Helen Bates, Larry Carpenter
and Arthur Kaufman
Helen Bates, lyrics
Helen Bates' credits include being a screenplay reader/analyst for Disney/Touchstone, Fries Entertainment and her own company, The Studio Analyst. She has worked for Marty Ingels and Shirley Jones as an assistant, as well as Merv Griffin productions.
She has trained at USC and UCLA in songwriting workshops, Stanley Myron Handleman—Stand Up Comedy Workshop, Stella Adler—Acting Workshop and Lisa Robere—Advanced Directing, as well as Sally Merlin Jones Advanced Screenwriting class (producer of Short Circuit I and II). Helen wrote two screenplays: "Billy the Kid" and "Soulmates." As an actress, she has performed roles in "Alice in Wonderland," "George M," "Oliver" and "Carousel."
For the past 20 years, Helen has worked with Arthur Kaufman of Magic Key Productions as a song-poem editor.
Larry Carpenter, book and lyrics
Larry is a member of the Dramatist Guild of America and Theatre Building Chicago's Musical Theatre Workshop. He has written several children's musicals, including "Dorothy Rides the Rainbow," and several shows that toured schools for Twelfth Night Repertory in San Diego, Calif.
His full-length musicals and plays include "Dream, A Midsummer Night Gone Hawaiian," "Ojaded," "Painting the Sky with Fire" and most recently, "Song-Poems Wanted! The Musical," which will be presented in Chicago this coming year. He is a frequent contributor to "Instant Theatre" at the Chicago Dramatists. In 2007 he completed his first novel, "Wheelin' and Dealin'."
An award winning actor, director and producer, Larry has a BFA in Musical Theatre Direction from USIU School of Performing Arts in San Diego. He has been involved in theatre and television/radio commercial production for over 35 years.
Arthur Kaufman, composer
Art Kaufman has a degree in music (minor in theater) from UCLA and has extensive theatrical experience. Art scored his first one-act musical, "There's the Rub," produced at UCLA. He performed in the Occidental College Repertory Theater and studied for two years in the Lehman Engle BMI musical theater workshop. He has also served on the board of directors for the Neil Simon Festival in Cedar City, Utah. Acting roles include Frederick, "Pirates of Penzance"; Pish Tush, "Mikado"; Anselmo, "Man of LaMancha"; Tony, "West Side Story"; Kodaly, "She Loves Me"; and Roy, The "Odd Couple."
Art (aka David Fox) is owner of Magic Key Productions, a recording facility specializing in song-poem production, jingles for radio and TV, voiceovers and music for motion pictures. Art is a multi-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter. He is most well known for starring in the acclaimed award winning PBS cult documentary "Off The Charts: The Song-Poem Story" which features four of his compositions.
He has also toured doing song-poem shows as a performance artist in New York, Chicago and San Fransisco with his band "David Fox and the Song Sharks." He has been featured in the New York Times, Entertainment Weekly magazine, the Austin Chronicle and been interviewed on NPR, CBC in Canada and WFMU in New York.
In his spare time he and his wife write tribute songs for hospice patients for Zions Way hospice in southern Utah.
