BIOS

Laura Holtz

Bookwriter and Lyricist

GATECRASHERS is the first original musical for Chicago writer Laura Holtz (ASCAP, Dramatists Guild).  The Discovery New Musical Theatre Festival at Ball State University selected GATECRASHERS as one of four finalists for their May, 2016 competition.  The prior year, GATECRASHERS was staged as part of Porchlight Musical Theatre’s Off the Porch musicals in development program. Porchlight Music Theatre in Chicago also hosted the first table reading of GATECRASHERS in January of 2015. Laura enjoyed an artistic residency at Ragdale in Lake Forest, IL, where she refined GATECRASHERS during January of 2013. Two original GATECRASHERS songs were featured in the ASCAP Chicago Dramatists Showcase for New Musical Theatre Work in November, 2012; another song was selected for the April, 2013 ASCAP Chicago Dramatists Showcase.  Laura graduated from Northwestern University. Her debut novel, Warm Transfer, will be published May 29, 2018.

Joseph Shadid

Composer 

Joe is the composer for the original musical GATECRASHERS. Recently, Joe was featured in The New York Times' Vocations column for his work as music and content specialist at Reverb.com, where he is recognized by many rock connoisseurs as the YouTube personality behind over a hundred notable videos.  Joe’s magic strumming hands have been seen by over 4 million people in his collaboration with music YouTube personality Rob Scallon for their video Metallica’s ‘One’ Played on One Guitar.  Joe has recently recorded and produced his first solo album, Joe George, and he continues to arrange and produce for a variety of Chicago and Nashville artists.  A highly sought after studio musician, Joe attended Berklee College of Music in Boston where he studied professional music with an emphasis in songwriting and performance.  In August 2015 Joe's musical talent was featured on People.com.