Private Jones

A New Musical

Writer & Director Marshall Pailet
Choreography by Misha Shields

"Marshall is a singular talent. We are honored to have the opportunity to support his work, and to challenge our own producing strengths, on this exciting and innovative new musical."

-Donna Lynn Hilton, Artistic Director at Goodspeed Musicals, Broadway World

ABOUT Private Jones

Hiding his profound hearing loss, young Gomer Jones fakes his way through enlistment in the army. He becomes a celebrated sniper, but the horrors of the front threaten to expose his secret and destroy his very humanity unless he learns to trust his fellow soldiers to accept who he really is.

Private Jones
a new musical

With an innovative soundscape and a sweeping original score, Private Jones is an unexpectedly funny and gripping musical adventure about service, friendship, and the cost of war.

THE CREATORS

  • Marshall Pailet

    Writer & Director

    Marshall Pailet is the co-writer/director of the Off-Broadway musicals Who’s Your Baghdaddy?, which received two New York Times Critics’ picks, and Triassic Parq, which received the Ovation Award for its LA premiere. Other writing includes Claudio Quest (six NYMF Awards); Shrek the Halls (DreamWorks Theatricals); Magic School Bus (TheaterWorks); Hershey’s Unwrapped (Hershey’s Chocolate World; Brass Ring Winner), and two best-selling plays for high schoolers (Everyone Gets Eaten by Sharks and Everyone Gets Abducted by Aliens). Some other directing work includes A Commercial Jingle for Regina Comet (Off Broadway); Nikola Tesla Drops the Beat; Wonderland (Atlantic Theater Company). Upcoming, Private Jones (Goodspeed Musicals, Fall ’23; Signature Theatre Winter '24); Marcel on the Train (written with Ethan Slater). Graduate Yale University.

    marshallpailet.com

  • Misha Shields

    Choreographer

    Misha Shields is a theater choreographer working in the New York and Boston areas. She is a Chita Rivera Award Nominee for Best Choreography for her work in the Off-Broadway production of, BAGHDADDY, and winner of the BroadwayWorld CNY Award for Best Choreography For A Professional Production for her work in, LOCH NESS. Some recent credit highlights include, PRIVATE GOMER JONES (Goodspeed Opera House, workshop), LOCH NESS (The Rev Theater), ONCE (Bucks County Playhouse), BAGHDADDY (St. Luke's Theater), WONDERLAND (Atlantic Theater Company), WITCH, I WAS MOST ALIVE WITH YOU, & YERMA (Huntington Theatre). Misha loves storytelling through movement and strives to find moments of comedy, dramatic simplicity, and surprise through her work. The Boston Globe states that Misha's choreography for Company One's production of VIETGONE, is "...one of the funniest fight sequences I’ve ever seen onstage.", and BroadwayWorld calls Misha's work, "beautiful" and "innovative". Whether it is a small play, huge musical, or original dance piece, Misha connects actors to their bodies and taps them into their characters through movement and body awareness. She loves crafting a unique physical language for every show to sculpt the arch of the production through what is unspoken. Misha was a lyricist with the BMI Lehman Engle Musical Theater Songwriting Workshop, and is a graduate of The Boston Conservatory. www.mishashields@gmail.com

  • Ike Webster

    Music Director

    Ike Webster works professionally as a Music Director, Educator, and Theatre Maker across three continents. He has toured the East Coast, working at Equity Theatres such as: The Lost Colony, Greenbrier Valley Theatre, and New Light Theatre Project. In Hawai’i he premiered the first non-tour/Broadway production of Something Rotten! at the historic Diamond Head Theatre. In London, his work ranged from the prestigious Performers College, whose graduates can be seen on the West End, Broadway, and Touring stages across the world to intimate, site-specific theatre with The Alchemic Order. He has music directed such shows as: Heathers, Into the Woods, All Shook Up, Jesus Christ Superstar, Oklahoma!, and The Last Five Years. Most recently, Ike music directed and accompanied composer Brandomitable in his appearance at both 54 Below as part of the New Writers at 54! series and Playbill as part of the Playbill Songwriter Series. He currently works as an Assistant Professor of Musical Theatre at Western Carolina University.