The Case of the Stranger. Photo: Maxim Pozdorovkin
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Writer, Performer, and Tony-Nominated Director Whitney White brings The Case of The Stranger to life in this new and original song cycle.
With a score rooted in soul, jazz, R&B, and diverse geographical soundworlds, The Case of the Stranger takes its title from a passage in Shakespeare’s Sir Thomas Moore — one of the earliest known pleas for a compassionate refugee policy. The piece explores themes of identity, migration, and the power of unexpected kinship.
Created by Whitney White, in-partnership with Maxim Pozdorovkin with music direction by Ben Covello, this song cycle brings White’s signature style to the forefront, emphasizing the raw power of voice and sound in an intimate, deeply resonant experience.
The Case of The Stranger was developed as part of the 2024 Guild Hall William P. Rayner Artist-in-Residence program. This performance is presented in-association with Little Island.
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Whitney White
WHITNEY WHITE is an Obie and Lilly Award winning director, actor, and musician based in Brooklyn, New York. She is a Tony Award nominee, a recipient of the Susan Stroman Directing award, an Artistic Associate at the Roundabout and part of the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative. Her original musical Definition was part of the 2019 Sundance Theatre Lab, and her four-part musical exploration of Shakespeare’s Women and ambition is currently under commission with the Royal Shakespeare Company (UK).
She has developed work with: Manhattan Theatre Club, The Public Theatre, Ars Nova, The Drama League, Roundabout, New York Theatre Workshop, The Lark, The Movement, Jack, Bard College, NYU Tisch, Juilliard, Princeton, SUNY Purchase, South Oxford, Luna Stage and more.
Whitney was a staff writer on Boots Riley’s I’M A VIRGO (Amazon, Media Res).
Whitney is a believer in collaborative processes and new forms. Her musical discipline is rooted in indie-soul, and rock. She is passionate about black stories, reconstructing classics, stories for and about women, genre-defying multimedia work and film. Past fellowships include: New York Theatre Workshop 2050 Fellowship, Ars Nova’s Makers Lab, Colt Coeur and the Drama League. MFA Acting: Brown University/Trinity Rep, BA Political Science, Certificate in Musical Theatre: Northwestern University.
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Maxim Pozdorovkin
Maxim Pozdorovkin is an award-winning writer and director based in New York. Most recently, Maxim wrote and directed The Conspiracy, a 2023 animated feature for Story Syndicate (starring Liev Schreiber, Lake Bell, Ben Shenkman and Jason Alexander) that traces the connection between conspiracy theories and antisemitism and stars. Pozdorovkin’s The Truth About Killer Robots for HBOMax was hailed as “a terrifying work of science nonfiction,” premiered at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival, and has won multiple awards at festivals around the world. Additionally, his film Our New President, made entirely of Russian propaganda covering the Trump presidency, premiered at Sundance 2018, where it won a Special Jury Award. Pozdorovkin’s other films include: Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer (Emmy winner), The Notorious Mr. Bout (Sundance 2014), and Clinica de Migrantes (HBOMax). Maxim holds a PhD from Harvard University for a dissertation on early Soviet propaganda. He was an artist fellow at Harvard's Society of Fellows and is a frequent commentator on media and Russian politics.
Photo: Third Party Films
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BEN COVELLO
Ben Covello is a New York Music Director, Pianist/Conductor, Guitarist, and Vocal Coach. Ben Covello needs to update this bio. Not included in it is the fact that he was just in LA for several months playing guitar and serving as Associate Conductor for Deaf West's revival of American Idiot. Also not included is the fact that Ben is currently subbing the keyboard 1 book for Outsiders on Broadway, and subbing the guitar 2 / keyboard 2 book for Redwood on Broadway. He also plays rehearsal piano for both of these shows. He is also involved with a new musical called Fouad of Nazareth that is currently recording an album, and has a planned NY run as Music Director/Pianist/Guitarist He also forgets to mention that he was Associate Music Director/keys 2 for a new show called Gun and Powder at Paper Mill Playhouse, as well as his involvement as Associate Music Director/keys 2 for the new show MAGGIE at Goodspeed Opera House and his involvement as Associate Music Director for the new show THE 12 at Goodspeed Opera House. He really needs to update this bio...or just consolidate/delete the following paragraphs after the monologue you just read...
He was recently touring the country (and world!) as part of the Rent 25th Anniversary Farewell Tour where he served as Music Director/Piano/Conductor as well as Associate Music Director/Keys 2/Guitar 2 (Ben likes to wear many metaphorical hats. He can't really pull off the physical hat look, but that's ok!) He also toured with the 50th Anniversary Jesus Christ Superstar Tour where he subbed in on Keys 2/Hammond B3 (Ben is aware that he looks like a contender for the lead role, and this was a missed opportunity for his thriving acting career). He also had a stint subbing the keys 1 chair for Wicked on Broadway.
Off-Broadway, Ben has been and continues to be involved with exciting new productions, Music Directing and playing piano for a new production at BAM that is now being developed internationally along with another New York run, and playing for many new developmental workshops at various illustrious (and not so) illustrious spaces, including Lincoln Center, BAM, Ripley-Grier Studios, the Manhattan Theatre Club, and Pearl Studios, to name a few (you decide the illustrious-ness of each).
As a vocal coach, Ben works with established Broadway stars as well as up and coming vocalists in the theatre industry and beyond.
When not working on Touring, Broadway or Off-Broadway shows, or developing new shows, Ben can almost always be found Music Directing and playing piano for shows at 54 Below, Birdland, Green Room 42, and Jazz at Lincoln Center. He probably spends more time behind the piano at 54 below than his own living room. As they say, 54 Below is Broadway's living room, they just left out "also Ben's".
Ben also is involved with various arranging, orchestrating, and writing projects. He also plays piano and is involved frequently with the arranging and recording process with Robyn Adele Anderson's solo projects and a hodge-podge of the musicians of Post-Modern Jukebox.
Sponsors
Guild Hall William P. Rayner Artist-in-Residence
Principal Sponsor: Kathy Rayner in memory of her husband, Billy Rayner.
Guild Hall’s Learning + New Works programs are made possible through Vital Projects Fund, the Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Endowment Fund, The Melville Straus Family Endowment, and additional support by Collegiate Gateway.
Additional support provided by Friends of Learning + New Works: Julie Raynor Gross, Stephanie Joyce and Jim Vos, S. Kutler Foundation, N. Glickberg, D. Glickberg, and J. Abrahams, Andrea and Jeffrey Lomasky, Peter Marino, Stephen Meringoff, and Eva Sandler.
All Musical Programming is supported in part by The Ellen and James S. Marcus Endowment for Musical Programming.
Performing Arts programming is supported in part by funding from Galia Meiri-Stawski and Axel Stawski, Henry and Peggy Schleiff, The Melville Straus Family Endowment, and Monica and Peter Tessler. Music Programming is supported in part by The Ellen and James S. Marcus Endowment for Musical Programming.
Additional support provided by Friends of the Theater: John and Joan D’Addario, Natascia Ayers and Jim Ciquera, Christine and Bill Campbell, Gabrielle and Gianpaolo de Felice, Lena Kaplan, Hilarie and Mitchell Morgan, Michèle and Steve Pesner, The Schaffner Family Foundation, Lisa Schultz and Ezriel Kornel, Jayne Baron Sherman and Deborah Zum, Stacey and Oliver Stanton, Leila Straus, Susi and Peter Wunsch, and Andrew Yuder and Kyle Glaeser.