Showcase 2026:
The Writers
Lawrence Adelson
Lawrence is an award-winning book and lyric writer. He studied anthropology with Marshall Sahlins at University of Michigan. Lawrence is a graduate of the Second City Training Center and learned musical theater writing from Cheryl Coons. Mr. Adelson co-wrote book and lyrics for Billy & the Potato-Powered Time Machine with Keith Gatchel. Billy & was performed at Chicago Musical Theatre Festival 2020. He wrote book and lyrics for the musical comedy Mother of the Bride, performed at Chicago Writer’s Bloc Fall Festival 2025.
Enchanted Universe is loosely based on the writing of Marshall Sahlins’s last book and is written with the assistance of Peter Sahlins and permission of Princeton University Press.
Collapsible text is perfect for longer content like paragraphs and descriptions. It's a great way to give people more information while keeping your layout clean. Link your text to anything, including an external website or a different page. You can set your text box to expand and collapse when people click, so they can read more or less info.
Gregory Becker
Composer
Gregory is an award winning songwriter, composer and lyricist/librettist. His works have sold over 20 Million units worldwide and have been recorded by Carrie Underwood, Rascal Flatts, Leann Rimes, Alan Jackson, Meatloaf, Randy Bachman, Tim McGraw, Brett Eldredge, Billy Currington, Chris Cagle. Alex Williams, Zella Day, John Paul White and many others have been featured in major motion pictures including Flicka, New In Town and Country Strong. He won a CCMA for single of the year and he has contributed to multiple Grammy Nominated projects.
His most recent work WONDER WOMEN THE MUSICAL which tells the true unknown story of the women behind the creation of Wonder Woman, was an official selection for the Atlanta Musical Theater Festival and won 7 awards at the Chicago Musical Theater Festival including Best Score, Best Book and Best in Fest, It was also and a finalist for the NYMF festival and the Eugene O’Neill Musical Theater Conference and is currently being developed for Broadway.
Other projects and works in progress include: Kirby’s Dilemma (composer); Kabob!; (lyricist); Going Viral (lyricist); B.o.b.b.i. (Book, music, lyrics) and Cereal (Book. Music. Lyrics).
Gregory studied Lyric Writing, Composing and Arranging at Berklee College of Music and has been a staff songwriter for Sony ATV, BMG, CAA, Warner-Chappell, Famous Music, Southern Crossroads and is currently signed with Bluewater Music. He is represented by ASCAP, Bluewater Music, and is a proud member of the Dramatist Guild.
Chauncey Davis Mauney
Composer
Chauncey is a performing and devising artist specializing in theatre, music, songwriting, storytelling, and accessible programming. His work with children and young adults has spanned two decades, four states (not including tours), and includes credits with Chicago Children’s Theatre, The Red Kite Project, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Steppenwolf Theatre Company. Chauncey has a particular knack and affinity for working with people with disabilities, making access and inclusion cornerstones in his engagements. He has been on the Lane Arts Council’s roster of teaching artists since moving to Eugene in 2021; this has given him the opportunity to bring his skills and talents to scores of children and classrooms in the form of residencies, assemblies, camps, and professional development for teachers.
Originally from Mississippi, Chauncey grew up around “pickers and grinners” making music anytime there was a gathering. He happily sang and played along on the spoons until he started learning the guitar at about age 11. The sense of closeness and accessibility around those campfires, porches and living rooms is what Chauncey strives for when making music with others.
Peter Sahlins
Peter grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan, but also in France, Fiji, Hawaii, and Chicago. Trained at Harvard (1978) and Princeton (1986), he’s an historian of early modern France and Europe who taught for thirty years at the University of California, Berkeley. Peter’s published widely on a range of topics, including peasant revolts in nineteenth-century France; the making of the French-Spanish boundary in the Pyrenees; and immigration and nationality law in Old Regime and Revolutionary France. More recently, his 1668: The Year of the Animal in France (2017) examined animal-human relations at the court of Louis XIV, and his forthcoming book, Neanderthals Among Us: The Making of a Prehistoric Human (2026) treats the scientific and popular cultural history of Neanderthals since their discovery in 1856. He divides his time between Paris and ARcy-sur-Cure in Burgundy, where he also gives guided tours of its famous prehistoric caves.
Collapsible text is perfect for longer content like paragraphs and descriptions. It's a great way to give people more information while keeping your layout clean. Link your text to anything, including an external website or a different page. You can set your text box to expand and collapse when people click, so they can read more or less info.
Patrick Thomas
Patrick is a Nashville-based singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, originally from Colleyville, Texas. A favorite and live finalist on the inaugural season of NBC’s The Voice (Team Blake), Patrick was noticed and signed by Grammy Award-winning songwriter Brett James and Cornman Music as a sophomore in college at Vanderbilt University.
As a sought-after vocalist and performer, Patrick has toured extensively singing classic country covers with dozens of major symphony orchestras across North America. He has been featured with the Dallas, Phoenix, Calgary, Utah, and Maryland symphonies, among others. Performing at the world-famous Ryman Auditorium in a tribute to the late Glen Campbell, Patrick received standing ovations for his renditions of “Rhinestone Cowboy” and “Lady Like You.” In September of 2017 he released a self-titled EP produced by Grammy Award-winner Mark Bright (Carrie Underwood, Rascal Flatts) and Will Bowen. The album was followed by a Christmas record and a number of singles as an independent artist.
A gifted entertainer, Patrick composed and performed over twenty-five short songs, live on television, as part of CBS’s national coverage of the 2019 NFL draft. In addition to his career as a country artist, Patrick wrote the music and lyrics for the new musical, The Battle of Franklin, debuting to sell out crowds in Franklin, TN and breaking gross ticket sales records for the producing company, Studio Tenn. His newest musical, with lyricist Greg Becker and writer Jeffrey Yerkes, is currently under development. For more information please visit www.PatrickThomasMusic.com
Collapsible text is perfect for longer content like paragraphs and descriptions. It's a great way to give people more information while keeping your layout clean. Link your text to anything, including an external website or a different page. You can set your text box to expand and collapse when people click, so they can read more or less info.
Jeffrey Yerkes
Jeffrey is a writer living in Boston. He worked as a writer, producer, and production staffer in cable and network television for close to 15 years, including shows for A&E and the Discovery Science channel. In Los Angeles, his engagements included five seasons as a script coordinator on Seinfeld, learning at the right hand of Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld (Jerry’s left, actually). He also worked on NBC’s Saved by the Bell, and The Crow for Polygram Television. In recent years, he’s been focused on creating marketing content for clients while developing a number of other personal literary and television projects. His sole theatrical experience was serving as an assistant to the producer of Leonard Bernstein’s MASS at the Boston Opera House, but he hopes to have more.
Collapsible text is perfect for longer content like paragraphs and descriptions. It's a great way to give people more information while keeping your layout clean. Link your text to anything, including an external website or a different page. You can set your text box to expand and collapse when people click, so they can read more or less info.