Welcome to the newest edition of the Playbill Songwriter Series, where the wildly creative AriDy Nox is bringing a new future to the fore. Presented by Audible Theater, the series is dedicated to spotlighting emerging composers and features a new video every month.
Nox is a multi-disciplinary Black femme storyteller with a variety of forward-thinking creative works works under their belt. Nox creates out of the vehement belief that creating a future in which marginalized peoples are free requires a radical imagination. Their tales are offerings intended to function as small parts of an ancient, expansive, awe-inspiring tradition of world shaping, created by and for Black femmes.
For their edition of the Songwriter Series, Nox presented four songs from three of their musicals.
The first, "Happen to Be Black", is from Han’s Daughters, a new wacky coming-of-self musical that follows Tima (a young Black woman from St. Croix) and Jenny (a young white woman from Iceland) as they swap houses, launching them on an adventure of self-discovery and racially-charged hijinks, all set to a ukulele score. Featuring both music and lyrics by Nox, the song is performed by Nox, Heath Saunders, and Azriel Patricia.
Next up is "Mulberry Row" from Black Girl in Paris. A musical within a folktale within a ritual, Black Girl in Paris centers the exploits of Sally Hemmings, a young, enslaved woman who travels to Paris, France on the cusp of the French Revolution. The work features music by Jacinth Greywoode and lyrics by Nox, with Saunders and Patricia splitting vocals for the performance.
Also from Black Girl in Paris, the third song is titled "All Talk" featuring Patricia on lead vocals, and Nox, Saunders, and Greywoode on backup.
The final song is called "I Have Dreamed of You" from The Anomaly (formerly known as Metropolis). This show follows the android-unit turned space-time-continuum anarchist Fari as they are wrenched across space and time in an afrofuturist whirlwind of revolution and rebirth. Featuring music by Playbill Songwriter Series alum Brandomitable alongside Nox's music and lyrics, the song is performed by Patricia.
Nox is a graduate of the Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program at Tisch School of the Performing Arts at NYU, a beneficiary of the Musical Theatre Factory Inaugural MAKERS cohort and current Co-Chair of their Board, a former fellow of the Emerging Writer’s Group at the Public Theatre, The Civilian’s R&D Group, and the Horizon Theatre’s Black Women Speak Cohort, a recipient of the Live and In Color June Bingham commission, a member of Playwrights Center Core Writers, and the 2023-2024 Van Lier New Voices Fellow. To learn more about Nox's work, visit AriDyNox.com.
Audible Theater is a proud sponsor of Playbill’s Songwriter Series. Audible Theater makes outstanding performances and powerful storytelling available to millions of people all over the world. As part of this initiative, Audible has produced Girls & Boys with Carey Mulligan, The Half-Life of Marie Curie with Kate Mulgrew, Harry Clarke starring Billy Crudup, and many others at the Minetta Lane Theatre in New York City. Audible was also a co-producer for the Broadway transfer of the Tony Award-nominated Latin History for Morons, written by and starring John Leguizamo; and for the Tony Award-nominated Sea Wall/A Life starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Tom Sturridge. Since June 2017, Audible has commissioned 40 playwrights to receive support from its $5 million Emerging Playwrights Fund dedicated to developing innovative English-language works from around the globe and keeping with Audible’s core commitment to elevating listening experiences through powerful performances and extraordinary vocal storytelling.
Sing for Hope harnesses the power of the arts to create a better world. Our creative programs bring hope, healing, and connection to millions of people in hospitals, schools, care facilities, refugee camps, transit hubs, and community spaces worldwide. A non-profit organization founded in New York City in response to the events of 9/11, Sing for Hope partners with hundreds of community-based organizations, mobilizes thousands of artists in creative service, and produces artist-created Sing for Hope Pianos across the US and around the world. The official Cultural Partner of the World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates, Sing for Hope champions art for all because we believe the arts have an unmatched capacity to uplift, unite, and heal. Learn more at SingForHope.org.
