MUSE • Musicians United for Social Equity

Biography

I’m Ashley Hazzard, a New York-based playwright, and musical maker. I graduated from the inaugural class of Berklee NYC in the Summer of 2022 with an MA in Writing and Design for Musical Theatre. I am working on a handful of new musicals and song cycles that I cannot wait to share with you! In addition to writing for the stage, I am also a trained mezzo-soprano vocalist and actress.

Before pursuing my undergraduate degree in Musical Theatre performance, I was a full-time singer/songwriter, releasing my debut album of original music in 2009. After college, I spent five years in the Live Music Capitol of the World: Austin, TX, dividing my time equally between acting and writing original compositions. My experience also extends to voiceovers and radio broadcasting as a former drive-time disk jockey and radio personality.

I am the composer, lyricist, and book writer of the new musical “Forestine”. As of November 2022, I have finished the final draft of the libretto! “Forestine” is my first full-length musical and one of my most rewarding accomplishments, speaking to the unspoken legacy of the Black middle class in America post-Reconstruction and intricately weaving personal family anecdotes into the fictional narrative. I hope you fall in love with the melodies and characters as much as I did writing them. I look forward to putting this two-act, all-Black ensemble musical on a New York stage in the near future.