ABOUT
Featuring historical characters and a cast of female, trans and non-binary performers, THE UNCIVIL ONES unearths the unheard voices of the Civil War. High drama and a blue-grass/Appalachian-inspired score combine to explore themes of freedom, equality, and intersectional feminism.
MEDIA
CREATIVES
Charissa Bertels
Charissa Bertels is a Broadway actor, creator, producer and champion of
new musicals.
Her latest projects include
My 80-Year-Old Boyfriend (IRNE award for Best Solo Performance and the Kleban Award for collaborator, Christian Duhamel), X-MAS: A Merry Mutant Musical (producing and starring as Jean Grey) and The Uncivil Ones (a new musical featuring unheard female, trans and non-binary voices from The Civil War) for which she and Ayumi received the 2019 Special Mention for the Women in Arts & Media Coalition Collaboration Award.
Other credits include:
If/Then (National Tour), Lady Be Good & Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (Encores & Cast Recordings), A Christmas Story (Broadway, National Tour & Madison Square Garden).
Christian Duhamel
Christian Duhamel is the recipient of the 2018 Kleban Award for most promising musical theater librettist and the 2019 BMI Harrington Award For Outstanding Creative Achievement.
In 2017, he was honored to serve as a Songwriting Artist in Residence with Oriental DreamWorks. Mr. Duhamel’s musical, My 80-Year-Old Boyfriend (IRNE Best Solo Performance Winner, IRNE Best New Play Nominee) received its world premiere at Merrimack Repertory Theatre.
His other works include The Girl Who Turned Into A Feather (Something Marvelous Festival); Miss Mayor (Puzzle Theatre Festival; B-Side Productions’ New American Musical Award finalist); Reinventing Romance (Kennedy Center ACTF awards for music, lyrics, playwriting and direction; David Mark Cohen National Playwriting Award finalist); Worlds Apart (Berklee College of Music, Music Theatre Ventures’ Young Creators Award); and X-MAS: A Merry Mutant Musical (Pocket Theatre).
He is an active member of the Dramatists Guild of America, the Off-Broadway Alliance, Actors’ Equity Association, and the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop.
Ayumi Okada
A native of Kyoto, Japan, Ayumi is a musical theatre/classical music composer based in NYC and a 2019 recipient of the BMI Harrington Award for Outstanding Creative Achievement. For her work on The Uncivil Ones, she and her collaborator were honored with a Special Mention at the 2019 Women in Arts & Media Coalition Collaboration Awards.
A number of her classical works have been performed by prestigious ensembles such as Listen Closely and A.W. Duo at various concert halls in NYC including Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. Her musical theatre songs have been performed at The Duplex, Signature Theatre and Feinstein’s/54 Below, among other venues.
Ayumi's first EP, "Here, Where The Land Ends And The Sea Begins,” along with several other chamber pieces are published and available through Abundant Silence. She has also worked for Takarazuka Revue Company in Japan as a co-orchestrator for several shows including 1789: Les Amants de la Bastille and Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Swordsman Romantic Story.
She is a member of the American Federation of Musicians Local 802, the Dramatists Guild of America, and the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Advanced Workshop, and is a board member of Musical Theatre Writers Japan.
NEWS
Songs for the Rest of Us
Our song "Every Day" has been chosen for publication in Songs for the Rest of Us: Character Driven Songs for Underserved Talents; Fresh Musical Theatre Tunes by Ten Women-Identifying Composers. Curated by Elaine Romanelli and featured on a concert of the same name, The Uncivil Ones is honored to be included in this collection.
In Process: Creating Songs for the Stage
The Uncivil Ones was featured on an alumni concert at Kansas State University, Charissa's alma mater in Manhattan, Kansas, on April 29th. Students from K-State presented an outdoor concert featuring new work by past students.
Live & In Color Finalists Showcase
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Songwriters Receive
Prestigious Harrington Award from BMI
Ayumi Okada featured in Local 802 Member Magazine
Read about Ayumi's journey from Japan to New York City and her pursuit to become a musical theatre composer after being inspired by Maury Yeston's Phantom.
Women in Arts & Media Coalition Gala
Charissa Bertels & Ayumi Okada were honored for their collaboration on The Uncivil Ones at the awards ceremony held on March 30, 2019. See more pictures here.
Women in Arts & Media Coalition
THE UNCIVIL ONES has received Special Mention for the
Women in Arts & Media Coalition Collaboration Award.
Emerging Artists Theatre's
New Work Series
In October of 2018, we presented a concert presentation of our first full draft of the show as part of EAT's New Work Series.
Seattle Workshop
In August, we workshopped the piece for a week in Seattle and presented a near complete full draft for a private audience.
Feinstein's/
54 Below
Our song, Mary Ran, was featured on the Broadway Celebrates New Musical Theatre concert at Feinstein's 54 Below in July.
Friday Night Footlights
In April of 2018, we presented the first act of what was then titled "Mary Walker Wears What She Wants".
CONTACT
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