Germaine Shames

Biography

Germaine Shames, a Kilroys List playwright and recipient of her state’s Literary Fellowship in Fiction, is author of the award-winning novels, Between Two Deserts and You, Fascinating You. Writing under the pen name Casper Silk (Hotel Noir, Echo Year), she has been compared to F. Scott Fitzgerald, Graham Greene and P.D. James “on steroids”.

As a librettist and lyricist, Shames collaborates with world-class composers in musical theatre, opera, choral and popular music. Her songs have been performed in a range of venues from Paris to NYC to Washington, DC. Her new musicals, If the Spirit Moves (composer Erin Murray Quinlan) and The Manifesto (composer Nadav Amir-Himmel), premiered at Theatre Elision in 2019 and 2020 respectively​. Her eco-opera, The Bird Lady (composer Timothy Miller), was unveiled at the National Opera Center in 2021 with a full production planned for 2023. Her musical, Capri (with composer Paul Scherer), won a national search and formed part of the NJ Theatre Alliance's 2022 Festival. Naked (with composer Tareq Abuissa) was a 2022 Musicals NOW and Florida Festival of New Musicals selection. Her social justice operas, Bomb Squad Rhapsody and An Open Letter to Samuel Alito premiered in 2022-23. Margaret Mead Dreams in Samoan, Shames' in-progress musical (with Samoan composer Gary King), is a current Finalist for the Vanguard Arts Fund.

Artistic Director Claire Beckman has written of Shames' work, "Germaine advocates for social justice with refreshing maturity, structural elegance, and gut punching dichotomies."

It's all about love.

Website: http://germainewrites.wix.com/buzz
New Play Exchange: https://newplayexchange.org/users/2551/germaine-shames
Reviews of Note: https://youtu.be/qJ19KgDOIdA
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/germainewrites