User:Starhunterfan/sandbox

Seth Bisen-Hersh
Born	East Brunswick, New Jersey
Alma mater	Massachusetts Institute of Technology; New York University
Website
sethbh.com

Seth Bisen-Hersh is an American author, performer, composer/lyricist, producer, and crossword puzzle constructor.

Early Life and Education

Bisen-Hersh grew up in East Brunswick, New Jersey. He graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with two Bachelors degrees (in Computer Science and Music) in 2001, then earned a Masters' degree in Music Technology from New York University in 2003.

Career

Bisen-Hersh's interest in musical theater started young, and he grew up performing in children's theater productions during summers, as well as performing with local performing arts groups. He started producing and writing shows during his underraduate studies at MIT, and became serious about pursuing a career in musical theatre during his time at graduate school in New York. His first professional musical theater production was Meaningless Sex which premiered at the 2003 New York International Fringe Festival, where it won the Audience Favorite Award.

The following year he won the NYC Fringe Festival’s Audience Favorite Award for a second time, with his new musical The Spickner Spin.

He has written the score (music and lyrics) for numerous musical theatre productions, including Meaningless Sex, The Spickner Spin, More to Love, Stanley’s Party, Love Quirks, The Diamond as Big as the Ritz, Malka and Agatha Christie’s The Secret Adversary.

In 2010, he wrote a children's stage show titled Stanley’s Party, based on the popular books “Stanley’s Wild Ride” and “Stanley’s Party” by Linda Bailey. The production had a six week run at the Manhattan Childrens Theatre.

In 2014, Bisen-Hersh wrote the music for More to Love, which debuted at the West Village Musical Theatre Festival, where it won an award for Best Lyrics.

In 2016, Bisen-Hersh turned his web series, "Every Day a Little Seth” into a sitcom pilot.

His musical Love Quirks started life as a song cycle for a cabaret night at famed NY cabaret venue Don't Tell Mama. Bisen-Hersh worked with director Brian Childers and book writer Mark Childers to create a musical theatre show around some of his most popular cabaret songs, with a plotline revolving around a group of roommates exploring the bizarre tribulations of love and friendship. Love Quirks had a three-week run at Theatre 54 in 2014. In 2020, after some years of development, the show transferred to the off-Broadway venue St Luke's Theater where preview performances were disrupted by the Covid 19 pandemic, the production was ultimately cancelled three days before opening night. Love Quirks finally opened at the AMT Theater in Manhattan in 2022, where it ran for twelve weeks, winning four BroadwayWorld Awards, including Best New Score for a Musical.

In 2017, he wrote the music and lyrics to a musical theatre production adapted from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Diamond as Big as the Ritz (with book written by R.C. Staab), which had successful readings in 2017 and 2018. The production is scheduled for a three-week run at ATA Theatre. One of the songs from the musical, Enough Already, was turned into a music video starring Mario Lopez and was a finalist in London’s prestigious 2019 Stiles & Drewe Best New Song Prize.

In April 2024, Bisen-Hersh’s Broadway-bound musical Agatha Christie’s The Secret Adversary: A Mystery Musical (also adapted from the novel, and with book by R.C. Staab)) had its first reading.

In June 2024, Bisen-Hersh produced a short musical film inspired by his grandmother’s Holocaust experience. The short, titled Malka, starred Tovah Feldshuh.

Cabaret

Bisen-Hersh has produced over 800 cabarets at NYC’s famous cabaret venueDon’t Tell Mama, including his weekly showcase series, which started in 2017. He has also produced dozens of concerts of his songs with Broadway performers over the years. Additionally, he wrote 10 cabaret song cycles of his work: And Then She Dumped Me (2003), The Gayest Straight Man Alive (2004), Meaningful Sex (2005), Neurotic Tendencies (2006), Why Am I Not Famous Yet? (2007), Writers Block (2008), I’ll Relax When I’m Dead (2010), If Adele Can Do It, So Can I (2013), Not Your Grandma’s Cabaret (unless she’s really naughty) (2014), and Self-Isolation Song Cycle.

Books

Bisen-Hersh has self-published four books.

His first, published in 2015, was a memoir titled Sleep. Write. Now: Emerging from a dark year of insomnia, anxiety and depression from loss comprised of journal entries, emails, poems and song lyrics, exploring his year of struggling with mental illness. In 2016 he published an essay collection linked to his webseries, titled Every Page a Little Seth. 2018 saw the publication of his third, Millennials are Ruining the World!, a collection of humorous essays on the generation divide, which was turned into an audio book in 2019. His fourth book, The Making of a Musical: the 12 year journey of Love Quirks was released in February 2024.

Podcast

In 2019, Bisen-Hersh turned his third book into a podcast Millennials are Ruining the World? an Xennial perspective". The podcast has since completed 5 seasons and 53 episodes.

Crossword Puzzles

Bisen-Hersh made his debut as a crossword puzzle writer in the LA Times on 23rd September 2019, and has since been published in the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Wall Street Journal and Universal crossword, amongst other publications.

Recognition and honours

• 2021, BroadwayWorld Awards, Best New Score of a Musical for Love Quirks.
• 2019, Stiles & Drewe Prize, Best New Song for Enough Already (from The Diamond as Big as the Ritz).
• 2014, West Village Musical Theatre Festival Best Lyrics award for More to Love.
• 2004, Theatermania FringeNYC Audience Favorite Award for The Spickner Spin.
• 2003, Theatermania FringeNYC Audience Favorite Award for Meaningless Sex.

Work

Stage

• Meaningless Sex (New York International Fringe Festival, 2003)
• The Spickner Spin (New York International Fringe Festival, 2004)
• Stanley’s Party (Manhattan Children Theatre, 2010)
• More to Love (West Village Musical Theatre Festival, 2014)
• Love Quirks (Theatre 54, 2014; St. Luke’s Theater, 2020; AMT Theater, 2022)
• F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Diamond as Big as the Ritz (ATA Theater, 2024)
• Agatha Christie’s The Secret Adversary (Reading at Ripley Grier, 2024)

Screenwriting

• Malka (short film)
• Every Day a Little Seth (pilot)

External links

• sethbh.com
• Starhunterfan/sandbox at IMDb

The Damned Ones

Starhunterfan/sandbox
Directed by	Reena Deen
Written by	Reena Deen
Produced by	Reena Deen
Starring	Jade Ow Amanda Yip
Production company	Parachute Pictures
Country	Singapore

The Damned Ones is an upcoming Singaporean drama/supernatural mystery feature film, written, directed and produced by Reena Deen. The film stars Jade Ow and Amanda Yip, and is Singapore’s first low-budget horror film with a disabled cast, and explores disability and disability representation.

Plot

When university student Siti Limento (who is blind) goes missing, her friend and fellow student Laura Heng (who is hard of hearing) goes to the police with a bizarre tale. Laura claims that Siti is trapped in a haunted abandoned village in a forest. But Laura is a compulsive liar. As the investigation unfolds, Laura's story unravels and her secrets are revealed. Is Laura telling the truth for the first time in her life, or has she killed Siti and concocted this strange cover story?

Cast

• Jade Ow as Laura Heng
• Amanda Yip as Siti Limento
• Mila Troncoso as Diya
• Michael J. Parks as Michael
• Elaine Siow as First Investigating Officer
• Mustafa Ali Khan as Inspector Arun
• Mai Youa Xiong as Inspector Ying
• Himanshu as Professor Cambly
• Vandana Tikku as TNU’s Dean
• Kelly as Laura Heng’s mother

Production

The Damned Ones was written, directed and produced by Reena Deen, a former teacher turned filmmaker who lives with dyslexia and Complex post-traumatic stress disorder. Deen wanted to tell a story featuring a cast of disabled characters that did not revolve around disability. All the disabled characters in the film were played by disabled actors, and the crew was comprised of disabled people and people from other marginalised communities. Deen used the Singaporean film club Kino Red Dot to find disabled cast and crew.

Jade Ow, an actress with moderate to severe hearing impairment, was the first person to come aboard on the project playing the lead character of Laura, a university student who becomes a suspect in her friend's disappearance. Ow then recommended her friend and fellow actress Amanda Yip, who has retinitis pigmentosa (progressive vision loss that affects the retina), who was then cast in the role of Siti, the missing woman. Michael J. Parks, who has disabilities affecting reading and memory, was assistant director and also played the role of Michael.

The film started shooting in Singapore in 2023. Filming was disrupted on several occasions due to extreme heat and humidity, and also doe to rain storms.

Some of the dialogue was improvised, to help support the cast's access needs.

Shooting was completed in 2024, and in August 2024, post-production began with Parachute Pictures.

Reception

A short documentary on the making of The Damned Ones featuring footage from the film screened at the 2023 Iaminvisible Singapore film festival (held in November 2023), a film festival celebrating disabled filmmaking talent and disability representation within film. This documentary won a Commendation Award from Nee Soon Group Representation Constituency MP Louis Ng.

A second short documentary chronicling the cast and crew's journey in making the film screened at the 2023 Pokka Film Festival in Singapore, where it took third place, and was awarded $5000 by Pokka to offset post-production costs.

Stills from the film were also selected to be exhibited in This Body of Mine. Advocating for Disability Through Art: A Closer Look at Disabled-Bodies, an international virtual exhibition organized by The Starving Artist. The exhibition featured artists who challenge ingrained stereotypes and promoted accessibility in all facets of life, and a book of the exhibition was published in March 2024.

External links

• Starhunterfan/sandbox at IMDb