ABOUT
Chris is a first-generation American songwriter & playwright.
Also a first-generation college student, he graduated from Northwestern University, where he studied dramatic writing, directed a few shows, performed in a few shows, music directed and sang in an a cappella group and wrote for the annual Waa-Mu Show.
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He has served as associate to
Jeanine Tesori on her projects,
most recently the Tony Award-winningKimberly Akimbo, and Pulitzer finalist Soft Power.
He is a proud member of ASCAP, the Dramatists Guild, and the BMI Lehman Engel Advanced Musical Theatre Writing Workshop.
His musicals include the New York Times Critic's Pick adaptation of the best-selling children's series The Pout-Pout Fish (New Victory), Fable (NYMF), and Atlantic: America & The Great War, a commission from the American Musical Theatre Project and Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, which premiered at the Edinburgh Festival.
He is currently developing Fountain, which was selected for the O'Neill Theater Center's National Musical Theater Conference and NAMT's Festival of New Musicals;​ Princess Kay of the Milky Way, which has been developed through Rhinebeck Writers Retreat and the Johnny Mercer Writers Grove at Goodspeed Musicals; and a new commission for Two River Theater in NJ.
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Along with co-writer Jared Corak, Anselmo has been named a finalist for the Jonathan Larson Grant and Kleban Prize.