Spotlight on the Playwright

Tom Attea
Tom Attea (book and lyrics), when a member of the Playwrights Unit of the Actors Studio, had a ten-year apprenticeship in musical theater with Charles Friedman, the original director of the stage classics "Pins and Needles," "Sing out the News," the musical version of "Street Scene," "Carmen Jones" and other shows. At that time, Friedman had been collaborating with Oscar Hammerstein (who had died). Charles also found a young composer to work with named Arthur Abrams, who would become Attea's long-time musical collaborator.

The trio collaborated on the revue,"Brief Chronicles of the Time," which premiered at the Actors Studio in 1982. This is Attea's fifth musical with Arthur Abrams to be presented by TNC, which has also produced one of Attea's plays, "Life Knocks" ("Great humor and ebullience ... good, genuine laughs ... Attea's talent as a playwright is evident." -Kessa De Santis, PunchIn International, now with electroniclink.com). Attea has received a TNC/Jerome Foundation emerging playwright grant and is an active member of The Dramatists Guild. He wrote a feature film that was produced by Showtime and created a sit-com that was optioned by CBS, but he has opted to devote himself primarily to the theater. He holds a doctorate in the healthcare field but has always made his living writing copy for pharmaceutical and consumer advertising and now writes websites, too. He lives in New York and Connecticut.