It's that time of the year again for the recognition of some amazing up and coming talent on the theatre scene, specifically, the 20th Annual Kleban Awards. The Kleban Foundation is pleased to announce that the 20th Annual Kleban Prize for the most promising musical theater lyricist has gone to Peter Mills and the award for the most promising musical theater librettist has gone to Barry Wyner. The 2010 awards will be presented on June 21, 2010, in a private ceremony (by invitation only) at ASCAP.
Mills recently wrote music and lyrics for Golden Boy Of The Blue Ridge, a critically-acclaimed bluegrass adaptation of J.M. Synge's Playboy of the Western World set in 1930s Appalachia. 
He was the recipient of the 2007 Fred Ebb Award for emerging songwriters, the 2003 Richard Rodgers New Horizons Award from the ASCAP Foundation, and a 2002 grant from the Jonathan Larson Performing Arts Foundation. In addition, he received 2006 Drama Desk Award nominations for his show The Pursuit Of Persephone (Best Music and Best Orchestrations). He supplied lyrics for Iron Curtain, (book by Susan DiLallo, music by Stephen Weiner), which received the 2006 IT Award for Best Musical and was selected for the 2008 Eugene O'Neill Musical Theatre Conference. Illyria, a musical adaptation of Twelfth Night, had its regional premiere at The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey in Fall 2004, with a cast album released in April 2005. His first full-length show, The Taxi Cabaret, was published by Samuel French in Fall 2004. Marco Polo, written with composer Deborah Abramson, was selected for the ASCAP Musical Theater Workshop in 2000, and Peter and Deborah were chosen as 2000-01 Dramatists Guild Fellows. As composer/lyricist, other shows include The Alchemists, Lonely Rhymes, The Rockae and Honor. Peter holds an M.F.A. in Musical Theater Writing from New York University's Tisch School for the Arts and a degree in English/Dramatic Literature from Princeton University. He is a founding member of Prospect Theater Company. For more information visit www.pcmills.com
Wyner wrote the book, music, and lyrics to the musical Calvin Berger, which recently had a critically acclaimed production at George Street Playhouse (New Brunswick, NJ) under the direction of two-time Tony winner Kathleen Marshall. It also has had full productions at Gloucester Stage Co. and Barrington Stage Co., and is currently under commercial option for New York City. Barry is a previous winner of both the Richard Rodgers Award and the Jerry Bock Award, and received an IRNE Award nomination for best new play (Independent Reviewers of New England). He has had developmental readings of his work at Manhattan Theatre Club, NAMCO (Barry and Fran Weissler, producers), Musicals Tonight, and Blue Spruce Productions (Scott Delman, producer). Barry has composed original music for a Terrence McNally world premiere, several Israel Horovitz world premieres, a BBC Radio play (starring Jill Clayburgh), Boston Theater Marathon, Actor's Studio, Wings Theater, Access Theater, AMDA, The Battery's Down, and many more. One of his songs was published in the BMI Workshop Songbook and subsequently recorded by Neil Patrick Harris. Barry was also the original arranger and music director of Gutenberg! The Musical! at Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. He received a BA from UNC-Chapel Hill and MFA from Queens College, both in music composition, and is currently in the BMI Advanced Musical Theatre Workshop. For more information visit www.BarryWyner.com.
