GMTWP Cycle 8 Alum Amanda Yesnowitz
GMTWP Cycle 8 alum Amanda Yesnowitz was announced as a recipient of the 28th Annual Kleban Prize for Musical Theatre. Yesnowitz tied with composer-lyricist Alan Schmuckler in the most promising musical theater lyricist category. The 2018 prizes will be presented to the winners on February 5th in a private ceremony hosted by ASCAP and BMI at ASCAP.
The finalist judges for this year were Tony-nominated actor Marin Mazzie (Ragtime), Tony-nominated composer and lyricist Dave Malloy (Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812), and author and professor Laurence Maslon.
The Kleban Foundation was established in 1988 under the will of Edward L. Kleban, best known as the Tony- and Pulitzer Prize-winning lyricist of the musical A Chorus Line. Kleban’s will made provisions for two annual prizes, which in recent years have totaled $100,000 each (this year all 3 winners will receive the full prize), payable over two years, to be given to the most promising lyricist and librettist in American Musical Theater.
Ms. Yesnowitz wrote the lyrics for Somewhere in Time, a 2013 musical adaptation of the 1980 film starring Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour. She is currently working on a musical inspired by the life of Margaret Bulkley, an Irish woman who lived as a man in the 19th century.