Award-winning Broadway artists Christopher Curtis (Chaplin), Dan Studney (Reefer Madness!) and Michael Wilson (A Trip to Bountiful) bring their collective creative leadership to Utah Valley University through an exclusive collaboration between the Innovation Academy and FanX Studios.
Together, they present a week-long, behind-the-scenes showcase of HUMBUG! The Musical—FanX Studios’ first original production—offering audiences a rare opportunity to step inside the development process of a new Christmas-themed musical. Featuring the talents of UVU students, this immersive experience highlights the artistry, collaboration, and creative rigor behind bringing a Broadway-caliber production to life.
Students are invited to audition for the opportunity to work directly with this award-winning creative team, gaining hands-on experience at the highest level of professional musical theater.
10:00-1:00 P.m. or
1:30-4:30 p.m.
Ragan Theater SC 216
Be in the room as three Broadway creatives build and refine a new musical from the ground up. This is the creative process as it actually happens—ideas tested, rewritten, and sharpened in real time with UVU talent.
If you’ve ever wanted to understand how a musical is truly made, this is it.
Open exclusively to UVU students, faculty, and staff.
Doors open 5:30 PM
Presentation begins 6:00 PM
Ragan Theater SC 216
Be among the first to experience HUMBUG!, a new musical by Christopher Curtis, with a book by Dan Studney and direction by Michael Wilson.
This special presentation features a live, on-stage reading of the musical—including songs—performed by UVU students. Experience the story, score, and creative vision of a new work as it continues to take shape.
Chris Curtis is a contemporary composer/ lyricist from NYC. He wrote songs for the Oscar Nominated Netflix/Pearl Studio animated feature 'Over The Moon' directed by Oscar-winning Disney Animator Glen Keane. He has also written music for Walt Disney Animation (Disney Songwriter Program) DreamWorks (Spots and Trailer scores for “Abominable.”)
As composer, Dan Studney won an Emmy Award for the movie version of Reefer Madness. For the original stage show, he received multiple Ovation, Garland and L.A. Drama Critics Circle awards as writer, producer and composer.
He works primarily in film and television, where his writing credits include Jack the Giant Slayer, Weird Science (TV), Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (TV), Sabrina: The Animated Series, Disney Channel movies Genius and 'Twas the Night, and comic books for The Simpsons.
Michael Wilson is an American stage and screen director working extensively on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and at the nation's leading resident theaters.
He made his screen directorial debut with the 2014 Lifetime/Ostar television film adaptation of Horton Foote's The Trip to Bountiful, which was nominated for two 2014 Emmy Awards and six 2015 NAACP/Image Awards—including Outstanding Television Movie – as well as a DGA Award for Outstanding Direction of a Movie or Mini-Series for Television. The film won three 2015 NAACP/Image Awards.
Steven E. de Souza
Legendary screenwriter and director Steven E. de Souza (Die Hard, 48 Hrs., Commando, The Flintstones) will be on campus February 26-27, 2025, sharing insights from his Hollywood career and providing hands-on learning experiences for students interested in screenwriting, filmmaking, and storytelling.
Among the handful of screenwriters whose films have earned over $2 billion at the box office, Steven de Souza was introduced to Hollywood on camera--as a contestant on an L.A. game show. There the Philadelphia-based writer for PBS, The New York Times, Premiere and other media outlets won a car and a color TV--and then talked his way into the office of several producers to leave behind some writing samples. A contract with Universal Television as a story editor was the result. From there, he moved into producing (Knight Rider (1982)) and then earned his first film credit, on 48 Hrs. (1982). That film, along with Commando (1985), Die Hard (1988) and Die Hard 2 (1990), established his reputation as a writer who could juggle both action and humor. That combination remains evident in all of his subsequent work, which expanded to include science-fiction (V (1984), The Running Man (1987), Judge Dredd (1995)), horror (Tales from the Crypt (1989), Possessed (2000)) and fantasy (The Flintstones (1994), Cadillacs and Dinosaurs (1993), Lara Croft: Tomb Raider - The Cradle of Life (2003)). He has been nominated two times each for the Edgar Allen Poe award for best mystery screenplay and the Saturn award for best Science Fiction/Fantasy Film. In 2000 he was honored with the Norman Lear Award for Lifetime Achievement in writing.
In 2009 his web series Unknown Sender (2008) became an unprecedented triple honoree in the 13th annual Webby Awards--for best series and best writing and for Timothy Dalton's performance in If You're Seeing This Tape... (2008).
UVU Green Room is a collaboration between
