A DC-BASED COMPANY, and at our core:
DEVELOPING AND PRODUCING ORIGINAL WORKS OF MUSIC-THEATRE,
FOSTERING THE GROWTH OF ARTISTS,
AND ENGAGING WITH THE COMMUNITY IN PARTNERSHIP
Changing the Conversation Through the Arts
The George Fulginiti Series: Cabaret, Cocktails, & Conversation
Our next Cabaret at the Arts Club is Tuesday, June 2 featuring Alan Naylor in his curated program "Songs We Need Now."
Beloved DC stage artist Alan Naylor headlines our season finale with “Songs We Need Now,” a lively cabaret experience tuned to meeting the audience participants in the moment, whatever it may bring. Responding to today’s pressing needs for “hope, accountability, catharsis, nostalgia, and comfort,” Naylor offers up an improvised setlist ranging from Dolly Parton and American musicals to Ukrainian songs and Ravel – maybe even Kermit the Frog and Abraham Lincoln. Collaborators Erin Lee (pianist) and Marie Nikolaevna Herrington (composer/singer/pianist) join Alan to inspire laughter, tears, and healing.
The Arts Club of Washington venue is intimate, perfect for an optimal cabaret experience, and will offer a signature cocktail for the occasion. Also thrown into the price of a ticket, the Arts Club will provide a small bites buffet and other beverages. Stay after the show to meet the artist and enjoy other fine company.
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Out & About with New Music-Theatre
Our fifteenth Live & About season is in full swing, providing opportunities to sample a variety of music-theater genres, in some cases be introduced to productions from area companies big and small, and come together to enjoy each other’s company and engage in lively conversation following the performances.
In April, we took in Mosaic Theater’s production of the new musical Young John Lewis: Prodigy of Protest by local writer Psalmayene 24 with music by Kokayi. Thirty of us attended, and many of us agreed it was stunningly powerful and one of the best of our L&A season. Mosaic’s Artistic Director Reginald L. Douglas had honed a fresh and tight ensemble in a dramatically sound and emotionally moving tribute to one of our country’s most courageous historic figures, John Lewis, a man who stood up against bullies and never lost his humanity nor turned away from his commitment to non-violent resistance. It was a great show and an important one for this city especially in these times.
For an in-depth perspective, read John Stoltenberg’s outstanding review in DC Theater Arts.
Solomon Parker as Reverend Doctor (center) with ensemble members Harrison Smith (left) and Nia Savoy-Dock in ‘Young John Lewis: Prodigy of Protest.’ Photo by Teresa Castracane Photography.
In April, some of our company also attended the penultimate concert this season of the Cantate Chamber Singers in a program entitled Stand.
We were especially proud to support Josiah Garza, who was one of our composers in last year’s cohort in our Composer-Librettist Studio and who won the Cantate Young Composers’ Competition. The commissioned piece, The Pealing of Frozen Things, demonstrated this young composer’ s whimsy, savvy use of humor, and unique voice, crafting a piece that had suggestions of Garza’s dramatic sensibilities communally rooted in collective ritual. Also notable in the evening was the chamber orchestra, anchored admirably by our own company member, Andrew Simpson.
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2026 Composer-Librettist Studio
Save June 28 at 3:00 pm for the Showcase Performance!
Alliance for New-Music Theatre will offer its fourth annual DC Composer-Librettist Studio this summer starting June 13, and we are excited to greet these invited artists, an exciting and eclectic crop indeed. The University of the District of Columbia’s Music Department is once again hosting the sixteen-day intensive. Sonja Thompson returns as Music Director to co-facilitate the program.
The CL Studio provides a rare opportunity for composers, librettists and singer-actors to deepen their understanding of the principles and practice of the art of collaboration that is music-theater. Artists are encouraged to explore and take chances in a series of assignments without the pressure or expectation of a finished “work.” We are proud that we have been invited to conduct this unique training program in the nation’s capital. It was conceived by Wesley Balk, former Artistic Director on the Minnesota Opera and renowned theorist, innovator, and master-teacher then further developed and formalized into a nationally-recognized program since the mid-eighties by Ben Krywosz.
On Sunday June 28 at 3 pm, the work culminates in an informal recital where artists will share everything that has been written in the 16 days – all 25 pieces! Save the date and join us in the little recital hall of the UDC’s Music Department. Many alumni have called the experience “life-transforming.”
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Featured Artist - Alan Naylor
Coming up on June 2 is our final cabaret of this Season at The Arts Club of Washington. You do not want to miss this creative powerhouse. He neither minces words nor suffers fools gladly who make the distinction between creative artists ( composers and librettist say in music-theater) and interpretive artists (the performers). He believes he is every bit a creative artist: his creativity is in making every song his own.
Alan is an artist as gifted in drama as he is in musical theater, but to my mind his superpower is in his approach to and performance of cabaret. Nominated five times for a Helen Hayes award, he won for best Outstanding Performer in a musical for his performance in Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris. Alan is a valued member of our company, not only for his performing chops but for his skills in Sound Design, as Recording Producer, and Piano Tuner & All Things Music Advisor. I wanted to dig more deeply into his gift for cabaret performance. This was our conversation:
When did you first fall in love with the genre of cabaret and why?
“There is a Buddhist tenet that says you can’t know anything until you have learned it through lived experience. In the same way, when I was young, I always had a resistance to reading the great philosophers. I want to discover it for myself. But what you may call cabaret – it is my natural voice.
I came to it, creating something my own without following a formula. My love of very different genres and creating “collage programs” started in college where I was a classical music major but everyone thought I was a theater major. The large range of music I loved and wanted to do, whether from rock, musicals or art songs, caused worry in the music faculty that I would not do enough to satisfy my degree in classical music. They wrote commentary on my first recital, ‘This doesn’t work. This can’t work. It shouldn’t work. But when Alan does it, it works. And it’s extraordinary.’”
You were our first vocal artist along with Daniel Smith (aka Deacon) when in 2024 we launched our cabaret, The George Fulginiti Cabaret Series, in honor of our colleague, friend and longtime Music Director whom we continue to miss greatly. There are other cabaret programs across the DMV, what stands out to you about our series and the space/venue?
I really can’t speak from authority about other series, because honestly I don’t go to many. But I would say that it’s not a black box theater nor is it a hall like Strathmore. It has a formality but also a coziness. Let’s call it the Goldilocks principle (not too big or grand nor too small or cramped a space). If used appropriately, and, as you know, I try to guide our artists to maximize its character strengths, then it can create a lovely immersive and exclusive experience.
And as for what Alliance is trying to do with music-theatre, I would say what it offers is ‘Structure and Purpose without Constraint.’ You, Susan, certainly have ideas about what you want to create, but you also are not prescriptive telling people what kind of program they have to do. There is space for artistic voice and freedom. It also doesn’t have the air of commerciality. It feels to us artists that it’s welcoming and not forcing us to prove that what we bring is commercially viable.
Thank you. I’ll gladly take both those statements and hope I can continue to live up to that. Alan, you are our Headlining Artist in our culminating cabaret program on Tuesday, June2, curating a program you are calling “Songs We Need Now.” Say more about this.
The title is intentionally wide and open for anyone to come in, bring who you are and where you’re at. Maybe not everything you hear is meant specifically for you. Things will speak to every individual in different ways. It could be someone just needs to hear songs and not any message, just acknowledging music as a balm. Someone needs a song to cry, another a song to laugh. Some to be intellectually and emotionally challenged. And maybe I decide to play something for me. Something I have a need to play.
What’s the difference between cabaret and revue?…And what are you thinking about your “collage?”
Revue would be extracting a “photograph” from a separate show, but Cabaret would be taking that photograph and reinterpreting it as your own painting. Cabaret is special most of all because it’s about everyone, performer and audience, being in the room and interacting together. I will probably go across genres from Dolly Parton and American musicals to Ukrainian songs and Ravel. Perhaps as far afield as Kermit the Frog and Abraham Lincoln.
I can’t wait, Alan. And what else would you like to see us develop together with this cabaret series in the future?
Let’s explore cabaret with no words, cabaret with dance – like Argentine tango or flamenco— or even cabaret with no music? Collaboration between performance and visual artists to conceive and create something integrated together also inspires me.
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Thanks to all our Friends and Supporters of Alliance for New Music-Theatre:
We are looking ahead to 2026 and are celebrating over 30-Years as a Not-for-Profit 501 (c) (3) designated Public Charity serving the greater DMV.
These are precarious times for the arts, but we are determined to continue our important work in our community to fulfill our mission to:
· Develop new works of music-theatre
· Foster the growth of professional and aspiring artists
· Engage the community into the creative process to promote a deeper understanding and critical appreciation of the
transformative power of music-theatre.
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