June 21, 2025 – MATCH (Matchbox 1)
Play & Musical Festival | 2 hours including one intermission
Recommended for teens & adults
New Works Festival
Thunderclap Productions is proud to present a festival featuring several local playwrights, lyricists, and composers showcasing excerpts from their new plays and musicals. Join us to get glimpses of new works in progress by these Houston-area creatives! This New Works Festival is funded in part by the City of Houston through Houston Arts Alliance.
The Cast
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The Director
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Featured Creators
Aaron Alon
Aaron Alon is an award-winning composer, writer, director, filmmaker, and teacher. His concert music has been played in concert venues in seven countries (including in 14 US states, as well as Washington, DC) on five continents, released on five labels, and awarded numerous national and international composition honors. Since 2009, Alon has also been highly active as a playwright and musical theatre composer-lyricist. His plays and musicals have been read or performed in New York City, Houston, San Diego, and Galveston, as well as in the UK. He was one of six international finalists for 2022 Fred Ebb Awards for musical theatre writers and one of three international finalists for the 2023 Stanley Drama Awards. Aaron is the writer and director of the award-winning feature film musical Bully (2017), which has been screened in and awarded prizes from numerous film festivals around the world. Current projects include three new stage musicals (The Great White Way: the Bert Williams Musical, Mad!, and The Chosen Ones); additional new plays, musicals, and films; and additional content for his YouTube Channel, which has had nearly 10 million views. Aaron holds a doctorate in music composition from Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music. Learn more about him at aaronalon.com.
Alric Davis
Alric Davis is driven by the age-old tradition of preserving history through storytelling. Since 2013, he has served as the Founding Artistic Director of The Sankofa Collective, a non-profit theatre organization in his hometown Houston, Texas with the purpose to expose, educate and enrich the lives of at-risk communities of color to theatre. He holds a B.F.A. from Howard University with a concentration in Musical Theatre and Playwriting. He is also a freelance performer, director, theatre critic and adjunct instructor in acting, playwriting, slam poetry and choreography. Some of his favorite directing credits are The Color Purple, Twelfth Night, The Bodyguard, Julius Caesar, Eclipsed, Burden of Proof, Marie Antoinette, Next to Normal, Miss Evers Boys, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Wiz (2019 – Broadway World Award winner). Alric is also a commissioned playwright with Remember The Resurrection in 2024 and Reap the Reparations for Theatre Alliance in D.C in 2020. His original play Different, Damaged, Damned appeared at the D.C. Capital Fringe Festival, his work Queen Peaches appeared at The Tank in New York and his play Bashful and the Noize won the 2021 Page to Stage Festival for the Kennedy Center.
Lizzie Guest
Lizzie Guest is a Houston-based playwright and performer. Her first play DE(CODED) was performed at New York Fringe and Houston Fringe and was a 2018 Book Pipeline semifinalist. She has had several other works performed in NYC.
Eric Christopher Jones
Eric Jones is a Medford, Massachusetts born, Minnesota & Texas raised artist. Mr. Jones is a graduate of Texas Southern University, B.S. Pharmacy. He has been involved with the Christian theater circuit since 1995 as a writer, actor, director and composer. Writing credits includes: Children of the Passage, Three Crosses, Postcard Journeys though Christmas, Hallelujah Follies, Sweet Freedom, American Skin Freedom Quilt, Liberators and Fired! The Musical, American Rifle at the Fade to Black Theater Festival, and Audition at the Fragmentation IV. Acting credits include: The Elder in Children of the Passage, Rev. Tuck in Three Crosses, Seward in Winter Garden, Mr. Gable in Postcard Journeys though Christmas. Film Credits: Mortal Love for the 48 Hour Film Project Houston 2011 (Screenwriter & Actor), Curveball for the 48 Hour Film Project 2012 (Story Writer, Actor & Producer), winner of 5 awards for Best of Film ceremony Dreamland Murders (Story & Co-Scriptwriter, Actor & Producer); winner of 6 Awards for Best of Film including Best Screenplay Nomination. Dreamland Murders also won the 2015 Silver REMI Award at the 2015 World Fest Houston Film Festival for Best Dark Comedy. Directing credits include: Children of the Passage, Miracle at Nativity Park & Co-directed Liberators a New Musical. Currently, Emancipation will be premiering at the Atlanta Black Theater Festival, The Underachieving Adulterer written by Devan Wade. “ Eric would like to thank God, my family, WRCF church and the Ensemble Theater for supporting us over the years.
Neil Ellis Orts
Neil Ellis Orts has participated in theater, on and off, for many years, as an actor and director. He recently turned to playwriting and was part of the 2024 cohort at the New Play Lab at the William Inge Festival in Independence, KS. He also writes prose poems, short stories, and articles, published in small press journals, anthologies, and magazines. His novella, Cary and John, is available wherever you order books.
The Production Team
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