ABOUT

ELLAROSE CHARY (she/hers) is an award-winning writer and advocate for inclusion in musical theater. She is a Richard Rodgers Award winner, Drama League Award Nominee, Dramatists Guild Fellow, NYFA Fellowship Playwriting/Screenwriting Finalist, Kleban Prize Finalist, Kernodle New Play Award Finalist, Doric Wilson Award Semi-Finalist and winner of a BOH Cameronian Arts Award and the Weston Award for Musical Theater.

In addition to winning the 2021 Rodgers Award, her musical TL;DR: THELMA LOUISE; DYKE REMIX was featured in the 33rd NAMT Festival of New Musicals and has been developed at The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center (NMTC Incubator Residency, NMTC Finalist), Rhinebeck Writers Retreat (Triple R Residency), and the UArts Polyphone Festival. Her play THE WRONG QUESTION was selected for the 2021 Jewish Playwriting Contest. She is the bookwriter for the award-winning THE DOLL MAKER’S GIFT, which opened at The Rose Theater in 2019 (“Families should flock to this one.” – Omaha World-Herald) and her play THE SÉANCE MACHINE premiered off-off Broadway at Obie Award Winning The Tank in 2019. Her other projects include: COTTON CANDY AND COCAINE, HOW TO SURVIVE THE END OF THE WORLD (featured on Broadway.com, BroadwayWorld, Hollywood Soapbox, and 89.5 FM Star), THE LAKE AND THE MILL, QUEER. PEOPLE. TIME., PATRIETTES (The #FWord Finalist) and the Malaysian musical MARRYING ME.

She has been in residence at Ars Nova (Uncharted), Harvard ArtLab, Catwalk Institute, Milikin University, and has received an Anna Sosenko Grant and a NAMT grant. Her work has been produced, developed and commissioned by the Great Plains Theater Conference, the Drama League, The Civilians and City Center (Encores! Off-Center), Theater C, AFO Solo Shorts, Luna Stage, Prospect Theater, Joe’s Pub, and 54 Below. She was a guest lecturer and production studio lead artist at Harvard University in the Theater, Dance and Media department in Fall 2020.

She is an activist and advocate for inclusion in media both on and off stage. She has written for The Lilly Awards Blog, HowlRound, and Musical Theater Today (where she is a contributing editor). Her work coordinating Amplifying Activists Together phone banks with Natasha Sinha and Jay Stull was recently featured in American Theatre. She has appeared on panels at NYMF and with Honest Accomplice Theater and co-created Tankaret, a cabaret series for underrepresented voices. She believes the future of the American theater is universal healthcare. MFA: NYU Tisch, BA: Brown University.

"I strive to put characters in my work who are representative of the world I live in or who may be otherized for some reason, but to not have the fact that those characters are 'other' be their defining trait." - Curve Magazine

" 'If I were being cynical (which I can be), I might say that [this proliferation] may be due to what my friend and fellow musical writer, EllaRose Chary calls ‘the trickle down equality of white gay men,’' says bookwriter and composer-lyricist Michael R. Jackson." - Playbill

"Mind you, EllaRose (oh my god, so in love with her name!) is no calang-calang (translation: ordinary) lyricist." - PenTAS

"Marrying Me’s music spread – all melodic and catchy – balances well with the show’s witty lyrics." - The Star

"[Connie] Britton said it was difficult for her to choose her favorites, and she was moved to tears watching the videos and appreciating the unique effort that went into each one." - The Hollywood Reporter

"The video is pretty funny; of course, it's a laughter through tears." - Bushwick Daily

Bio

"The writing is deft and fun and the voice overs and sounds emanating from all around make this a completely entertaining horror happening" - Front Row Center

EllaRose Chary

writer * performer * activist

@caffeinediary

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