About
photo by Jacques-Jean Tiziou / www.jjtiziou.net
Michael Biello and Dan Martin are life-partners and longtime creative collaborators. Biello is a ceramic sculptor/theatre artist. Martin is a composer/music producer. They began their collaboration when Dan set Michael’s poetry to music. This catalyzed a composer-lyricist partnership, first practiced in dance-theater collaborations and then in original performance-art musicals which they performed in alternative art spaces around the U.S. Since the early 1990’s, they’ve transformed their writing into a critically-acclaimed body of musical theatre work, including the shows Breathe, Q, The Cousins Grimm, Marry Harry, and In My Body. They’re currently at work on Michael & Dan’s Amazing Queer Songbook – a musical documentary celebrating their 40+ years of life, love, creative collaboration, and LGBTQ cultural activism.
Artist Statement
“Our work creates bridges between art, dance, performance, and theatre. And bridges between people – LGBTQ and straight, black and white, male and female, young and old. Our shows continue to incorporate themes that have been important to us all along – the search for love, the challenges of relationships, erotic liberation, the creation of alternative family, building community, dealing with loss, finding spiritual insight and joy. We write with humor whenever possible, with gravity when appropriate, always with compassion. We’re artists as well as social activists – using our craft to foster tolerance, understanding, and love.”
