Who We Are

Ben Batchelder is a Brooklyn-based playwright, composer, and music teacher. As an actor he has appeared in several off-Broadway plays, short films, and cartoons. He plays with various bands throughout New York City including (but not limited to) The Newsreels, Open Blue, Ali Aslam & the Storytellers, and his own band Electric Moses. He sings and plays accordion and sopilka with Ukrainian Village Voices. In his spare time he enjoys learning languages, listening to audiobooks, and taking long, long, long walks.

Lawrence A. Herman is a veteran of New York community theater, having been trained in improv at the National Improvisational Theatre and appearing in Split Second Theatre improvising one-act plays. He has acted in and directed several shows through the years as well as writing sketches and songs, collected in Mood Swings: A Musical Comedy Revue By, For, and About the Emotionally Unstable. He wrote the lyrics for Context (It's About Me), sung by Bonnie Gorman at a benefit for the New York City Ballet at Weill Recital Hall in Carnegie Hall and by Courtney Kenny at the 50th anniversary of the Park Lane Theatre in London, who also recorded the song on his album American Cabaret Songs. With BAMTC, Lawrence has written the book and lyrics for the mini musical Lovers on the Balcony with music by Dan Furman, the full-length musical The Treasurer Has Absconded With the Money, and a musical based on the Edgar Allan Poe short story Never Bet the Devil Your Head.

Derek Miranda (he/they) is a Filipino-American songwriter delving into the world of musical theater. With his trusty guitar, he writes folk- and soul-tinged songs and hopes to make his listeners laugh or connect with a different perspective. A few of his favorite musical theater artists include Stephen Sondheim, Dave Malloy and Jason Robert Brown. Before moving to NYC, Derek was involved in open mic communities in Los Angeles such as Tuesday Night Cafe, Sunday Jump and Palms Up Academy, where he’s developed and performed original work and collaborated with fellow artists. As a musician, he's been singing and playing guitar for 10 years and has trained more formally in musical theater, pop and classical voice over the past three years. When he’s not ruffling through Rhymezone, he enjoys playing roguelike video games, cooking, and writing in the third person.

Sarah Safford is a lyricist, playwright, song writer, tap dancer, and rapper.  She’s an alum of the BMI Musical Theater Workshop and Mind the Gap, New York Theater Workshop’s intergenerational playwriting group. An eager collaborator she has contributed to a wide variety of shows over the past 50 years. Her recent rap material is focused on Aging and End of Life issues.  Musical theater projects include Club Meds, a dramedy about a cancer support group (originally titled The Big C until the TV show came out!), and Over the Road, about a CDL training program for low income New Yorkers.  These musicals had readings at IRT Theater, Brooklyn Adult Learning Center, Dramatists Guild, Martha’s Vineyard Theater, and Mad Horse Theater in Portland Maine.  She is currently working on EcoDisaster in the World of Pooh, in which the familiar AA Milne characters have aged and must now deal with the frightening realities of climate change.