We believe in continuing to support artists beyond their residencies. Our Artist Labs program, that launched in Spring 2025, will aid artists in further developing their creative projects by giving them additional time, space, and funds. Pieces selected for Artist Labs have a known or established path to future performances/workshops.
This fall, our Artist Labs program will support the progression of Life Jacket Theatre Company’s new musical and Spring 2025 Residency project, THE GORGEOUS NOTHINGS.
Inspired by real people and events, THE GORGEOUS NOTHINGS is a new musical that tells the forgotten story of the “Fag Ward” — an isolated wing at the Men’s Penitentiary on Welfare Island, NYC, for inmates convicted of homosexuality during the 1930s. With a reimagined score from the Great American Songbook, this boundary-spanning musical weaves 6 inmates’ stories into high-camp numbers from The Fag Follies — the prison’s annual Christmas pageant — to expose a secret, fabulous, underground world that was never supposed to have existed.
Melding fact and fiction, THE GORGEOUS NOTHINGS builds a rich and complex tapestry based on interviews, archival documents, and prison records. Woven together, these “lost” materials tell the wrongfully erased story of a community of fabulous, fierce, and fearless queer pioneers who led a silent but powerful revolution, bravely building the foundation of the modern LGBTQ+ liberation movement 40+ years before the Stonewall riots.
Travis Lee Russ, Ph.D. (Book Writer) is a queer playwright and director from a small industrial town in rural Indiana. Recent: America is Hard to See (Critics’ Picks—The List, Voice Magazine, Fest Magazine; “Top 10 Plays of the Year”—New, Now, Next; “#1 Show of Edinburgh Fringe”—Fest Magazine) and Gorey: The Secret Lives of Edward Gorey (Critics’ Picks—The New York Times & Time Out; Drama Desk nomination, seven New York Innovative Theatre Award nominations; two Henry Hewes Design Award nominations). Currently, Russ is a professor at Fordham University where he teaches research-based storytelling. Ph.D. in Communication: Rutgers.
Danny Mefford (Director & Choreographer) has choreographed and/or directed 30+ acclaimed productions in New York City and around the world that celebrate, humanize, and interrogate the under-told stories of America’s underdogs. In the past 10 years alone, he has choreographed three Tony Award winners for Best Musical: Kimberly Akimbo (2023), Dear Evan Hansen (2017), and Fun Home (2015). Other Broadway: Bridges of Madison County, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson. Off-Broadway: Titanic, Venus, Miss You Like Hell, February House, Good Person of Szechwan. TV: Rise (NBC), Dickinson (AppleTV+), Fleischman is in Trouble (FX). Awards: Astaire, Lortel, Drama Desk Award Nominations. MFA in Acting: Brown/Trinity Repertory.
Dan Schlosberg’s (Arranger & Orchestrator) recent work has been performed by Dover Quartet, Choir of Trinity Wall Street, Minnesota Orchestra, Nashville Symphony, Albany Symphony, Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, and Lorelei Ensemble. Venues: Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Royal Albert Hall, Sydney Opera House, Beijing Modern Music Festival, and David Lynch’s Festival of Disruption. Recent: New orchestrations of Ruders’ The Handmaid’s Tale (Banff Centre); arrangements/music direction for The Marriage of Figaro (NYC’s Little Island). Collaborations: Steven Spielberg, Ariana DeBose, Jeremy O. Harris, Jeanine Tesori, Justin Vivian Bond, Tony Kushner, Anthony Roth Costanzo. Awards: Drama Desk Award Nomination. DMA in Composition: Yale.