COMPOSER BIO: Paige is a Brooklyn-based composer/lyricist who recently finished her MFA at the NYU Tisch Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program (Cycle 33, ‘24). She wants to use collaborative theatre to tell funny stories about joy, vulnerability, empathy, body image, faith and growth using rock influences. Paige has a B.S. in Music Industry from the College of Saint Rose where she recorded, produced and released her debut pop-rock album, Hell of a Start. She led a team of songwriters at the student-run Rose Record Label Group and has years of experience as a Music Ministry leader at multiple churches across the state of New York. She recently worked with the 52nd Street Project (and had so much fun) co-writing songs with young adults in Hells Kitchen. She also serves as the Communications Manager & Programs Associate for the national nonprofit, Music to Life, which connects socially conscious musicians with the resources to create music-driven community change projects.
Getting Older
Music by Paige Menneci
Lyrics by Kate Rankine
Performed by Paige Menneci
Cruisin’ on the Open Road
Music by Paige Menneci
Lyrics by Alecia Baxter
Written for a collaboration between NYU Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program and the Penn State Musical Theatre Program. Inspired by and featuring Amirah Joy Lomax, Jackson Pavlik, and Owen Smith
HOW TO NOT DROWN
Book/Lyrics by Alecia Baxter
Music by Paige Menneci
How to Not Drown is a pop-rock-R&B musical rom com that begins at the end of the world: The Beach! Here, we meet Norah–a highly successful, highly-suppressed, 27 year-old black woman who has just been passed up for her dream promotion. With her self-worth crumbling and her boss’s reminder to ‘open up’ ringing in her ears, Norah is faced with another end of the world scenario: her mother has set her up on an inescapable blind date with Eddie, the new guy from church, whose grandma is just as scheming as Norah’s mother. Norah agrees to show an enamored Eddie around town in exchange for his help on her quest to be vulnerable - just enough to get her promotion, of course. This dredges up some of the core traumas and insecurities that have kept Norah's authentic self suppressed her whole life. This piece explores the interwoven themes of vulnerability, double-consciousness, reconciliation, body dysmorphia and identity, and how they all ‘color’ our ability to give and receive love.
Developed at the NYU Tisch Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program
LAWS OF MOTION
Book/Music/Lyrics by Paige Menneci
Full of coming-of-age angst and heart, Laws of Motion follows Michelle: a valedictorian-turned-college-dropout-turned-snarky-barista, Kara: a hopeless romantic trapped in a will-they/won’t-they ever get married relationship, and Randall: a jock with a secret crush on his best friend and a failing grade in science. By all laws of physics, they should have nothing in common, but when Randall needs tutoring and Kara needs a distraction, they drag Michelle into a scheme that forces her to reckon with the hard decisions about growing up and choosing a path in life. With rock/singer-songwriter music, Laws of Motion is a love letter to everyone still in the figuring-it-out stage.
Laws of Motion was developed and presented as a song cycle at the College of Saint Rose Musical Theater Workshop. It is currently being reworked as a book musical.
