creators

Mehr Mansuri
Book, Lyrics & Co-Composer

Awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts for Artistic Excellence,  Mehr Mansuri is an award winning writer / co-composer of over 10 original musicals for young audiences, with a social justice imperative at their core. Most recently, her musical adaptation of the Narrative of Henry Box Brown, now optioned to open on Broadway, is completing a 6 city tour under the Actors’ Equity Association and performed by an adult professional cast. The show has garnered aa Best Musical Nominee for two consecutive years, for Henry Box Brown: A Musical Journey, at the Fringe International Theatre Festival in the UK which also won the Fringe Best Audience Engagement / Social Action Production.

Having escaped her native Iran, along with her family, due to religious persecution as a member of the Baha’i Faith, Mehr was hungry to find and collaborate with theater practitioners who shared her drive for social justice, to empower the nobility of all human beings and to explore the theater’s power as a tool for moral reasoning.

In partnership with Roya Movafegh, Eric Dozier and Karida Griffith, Mehr, is the Co-Founder and the Artistic Director of the award winning Children’s Theater Company. Nominated by Backstage Magazine as the Top 12 Children’s Theater companies Across the U.S., CTC’s signature program “Kids with a Cause” has a social-justice imperative at its core.

Founded in 1989 in Los Angeles and as a not-for-profit 501c3 organization in New York City in 1999, Mehr is rooted in the belief that through the magic of theater, children and youth can be the voices of positive change and agents of healing in their communities.

“…theater allows us to open a tiny window into the world of another person, to develop empathy and compassion for the human condition and to learn from lives we’ve never lived…”

As an actress, Mehr has performed from Shakespeare Festivals to episodic television and her acting-work has garnered Critic’s Choice reviews with the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Backstage Magazine, Time Out and New York Magazine. She has worked in several productions with the award winning Ma-Yi Theater Ensemble, with Ralph Pena, and with Scott Elliot at the New Group- as a line-producer. She is a critically acclaimed audio-book recording-artist for Penguin Audio.

Mehr has a B.A. in Acting from the University of California in Irvine and has served on the jury panel for theater on the National Endowment for the Arts.

Frank Sanchez
Co-Composer

Frank Sanchez is the co-composer of the two-time Best Musical Nominee, Henry Box Brown: A Musical Journey which has performed to sold out audiences of over 30,000 from Europe to the U.S. He was commissioned as composer by Dr. Dorothy Marcic and three-time Tony Award Winner Hinton Battle to write the music for Terms of Dismemberment, which ran for 9 performances at the renowned off-Broadway, Lucille Lortel Theatre as part of the New York International Fringe Festival to rave reviews. Frank has also co-composed over 15 musicals with Mehr Mansuri for the award winning, Children's Theatre Company in New York City. Their musical collaborations include HORTON THE ELEPHANT; a musical adaptation of Mehr Mansuri’s original play, KING KUNKA BUNKA AND THE ROTTEN ROYAL RASCALS, which was performed for sold out audiences including at the United Nations’ General Assembly; FARMER RABBIT'S FIESTA, PROVIDENCE: THE STORY OF ROGER WILLIAMS; Ah Broadway and many more. In collaboration with Michael Chimenti, to adapt Phyllis Holliday's Ickitwick, Frank wrote JOHNNY AND THE THINKING MACHINE- to great acclaim. Currently, Frank has once again teamed up with June Rachelson-Ospa and Jack G. Hyman to write BREAKFAST WITH THE BIRDS, a musical based on Hyman's best-selling children's book of the same name. Frank was born in Miami, Florida and studied piano at the Aaron Copland School of Music and graduated from the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University with a B.F.A. in Arts Management. Upon graduation he founded Ah, Broadway, Productions.

Eric Dozier
Co-Composer &
Equity & Community Outreach Strategist.

Eric Dozier is the Historian and Co-Composer of the internationally acclaimed musical, Henry “Box” Brown: A Musical Journey (Best Musical Nominee and Social Action Award 2019/20 – at the Fringe International Theater Festival, UK) and is Co-Founder of the award-winning Children’s Theatre Company of NYC, where he currently serves as the Equity & Community Outreach Strategist.

With an extensive background as a music educator, cultural activist, and recording artist, Eric employs music to engage communities in dialogue on race relations. He has served as the musical director for the internationally acclaimed, Harlem Gospel Choir, the Children’s Theatre Company of NYC, and has been a featured artist at the United Nations. He has shared the stage with numerous notable figures including, Harry Belafonte, Angelique Kidjo, Raffi, and Nelson Mandela, to name a few.

Mr. Dozier was a founding faculty member and Director of Equity and Campus Culture at the Episcopal School of Nashville; has served as the Museum Educator for the National Museum of African American Music in Nashville, TN and has recently launched the Young People's Freedom Song Initiative, an interactive musical exploration project designed to engage young people in music-making rooted in themes of social justice.

Eric is the Co-Founder of OnenessLab, where he is a professional keynote speaker on a variety of race and equity themes, providing corporate training, (ie Ebay) and to universities, civic groups and faith communities. His other collaborations include with Illumen Capital and Impact Experience, where he has been working with impact investors, technology entrepreneurs, and healthcare executives on building anti-racism and an anti-bias culture and community within their organizations.

In his role as the Equity & Community Outreach Strategist, Mr. Dozier leads in building CTC's programmatic vision alongside the community's own vision. By learning about the community's aspirations, Mr. Dozier assists in curating a community engagement model in collaboration with community leaders, educators, civic groups and families. Currently, Mr. Dozier is assisting with the implementation of national CTC chapters of the Children’s Theater Company including in Flint, MI; Jackson, TN; Pensacola FL; Savannah GA and soon Chicago, IL.

Mr. Dozier is a graduate of Duke University and Duke Divinity School and is currently pursuing a doctorate at the University of Tasmania, researching the effects of Black Gospel Music on communities outside of the Black Church.