This summer, New York Theatre Barn and the Fire Island Pines Arts Project, in association with the P. Austin Foundation, will join forces for the 3rd annual season of Barn on Fire. The summer residency on Fire Island makes space for three musical theatre writing teams and their original culture-shifting musicals in development. Tony nominated director/choreographer Jeff Calhoun (Newsies, Jekyll & Hyde, A Complicated Woman) serves as a mentor to the residency which includes the new musicals Spectrum, Ghost In The Machine, and Andy, Keith and Jean-Michel. 

Joining the writers and creatives teams for the residency will be actors Linedy Genao (Bad Cinderella, Dear Evan Hansen, On Your Feet!), Eddie Noel Rodríguez (Hadestown, On Your Feet!), Zachary A. Myers (A Strange Loop, A Complicated Woman), Jamison Stern (By Jeeves), Skie Ocasio (Bombay Dreams), Cliff Barry, Steven Alan Black, Immanuel Farmer, Shafer Gootkind, Ben Houghton and Carley Lovito. The musicals are directed by Kate Trammell (Spectrum), Héctor Flores Jr. (Ghost in the Machine) and Joe Barros (Andy, Keith and Jean-Michel). Broadway producer Nicole LaFountaine (Cabaret, Little Miss Perfect) will host the final presentation, which will have music direction by Patrick B. Phillips (The Wiz, A Strange Loop), and Molly Conklin is the stage manager.

Centering the artist and their work, the 10-day intensive retreat in Fire Island Pines is for writers and their creative teams to collaborate and further develop their shows in a supportive, creative, and tranquil atmosphere. At the end of the week, the artists have the opportunity to present what they have been working on before a live audience on a remote barrier island off the southern shore of Long Island, New York. Tickets to the final presentation on Saturday, June 22nd, 2024 at 6PM in Whyte Hall’s Brandon Fradd Theater on Fire Island Pines can be purchased on FIPAP’s website.

Set in 1995, Stephanie L. Carlin’s Spectrum brings two seemingly different communities together, and centers Matthew, a young man on the autism spectrum. Janine Robledo’s Ghost In The Machine centers Cynthia, an invention of Artificial Intelligence who frees herself from the psychological imprisonment of her creator and ponders the creation of her own invention. Matthew Puckett and Christiana Cole’s Andy, Keith and Jean-Michel is an exploration into the complex hearts of legendary artists Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, and Jean-Michel Basquiat whose fervent creativity masked a ruthless ambition and an unquenchable passion to become immortal.

The Barn on Fire residency is made possible with generous support from Dalip Girdhar + Paul Austin (The P. Austin Foundation), Straighten Your Crown Productions, Henry Robin & Bob McGarity, David Kneuss, John Krawchuk & Vinnie Petrarca, Denise Lucy & Francoise Lepage, Isaac Namdar & Andrew Mitchell-Namdar, Carlos de la Puente & Simeon Kline, Gary Clinton & Don Millinger, Richard Winger, and Matthew Woolf. Under the mentorship of Tony Award-winning director/choreographer Jerry Mitchell for its first two seasons, the residency previously supported the musicals King of Pangea, The Bubble, Coming Soon: A New Rock Musical, Skyward: An Ending Elegy, Sueños: Our American Musical, Buried, How to You: A Musical Guide to Black Boyhood, and Little Miss Perfect.