Sam Willmott
Sam is a Plays in Progress Mentor for musicals. Request Sam as a PIP Mentor.
Sam Willmott is a musical theater composer, lyricist & bookwriter... as well as a plant / dog dad, Doctor Who stan, and fervent Claire Saffitz acolyte. His passions include Disney Imagineering, outer space, croissants, and Oxford commas.
Sam has been an artist-in-residence with the Jerome Robbins Foundation's Project Springboard: Developing Dance Musicals (Lincoln Center), The O'Neill Theater Center, Rhinebeck Writers Retreat, Goodspeed Musicals, Merrimack Repertory Theater, and ConEd / Exploring the Metropolis. His work has been seen in concert around the world, in venues big (Radio City Music Hall, Abu Dhabi's Emirates Heritage Theatre, The Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage and Terrace Theater, Adelphi University's Performing Arts Center) and small (Paris' Comédie Nation with Broadway Au Carré, Cornelia Street Café, Key West's Red Barn Theater).
An avid educator, Sam has led workshops, masterclasses, and/or full courses at Harvard, Princeton, Manhattan School of Music, NYU, Pace University, Interlochen Center for the Arts, Harlem School of the Arts, and Lincoln Center's Songwriting in Schools Program. In the aftermath of the 2018 Parkland FL high school shooting, Sam co-founded and coordinated the Marjorie Stoneman Douglas Songwriting Initiative, pairing student and teacher survivors with NYC composers to collaborate on 31 new songs. He is also a proud contributing writer to the Korean children's language program English Egg, for whom he's written over 190 educational kids' tunes.
Sam originally hails from Langley, VA. He is an alum of Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, NYU-Steinhardt, the BMI Workshop, the Johnny Mercer Songwriters Project, and the Dramatists Guild Fellowship. He lives in an NYU residence hall, serving as dorm guncle alongside his partner Daniel and their chihuahua / pit mix, Scratch.
Theatre
- Bhangra Nation with playwrights Rehana Lew Mirza and Mike Lew
- Yo, Vikings! with bookwriter/lyricist Marcus Stevens
- Standardized Testing - The Musical!!!!
- the mini-musical Scarlet Takes a Tumble
- additional lyrics for the stage adaptation of Jule Styne and Bob Merrill's Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol.
TV
- HBO's Emmy-nominated Song of Parkland, dir. Amy Schatz.
Puppets
- Wake Up, Daisy! with Marcus Stevens (for Central Park's Swedish Cottage Marionette Theater).
Awards
- Eastern Eye Arts, Culture & Theater Award (Best Production for Bhangra Nation)
- Richard Rodgers Award (American Academy of Arts and Letters)
- Kleban Prize for Most Promising Lyricist
- Jonathan Larson Grant
- ASCAP Foundation's Harold Adamson and Cole Porter Awards
- Fred Ebb Award
- MAC's John Wallowitch Award
- Kennedy Center ACTF Musical Theater Award
- Interlochen's Maddy Summer Artist Award
- ...and two high school Cappies.