Salem

A DARK Musical comedy

Written by Jennifer Lucy Cook, Shelby Solla, & T. J. Pieffer
Produced by Blair Russell
Directed by Sarah Rosenthal

THE CREATORS

  • Jennifer Lucy Cook

    Writer

    Jennifer is a composer and lyricist based in Los Angeles. Jen specializes in music for the stage and screen, choral music, and pop songwriting. Recent commissions include Cantorum Chamber Choir, Choral Arts Ensemble in Minnesota, and the Utah Valley University Chamber Choir. She is the recipient of the Edwin Fissinger Composition Award, the Chorus Austin Composition Prize, and the Cantus Emerging Composer Award. She is an alumni of the Johnny Mercer Foundation Writer’s Grove with Goodspeed Musicals, and her theater commissions include Full House Theatre Co., British Youth Musical Theatre, and Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London. Jen's work as a composer and vocalist can be heard in the Netflix documentary Sins of Our Mother, in Starcade Arcade's video game Torsion, and in her musical recaps of the Bachelor that recently went viral on TikTok. She earned a Master’s degree in Musical Theater Writing from Goldsmiths University in London and a Bachelor’s in Media Music from Brigham Young University.

  • Shelby Solla

    Writer

    Shelby is a playwright and screenwriter based in Brooklyn. Her plays and dramatic writing have been produced at New York Live Arts, Primary Stages, the PIT Loft, Pittsburgh New Works Festival (Runner-Up: Best LabWorks Production), Undiscovered Countries’ Infinite Festival, and Dixon Place. Most recently, she was commissioned to write a new play, Custodians, for a festival of professional playwriting alumni at her alma mater, Marymount Manhattan College. Shelby has studied improv at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater and sketch comedy at the Peoples’ Improv Theater in NYC. “1385”, the pilot she co-wrote with T.J. Pieffer, was selected as a second-rounder for Austin Film Festival in 2021.

  • T. J. Pieffer

    Writer

    T.J. is a New York based writer and performer. He has studied and performed at comedy institutions and theaters around the country including The Second City Conservatory, The Den, The Annoyance, UCB, The PIT, Omaha Comedy Festival, and Playwrights Horizons. His original musical comedy, ABDUCTION, has received numerous readings, workshops, and productions, including MTAP, The New York Musical Festival, New Musicals Inc., and a licensed production at the University of Pittsburgh. His original musical comedy, SALEM, was selected for the 2023 Johnny Mercer Foundation’s Writer’s Grove at Goodspeed Musicals. T.J. is a contributor to the satirical online publication The Broadway Beat. He is a recipient of the 2016 Ron Norinksy Grant and the 2014 Carnegie Mellon University’s Pre-College Scholarship. His original TV pilot with Shelby Solla “1385” was a 2021 Austin Film Festival Runner Up. Proud member of The Dramatists Guild and ASCAP.

ABOUT Salem

Outlandish conspiracy theories; misinformation spreading like wildfire; and an infamously controversial trial in the early 90’s.

Yep, this is 17th century New England.

SALEM is a dark musical comedy that follows two Puritan teenagers, Abby and Betty, as they plant accusations of witchcraft in an attempt to con their way out of the oppressive theocratic swamp town of Salem, Massachusetts. After pushing the limits of townie gossip, they find themselves centered in a web of witchy conspiracies more intricate than they ever could’ve imagined.

With pamphleteers presented as 1690’s cable news anchors, an apparition of the Devil forged from the imagination of a teenaged girl, and deliciously danceable pop musical numbers, this is not your high school English teacher’s take on "The Crucible.”

SALEM was selected for the 2023 Johnny Mercer Foundation’s Writer’s Grove at Goodspeed Musicals. It received a 29 hour industry reading in January 2024 starring Tony nominee John-Andrew Morrison (A Strange Loop), Angie Schworer (Some Like It Hot, The Prom,) Gizel Jiménez (Wicked, Miss You Like Hell), Elizabeth Teeter (Beetlejuice, The Crucible), PJ Adzima (The Book of Mormon), Harrison Bryan, Natalie Charle Ellis (Beetlejuice), Callum Francis (Kinky Boots), J’Quay Gibbs, Lizzy Murray, Tally Sessions (Company, Falsettos), Kathleen Stuart (Hawaii: Five-O), Bronwyn Tarboton (Harmony, Frozen), and Danielle Wade (Mean Girls). The reading was produced by Blair Russell, Ido Gal, and Isaid Corona of Blair Russell Productions (Lizard Boy, Slave Play).