Colleen Dauncey (Music) and Akiva Romer-Segal (Lyrics) are a contemporary musical theatre songwriting team who have been celebrated as "the Canadian musical's next power duo" (The Globe & Mail) and "the future of Canadian musical theatre" (Toronto Star). They have penned the scores to the musicals The Louder We Get (formerly Prom Queen), Grow, Going Under, Toronto Fringe hit Bremen Rock City, as well as Scenes From The Bathhouse and Offline (collective creations with Talk Is Free Theatre).
The Louder We Get is based on the true story of Marc Hall, a high school student in 2002 who took the Catholic School Board to court in order to take his boyfriend to the prom. The show premiered at the Segal Centre in Montreal and received the 2016 Stage West Pechet Family Musical Award by the Playwrights Guild Of Canada. Over the course of its development, the show has been workshopped and showcased at the NAMT Festival of New Musicals (NYC), The Other Palace (London, UK), The Grand Theatre (London, ON). In January 2020 the show opened at Theatre Calgary, directed by Broadway legend Lonny Price.
Colleen & Akiva's most recent musical, Grow, follows Amish twin sisters who leave their community to explore the big city of Toronto, and end up inadvertently creating the best strain of cannabis that anyone has ever experienced. The show was workshopped through Sheridan College's CMTP (Canadian Musical Theatre Project), and was presented at the Next Stage Theatre Festival in 2018, and the Goodspeed Festival of New Musicals in 2020.
The duo's music has also been featured in Touch Me: Songs for a (dis)Connected Age (Theatre Calgary, three Calgary Critics Awards including “Best Production of a Musical"), the Cutting-Edge Composers series (NYC), and the Blame Canada series (NYC, London, Toronto). Their songs have also been performed internationally by cabaret performers, recording artists, and Broadway stars.
Colleen & Akiva are alumni of the Johnny Mercer Songwriters Project in Chicago, the Canadian Musical Theatre Writer Collective, Theatre 20’s Composium, Eclipse Theatre's Songwriting Lab, and Musical Stage Company’s Launch Pad, Noteworthy, Make Me a Song and One Song Glory initiatives. They are grateful for support from the Foundation Assisting Canadian Talent On Records, the Ontario Arts Council, and the Canada Council For the Arts.
For updates follow Colleen & Akiva on Twitter and check out their Youtube Channel for more music!
