Meet the Writers’ Room 4.0 Artists

Susan Bywaters (Librettist) is a writer based in New York City. Her works center around morality, absurdity, and the victim/perpetrator paradigm. Susan’s works have been performed on stages in Europe, South America, and throughout the US. Her most recent libretti, including An ending with Samuel Beebe (Strange Trace), The Windows with Elizabeth Gartman (Guerilla Opera), Daughter of God with Christopher Bell (LOAM), and My Wife is a Ghost (Bard College) have been commissioned by companies across the US. Also a playwright and poet, Susan is collaborating with director Madeline Whitesell in the development of her play Date/Rape. susanbywaters.com

Lisa Clair (Librettist) is a New York based playwright and performer. She makes work under the name Lisa Clair Group, a collective of performers, musicians, and designers who collaborate across disciplines to create live, experimental performance. Her plays are wild, surreal, funny and deeply personal. Lisa is a New Georges affiliated artist and a core artist with Immediate Medium. Her work has been presented at MITU580, (In Collaboration with New Georges and Immediate Medium), The Collapsable Hole, Target Margin Theater, SPRING/BREAK art show, The SFX Festival, The Bushwick Starr Reading Series, Ars Nova, Dixon Place, The Silent Barn and The Performance Project at University Settlement. lisaclair.com

Jasmine Galante (Composer) is a composer, playwright, vocalist and arts administrator based in New York. Aiming to foster connections between the performer and audience, Galante’s music is dramatically driven and explores the intersection of timbre and texture through her imaginative sound worlds. She often explores themes of loss and grief through her plays and librettos, seeking to create platforms to discuss these difficult topics. Galante is a soprano and board member of Cantori New York, a choir devoted to performing new and diverse repertoire, and earned her Bachelor of Music in Composition from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University. jasminegalante.com

Elizabeth Gartman (Librettist) With compositions described as “refreshingly absurd” (The Washington Post) and “innovative” (Twin Cities Arts Reader), composer Elizabeth Gartman’s work explores vocalism, process in performance, and active listening. Elizabeth’s music has been commissioned by Washington National Opera, Beth Morrison Projects, New Chamber Ballet, Guerilla Opera, InfraSound Ensemble, Ensemble Chemie, the Why Collective, Pax Duo, and others. Recent accolades include selection as a composer with the American Opera Initiative (2023), Honorable Mention for the Darmstadt Ferienkurse Kranichsteiner Musikpreis (2023), William Schuman Prize for Most Outstanding Score with BMI Student Composer Awards (2021), and runner-up of Beth Morrison Projects’ Next Generation (2022). elizabethgartman.com

Mattie Levy (Composer) Described as multi-faceted, relevant, and fun, Mattie Levy (writer, performer/composer) obtained masters degrees in Composition and Oboe Performance from the University of Michigan. Her recent works include “Floating on the Wings of Our Planet,” an immersive media piece addressing climate change, and her Presser award-winning cross-disciplinary show “Concert Black,” which follows three Black classical musicians and their journeys through life. Mattie’s essay: “If my Imposter Syndrome had a Voice and the Reality of the Situation”  was published in the online journal: Currents in Music Research. Connect with mattie on Instagram bit.ly/levymakesproductions

Roger A. Martinez (Composer) composes music that explores the connecting threads among forms. Roger’s operatic works, such as 2024’s Souls Unscreened and 2021’s Alcina Revamped, often feature chamber instrumentation alongside electronic components. His music has been performed in collaboration with Experiments in Opera, Alter Ego Chamber Opera, and ENA Ensemble. Roger’s credits also include soundtracks for films, podcasts and video games. He is a member of the critically acclaimed chamber-pop group Settled Arrows, contributing production work and string arrangements to the group’s 2024 album Nectar. Roger is a graduate of San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s Technology and Applied Composition program. rogeramartinez.com/

Sam Norman (Librettist) writes for the stage and screen. As a 2023-4 American Opera Initiative Fellow, he co-wrote HAIRPIECE, which premiered at the Kennedy Center in early 2024. Other operatic work includes MUCKRAKERS (NYU/AOP Lab 2024) and THREE PENELOPES (Britten Theatre 2022). Sam has co-written COME DINE WITH ME: THE MUSICAL, which is slated for an off-West End production following runs at the Edinburgh Fringe and Norwich Playhouse. His screenplay GAMESTOP won the ScreenCraft TV Pilot Fellowship 2024. He is a Resident Artist at the American Lyric Theater, a Johnny Mercer Foundation Songwriter and a Broadway Future Songbook writer. BA, Oxford; MFA, NYU Tisch. samuelnorman.com

Ed Valentine (Librettist) is a four-time Daytime Emmy Award-winning writer for Sesame Street. He has written for The Fairly OddParents, My Little Pony, and Sharkdog, among many other TV shows. Ed’s plays have been produced around the U.S. and internationally; he was awarded a Dramatists Guild Fellowship and was named one of “50 Writers to Watch” in The Dramatist Magazine. Ed is a co-artistic director of both The Beekeepers Theater (Sheffield, MA) and New Circle Theatre Company (NYC). He is a graduate of Boston College and has his MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.  edvalentine.com