EllaRose Chary and Brandon James Gwinn are an award-winning writing team specializing in stories that take a fresh look at the queer community with cutting-edge music. They’ve been commissioned and produced by The Civilians at Encores! Off-Center at City Center and Joe's Pub, 54 Below, Theatre C, The Tank, UArts’ Polyphone Festival, Prospect Theater, and more. They’ve been in residence at Ars Nova, Rhinebeck Writers Retreat, The O’Neill National Music Theatre Conference Incubator Residency, and Catwalk Institute. They’ve been awarded grants from NAMT and Anna Sosenko Trust. As Dramatists Guild Fellows, they’ve been featured many times by the Guild and The Dramatists Guild Foundation, including in The Dramatists Magazine and recently online as part of a celebration of World Pride. Together they curate Tank-aret, a monthly cabaret series at The Tank featuring underrepresented artists.
EllaRose’s work has been recognized as a Kleban Award Finalist, NYFA Fellowship Finalist, Kernodle New Play Award Finalist, Great Plains Theatre Conference’s PlayLab playwright, an artist in residence at Harvard College, and with Weston and BOH Cameronian Arts Awards. Her award-winning TYA musical The Doll Maker’s Gift debuted at The Rose Theater in 2019. As an advocate for inclusion in musical theater she has written for The Lilly Awards Blog, HowlRound, Musical Theater Today (contributing editor), and served on panels at NYMF and with Honest Accomplice Theater.
Brandon is also known for his work as a music producer. He produced and performed on the albums Two Birds & One Stone by Trixie Mattel (Winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race Allstars 3), which debuted at #1 on the iTunes Top Albums chart and the Billboard Heatseekers Albums Charts. Brandon also directs and produces music for Alexis Michelle (Drag Race Season 9) and produced her debut album Love Fool for Broadway Records.
Their musicals include TL;DR: Thelma Louise; Dyke Remix (dir: Sherri Eden Barber), Cotton Candy and Cocaine (dir: Carlos Armesto), Queer. People.Time. Patchwork, and The Things I Don’t Say (dir: Emily Maltby).