librettist | resident artsist
SAM NORMAN
Sam Norman writes for the stage and screen. A 2023-2024 American Opera Initiative Fellow, he is the librettist of HAIRPIECE, which premiered at the Kennedy Center in early 2024. Other operatic work includes MUCKRAKERS (NYU/AOP Lab 2024) and THREE PENELOPES (Britten Theatre 2022).
As a musical theatre bookwriter and lyricist, he has co-written COME DINE WITH ME: THE MUSICAL, the official stage adaptation of the hit TV show, which is slated to tour the UK in 2024 concluding in an off-West End run. Other musical theatre work has been developed and/or produced at venues including Lincoln Center, Symphony Space, Merkin Hall, off-Broadway Rattlestick Theater, off-West End Turbine Theatre, Hackney Empire, and the Edinburgh Fringe.
His screenplay GAMESTOP won the ScreenCraft TV Pilot Fellowship 2024, and his screenplay SPERM was shortlisted for the BFI Short Film Fund 2023.
He is a Johnny Mercer Foundation Songwriter, a Broadway Future Songbook writer, a winner of the Stephen Spender Prize for Poetry in Translation, and a finalist for the Stiles & Drewe Best New Song Prize, the Mazumdar One-Act Play Competition and the Mercury Theatre Songwriting Competition. Many years ago, he authored a book of comic poems, A Teen’s Guide to Modern Manners (Little, Brown).
Sam loves writing in a variety of genres. His work has been called “well-paced and keenly sharpened” (The Washington Post), “delightfully funny” (Buzzfeed), and “witty, hilarious and completely delightful” (The Huffington Post). He is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild and BMI Bookwriting Workshop. BA, Oxford University; MFA, New York University.
Upcoming Performances:
July 23-28, 2024: Come Dine With Me: The Musical, Norwich Playhouse
July 31-August 26, 2024: Come Dine With Me: The Musical, Edinburgh Fringe
September 4-29, 2024: Come Dine With Me: The Musical, The Turbine Theatre
In Development/Current Commissions:
Girl Goes to the Underworld – concept album written with Bela Konstancja