the novel by Dawn Powell, which played at the Lucille Lortel theatre as part of the New York Fringe Festival. His musical The Riverhaven Book Club, about an unlikely group of country folk who start a book club to try and improve themselves, was produced at the Lyric Theatre in Florida. He wrote the score for 1001 Nights, the story of a group of abolitionists posing as a traveling theatre company to help runaway slaves along the Underground Railroad. It was developed at a workshop at the George Street Theatre. He is also writing songs for Arturo's Window, a play with music, which tells the fascinating true story of John Jerome who embezzled four million dollars to help uninsured people with AIDS as well as to support emerging cabaret artists. John has written and illustrated three children's books. He received degrees from the Eastman School of Music and NYU and was a member of the BMI Advanced Musical Theatre Workshop. Bio as of September, 2008. American Theatre Wing programs, interviews and/or credits include: American Theatre Wing Jonathan Larson Grant Recipient - 2000 Website: www.johnmercurio.com