Bree Lowdermilk (formerly Brian Lowdermilk) is an American

musical theater Musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, movement ...

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

and

lyricist A lyricist is a songwriter who writes lyrics (the spoken words), as opposed to a composer, who writes the song's music which may include but not limited to the melody, harmony, arrangement and accompaniment. Royalties A lyricist's income ...

Biography

In addition to writing music and lyrics, Lowdermilk is also a

music director A music(al) director or director of music is the person responsible for the musical aspects of a performance, production, or organization. This would include the artistic director and usually chief conductor of an orchestra or concert band, the d ...

arranger In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orches ...

vocal coach A vocal coach, also known as a voice coach (though this term often applies to those working with speech and communication rather than singing), is a music teacher, usually a piano accompanist, who helps singers prepare for a performance, often a ...

, and

pianist A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...

. They are an alumnus of

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

and BMI theatre writing workshop. Lowdermilk is best known for their collaboration with Kait Kerrigan. Their works together include shows such as ''The Bad Years'', ''Republic'', ''Unbound'', ''Flash of Time'', ''The Woman Upstairs'', ''The Unauthorized Autobiography of Samantha Brown'' (revised in 2017 as ''The Mad Ones'') (with Zach Altman) and ''Wrong Number''. Lowdermilk and Kerrigan wrote

TheatreworksUSA TheatreWorksUSA is a professional, not-for-profit theatre for young and family audiences founded in 1961. The company is based out of New York City, but has touring productions that run through forty-nine states as well as parts of Canada. Pl ...

's adaptation of ''Henry and Mudge'', which premiered

Off-Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...

in 2006 at the Lucille Lortel Theatre, which is where they made their Off-Broadway debut. In one review of that piece, Lowdermilk and Kerrigan were called "perhaps the most important young writers in musical theatre today." In 2011, Kerrigan and Lowdermilk released their first CD, ''"Our First Mistake"''. The CD was a result of fan support through a campaign on Kickstarter. To celebrate both the CD and their fans, Kerrigan-Lowdermilk launched a series of New York City concerts under the name ''You Made This Tour''. A selection of recordings from these concerts was bundled for their follow-up album, ''"Kerrigan-Lowdermilk Live"''. The pair made their London debut at the

St James Theatre St. James Theatre is a Broadway theatre in New York City. St. James Theatre may also refer to: Australia * St. James Theatre, Sydney, multi-storey building in Elizabeth Street, not to be confused with diminutive St James' Hall, Sydney New Zeala ...

in February 2014 in a concert series produced by United Theatrical - a London-based theatrical production company run by

Stuart Matthew Price Matthew Price (born 6 August 1983 in Kidderminster, England) is a British actor, dancer and West End stage and concert singer known for playing Riff Raff in three European tours of ''The Rocky Horror Show''. He is also a composer, having writt ...

and

James Yeoburn James Yeoburn (born 30 December 1989) is an English producer and entrepreneur. He is the founder of international theatre production company United Theatrical Early life and education Yeoburn was born in Exeter, Devon and grew up on the Harefi ...

. The featured singers included West End performers

Rachel Tucker Rachel Kelly Tucker (born 29 May 1981) is a Northern Irish West End and Broadway actress, best known for her portrayal of Elphaba in the hit musical '' Wicked''. She most recently starred in Come from Away on Broadway, having originated the role ...

Julie Atherton Julie Atherton is a British actress and singer. On 3 October 2009, she finished portraying the roles of Kate Monster and Lucy the Slut in the West End production of '' Avenue Q''. She released her debut album, ''A Girl of Few Words,'' on 2 Octo ...

Daniel Boys Daniel Boys (born 26 March 1979) is an English musical theatre actor, who was a contestant on the BBC talent series '' Any Dream Will Do'' in 2007 before becoming known as a stage actor in various musicals including '' Avenue Q'', ''Spamalot'' an ...

, Chloe Hart, Jodie Jacobs,

Lauren Samuels Lauren Alvarado (born 26 March 1988) is an English singer/actress who performs under the stage name "Lauren Samuels". She became well known to the British public as a contestant on the 2010 BBC UK TV series '' Over the Rainbow''. Since appearing ...

and Anton Zetterholm.

Personal life

On May 3, 2021, Lowdermilk came out as a transfeminine non-binary person and specified their

pronouns In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun (list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated ) is a word or a group of words that one may substitute for a noun or noun phrase. Pronouns have traditionally been regarded as one of the part of speech, parts o ...

she/her In Modern English, ''she'' is a singular, feminine, third-person pronoun. Morphology In Standard Modern English, ''she'' has four shapes representing five distinct word forms: * ''she'': the nominative (subjective) form * ''her'': the a ...

they/them Singular ''they'', along with its inflected or derivative forms, ''them'', ''their'', ''theirs'' and ''themselves'' (or ''themself''), is a gender-neutral third-person pronoun. It typically occurs with an unspecified antecedent, in sentence ...

Works

*''Battleship Ticonderoga'' (book by Bree Lowdermilk and Marcus Stevens) *''Cellular Passion'' *''Elliot and the Magic Bed'' (lyrics by Bree Lowdermilk and Marcus Stevens; book by Marcus Stevens) *'' From Where I Stand'' *'' Henry and Mudge'' (with Kait Kerrigan) *''Places You Never Called Home'' *''RED'' (lyrics by Bree Lowdermilk and Marcus Stevens; book by Marcus Stevens) *''Republic''—opened off-Broadway in 2012 (with Kait Kerrigan) *''Room To Grow'' *''Transient Days'' (book by Zach Altman) *''The Unauthorized Autobiography of Samantha Brown'' (music and lyrics by Bree Lowdermilk; book and lyrics by Kait Kerrigan; additional book and concept by Zach Altman); (2009) is a musical written jointly by Kait Kerrigan and Lowdermilk. Kerrigan initially wrote the musical for an all student production at Barnard College but later re-worked the musical with the assistance of Lowdermilk for a wider audience. The plot involves the upcoming graduation of high school class valedictorian, Samantha, who must decide what she wants with her life and how her parents, her friends, and her boyfriend, Adam, fit into her life. *''Tales from the Bad Years'' (with Kait Kerrigan) *''Whatever It Takes'' (book by Bree Lowdermilk and

Gary Sunshine Gary Sunshine is an American playwright and television writer. He was born in Brooklyn, New York and raised on Long Island, where his father was a self-employed plastic slipcover cutter and his mother was a computer programmer. Sunshine started ...

; book by Gary Sunshine) *'' The Woman Upstairs'' (with Kait Kerrigan) *''Wrong Number'' (with Kait Kerrigan) *''Our First Mistake'' (Kerrigan & Lowdermilk) *''The Mad Ones'' (a revised version ''The Unauthorized Biography of Samantha Brown'') *''The Bad Years, an immersive house party musical set for an open-ended commercial production in New York City beginning in 2018. *''Justice'' (Lyrics by Kait Kerrigan; book by Lauren Gunderson)

Awards

* 2004-2005 Dramatists Guild Fellowship * 2005

Richard Rodgers Awards for Musical Theatre The Richard Rodgers Award is an annual award presented by the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and was created and endowed by Richard Rodgers in 1978 for the development of new works in musical theatre. These awards provide financial support ...

for ''Red'' with Marcus Stevens * 2006 Larson Award for ''Henry and Mudge'' with Kait Kerrigan

References

External links

Profile
kerrigan-lowdermilk.com. Accessed October 3, 2022. {{DEFAULTSORT:Lowdermilk, Bree American musical theatre composers American musical theatre lyricists Jewish American musicians Living people 1982 births American LGBT musicians LGBT composers Non-binary musicians Transgender non-binary people 21st-century American Jews 21st-century LGBT people