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MEET THE SALEM TEAM
JENNIFER LUCY COOK
music/lyrics
Jennifer is a composer and lyricist based in Los Angeles. Jen specializes in music for the stage and screen, choral music, and pop songwriting. Recent commissions include Cantorum Chamber Choir, Choral Arts Ensemble in Minnesota, and the Utah Valley University Chamber Choir. She is the recipient of the Edwin Fissinger Composition Award, the Chorus Austin Composition Prize, and the Cantus Emerging Composer Award. She is an alumni of the Johnny Mercer Foundation Writer’s Grove with Goodspeed Musicals, and her theater commissions include Full House Theatre Co., British Youth Musical Theatre, and Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London. Jen's work as a composer and vocalist can be heard in the Netflix documentary Sins of Our Mother, in Starcade Arcade's video game Torsion, and in her musical recaps of the Bachelor that recently went viral on TikTok. She earned a Master’s degree in Musical Theater Writing from Goldsmiths University in London and a Bachelor’s in Media Music from Brigham Young University.
T.J. PIEFFER
book
T.J. is a New York based writer and performer. He has studied and performed at comedy institutions and theaters around the country including The Second City Conservatory, The Den, The Annoyance, UCB, The PIT, Omaha Comedy Festival, and Playwrights Horizons. His original musical comedy, ABDUCTION, has received numerous readings, workshops, and productions, including MTAP, The New York Musical Festival, New Musicals Inc., and a licensed production at the University of Pittsburgh. His original musical comedy, SALEM, was selected for the 2023 Johnny Mercer Foundation’s Writer’s Grove at Goodspeed Musicals. T.J. is a contributor to the satirical online publication The Broadway Beat. He is a recipient of the 2016 Ron Norinksy Grant and the 2014 Carnegie Mellon University’s Pre-College Scholarship. His original TV pilot with Shelby Solla “1385” was a 2021 Austin Film Festival Runner Up. Proud member of The Dramatists Guild and ASCAP.
SHELBY SOLLA
book
Shelby is a playwright and screenwriter based in Brooklyn. Her plays and dramatic writing have been produced at New York Live Arts, Primary Stages, the PIT Loft, Pittsburgh New Works Festival (Runner-Up: Best LabWorks Production), Undiscovered Countries’ Infinite Festival, and Dixon Place. Most recently, she was commissioned to write a new play, Custodians, for a festival of professional playwriting alumni at her alma mater, Marymount Manhattan College. Shelby has studied improv at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater and sketch comedy at the Peoples’ Improv Theater in NYC. “1385”, the pilot she co-wrote with T.J. Pieffer, was selected as a second-rounder for Austin Film Festival in 2021.
BLAIR RUSSELL
lead producer
Blair is a producer, developer, supporter, and lover of theatre and live performance whose experience ranges from fringe festivals to Broadway shows. His most recent projects include the Tony-nominated Slave Play by Jeremy O. Harris, Lizard Boy by Justin Huertas, For Tonight by Shenelle Salcido and Spencer Williams, and the concept recordings of TikTok sensation EPIC the Musical which has over 75 million streams on Spotify. As Co-founder and Director of Operations for Resounding, he produces immersive and technology-based entertainment events across the country. Blair is currently Co-President of the Board of New York Theatre Barn, Vice Chair of the Board of The New Harmony Project, and a member of the Board of Trustees of Goodspeed Musicals. He is a graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University with a BFA in Technical Theatre/Stage Management.
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