I met Sami Horneff after a show of mine at 54 Below. Isn’t that where the best chance meetings always happen? She is a force of creativity, positivity, and I know all of you Write Teacher(s) Readers will fall in love with her work and her spirit.
A born and raised New Yorker, Sami is a proud graduate of Brown University and a Lyricist in the world-renowned BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop. Recent writing credits include: A Never-Ending Line (Lyrics, Off-Broadway August 2017); The Radium Girls: A Jaw Dropping New Musical (Lyrics & Book); Rock and a Hard Place (Music & Lyrics, 2016 World-Premiere starring Constantine Maroulis); The Under 5ers Web Series (Writer/Producer, Indie Series Award Nominee for Best Original Song); Something Precious (Music & Lyrics, The Producers Club). Her work has also been performed at the Metropolitan Room and Feinstein’s/54 Below. Upcoming: Single Rider (Book & Lyrics) premiering Off-Broadway at The Players Theatre in May-June of 2018!
MM: First things first, when did you realize you wanted to be a lyricist/composer?
SH: I guess my real lightbulb moment came later in the game, though when I think about it, I’ve been doing this pretty much my whole life. I grew up in New York City, so I was always surrounded by the theatre world. When I was a kid, I was notorious for writing scripts, casting my friends in the various roles, and directing them in backyard productions of my own plays (most notably a stage version of the Nintendo game Super Mario 64). Songwriting also came pretty early on. I began fiddling around with the guitar at seven, and by my teenage years, I was writing and recording pop tunes. I still find post-it notes covered in lyrics and chords in drawers of my parents’ apartment. But, at the time, my dream was to be a Broadway actress, so that’s where my focus was. My first true musical theatre writing experience came in my senior year at Brown University, in a songwriting class taught by the amazing Andy Hertz. The class was structured much like the BMI Workshop (of which I am now a part and where I met my collaborator on my current project, Amanda D’Archangelis). I was a lyricist and was assigned to write with different composers all semester, which culminated in a final 10-minute musical project. It was at that point in college I realized that I loved writing for theatre almost more than I loved acting in it. When I graduated and moved to New York to pursue a career in performing, I felt my creative spirit was only entirely happy when I was writing. So I turned my focus to the writing side and opportunities followed. I guess the real ‘tada’ moment for me was when I got my first gig writing music and lyrics for an adaptation of a screenplay called Rock and a Hard Place. I remember the first day of rehearsals, hearing Broadway actors singing my songs for the first time and saying “wow, this is where I belong.”
MM: What drew you to writing for musical theatre?
SH: Theater has a unique opportunity to tell stories by using the most heightened form of emotional expression: music. Nothing gives me chills like music does, and in the theater, characters only sing when they can no longer speak. To be able to tell these stories that touch people like theatre has touched me my entire life…there is no greater gift than that. When I was a teenager, I used to jump around my room to “Totally Fucked” from Spring Awakening when my schoolwork seemed too intense to handle. I would cry along to “Fine, Fine Line” from Avenue Q when a relationship just wouldn’t go my way. And I used to dress up like my favorite Disney princesses from the age of two, singing songs like “Part of Your World” at the top of my lungs and pretending life was as magical as it seemed in those movies. If I can give that same sense of joy or healing to one kid, or make someone a little bit happier for even just those two hours they’re sitting in the theater, I’ve done my job.
MM: Of all the stories you’ve been a part of creating, is there one in particular that’s closest to your heart?
SR: My current project, Single Rider, a new musical for which I wrote lyrics and book with my collaborator Amanda D’Archangelis, is definitely up there. It’s hard for me to separate myself from something I’m working on currently (or choose between my various “babies”) because if I weren’t super connected, I wouldn’t be creating that piece. But there’s something so joyful about Single Rider that makes writing feel like a vacation. Single Rider actually started as our final project in the BMI Workshop. At that point, it was a 10-minute musical with five actors reading off of stands. Now, the two act version about to open a six-week run Off Broadway at The Players Theatre in Greenwich Village with ten actors and five musicians. The thing that’s kept us loving this show for so long is that when we sit down to write for it, it’s never a chore. It’s always this sense of fun, of “what’s going to happen to these people next?” We like to think of this piece as Theatrical Cotton Candy. It’s sweet, it’s easy on the tastebuds, and it’ll leave you feeling satisfied (if not a little sugar-high). It’s also given us the opportunity to create many different characters from different walks of life. Our three lead women are all Amish teens on their Rumspringa. Our male lead is a troubled and lonesome boy who dreams of one day becoming a roller coaster engineer. There’s even a little bit of magic thrown in there with our “Leading Player-esque” character who runs the Amusement Park where the show takes place. To be able to bring all of these different people to life (and have a blast doing it) is truly a dream come true.
MM: When one walks into your home, what books are permanently on your bookshelf?
SH: Lots of plays, librettos of musicals I love, and various books on the projects I’m working on. There’s at least one textbook about the Amish on my shelf right now. It’s been there since we started working on Single Rider last year. As a writer, it is so important to do your research. I wouldn’t feel comfortable writing from a character’s perspective unless I understood the world they live in, so there’s a lot of textbooks in my apartment right now.
MM: If you were stranded on a desert island, what television shows and/or movies would you want available to you, (assuming of course you have a television and Internet connection?)
SH: I’ve always been more of a theatre person than a T.V. or movie fan, but for this I’d have to say the catalogue of Disney animated movies. They just never get old to me.
MM: What’s the best piece of advice you’d want to offer aspiring lyricists, composers, and book writers?
SH: Apply for the BMI Workshop!! It’s been such an incredible resource to me, both from an educational standpoint and a connections standpoint. I’ve met inspirational artists there who I know I will work with for the rest of my life. It’s also given me the confidence to go forth and really pursue my writing. They teach you the rules so you know how to break them, and most importantly, you learn how to take criticism and use it to go forth and make your work even better.
MM: What sound do you love? What sound do you hate?
SH: Love: Birds chirping in the morning – especially right now with this seemingly endless winter, it reminds me that spring is just around the corner
Hate: Someone wiping a dry rag against a chalk board. GAH.
MM: What literary or musical theatre character is most like your personality? Least like your personality?
SH: In college, people always used to call me Giselle (from Enchanted). I’m pretty much an eternal optimist who tends to burst into song at random…so I suppose they aren’t wrong. The character that’s least like me….that’s a harder one. I’d like to say any true villain, but then again, who doesn’t have a bit of a villainous side every now and again. I’ll have to get back to you on that!
MM: Time for shameless self promotion! Tell our readers what you want to brag about, what you’re excited about in your career at the moment.
SH: Unless I’m overwhelmingly busy, I’m bored, so my greatest strength is the ability to juggle many projects at once. So aside from Single Rider, Amanda and I are writing songs for a new musical entitled The Break (with book by Marie Amthor Schuett), which will premiere as a staged reading at the Omaha Creative Institute this fall, as well as a horror-spoof musical called The Radium Girls: A Jaw-Dropping New Musical, which we wrote with fellow Lyricist/Bookwriter Lisa Mongillo. I’m also working on two pieces at the BMI Workshop, a song cycle called Another Two Years with composer Anthony Brindisi, and a new children’s musical based on one of my favorite childhood book, Elinda Who Danced in the Sky, with composer Ben Diskant. To stay updated on my projects, visit my website www.samihorneff.com. Tickets for Single Rider are now available at www.singleriderthemusical.com, so definitely come check us out downtown between May 11th and June 17thof this year!!
MM: In today’s economic state, arts education programs are being cut. What reasons would you give to a school board or politician for preserving arts education programming in schools?
SH: It is unbelievable how important theatre is as an outlet for school-aged children. Not only does it allow kids a creative break from their academic environment and encourage them to express themselves in a way that they might not be able to do in daily life, it also creates a community for kids who may seem like “outsiders” among their peers. “Theater kids” might not be the jocks or the coolest kids in school, but the strength and support that they are able to provide to each other – acting as a team is the first lesson of being part of a production – can be life changing for kids who don’t feel that they are understood anywhere else. Theater allows, nay encourages, children to be themselves, whoever that may be.
MM: Who is/was your greatest teacher? (Can absolutely be more than one)
SH: I was lucky enough to go to some incredible schools and programs over the years, so there’s really no way I could pick a single teacher. When I think about the teachers who were most influential on my life in the arts today, however, I’d have to pinpoint two: Jennifer Fell Hayes and Helene Leonard. Jennifer was my middle and high school drama teacher, and she instilled in me a love of the classics and a confidence that with a little unpacking, I could master even the hardest text. Helene Leonard is the founder of Stages, a children’s theater workshop in Long Island, where I spent ten summers growing up. Helene believed in me without fail and taught me that I could be and do anything I set my mind to. Both of these strong, incredible women gave me the courage to push through the toughest rejections. Even today, they are still some of my biggest supporters, and I am so grateful.
Thanks, Sami!
Write Teacher(s) Readers, be sure to catch Single Rider, a new musical – coming to Off-Broadway this May! Tickets and additional information are available here.
Live, Love, Learn,