Sonya Hayden

Biography

Sonya Hayden is a composer, lyricist, librettist, and playwright from Central Virginia, now based in New York. Recipient of the MAC John Wallowitch Songwriting Award, NAMT Writers Residency Grant, Kurt Weill Foundation Songbook Award, ASCAP Plus Award, ScreenCraft Stage Play Competition Lucy Powis Mentorship Prize, Legacy Theatre Artist Residency, Marble House Project Residency, and Vermont Studio Center Fellowship. Finalist: Kleban Prize for Musical Theatre, Dramatists Guild Foundation (DGF) Fellows. Semi-Finalist: O’Neill National Music Theater Conference.

Her musicals include FOOLPROOF (Goodspeed’s Festival of New Musicals; 29-hour reading at Lincoln Center Library, featuring Tony Award winner Cady Huffman; Across a Crowded Room Fellowship), TAKING OFF! (Michigan State University’s New Musical Lab), and WANDA DOES THE WATER CYCLE (licensed by MTI/Theater Now New York; Lincoln Center Festival).

She is a member of the BMI Musical Theatre & Bookwriting Workshops, the Dramatists Guild, and ASCAP. Previously a member of the Recording Academy’s Musical Theater Mentorship Program, Maestra Music’s Mentorship Program, and the Princeton Triangle Club Writers Workshop (Milton Lyon Award for Outstanding Writing). She is the Co-Director of Maestra Music's Mentorship Program and has been a Script Supervisor at Audible. Master’s in Playwriting with Distinction, University of Edinburgh; B.A. Music, Princeton University. sonyahayden.com @sonyahayden11