When I was growing up outside of Toronto, Canada all I wanted was to be Billy Joel, Elton John, or James Taylor. Unfortunately those jobs were all taken, but that never stopped me from wanting to do what those guys all do very well – tell stories through songs. It was an unorthodox and long journey that took me to writing music and lyrics for the theater. I went to college as a music composition major, but after I graduated I ended up working mainly as an actor and eventually got cast in the Canadian premiere of Forever Plaid which was enormously successful, ran for something like 5 years, and introduced me to Brian Hill. (Incidentally we both won a Dora Award for that show – Torontonians refer to it as “Canada’s Tony Award”. New Yorkers refer to it as “The what …?”). Brian and I shared an interest in writing for the theater – we had each made forays into other disciplines, he into directing and I into music directing – and by a bizarre coincidence, the opportunity dropped in our lap to run the Charlottetown Festival’s Young Company and write a show for it. We jumped in with both feet. That first show was Somewhere In The World, which ran for 5 seasons in Charlottetown and spawned a cast album. Eventually I applied for and was accepted into the BMI Lehman Engel Music Theater Workshop and moved to New York. I had a great time immersing myself into the writing community in the Big Apple. My association with BMI led to various showcases and concerts, a fellowship with the Dramatists Guild under the brilliant tutelage of Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, a Jonathan Larson Award, and the honor of being a finalist for the Fred Ebb Award. Brian and I have written a bunch of things that you can read about and listen to elsewhere on this website. There are constantly projects that surface for a while and then disappear for one reason or another, but the ones that stick we will attempt to keep updated here. For an up-to-date list of projects and their status -- or for an actual resume -- contact me at neil@bartramandhill.com.
I’m incredibly lucky and have been able to work with some amazing people at some amazing places and I think I’ll stick with it for a while. At least until I chuck it all to indulge in my true calling – mime.
